Page 35

Amelia

“You’re a fucking genius!”

The door flew open, slamming into the wall behind it. I jumped, startled—snapping out of whatever spiral I’d been caught in.

Zane stood there, taking in the mess that was me.

I was on the floor, Bouquet beside me. My eyes burned, swollen from crying. I’d been curled there for what felt like hours, wrecked by a grief I didn’t know how to name.

Because how do you mourn someone who isn’t dead—but who left like they were?

God, I missed him. Kabir. His silence had become the loudest thing in my life.

Zane stepped in quickly, crouching beside me. “Hey—hey, what happened? Are you okay?”

I wiped at my face, embarrassed. “It’s nothing.” My voice cracked. “Why am I a genius?”

He let out a slow breath and sat beside me, his back hitting the edge of the bed. “I configured the weapons module for that,” he said, nodding toward my drone.

I sniffled, half-laughing as I wiped my nose on the back of my hand. “Thanks.”

“It’s Maverick,” he said, voice clipped.

I blinked. “It is?”

He nodded once. “Yeah. Spencer came clean. The Pentagon approached him for a ‘consulting role’—but it was more of a threat. Scared the hell out of him.”

“So how’d you figure it was Mav?”

Zane smirked, a bitter edge to it. “Spencer suspected he wasn’t the only one approached. So I scanned Mav’s system. He’s the one who leaked our RLM data to the Pentagon. Subtle as hell, I’ll give him that.”

I sat with that for a moment.

Then he turned to me, expression softening. “Amelia, I owe you an apology. Kabir… he was probably being leveraged with the rat. I should’ve listened to you sooner.”

I gave a small shrug. “It’s fine. What’re you going to do about Mav?”

Zane smiled. Not kindly. “Absolutely nothing.”

My brows drew together. “What?”

“I just told Sebastian. He said he has… plans. Didn’t tell me what they were, but I’m guessing Mav won’t be our problem much longer.”

I exhaled slowly. “Still doesn’t bring Kabir back.”

Zane rested a hand on my knee. “He’ll come back when it’s safe. I know he will.”

I looked at him, really looked—for the first time in days. The bruises on his jaw were fading now, but his eyes were still tired. Guarded.

“What did they do to you?” I asked gently.

His face shuttered. A flicker of something behind his eyes—then gone.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” he said with a hollow smile. “You need help getting up?”

I let out a breathy laugh. “No. I’m good. Let my legs enjoy their freedom.”

I’d just been cleared to leave the wheelchair. First time in weeks. It still felt strange—like relearning how to be myself.

I’d watched Kaylan handle it so gracefully. Even Logan. But for me… it felt like walking through water with phantom limbs. A part of me, still missing.

Kabir still missing.

Zane left me alone after that, and I spent the next hour flying the Bouquet drone around the room—just tinkering. Just doing something to distract myself from the gnawing dread building inside me.

Tomorrow, the team would leave for Virginia.

Romano’s estate.

I wasn’t cleared to go, of course. Too slow. Too fragile.

And I didn’t know how to feel about being benched. Helplessness was starting to rot me from the inside.

I stood slowly, walking toward the window—legs still shaky, muscles unsure. I was about to slide it open, get Bouquet out, when I heard it—

The door lock.

Not the click of a keycard, but the whir of an override.

My pulse jumped.

Zane would’ve just walked in. Dylan wouldn’t come here at all—especially not since he’d gone full silent mode after the White House op.

It would be rather weird to have him just stand there, staring in silence.

I froze, phone already in my hand, thumb hovering over the alert button.

The lock disengaged with a sharp click.

And the door began to swing open.

My breath caught.

And there he was.

Kabir.

He stood in the doorway like a ghost finally allowed to return. His shoulders were hunched, his frame visibly thinner, drawn. The weight he carried wasn’t just physical—it clung to him like grief soaked into skin. His face was pale, jaw unshaven, lips parted in disbelief.

But it was his eyes that broke me.

