Chapter 11 · What if I break the leash?

He leaned in, his lips almost touching mine, the tension between us thick enough to choke on. It was a dance of hate and something far more dangerous. I wanted to scream, to bite his lip, to tear the smug expression off his face. Instead, I found myself leaning into him, my heart racing for all the wrong reasons.

"What if I break the leash?" I whispered.

"Then I'll just buy a stronger one," he murmured.

He didn't kiss me. He didn't have to. The way he stared at my mouth was more invasive than any touch. He was reading me, calculating the exact moment my will would snap.

Suddenly, the room shuddered. A piercing alarm blared, the red emergency lights strobing across the walls. The screens behind Silas flickered wildly, the blue data streams turning a violent, bloody crimson.

"What is that?" I asked, glancing around.

Silas's expression shifted from arrogance to genuine irritation. He checked his wrist comms, his brow furrowed. "A breach. Someone just bypassed the Level 9 firewall. That's impossible. Nobody has the encryption keys except—"

"Except you," I finished.

"Not me," he snapped, his voice sharp. "This is an external override. A Ghost Code...