17. Chapter 17
Chapter seventeen
MICAH PRESCOTT
When I open my eyes, Heather is curled against me again. This beautiful creature that chose me, of all people. I press a kiss to her shoulder.
She hums softly, suddenly scooting her ass back against my already-hard cock.
Ughhh.
“Chill, blondie,” I groan.
She does it again with another cute sound, and my fingers tighten on her hip.
I sigh, shifting carefully, and she lets out a small protest when I move. “I heard Adela cursing earlier,” I murmur.
That gets a sleepy laugh out of her. “She’s always cursing,” she says, voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah,” I say, leaning down to nip her shoulder lightly just to hear her breathe out a soft laugh again. “Still gonna check to see what’s going on. Gonna see if Jude’s doing better today.” I check the time on my phone. “He’ll be ready for his dose in like an hour, too.”
She stretches, one arm sliding out from under the blanket. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
I nod once and get up, pulling on sweatpants and a hoodie, already focused on whatever disaster Adela has probably discovered before breakfast. With a yawn, I walk down the hallway to see Emma’s door ajar. With a quick glance, I see that it’s empty.
Huh.
I stand there for a second longer, hoping that the damn woman didn’t do anything reckless. Was that why Adela was worked up earlier?
Shit.
“Of course,” I mutter under my breath. I don’t waste time thinking too hard about it. I already know where she went.
Downstairs, I find Rafe and Adela already awake at the dining table, coffees in hand, Adela leaning over her laptop.
Rafe glances up when I come in. “She’s downstairs,” he says before I even ask.
I pause.
“Basement couch.”
I exhale through my nose and don’t bother responding beyond that. By the time I reach the basement stairs, I see her curled on the couch in front of the monitors like she just…fell asleep watching him.
“Emma,” I say quietly.
She jolts, blinking up at me with exhaustion in her brown eyes. Her now shoulder-length dark hair has definitely taken some getting used to since Adela cut it.
“I thought you went to bed,” I add.
“I did,” she says.
I step closer, eyes flicking once to the monitors, then back to her. “You slept down here?”
“Yes.” She sits up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “I tried going back to bed, but then found myself down here again.”
I sigh. “Emma.”
She tilts her head, studying me in a different way than usual. “I’m fine,” she says. There’s no emotion behind it, which is a little worrying to me.
I drag a hand through my hair. “You shouldn’t be down here alone.”
“I wasn’t alone,” she says, already turning her attention back to the screen. “Kieran and Nico were in their rooms in case something happened.”
“That’s not what I mean,” I say, moving a little closer now.
She finally looks at me again, and something shifts in my stomach.
Because she’s different. I remember seeing her struggling to survive in the hospital with broken heart syndrome, and now, she’s staring me down with a renewed kind of confidence.
I still don’t like that she was down here alone, because it’s easy to walk in there the moment you see that he’s in any kind of distress.
“He’s stable right now,” she says calmly. “Seems like he’s doing better than yesterday. The Suboxone is helping him.”
“Yeah, I’ll give him some more.” I glance at the monitors to see him resting peacefully. Thank hell.
“I’m happy he took it.”
“You don’t need to be the one watching him every second of the day,” I whisper. “I don’t want you making a split decision to go in there alone and get yourself hurt. He’s dangerous.”
That finally makes her glance toward the hallway leading to Jude’s room. “I’m not going in there recklessly,” she says, her voice steady. “You know…I’ve struggled with how to process all of this. I cared so much about Jude that I let him tell me he was handling things before.”
I sit beside her, bracing my forearms on my knees as I listen. I know what she means. I did the same fucking thing and hate myself for it.
“I was so used to helping other people through their own shit,” she continues, and I can’t help the small smirk that tugs at my mouth at the way she curses more now.
“I never realized that Jude was my weakness. I didn’t know how to deal with his pain.
His trauma. I felt too close to him, but I still wanted to do right by him, treat him like I do my patients.
” She exhales softly. “I got in my head, Micah. I handled it all wrong.”
“I can see why you did what you did,” I tell her. “It’s not exactly normal, trying to navigate something like this with someone you…” I trail off, then shake my head. “With someone you love that much.”
She nods once. “Exactly. I just have to shift my focus. Heather was the one who really made me see it.” Her eyes flick back toward the hallway again, thoughtful now.
“I can use what I know to find him in the dark. But I need to be who he loves to pull him out. I have skills that happen to be very helpful for what he endured.”
My chest constricts at that because I know she means it. There’s no doubt or hesitation left in her. “That’s a damn good way to do this,” I say quietly.
She smiles, and lets her head fall against my shoulder.
And it hits me then, clear as anything. This isn’t fear or desperation anymore.
This is commitment. And I’d be an idiot to stand in the way of that.
Before I can say anything else, my phone buzzes in my pocket. Once. Then again. Then a third time.
I already know who it is before I even pull my phone out. Since the motherfucker likes to communicate that way, even if we’re just downstairs. I stare at the screen for a second longer, just contemplating everything between Emma and me right now.
She lifts her head, catching the shift in my posture. “What is it?”
“Rafe,” I say, pushing myself to my feet. “He wants us upstairs.”
She stands with me, steady on her feet, and there’s a confidence in the way she carries herself now. I admire it for just a moment as she walks ahead of me. By the time we step into the living room, everyone else is already there.
Rafe is near the coffee table, one hand braced against it, his focus locked on the laptop beside him.
Adela sits in front of it, fingers hovering over the keyboard like she's lost in thought.
Kieran is slouched in a chair, alert despite the posture, and Nico stands near the window with his arms crossed, watching everything without saying a word.
