Page 1 of BounBound By Scars

ONE

Kabir

Was there any way out of this? Could I ever fall out of love with her? This was getting too damn annoying. Why did she have to be so infuriatingly perfect? Every time she spoke, it wasn’t just her words that captivated me, it was the curve of her lips, the cadence in her voice that seemed to stroke the raw edges of my nerves, soothing yet stirring something deep within.

Why the fuck did I shove her into the ‘just friends’ box?

Right, because I’ve been down this road, haven’t I?

Fallen hard, fallen fast, and ended up with nothing but a handful of ash and bitter regrets. Last time, it cost me a best friend and left me sifting through emotional wreckage that I was still piecing together.

Stupid—really—to think I could keep her at arm’s length when every little thing about her pulled me in closer. The more I told myself ‘just friends’, the louder my heart laughed at the feeble attempt. Was there truly any escape from falling for her? Maybe not. But every time I looked at Amelia, remembering the pain from before, I convinced myself it was better this way. Safer, for both our sakes.

But goddamn, look at her.

“Are you even listening to me?” She threw her hands up in exasperation. We were in the command center, diving into work at three in the morning, as usual.

“Nope, your voice is like nails on a chalkboard, but here I am, trying to be noble.”

I shrugged, the corner of my mouth twitching upwards. It was way easier to poke fun at her than to blurt out:‘Amelia Desmond, you’re the love of my life. Can I kiss those gorgeous lips of yours now?’

Shut the fuck up, Kabir.

I was 99.9% sure that she felt the same way. But that 0.1% was what I clung to.

“Alright, let’s buckle down,” she said, cutting through my thoughts with a sharp tone. “If we reconfigure the API gateways and refresh the access tokens, it should let us penetrate the backend of the Bitch’s control system. Once we’re in, we can inject a reverse shell and gain admin access.”

I chuckled at her attempt at hacking a high-security device. We had named the Crazon device we snagged from Garret Tyson as theBitch. “Why don’t you create a technical ticket and Zane can handle that?”

She shot me a glare that could slice through steel. “Be fucking serious, Kabir. Just for once.”

“Alright, alright,” I conceded, half amused by her ferocity. “But consider this—what if messing around with the Bitch just tips off Gao Ling or Robert Romano?”

“Isn’t devising a workaround part of your job description?” she shot back, arms crossed.

“Fine!” I snapped my laptop open and pounded out a series of commands. Spinning the screen towards her, I pointed to the display where Bitch was initiating unauthorized communications with a remote server. Predictable.

“Shit! Stop it! Stop, stop,stop!”she panicked, hammering at my keyboard like it was on fire.

I barked out a laugh, enjoying the chaos a little too much. “Relax, I’ve blocked all outgoing pathways.”

She slumped back, then shot forward to kick me sharply in the shin. “You stupid asshole! Why would you scare me like that?”

I shrugged, all nonchalance, even as she continued to fume. But before I could retract the command, Bitch began to heat up in my hands—literally.

“Seriously, Kabir,” she fumed, barely catching her breath, “next time you pull something like that, at least give me a warning. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

Her rant faded into the background as my attention zeroed in on the device growing increasingly warm in my grip. “What next? Do we try another hack?” she pressed, trying to peek at the screen.

I didn’t answer right away, my gaze fixed on the Bitch as it simmered in my palm, a ticking time bomb.

I dropped the device back onto the table and sprang to my feet. Grasping Amelia’s elbow, I jerked her up beside me. Hesitating, I hovered a finger near the Bitch. Even without touching it, I could feel the waves of heat radiating from it.

Instinct kicked in. In one fluid motion, I yanked Amelia aside, tackling her to the floor, and shielding her with my body.

One second passed.

Two seconds.