Page 46 of Override

“She just…” I pause. “Something feels wrong there.”

“With Gallagher?”

“With all of it.”

Wheels waits. And because he’s one of the only people on earth capable of sitting through silence without forcing it smaller, I keep talking.

“At first I thought maybe Gallagher was just controlling.” I shrug lightly. “Rich men get weird about appearances. Security. Image.”

“And now?”

I stare harder at the screen. “Now I think she’s disappearing.”

The words leave before I can rethink them.

Wheels’ expression shifts slightly. Not mocking anymore. Not teasing. Understanding.

“That’s dramatic as hell,” he says carefully.

“I’m aware.”

“But?”

“But I watch her around other people.” I lean back harder into the couch cushions. “She’s there. Fully there. Then he walks into the room and suddenly it’s like…” I struggle briefly for the wording. “Like she starts editing herself in real time.”

Wheels is quiet for a moment after that. “Well that’s deeply horrifying.”

“Correct.”

“And now you’re cyber-stalking her because your brain thinks it’s protecting her.”

“It’s surveillance.”

Wheels stares at me.

I stare back.

“…You hear how insane that sounds, right?” he asks finally.

Honestly? A little.

I lean forward to grab my beer from the coffee table only to realize Wheels already drank half of it.

Rude.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I admit quietly.

That gets his attention more than anything else so far. Because Keaton Vance understanding things is generally one of the more reliable laws of nature.

Wheels shifts farther into the couch, one arm stretching across the back cushions while he studies me carefully.

“You like her.”

“I barely know her.”

“You know what tea she drinks.”

“That information arrived incidentally.”