Chapter 4
Maggie couldn’t sleep.
She lay on the hotel sheets, staring at the ceiling, the fabric cool and stiff against her skin.
The soft hum of the air conditioner was the only thing breaking the silence, a steady white noise that should’ve been soothing but wasn't. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the two men again.
The way they had positioned themselves. The confidence.
The certainty that she was supposed to comply.
We need to talk to you. Heard you like computers.
She rolled onto her side and pulled her phone closer, the screen's glow harsh in the darkness.
Reece. The towering man made her feel safe.
He had muscles on top of muscles, but she somehow knew he was there to protect her.
Honestly, it took a few hundred yards of walking before she registered how handsome he was.
The sharp cut of his jaw and his dark hair and gray eyes were the frosting on top of that sexy man.
She shook her head. But that wasn’t what was keeping her awake. Well, not all of what was keeping her awake. Maggie dropped her phone and grabbed her computer. She typed his name into the computer and stared at the screen. The name sat there, newly saved, unsettling in its simplicity.
She trusted data. Data had rules. Inputs produced outputs. Patterns resolved into truth if you were patient enough to let them.
She sighed. Fear, on the other hand, distorted everything. She’d promised Reece she would take this seriously. That meant doing the one thing she did best.
The security escort had stayed until she’d reached her room. Hotel staff had assured her the floor was flagged, cameras monitored, and her key reprogrammed. All reasonable. All comforting.
None of it explained why she’d been harassed by those men or how they’d known her name. Then again, there were other questions, too, like who was Reece King?
Maggie pulled up a secure browser and began where she always did, the keyboard she attached to her tablet clicking softly in the quiet dark room.
Basic public records.
She typed in Reece King and hit search. There were fourteen.
She started to eliminate the ones that were obviously wrong.
He wasn’t above fifty or below fourteen.
She eliminated the ones who were dead and then opened the four files that remained.
Only none of them was Reece King. She backtracked and, one by one, opened all the files.
Nothing.
She frowned and refined the query, her eyes narrowing against the screen's brightness. Added location parameters. Florida. Nothing. Then she hit up the national databases she could access with her credentials through Darkwater.
Still nothing.
"That's odd," she murmured, her voice barely a whisper in the empty room.
Reece did not look like a man who slipped through the cracks. Six foot five. Built like a professional athlete. Confident. Calm. The kind of presence that left impressions.
She expanded the search, her fingers moving faster now.
Professional licenses. Corporate filings. Property records. Social media.
Zero results.
Her pulse picked up, just a notch. She could feel it in her throat, a steady thump that matched the rhythm of her typing.
She ran his phone number next.
Not in existence.
Not inactive. Not reassigned.
Nonexistent as if it had never been issued in the first place.
Maggie leaned back in her chair, the leather creaking softly, heart beginning to thud harder against her ribs.
"That's not possible."
Everyone left a footprint. Even people who tried not to.
She pulled up Darkwater's internal threat-analysis tools, the ones she technically was not supposed to use while on leave. The login screen appeared, familiar and secure. The systems hesitated for about two seconds, then let her in.
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Why did it glitch like that?
She frowned. She could assume it was from the internet connection, but it hadn’t happened before.
She ran a virus check on her tablet and opened the code behind the programs she was running, looking for anything that would have caused the lapse in the log in.
Nothing she could see. She closed the windows and her eyebrows damn near hit the ceiling.
The log in screen was up for her system access.
That should not have happened either. She shouldn’t have been able to access it without triple authentication and a random key generator that she kept in her canvas bag.
Closing down the system, she rebooted it, and this time, the system worked as it should.
She grabbed her digital key generator and logged in, securely.
She ran the name again through a different pipeline, one that scraped archived datasets and cross-referenced anomaly flags. The processing icon spun on her screen, hypnotic in its rotation.
Nothing.
No aliases surfaced. No partial matches. No historical bleed.
Reece King did not exist.
