Chapter 17 · The Trojan Horse

"Don't you dare breathe."

Eve's hand slams flat against my chest and shoves me back into the shadow between two scanner pillars.

Her body follows. Hard. Close. Her forearm is across my collarbone, pinning me to cold metal while the patrol drone hums three feet away.

"You said this ID would work," I hiss.

"It will work if you stop acting like a scared stray," she snaps, her mouth an inch from my ear. "You're my property now. Act like it."

The drone's red eye sweeps over us. Slow. Scanning.

I can feel her heart hammering against my ribs. Or maybe that's mine. It's hard to tell when she's pressed this tight.

"Asset Eve Corvo," the drone chirps, voice flat and corporate. "Biometric confirmed. Guest asset unregistered. State purpose."

Eve doesn't even blink. Her voice drops to that ice-heiress tone that makes grown men stutter.

"Medical courier. Class-A tissue transport. My father authorized it personally," she says. "Check the manifest. Or do you want to explain to Silas why his lab samples are rotting in the hallway?"

The drone hovers. The red eye flickers over me.

I keep my face blank. My hands at my sides. Like she told me.