Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
GAGE
I don’t let go of her hand until we’re inside the apartment at Riverside.
Even then, I hesitate.
River’s quiet. She hasn’t said a word since we watched Andrew and Helena disappear. Her mind’s working a mile a minute, I can tell. Mine is too. I just hide it better. Usually.
The second the door closes, I pull out my phone and shoot a quick encrypted message to the team.
ME: Just tailed Andrew K. and Helena L. They’re together. As in together together. Caught them kissing. Building looks unregistered. Helena’s not who she says she is.
Arrow replies almost instantly:
ARROW: No way. They’re both married.
Juno chimes in. I didn’t even know she was in this chat.
JUNO: HR kissing the boss. That’s an HR report waiting to happen. You think Tasha knows?
I glance at River. “You okay?”
She kicks off her shoes and throws her hoodie over the back of the couch. “I think I’m running out of people to trust.”
Fair.
I sink down beside her, elbows on my knees. “Helena being involved changes things.”
“Do you think she knows what Tasha’s doing?”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’s just another pawn.”
River snorts. “No one who wears that much MAC lipstick is a pawn.”
That gets a reluctant smile out of me. I lean back, letting my body soak into the couch cushions. “So, do we bait Tasha? Dangle the affair somehow and see how she reacts?”
River’s brow furrows. “Or maybe she already knows. I mean, she works in HR, right? She probably processed Helena’s transfer.”
I nod. “She could’ve facilitated it. If she’s in this as deep as we think, that wouldn’t be a coincidence.”
“But then…” River hesitates, chewing her bottom lip. “Why leak all the stuff about me? If she’s just trying to protect Helena, why go after me?”
I look at her. Really look at her. She’s sitting cross-legged on the couch, hair a little mussed, cheeks flushed from the wind outside, hoodie sleeves pushed up to her elbows.
She’s beautiful.
She’s brilliant.
And she has no idea how easily she gets under my skin.
“I don’t think this is about Helena,” I say finally. “It’s about you. Always has been.”
Before she can ask what I mean, my phone buzzes again.
ARROW: You need to see this.
A link follows.
I open it.
And the second I do, my heart slams against my ribs.
River’s voice.
My voice.
Moaning. Whispering. Saying things we’ve never said.
And then the visual kicks in.
A deepfake. Of us. In a bed. Together.
It’s so well done I have to watch for thirty seconds just to spot the render artifact in her left eye.
I close the tab before she sees it.
Too late.
She’s already grabbed her phone. Her hand’s trembling.
“I—” she chokes out.
“River, it’s not real.”
“But it looks real.”
“I know.”
She looks up at me. “It has to be Tasha. She’s the only one who sort of knows. Could we have been—?”
“No. This isn’t real.” I take her phone gently. “This was made. Crafted.”
Her eyes shine with unshed tears, and that makes my fists curl. “By Tasha?”
Whoever did this isn’t just attacking her anymore.
They’re attacking us.
“This is personal,” I mutter. “Jealous. Petty. Targeted.”
River wipes her cheek. “You think it was Tasha?”
I hesitate.
She reads my face.
“She is the only one who’s said anything about us,” River says quietly. “Back at work. She gave me that weird look a few days ago. Like she knew. And at girl’s night. She knows.”
“Yeah.”
“She asked if we were dating,” River adds, voice hollow. “I said no. She didn’t believe me.”
“Jealousy’s a hell of a motive,” I mutter.
“And if she made that…” River shakes her head. “That’s a violation on another level.”
I sit back, trying to breathe through the rage rolling in waves down my spine. I want to go full blackout. Kick down doors. Ransack Cathedral from the inside out.
But I can’t do that. Not yet.
We need a plan.
“We’ll trace the source,” I tell her. “Arrow’s already on it. We’ll pin the IP and follow the proxy trail.”
“I can help,” River says, suddenly fierce. “I want to help.”
I nod. “Good. We’ll loop you in.”
Silence stretches for a beat.
Then River stands and walks to the kitchen. Opens the fridge. Pulls out a yogurt. Stares at it like she’s forgotten what food is for.
“You’re falling for her,” Arrow told me last night.
No shit.
I get up and walk to where she stands, reaching around her for two spoons.
“You’re gonna share that, right?” I ask.
She arches a brow, then sighs. “You’re impossible.”
I grin. “So are you.”
We eat silently, standing at the counter. A weird kind of domestic rhythm slipping into place. Her elbow nudges mine every few bites. She steals my spoon. I pretend to be outraged.
And even with everything going on—Cathedral, Regent, Tasha, Helena—I feel calm.
Because she’s here.
Because she trusts me.
Because some part of her still looks at me like I’m more than just a man with a keyboard and a mask.
When we finish, she turns to me and says, “What do we do now?”
I take her empty cup, toss it in the bin, and meet her gaze.
“Now we fight back.”
I should leave.
I should head home. File reports. Sync with Arrow. Anything but stand here in the low light of Riverside, watching River run a hand through that waterfall of blue hair.
But I don’t move.
Because I can’t.
Not when she turns toward me, eyes soft but stormy, like she’s trying to be strong even when everything inside her is spinning out.
I inch closer before either of us says a word. She looks up, chest rising, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.
“I hate that you saw it,” she whispers.
“Saw what?” I ask her, even though I know she’s talking about the video.
“That video. It looked so real, but so… not. I don’t know. It’s like we were together but not. Does that make sense?”
My heart pounds in my chest. “I know what you mean.” The video didn’t look like two people making love, it didn’t even resemble two people who liked each other.
It was the worst version of AI one could get away with.
“I hate that it exists,” I growl. “That someone thought they could use you like that. Violate you like that.”
Her lashes flutter. “But you still came back.”
I cup her jaw with one hand, my thumb brushing her cheek. “Of course I did.”
She tilts her head. “Why?”
The word lodges somewhere between her vulnerability and my undoing. I let out a breath, brushing my lips just beneath her ear.
“Because I’m already yours, River. I’ve been yours longer than you know.”
Her fingers fist the front of my shirt, and then she’s pulling me in, closing the space.
Our mouths crash together, needy, open, hot.
She tastes like heat and hurt and hope. I kiss her like I’m making up for every day I couldn’t, every night I watched her through a screen, every second I held back when all I wanted was to touch.
She moans into my mouth, and I swear it rips me open.
I lift her, hands gripping the backs of her thighs as she wraps around me. Her lips don’t stop. My back hits the wall and her hips roll against mine and it’s too much and not enough all at once.
“You feel everything, don’t you?” I murmur against her mouth.
“Only with you.”
God. That right there. That’s going to wreck me.
I carry her to the couch, our lips never breaking. I kiss every inch of her skin I can reach, reverent and greedy all at once. She’s fire under my palms, and when I slide my hand up her spine and she arches into me, it’s like watching the sun rise after years in shadow.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I breathe. “You don’t even know.”
She reaches for my belt, fingers trembling. “I want—”
I stop her with a kiss.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I whisper, forehead to hers. “We don’t have to rush. I want every piece of you. But I want you to feel safe even more.”
She blinks. Her eyes shine.
“I feel safest with you.”
I lay her back, curling beside her on the couch, our bare chests pressed together. Her thigh slides between mine, her hand on my jaw, pulling me in for another kiss.
It’s not sex. Not yet.
It’s something deeper. More molten.
It’s two people clinging to each other at the edge of chaos, choosing to burn together rather than let go.
We kiss until our bodies ache and our breathing slows, until we’re wrapped around each other in silence, her hand in my hair and my heart in her pocket.
And for once, I’m not thinking about Regent. About Tasha. About the war we’re fighting.
I’m just here.
With her.