Maggie stared at the screen, the glow reflecting off the window behind her, turning the glass into a pale mirror. The city lights shimmered below, indifferent. The air conditioning kicked on again, raising goosebumps on her arms.
Her mind raced.
He’d known how to position his body without looking. He’d tracked the men without turning his head. He’d identified their behavior in seconds.
Security.
Real security.
The kind you did not advertise.
Her tablet chimed softly, the sound cutting through her thoughts like a bell.
A notification blinked onto the screen, red text against black.
DON’T CONTINUE DOWN THIS ROAD. WORK THE PROBLEM YOU FOUND AT DARKWATER.
Her breath caught, trapped in her chest.
She froze, fingers hovering above the keyboard, trembling slightly.
She had triggered something.
Slowly, carefully, Maggie minimized her workspace and checked outbound connections. Her heart hammered now, loud in her ears.
Someone was watching her, and they were not from Darkwater.
Not aggressive. Not blocking her access.
Observing. Guiding … maybe?
She forced herself to breathe, pulling air deep into her lungs.
Okay. Think.
She shut down the internal tools, wiped the session, and powered the tablet off completely. The screen went dark with a soft click. Then she set it face down on the desk and stared at it as though it might move on its own. The wood was cool under her palms as she gripped the edge of the desk.
Reece had said this was not over.
She picked up her phone instead, the device warm from being clutched in her hand earlier.
Her thumb hovered over his name.
He had told her not to talk herself out of that feeling.
She pressed call.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then clicked.
"Maggie."
Her breath rushed out in a shaky exhale, her shoulders dropping. "You answered."
"I told you to call if anything felt wrong," Reece said. His voice was calm, steady, exactly the same as it had been on the street. "Something feels wrong."
"Yes," she said. Her throat was tight, the words coming out rough. "You don't exist."
Silence stretched on the line, long enough for her heart to start pounding again. She could hear him breathing, slow and controlled.
Finally, he said, "Tell me what you did."
She explained. Quickly. Precisely. Every step. Every search. Every anomaly. Her voice steadied as she moved through the data, finding comfort in the familiar patterns.
He didn’t interrupt once. Finally, when she finished, he exhaled slowly. She could hear the air leaving his lungs. "Okay."
"That's it?" she asked. "Okay?"
"It means you were right," Reece said. "And it means we need to be careful about what you do next."
Her stomach twisted, a cold knot forming. "Careful how?"
"You stop digging alone," he said. "And don't use Darkwater systems again until we talk."
"You're assuming this is connected to my job."
"I'm certain it is."
Maggie swallowed, tasting the mint from the toothpaste she’d used hours ago. "Who are you, Reece?"
Another pause. This one was heavier. She heard a car pass in the background on his end, the sound faint and distant.
"I work for an entity capable of keeping me out of the systems you searched," he said finally.
That did it. Fear spiked sharp and real, cold and electric down her spine.
"Are you dangerous?" she asked quietly.
"Yes," Reece said without hesitation. Her fingers tightened around the phone, the case digging into her palm.
"But not to you," he added. "My job requires a skillset that most would consider violent. I usually work overseas. And I never take action unless someone gives me a reason."
She closed her eyes, darkness settling over her vision. That was true as far as she knew. He hadn’t engaged with the two men, although she knew deep inside her that he would’ve obliterated them. He was that big and sure of himself.
"Okay," she said, surprising herself with how steady her voice sounded. "Then what do I do?"
Reece didn’t answer right away. She could hear him thinking, the silence deliberate.
Outside her window, the city continued on, unaware that her world had just shifted. A siren wailed in the distance, faint and fading.
"We figure out who sent those men," he said finally. "And why they approached you now."
"And if they're still watching?" she asked.
"They are," Reece said.
Maggie opened her eyes and stared at the dark tablet on the desk. The red power light was off, the screen lifeless and black.
Data had always been honest.
People weren’t.