Heather and Adriana are sitting on the couch.
On opposite ends, of course. Heather is not a fan of Adri, and I don't blame her.
Rafe glances up as we walk in. “Good. Close the door.”
That tone alone tells me this isn’t small. I move further into the room, Emma stepping in beside me as the door clicks shut behind us.
Adela turns the laptop so we can all see the screen, and what’s on it immediately makes my stomach twist.
“What the hell is that?” I ask, because I have genuinely no goddamn clue what I’m looking at. It’s layers of code, folders, logs…an entire system that confuses the shit out of me.
“This is what we were able to access,” Rafe says. “One of Nolan’s remaining pathways.”
Emma tilts her head. “Access as in…?”
“As in we can see it,” Adela answers. “But that’s all we can do.”
I frown. “What do you mean, that’s all?”
She taps something on the screen, opening a deeper layer of files. “What we need to access is locked beyond standard encryption. It’s conditional, with everything tied to triggers.”
Rafe nods once. “That lovely dead-man framework, remember?”
Shit.
I sigh, dragging a hand down my face. Most of this shit sounds like another language.
Adela scrolls again, and this time it’s clearer. There are images, transactions, video logs, and timestamps.
Jude.
Every version of him they forced into existence, documented like evidence.
Emma doesn’t react the way I expect her to. I watch her out of the corner of my eye, waiting for her to crack, to look away, to press a hand to her chest like she usually does.
Rafe notices too, but doesn’t comment. “We don’t have the passcode required to safely alter or delete anything,” he continues. “Without it, any attempt to interfere activates the fucking release protocol. Adriana, any chance you know it?”
She shakes her head immediately. “No. He kept that separate. Always.”
Kieran mutters something under his breath.
“How were you guys able to delete Nolan’s stuff before?” I ask. “But not this?”
Rafe answers quickly. “Because that was before Alexei. He solidified everything after. This is what realizing you've gotten yourself in deep shit looks like.”
“I can attest to that,” Adriana murmurs. “He was terrified of him by the end.”
I stare at the screen, trying to wrap my head around the reality of it.
We found the files.
And we still can’t do a damn thing. Because if we do something wrong, it can trigger both to release.
Emma speaks again, her voice quiet but steady. “Then we don’t try to delete anything yet.”
Rafe’s gaze shifts to her, intrigued. “What are you suggesting, dear therapist?”
She doesn’t look at him. Her eyes stay on the screen. “We learn it,” she says. “And then we dismantle it safely. We can’t risk exposing Jude more than Alexei already has.”
“Let me check something on Alexei’s network,” Adela hums under her breath, sliding another laptop in front of her. “His system was locking me out before. But I think I can—” She stops, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, completely still.
“What?” Nico asks, stepping closer.
Adela doesn’t answer right away. Her eyes narrow, scanning something deeper in the system. “That’s weird,” she murmurs.
Rafe leans over her. “Define weird.”
Adela clicks into another file. This one opens instantly. Images populate the screen, clearer this time.
My teeth clench. “I thought you said it was locked.”
“It was,” she says slowly. Her fingers move again, faster now, pulling up metadata, logs, backend activity. Her expression changes. “No,” she mutters under her breath.
“What?” I push.
Adela leans back, eyes still locked on the screen. “This is a honeytrap,” she says quietly. “The motherfucker set this perfectly for us. He must have just done this overnight.”
Rafe goes still, his hand resting on the back of her chair.
Nico steps in closer. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Her voice sharpens now, focused.
“A honey what?” I ask, my pulse suddenly picking up speed. They’re concerned. That’s fucking bad.
Adela sighs. “These files are too accessible. The response time is wrong. And look at this—” she points to a small string of code buried in the corner. “Embedded tracking protocols. If we go deeper without isolating it properly, it flags the activity.”
“Flags it to who?” Heather asks.
Adela doesn’t look up. “Alexei, of course.”
Rafe’s jaw tightens, turning toward us to better explain. “So, essentially, if we keep pushing—”
“We don’t just risk triggering the dead-man switch,” Adela interrupts. “We risk telling Alexei exactly where the access attempt is coming from. Despite my firm’s protections.”
My stomach drops. “He’d know we’re here,” I mutter.
“Or close enough,” she confirms.
Emma’s voice cuts in. “So he’s aware you’re in there?”
Adela nods slowly. “Precisely where. And he’s watching us. But for now, our physical location is still protected. But if I fuck around too much in his system, that could change.”
I drag a hand through my hair. “So what, we just sit here and do nothing now? Has he beaten us?”
Adela finally looks up. “No,” she says. “We isolate the trap. Then we gut the system piece by piece without setting it off.”
God, I have a headache just listening to this shit.
Rafe watches her for a long second, then nods once. “Carefully. Nico, your experience with Alex Brettiv’s system a couple years ago will come in handy. Help her.”
He nods. “Yes, boss.”
“Who’s that?” Heather asks, finally speaking up.
“Dead,” Adela says flatly, focusing on the screen.
“Oh.”
Emma exhales quietly beside me.
I glance at her, and she’s already looking at me.
“I’m sure we’re all in agreement,” she says, “that if anyone tries to hurt Jude again…”
My eyes narrow, witnessing the coldness creeping into her expression.
“We’ll fucking kill them.”
I nod. “You’re damn fucking right, Em.”
Adela lets out a quiet breath, rolling her shoulders as her fingers return to the keyboard. “Alright,” she mutters. “We’re going to need some time. But let’s get to work, gentlemen.” She glances at Kieran, Nico, and Rafe. “I’m going to crack this shit, one way or another.”
This is a war zone now. And whatever we do next…
We’re being watched.