Chapter 11 · Kiss the Deal

"You want Eli's location?" Kane didn't look up from the screen. "Kiss me first."

Evie's hand froze on the vault door. "What?"

"You heard me." He turned, leaning back against the console. The glow from the monitors cut shadows across his jaw, made the scar down his neck look like it was still bleeding. "The system reads intent. Fake won't work. So either you mean it, or you walk out empty."

Her chest went tight. "That's insane."

"That's the lock." Kane tapped the screen. A biometric scanner pulsed red, waiting. "Your blood opened the first layer. But the lab feed? That's marriage-grade clearance. The system wants proof we're not just signatures on paper."

"Proof."

"Heat. Pulse. Skin contact. The kind that makes your mark light up." His eyes dropped to her wrist. The thin black lines were still there, faint but alive, like they'd been drawn in smoke. "I didn't write the protocol. My father did. Paranoid bastard wanted to make sure no one could fake their way into his files."

Evie's nails bit into her palms. "So you're saying I have to—"

"Kiss me like you're not thinking about stabbing me after.