ery

pensive velvet jewelry

It was his signature move, the predictable compensation he offered every time he che

er hovered exactly one centimeter

strong hand reaching through the flames, pulling me out of the ashes. He had sworn to protect me

ing smirk pulled at t

ck. The movement wa

efully schooled into a look of mild, wifely devotion, went completely dead. Th

r of the master bedroom and ste

lluminating my path one by one as I walked. M

rridor, right in front of a ma

of the ornate gold frame and shoved it hard to t

anner glowed from a

of icy blue light sw

" a sterile, automated

oors hissed and parted,

om. I didn't shiver. I had spent countless days and nights down in this freezing bunk

spiral staircase, my s

s of thousands of LED indicator lights blinked in the dar

l control console and pulled ou

tor. I held my hands suspended over the me

zing air fill my lungs, and typed out

e screen, glaring against my pale skin. *

g the highest-level backdoor password. I was the only person alive who

shifted into developer mode, the scre

atpants and pulled out a completely

popped up immediately. The executable file ha

sitate. I c

ing agonizingly slow as it bypassed

w popped up. I typed in the

ountdown timer illumin

:59

s of my youth, ten years of blind loyalty and exploita

echoed from the ceil

rom the air vent, landing silently on

leather dress shoes on the metal stairs. Brendan. His footsteps c

oing down here,