Page 19 of What Remains

The men leave as she unzips her bag, and what she produces and sets in front of me snatches the breath from my lungs.

That’s why I’m here? But also . . . did they turn it on? Are we connected to a network here? Hope bubbles up inside of me, because Dad might be able to track me.

“It’s not online. I’m not stupid,” she remarks dryly, reading my thoughts—or probably the hopeful look on my face. “I do need your password, though.”

I stare at the familiar stickers, landing lastly on: F-A-F-O. This woman is about to understand the full weight of fuck around and find out, but I’m not sure I’ll be alive to see it.

“I don’t have time to try and get through your firewalls and break in,” she admits, sitting on the edge of the table, resting one forearm across her lap.

“No one’s capable of getting into my rig.” Okay, maybe there is one person, but he’s on Team Good Guy, and Julian will never help her. He’ll also be too busy searching for me.

No chance will I give her access. It’s far too dangerous for any of my programs or secrets to fall into this woman’s hands. But I’d love to get online so I can get a signal out to Dad.

“You might as well just kill me,” I say, unwilling to sacrifice others to save myself, “because I won’t help you.”

The side of her mouth catches, a smug expression sitting there I’d give anything to slap off her face.

“You can torture me all you want, I won’t⁠—”

“I’m fully aware that torture won’t motivate you.” She quietly stares at me, and a strange sensation of darkness drops into the room. The air feels heavier and charged, like something unseen has joined us.

Chills prickle my skin, and water droplets from my hair roll down my face, hitting my lashes, forcing me to blink.

“You may not be an operator, but you’ve got spunk. And a spine. Believe it or not, I admire that about you. I’d expect nothing less from someone Carter Dominick trusts.” She’s talking so casually, like this is a job interview.

She sets her mobile in front of me, and acid pushes up into my throat at the sight of a zoomed-in timer before me.

“I couldn’t get to your little sister. She’s too protected. So, I went with my second choice.” She nudges her mobile closer to me. “The hotel you were staying at has enough C4 inside to take down the entire building. Your friends may have already checked out, but there are plenty of other guests there.”

She swipes through different surveillance camera views of the property, before landing on one of the familiar suites like the one I’d been in. Explosives, as promised, are waiting inside. She zooms in on the timer again.

“I will destroy this hotel,” she says firmly. “After that, a hospital. Maybe not in Dubai, but how about in London. Your half brother is an intern at⁠—”

“Stop. Please.” The words rattle loose with desperation as tears well in my eyes. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”

“I told you, I need your password.”

I grit down on my back teeth. “My team knows I’ve been taken with my rig. You really think they haven’t started containment protocols by now?”

She stares at me, a viciousness there that’s more unsettling than what she’s asking me to do. “Password,” she prompts again.

I close my eyes and slump forward as it hits me. “You’re going to remove the SSD. Work on it offline in a controlled lab. Clone everything without ever connecting it to a network.” This has always been my worst fear, leading me to be uber protective of my hardware, and now . . .

“Your team can’t nuke it if I don’t connect it to a network.” She pauses, and I feel her breath hit my skin. She’s leaning in. Close to me.

Defiance stirs inside me. “I can’t help you, and you know it.” I shake my head. “I’m not giving you the password.”

Once her minty breath is gone, I open my eyes and find her scrolling on her mobile. “Let’s see here . . . London born. British nobility.” She makes a tsk sound, the bitch. “Naughty girl, though, weren’t you?” She glances at me. “At sixteen, you hacked your school to expose their corruption. You continuously embarrassed your uptight parents with all the trouble you kept getting yourself into. So, after secondary, you took off for uni in Montreal.”

My nails bite into my palms, and my stomach cramps from hunger at the worst freaking time.

“Arthur died when you were nineteen. Cancer. But two years later, you learned he wasn’t your biological father.” She angles her head, brows drawing together. “Wyatt Pierson, a decorated Navy SEAL, is your real dad. The one I presume is currently losing his mind trying to find you.” A smile comes and goes. She’s loving this, the psycho. “You decided to move to the US to go to uni to be near him, but eventually you dropped out. You’re not great at sticking to your commitments, are you? Must be why you can never keep a man.”

I blink, shock laced with a heavy dose of horror temporarily immobilizing my ability to offer any comebacks.

“You’ve been working for your father, the secretary of defense, and Falcon Falls Security ever since you left uni.” She taps a red nail at her mobile screen. “Carter purchased The Sapphire along with Sebastian Renaud a few years ago, and you reside there.”

Lots of people know about the hotel, but⁠—