Chapter 16
DAMIEN
It’s been a month since my disastrous trip to Boston. I burned a jet, a dozen men, and firepower on bad intel. Rurik wasn’t there, and there was no record of his family coming into town. Now he’s nowhere to be found, and I’ve lost a month trying to nail him to the wall.
I lean against the edge of my desk, jaw tight, eyes scanning the wall of monitors in front of me.
Footage from every Vasiliev-connected location we know of plays in near silence.
I’ve watched the same angles on loop until my vision blurs, but there’s still no trace of him.
His men show up, make deliveries, pass along vague messages, but Rurik himself is a damn ghost. There haven’t been any facial recognition hits or intercepted calls with his voice.
It seems he’s running his empire remotely now. It doesn’t make him any less dangerous, but it confirms what I already knew. He’s a fucking coward. He knows I’m hunting him, and he’s run away scared.
The problem is, he’s smarter than I gave him credit for.
Every time we place a bug, we get static.
Every time we sweep a warehouse, a bar, a backroom club, we pick up fragments of sound before everything goes dark.
His people are using high-level, military-grade frequency jammers that kill our signal before anything useful gets transmitted. And without intel, I’m working blind.
A sharp knock on the door pulls me from the monitors. Alek steps in without waiting for permission, which would normally piss me off, but I wave him in.
“Well?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “There’s still no movement. We got one guy talking about shipments coming through Newark, but it’s probably misdirection.”
I exhale slowly, trying not to let the frustration boil over. My fingers curl into fists against the edge of the desk.
“Then we need to stop listening passively,” I mutter. “We’re going on the offensive.”
Alek lifts a brow.
“You thinking physical surveillance? We could set up a few stakeout operations.”
“No,” I say. “That’s exactly what they want. They want our men out in the open so they’re easier targets. They’re jamming us, so we have to find a way to unjam them.”
His brow furrows. “What are you thinking?”
I push off the desk and walk toward the wall safe behind the framed skyline print. My fingers twist the dial until it clicks open, and I retrieve a small, encrypted flash drive.
“Something like this,” I say.
Alek looks skeptical. “That’s our old decryption software. They’re ten steps ahead of that now.”
“I know.” I slide the drive into the palm of my hand, rolling it between my fingers as I think. “We need something new. Something custom. Anti-jamming software that overrides their frequency scramblers and pushes through the static.”
Alek whistles low. “That’s a tall order. You’d need a genius to pull that off in time for it to matter.”
I nod once. “I may know someone.”
His expression shifts instantly. “Do you really want to involve her in this?” he asks, as if he’s reading my mind.
“She doesn’t need to know what it’s for,” I say. “She just needs to design the software. I’ll tell her it’s for a security prototype or some private system upgrade. Something innocuous. She won’t know anything beyond that. It’s just code. She’ll write it, I’ll test it, and we’ll move on.”
“And what happens if she starts asking questions?”
“I’ll handle it.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “You’re playing a dangerous game. You know better than to mix business with pleasure.”
“I think we’re a little beyond that now,” I say flatly.
When I call Lyra into my office the next day, it feels like breaking the surface after being underwater. We haven’t had much time to connect since I got back from Boston. Not that I haven’t wanted to, but we’ve both been busy.
Andrea alerts me that she’s coming in, and I try to steady myself. As much as I want to spend time with her, this project is too important to let our feelings get in the way.
When she walks in, she’s in a cream-colored blouse and black pants, sleek and sharp, with her hair pulled back from her face.
She looks professional, and it takes everything in me not to reach across the desk and undo her.
But there’s a distance in her eyes I don’t like.
I don’t know how long it’s been there, but I know it must have started after my trip.
“Hey,” I say, flashing the kind of smile that used to make her flush. “You get more beautiful every time I see you.”
She smiles, but it’s tight and controlled. “That’s sweet of you to say,” she says, her voice polite.
I gesture to the seat across from my desk. “It’s good to see you. I feel like we’ve barely had any time to be together in the last few weeks.”
She sits, crossing one leg over the other, folding her hands neatly in her lap. I study her for a moment longer than I should. There’s something off. Not just her more guarded expression, but the way her gaze keeps flicking to the door, like she’s ready to bolt.
“Is everything okay?” I can’t help but ask. “You’ve been quiet lately.”
She cocks her head to the side, studying me. “Quiet?”
“Yes. And distant,” I say.
She gives a soft shrug. “I’m just trying to keep things professional,” she says. “I don’t want anyone thinking I got this job because of my association with you.”
I smirk, and a slight weight lifts off my chest. I was hoping it was just something like that.
“Lyra, anyone who would think that is a fool. You’re ten times more qualified than half the people on the floor.”
