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The pilot said a few things, and I closed my eyes as the engines started humming. My skin itched as we began to taxi down the runway. I took deep breaths to calm myself and tried to imagine a safe flight, but fear shook my bones. Flying was scary, but I needed to be brave if I wanted to be the new adventurous me.
The noise from the engines ramped up, and the plane rocked slightly. Magnum's hand on mine surprised me, and I opened my eyes to see his whiskey gaze looking at me patiently.
His fingers gently curved mine away from my wrist. I didn't even realize I'd been digging my nails in, but the marks on my arm proved I'd been doing it. I grabbed his fingers with a death grip, and he grinned as he pulled my hand to our shared armrest.
As we took off, he locked our palms together and gave my hand a squeeze. Gavin made a few disapproving faces but didn't say anything.
Once we reached altitude, I was able to calm down, but Mag's words kept replaying in my head.
I'm in love with her.
He'd said he didn't feel anything and then he'd told Gavin he loved me.Surprised myself with that one.
She will be part of this family but she'll be mine.
What did he mean by part of this family if he was never getting married?
I didn't say never.
Was he seriously considering marrying me? Was it possible to know you loved someone in such a short time? We'd just dropped all this on Gavin, and we hadn't fully explored it ourselves yet.
It was too much to think about, so I pushed it to the back of my awareness throughout the flight and the trip to Mag's apartment. We dropped off our bags and then headed straight to the Knight Security offices on the lower floors. These guys were hardcore. They didn't even stop to unpack, just got straight to work.
Vander called a meeting in the main conference room, and Mag introduced Gavin to everyone. Mag summarized everything that happened in New Orleans and explained that Gavin would be working with the IT team to restore Kenny's dark web operation before they could move forward with their mission.
Helix and Kane agreed to keep watch over Gavin, and Vander assigned Celeste as my bodyguard when I wasn't with Mag. Gavin tried to protest that he didn't need a babysitter, but they didn't even acknowledge him.
Everything moved quickly and efficiently. Before I knew it, Vander announced the meeting was over, and everyonestood up. I was planning to go look for Fiona when Kane walked up behind me. "You're coming with us. This'll be fun."
I turned and looked up at him. "Oh, that's okay. I don't really..."
"You said you wanted to learn. How often do you get to watch someone use a decryption key to disable ransomware with a parallel clone setup?"
"Like never."
"So let's go." He motioned for me to walk ahead of him and Gavin.
Mag didn't look at me or follow as I left with Kane. Shadow and Locke followed us to the tech room and took seats as Gavin propped a really old, dirty laptop up on a desk.
"Come sit here, Wren." Kane booted up his computer and pulled a chair over for me. We'd done this before, but it all felt different after New Orleans and seeing him in a social situation. He didn't seem bothered and immediately started talking about the process. We could see everything Gavin was doing on a second screen while Kane made a copy of it on his main screen. It was fascinating, and I liked listening to him. He was a good teacher and clearly enjoyed the work.
"Are you like a prodigy or something?" I asked him.
"Shh. Don't tell anyone. I try to fit in." He smirked, but I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I could easily see him as a computer prodigy, but his massive size and military background didn't jive with that. I'd expect him to be geeky and struggle to fit in, but he was sociable and blended in fine both here and at the party in New Orleans.
Gavin, on the other hand, was awkward and nervous. He kept hitting the enter button over and over and then cussingwhen it didn't work. He poked at the screen like he could change it with his touch, but it wasn't a touch screen. Watching Gavin interact with the code like a child really surprised me since he'd presented himself as a professional tech expert when he'd met me, but when faced with a real task, he was panicking.
A few hours later, Gavin broke through the last firewall, and we all grew quiet as we watched the code panel fly by on the screen. Mag walked in and rested a hip on a desk off to the side. "Progress?"
"Some," Kane answered, distracted by the exciting changes on the screen.
I looked up at Mag. "Gavin's almost through, and Kane is making a clone of it all. If we get in, we're going to have full access to Kenny's setup."
His lips quirked up, and he nodded before crossing his arms over his chest. I felt his eyes on me but didn't feel his approval or interest in our task. He was like a lead weight in the flow of fun we were having.
I ignored him and leaned in closer to Kane as the final firewall flashed green and opened. All Kenny's accounts and handles were listed on the main menu. Kane clicked on the top one, and we were granted access to ledgers and books with transaction receipts.
Gavin stopped typing and turned slowly to look at me.
