Chapter 16 · Forty Minutes, No Signal

Chapter 16: Forty Minutes, No Signal

"Don't move." Luca's hand closed over my wrist before I'd even seen him cross the room.

I froze with my fingers an inch from the wall panel — two switches, no labels, steel under fluorescent light that never changed no matter the hour.

"I wasn't touching it," I said.

"You were thinking about it." His thumb pressed into the soft skin under my pulse. "That's enough for me."

The suite had no windows that opened and no signal that reached past the concrete. Dead air, dead phones, dead everything except the two of us and a countdown clock bolted above the door — red numbers ticking down from a time I didn't choose. Forty-one minutes. My father's committee had moved the leak deadline up again, and nobody told me until a runner slid a card under the door twenty minutes ago.

ELECTION STATEMENT, 8 PM. NAME HER OR NAME YOU.

No signature. Didn't need one.

"You can't leave this room," Luca said, like I'd asked. I hadn't. "Not till I know which way you jump."

"I'm not jumping anywhere. I'm standing right here with your hand on me."

"Good place to start.