Chapter Fifty-Two
Brady
The pond wasn’t much bigger than the Hollistons’ indoor pool, but it had frogs, dragonflies, and sunlight flashing across the surface like scattered coins.
That made it better.
Elise lay beside me on the blanket with one leg tangled through mine, her head on my chest. Our clothes were scattered across the grass in a trail that suggested neither of us had been patient.
I had zero complaints.
Her fingertip traced lazy patterns along my ribs.
The woman who once catalogued every escape route now let a splash in the reeds go uninvestigated.
That alone told me how far she’d come.
I ran my hand down her bare back. “Did you sleep at all?”
“A measurable amount.”
“That doesn’t sound promising.”
“It wasn’t.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“Your father asked how mine was. Like they’d simply lost touch after college.”
I tightened my arm around her.
“My father built our whole lives around the belief that Gabe Holliston was still a threat,” she said. “The compound. The rules. The constant fear. And Gabe barely remembered him.”
There wasn’t much I could say that would make that less devastating.
Dad forgetting Thomas didn’t mean nothing had happened between them. It didn’t erase whatever damage Thomas believed had been done. But there was a difference between remembering an old betrayal and building every locked door in your children’s lives around it.
I kissed the top of her head instead.
“I texted Keaton this morning,” she added.
“How’d that go?”
“I gave him the safe version. Peaceful small town. Nice family. Good man.”
I smiled. “Accurate on at least one count.”
She poked my ribs.
“He now knows where I am and who I’m with,” she continued. “But he doesn’t know the real reason we came here.”
“So you lied by omission.”
“Yes.”
Guilt edged her voice.
I brushed her hair back. “Do you want to tell him more?”
“I don’t like hiding things from him.”
“I understand that.”
Her head lifted. “If Keaton thinks I’m anywhere near danger, he’ll come here and try to take me home.”
“That part would not go as smoothly as he imagines.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t know how protective he can be.”
“No. But I’m harder to intimidate than I look.”
That earned a reluctant smile. “I’ve noticed that about you.” The words were casual, but the look in her eyes wasn’t.
I pulled her up for a slow kiss.
“There’s a difference between protecting someone and controlling them,” I said. “Even when the person doing it loves you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She frowned at me.
“I love you,” I said. “All of you. The careful version, the brave version, the one still figuring out what she wants. But loving you doesn’t mean I want to cage you here. I need you to hear that. If there is ever a time when you want to go home . . .”
Her expression softened in a way that made my heart do something ridiculous.
She settled against me again, but the tension in her shoulders had eased.
We lay there listening to the pond until she spoke again, quieter this time.
“I can’t see that ever happening. I don’t want to go back to hiding.”
My hand stilled on her back.
“I’m not with you because I don’t want to be with them.” She traced a finger over my chest. “I want you in the life I build. The life we build together.”
The words went through me like sunlight.
For most of my life, I’d been the youngest, the peacemaker, the one who fit into other people’s plans. Elise wasn’t asking me to fit around her life.
She was imagining one we built together.
“I want that too,” I said, my voice rough. “More than anything.”
She lifted her head. “What do you want?”
“You.”
“Beyond that.”
“That feels unnecessarily demanding.”
“I answered your question.”
“You did.”
“So now you.”
I looked toward the pond.
The answer should have been easy.
It wasn’t.
“I want to do something useful,” I said. “Teach people things they thought they couldn’t learn. Fix problems and watch the fear leave their faces.”
“You already do that.”
“Sometimes.”
“All the time.”
I smiled. “I want work that matters to actual people.”
“And?”
I ran my hand down her back. “I want to always come home to you.”
Her eyes softened.
“I like that.”
“Good. Because I’m becoming attached to the idea.”
She settled against me again.
For a few minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then I remembered what Dominic had said.
“There’s something else.”
“That is rarely a reassuring beginning.”
“It’s not bad.”
“That depends on your definition.”
“Dominic Corisi said he’d be interested in hiring you if you ever decided to leave your father’s company.”
Elise sat up so quickly the blanket shifted. “He said that?”
“He did.”
Her expression changed as she began processing the possibilities. “Working with him would mean access to resources most governments don’t have.”
