Chapter 58 Morgan
Morgan
Morning should have felt normal. Sunlight filtered through the curtains, the kettle hissed softly on the stove, and Ruby shuffled into the kitchen with bedhead and sleepy eyes. But I couldn’t shake the chill that clung to me after last night.
I’d barely touched my coffee when Ruby frowned. “Why were you up so late?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said too quickly, forcing a smile. “You know me—once my brain gets stuck on something, it won’t shut off.”
She didn’t look convinced.
When she left to get dressed, I powered up the laptop again.
My stomach dropped the second the screen lit.
A notification blinked back at me—an access attempt from an unfamiliar source.
Blocked, but barely. Whoever it was, they weren’t just poking around.
They were pushing hard, almost slipping past my firewall.
I slammed the lid down, heart hammering.
A low rumble outside made me jump. I rushed to the window, peeking through the curtains. A white van crawled past on the gravel road. Not unusual—except it slowed right in front of the cottage. The driver didn’t look at the scenery. He looked at the house. At me.
I froze, barely daring to breathe until it rolled on.
My recorder clicked on under my palm, the red light steady. “Note: Online breach attempts confirmed. Van passed the cottage—the driver slowed to watch. Could be nothing. But I don’t think it is. I don’t like what I’m thinking.”
The words shook out of me. I clicked the recorder off and hugged it tight against my chest like it could shield me.
Ruby’s voice floated from the hall. “Morgan? Everything okay?”
I pasted on a smile before she saw my face. “Yeah. Just… spilled my coffee.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Figures. You’re jumpy. Look, I don’t have to go to the hospital. I’m fine. I was hit a few times, I was hungry and thirsty, but I wasn’t raped. They were saving me for someone special.”
She wasn’t wrong; I was jumpy. Every nerve in me was on edge. I couldn’t tell her the truth—not yet. But deep down, I knew it: the breadcrumbs weren’t just leading the team closer to Luthor. They were leading Luthor closer to me. “Okay, we’ll wait for another day to have you checked out.”
And if I didn’t figure out how to stay one step ahead of Luthor, he’d be at our door.