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He missed her.

Darien

Hey pretty girl. Everything ok?

Loren

Ivy’s favorite frying pan went missing and she has a feeling Itzel stole it.

Darien fought a smile. A warm spring rain began to fall upon the car in a fine mist as he typed up a response.

Darien

Case of the Missing Frying Pan—I’ll get on it right away.

I was talking about you though.

Loren

I’m fine, but I miss you :(

Darien

I miss you too, sweetheart

Loren

Hurry home?

Darien

Anything for you

Loren

Darien

Damn rights he would hurry home. He couldn’t wait to be back with his beautiful girl again—as soon as he was done here. As soon as he had the last thing he needed to get Travis and Max the hell out of Yveswich.

He opened his door and stepped out beneath an overcast sky. As he crossed the rain-speckled road, heading for the entrance to the apartment building, he called Tanner.

The hacker picked up on the second ring. “You ready?”

“I’m ready.” He was at the front doors now. The same doors he’d walked through with Loren last fall—back when he was nothing to her but a stranger. A threat. So much had changed since that day—since they’d sat down across from each other atRook and Redding’s—that these past few months sometimes felt like a dream.

Except, she was better—far better than any dream he could have ever dreamt up.

Keys clacked in the background. And then Tanner said, “Spells are coming down in three…two…”

“One,” they said in unison.

Darien’s blood thrummed as the intricate spells of the expensive-as-hell security system came down—dropping like a heavy curtain.

He whipped the door open and walked in, his boots pounding as he crossed the foyer.

“Elevator’s ready and waiting,” Tanner said. “I made it easy on you and programmed in the penthouse suite.”

“Couldn’t have opened the doors, too?” Darien teased. “You’re slacking, Atlas.” He pressed the button to the lift, and the doors hissed open.