Chapter 44 · The Name Beneath His Signature

"Get your hand off the port, Evelyn. Now."

Lucas caught my wrist before I could shove the memory chip deeper into the neural jack at the base of my skull.

His fingers closed around me—hot, hard, exact. The metal port burned beneath my palm. Inside the wall, a warning siren started counting down.

"Let go."

"The unit is wiping itself."

"Then stop me."

His jaw tightened. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do."

I twisted against him. "You arrest me, lock me in your family's safehouse, wrap a protection contract around my throat, and now you want to save the evidence? Pick a side, Warden."

"I did."

"You signed the contract with Vale clearance. That's not a side. That's a leash."

His grip tightened just enough to hurt. Never enough to bruise. Lucas knew exactly how much force he could use without giving me another reason to hate him.

That was his problem. He always knew where the line was.

The memory unit flashed red beneath my hand.

REMOTE WIPE: 00:41

"You have forty-one seconds," I said. "Move."

"If you connect it directly, the feedback will hit your memory center."

"I know."

"No, you don't.