Chapter 33 River
THIRTY-THREE
RIVER
I wake before the sun.
At first, it’s the warmth that stirs me. The kind that sinks into bones and makes everything feel less haunted. Then, it’s the weight of a strong arm around my waist and the slow, steady rise and fall of Gage’s chest against my back.
I smile.
It’s the kind of smile I haven’t worn in years—one born of safety, not performance. No filters. No armor. Just... me. And him.
His arm tightens.
“You awake?” he murmurs, voice thick with sleep and something else that curls heat low in my belly.
“Yeah,” I whisper, turning in his arms to face him.
His eyes are still half-lidded, dark lashes sweeping across flushed cheeks. He looks younger like this. Softer. But his hand on my hip says otherwise—it’s possessive and sure, anchoring me to him like he’s not willing to let go. Ever.
We just stare at each other for a moment. No words. No rush. Just that silent, heady ache of knowing we’ve passed the point of no return and neither of us regrets it.
“I want to ask you something,” he says, finally, brushing his thumb across my jaw.
“Okay,” I breathe.
“Will you be mine, River?” His voice is low, serious. “Not just while we’re dealing with all this Cathedral crap. I mean when this is over. When you're free. I want to still be next to you.”
My chest expands with a slow, sharp inhale. I don’t even hesitate.
“I already am,” I whisper. “I think I’ve been yours for a while.”
He lets out a shaky exhale and pulls me into him, burying his face in the crook of my neck. And we lie there, tangled together like threads in a stitch that can’t be undone.
But we both know the moment can’t last forever.
Eventually, he pushes the covers off and climbs out of bed, and I follow. We shower, get dressed, and start making breakfast like we’re any normal couple.
But we’re not normal. Not even close.
Because I’m still being stalked. Because we don’t know who Regent is. And because somewhere—hidden beneath my normal life—is the reason all of this started.
We sit on the couch with coffee and the remains of toast and peanut butter, and I bring it up.
“So… this party Friday.”
Gage groans. “Don’t remind me.”
“It could be a good chance,” I say, thinking it through. “To observe. To bait.”
“You sure you want to go?” he asks, brow furrowed.
“I need to. If Tasha’s going to be there, and Andrew, and Helena…”
He flinches at her name. I clock it.
“You think it’s her, don’t you?” I ask quietly.
He hesitates. “I think… she’s dangerous. More than she lets on.”
I think back to Helena’s perfectly coifed smile. Her hand on Andrew’s arm. Her presence in every room I’ve felt most unsafe in.
“She’s always hated me,” I admit. “I never understood why. She was cold… calculating. I thought it was just me projecting.”
“It’s not,” he says. “There’s something else, too.”
“What?”
He shifts. “We’ve been digging into Cathedral’s admin chain. Regent… is good. Invisible. But not perfect.”
I blink. “You found something?”
“Breadcrumbs,” he says, echoing the word we’ve thrown around lately. “But one of them led to a restricted account. An employee who doesn’t officially exist. And guess who has access to every internal HR credential in the system?”
“Helena.”
He nods.
My heart thunders.
“And Andrew?” I ask.
Gage looks at me. “I don’t think he’s clean either. But I think he’s being used. Manipulated. Maybe Helena’s got something on him. I’d bet my company badge on it.”
I finish my coffee, hands trembling slightly.
“I have something on my laptop,” I murmur. “Or at least… I think I do. Files from a backup. Things I forgot I even copied over. There was a project, years ago—one of our coworkers died. I remember the HR announcement was weird. Short. Cold. Like a template was used.”
Gage’s head snaps up. “What was the employee’s name?”
“Shawn Presley,” I say slowly. “He was in dev, like me. Talented. But he was about to go public with something—I think it was about the pay discrepancies. Then he just… didn’t show up. They said he died in a car accident. But nobody talked about it.”
Gage swears under his breath. “Arrow mentioned that name. We flagged it when we were searching for people who had filed internal complaints tied to Regent’s known aliases.”
“Wait—Shawn filed something?” I ask.
Gage nods. “It was sealed. Probably buried by HR. But if you have a local copy, River…”
“Then Helena wants me quiet,” I finish for him.
He nods, jaw tight.
And suddenly it all makes sense.
The escalation. The stalking. The smear campaigns. The images. The deepfakes.
They’re not just random cruelty.
They’re cover-ups.
And I’m the loose end they didn’t expect to unravel.
“We need to go through that drive,” Gage says, standing. “And we need to be careful.”
I look up at him, feeling like the floor has just shifted under my feet.
“Do you think Tasha knows?”
He hesitates. “If she’s working under Helena, she might. Or maybe she’s just being manipulated too.”
“What if she’s more than that?”
“We’ll find out Friday,” he says. “We’re planting a tracker in Helena’s bag. Arrow has a listening device. We’ll be monitoring every conversation she has at that party.”
“And if we get proof?” I ask.
“Then we bring them down.”
The words don’t feel real.
But I know now—we’re not just trying to survive this.
We’re going to end it.
And when we do, I’m going to finally get my life back.