Her lips twitch, like she wants to smile but doesn’t quite let it land. “Still. I don’t want to cross any lines.”
I lean forward, folding my arms on the desk. “That line’s imaginary. I’d burn this whole company down before I let you feel like you’re less than you are. You’re brilliant. And I trust you.”
She looks at me and something flickers behind her eyes, but it’s hard to decipher what it means. It’s not the same heat I’ve come to expect from her.
“I appreciate that,” she says. “Really.”
I don’t push further. Not yet. Instead, I pivot to business, which seems like the safest course of action right now.
“I’ve got a confidential project that I need help with,” I say. “It’s extremely high-profile, and I need the best brain in the company on it.”
She straightens a little, and I don’t miss the flush of her cheeks at my words. “Okay. What kind of project is it?”
“It has to do with signal interference,” I say.
“We’ve got a client dealing with some serious jamming issues.
They’re working in a secure environment, but the area is saturated with interference.
They need a program that can identify suppression points, override encrypted jammers, and reestablish clean connections in real time. ”
Her brows draw together thoughtfully as she considers this. “That sounds like a nightmare.” She laughs, sounding a little nervous.
“You’re the only one I trust to do it,” I say, and it’s the truth.
She hesitates for a moment, seemingly taken aback, before she speaks again. “So, it’s like a high-grade anti-jamming tool?”
“Exactly.” I nod. “Do you think you’re up for it?”
She leans back, her fingers lightly tapping her thigh. I watch her think, her gaze drifting to the windows behind me like the answer might be hidden there.
“There’s already a base-level protocol in our system,” she says slowly.
“The company developed it two years ago for secure building transmissions. It wouldn’t take much to modify it into something stronger and more aggressive.
It would need a rewritten signature database, a modular input analysis script, and probably a dynamic frequency response algorithm to adjust in real time.
It would be a challenge, but I can definitely handle that. ”
I nod, pleased. “That’s good to hear.” I smile. “Also, Lyra, I want this handled quietly. You’re the only one allowed to touch it. Like I said, I need someone I trust, and only that person.”
She seems to bristle at that, and her gaze sharpens slightly. She looks suspicious, and for a moment, I’m worried that she may say no.
“Why so secretive?” she asks carefully.
I meet her eyes. “Because too many hands on this can fuck it up,” I say, which isn’t a total lie. “Plus, this client is extremely important to this firm, and they require the utmost discretion. The job needs to be perfect.”
Her mouth tightens just a bit. She still looks somewhat suspicious, and it rattles me in a way I can’t name.
“All right,” she finally answers. “I’ll start putting together the framework.”
“Today,” I say.
“I can start now,” she replies. Then, after a breath, she adds, “Is there a deadline?”
“As soon as humanly possible.”
She rises from the chair, and I do the same, walking her to the door. My hand brushes her lower back out of habit, and she doesn’t move away, but she doesn’t lean into it either. When she looks up at me, her eyes are cool and quiet.
“I’ll let you know when I have something functional,” she says.
“Thank you.”
She holds my gaze for a moment longer, then gives a brief nod and leaves without another word.
The second the door clicks shut behind her, I sink back into my chair and stare at it.
Something’s not right. I’m not stupid enough to think it’s all about the boss-employee dynamic.
That ship sailed the second we kissed for the first time, and it was obliterated when we slept together.
The shift in her energy isn’t just about professionalism.
It’s something deeper. And maybe that’s why it bothers me so much.
I thought I had her figured out, but she’s thrown me a curveball. I need more insight, so I pull out my phone and hit Alek’s contact.
He picks up after the first ring. “Hey, boss.”
“I need you to keep an eye on Lyra,” I tell him without any preamble.
He pauses for a moment.
“Okay,” he answers slowly. “Do you think she’s in trouble or something?”
“I think something’s bothering her, and I don’t know what it is. She’s been distant. Off. I want to make sure she’s not getting pulled into something.”
“Do you think one of Rurik’s men approached her?”
“I don’t know,” I say. Honestly, that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. “Maybe she’s doing something stupid on her own, but she’s definitely keeping something from me. Whatever it is, I need to know.”
Alek sighs softly on the other end. “Not to overstep, but are you sure you want to do that? It would erode all of her trust if she finds out.”
“I’m not doing it to spy on her,” I say. “I’m doing it to keep her safe.”
He pauses again, considering.
“All right,” he finally says. “I’ll pull someone to follow her discreetly. I’ll keep it low-key for now until you say otherwise.”
“Thank you,” I answer.
I hang up and stare out the window, contemplating what I’ve just asked of Alek. Maybe this is too far. Maybe I’m breaching a line of trust. But something in my gut tells me that whatever she’s hiding is big.