“I figured.”
“And Alethea.”
“Also impressive, from what I understand.”
“She is one of the most talented people alive.”
“I’m secure enough to hear you say that.”
Elise barely acknowledged the joke. “The scale of the work possible with them would be extraordinary. The problems they solve . . .” She trailed off.
“Tempting?”
“Very.”
I waited.
She drew one knee up and rested her arm across it, completely unbothered by the fact that she was naked.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I think it’s your decision.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It’s the only one that matters.”
“You must have an opinion.”
“I do.”
“And?”
“I think Dominic wouldn’t have asked you if he didn’t think you’d be a benefit to his organization.”
She watched me closely.
“But?”
“But you just told me you don’t want another life behind walls.”
She was quiet for a moment then said, “My father doesn’t need me to succeed. Dominic doesn’t either.”
“Most people would find that reassuring.”
“That isn’t what I mean.” She looked across the water. “I don’t want to move from one powerful man’s mission into another.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
She nudged my thigh with her foot. “I want to create something that wouldn’t exist without me,” she said.
“Not because I need the credit. Because I want to decide what the work is for. Like you said, I want it to matter.” She frowned, then looked toward the Davis house beyond the rise.
“Mrs. Davis asked me yesterday why her phone keeps showing advertisements for things she discusses with Mr. Davis.”
“That happens.”
“She thinks someone is personally listening to their conversations.”
“Are they?”
“Not in the way she imagines.”
“Did you explain?”
“I attempted to.”
“How did that go?”
“She asked if putting her phone in a cookie tin would stop it.”
“Would it?”
“Yes, but then she couldn’t receive calls.”
“That could be a selling point.”
Elise smiled. “Mr. Davis still uses the password his internet provider gave him when the router was installed.”
“That seems unwise.”
“It’s written on a sticker attached to the router.”
“Convenient.”
“It is not supposed to be convenient for everyone who enters the house.”
“He probably thinks no one would want to steal his internet.”
“That isn’t the only risk.”
“What would you tell him to do?”
“Change the password. Update the router. Separate the household devices from anything controlling locks or cameras. Use multi-factor authentication where possible. People are surrounded by technology they don’t understand,” she said.
“They’re expected to identify threats created by people with better tools and more time.
Older people are vulnerable. Children are vulnerable.
Small businesses are vulnerable.” Her words began coming faster.
“Security knowledge is mostly controlled by governments, corporations, wealthy private organizations, and experts who explain things in language no normal person would willingly listen to.”
“That last group sounds familiar.”
She ignored me. “What if people didn’t need money or special access to learn how to protect themselves?”
I pushed myself onto one elbow. “What are you thinking?”
“What if we taught them?”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“That seems ambitious.”
“Young people before they begin using technology independently. Older people being forced into systems they don’t understand. Families. Teachers. Small businesses.”
Her eyes were alive now.
“We could create practical lessons. Not fear-based warnings. Actual tools. How to protect personal information. How to recognize manipulation. How to understand what a device is collecting. How to secure a home network without needing a degree.”
“That sounds like a company.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t want to sell protection only to people who can already afford it.”
She sat straighter.
The blanket slid to her waist.
Sunlight moved across her bare skin, catching the soft curves of her breasts and turning her golden against the green grass and silver water.
For a moment, I forgot every useful thought I’d ever had.
“I want to open-source it,” she said.
I dragged my attention back to her face. “Open-source security.”
“Yes.”
“How would that work?”
“I don’t know. Not completely. But the foundation could be free. Lessons. Programs. Basic tools people can understand and adapt.” She turned toward me. “I want to throw open the doors of the fortress and let people in.”
My stomach tightened. “Elise—”
“Not my father’s compound.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“I would never expose his work or anything people trusted us to protect,” she said. “I mean this fortress.” She tapped one finger against her temple. “It’s full of ideas I’ve spent my whole life containing.”
“That sounds like a dangerous amount of Elise to release into the world.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She looked down at me. “You think it’s possible?”
“I think you could change the world if you set your mind to do it.”
“I want to, but in a good way.”
“You could build off the community centers my family is funding.”
She blinked. “What?”