Awe. Fear. Relief. Pain.

All at once.

His gaze swept over me like I was a mirage he didn’t dare believe in. His chest shuddered as he exhaled, a soft, strangled sound leaving him.

Then his legs buckled.

He dropped to his knees on the floor just inside the room, like he couldn’t stand under it anymore.

“I thought he’d lied,” he whispered.

My heart lurched.

I should’ve moved immediately. I should’ve run to him. But I stood frozen, watching him fold into himself, eyes clenched shut, breath shaking like it hurt to even exist.

“I thought…” he rasped, voice cracking, “he told me you were alive, but I thought it was a lie. I thought it was to keep me compliant.”

My legs finally remembered how to move.

I stepped forward slowly, shakily—my body still unsure of itself, my heart too full to hold steady.

And then I was in front of him.

He looked up at me like he couldn’t believe I was real.

I knelt down.

His hands reached out before I could even speak—trembling, reverent, cradling my face like it was something sacred.

“You’re alive,” he breathed. “You’re alive—you’re here—you’re real—”

His lips brushed over every inch of my face. My forehead. My cheeks. My nose. My chin. Each kiss soft and frantic, like he was desperate to memorize me again.

Tears blurred my vision, falling freely now. I wasn’t sobbing—but I was unraveling.

“Kabir…” I whispered, my voice barely holding together.

His hands never stopped moving—one wrapped around the back of my neck, the other pressing to the side of my throat. He pressed his fingers against my pulse point.

And stayed there.

His expression shifted. Something soft and broken bloomed in his eyes.

“It’s beating,” he whispered, like it was a miracle. “It’s beating.”

He pressed his forehead to mine, eyes glistening.

I realized it then. He must have felt it—my pulse fade away.

I closed my eyes, fingers clutching his jacket.

My heart breaking.

That’s why. That’s why he left the way he did. Because for a moment, he thought I was already gone.

We were both kneeling now, holding onto each other like we were trying to keep the other from vanishing again.

“It’s beating,” I whispered.

And for the first time in weeks, I felt the hollow inside me start to close.

???

We lay in the quiet, side by side on my bed, the room dark except for the soft blue glow of the drone’s charger in the corner.

Kabir’s fingers hadn’t moved from my neck. Two fingertips pressed lightly against my pulse, like he needed constant reassurance that it was still beating. That I was still here.

His gaze never left mine.

And for a moment, it felt like the war outside the walls had paused. Just long enough for us to find each other again.

He opened his mouth, closed it. His throat worked around something heavy.

Finally, he said it—soft, like it hurt. “I learned the team is planning an assault on Romano’s estate.”

I nodded slowly. “Tomorrow evening. Zane’s finalizing the op brief.”

His eyes darkened. “Call it off.”

“What?”

“Call it off, Lia. Get them to cancel it.”

I pushed myself up slightly. “You’re not making sense.”

He sat up too, hand falling from my neck. I already missed it.

“This morning, a new security protocol was added to Romano’s property. I saw it myself. Surveillance spikes, route blocks, a new authorization level. That kind of response doesn’t happen unless they’re baiting someone in.”

I blinked at him. “So you think it’s a trap?”

“I know it is.”

I shook my head. “Kabir, you weren’t here when Zane found the file. Project Ruby referenced a secondary node—RSR Grounds. That’s Romano’s house. Everything points to Doom Switch being stored there.”

“And you think they’d leave a trail like that intact?” His voice rose, frustration cracking through. “That’s not how this works. You don’t hide something that dangerous for years only to let it slip now.”

“It’s not a slip. It’s a thread. One of the only ones we’ve got.”

He stood suddenly, pacing. “You’re not hearing me. I’m telling you, they want you to attack.”

“And I’m telling you, we don’t have the luxury of waiting around anymore!”

He stopped, facing the wall, hands clenched at his sides. I saw the war in his body before he said it. He looked at his watch briefly.

“I have to go back.”

My blood chilled. “Go back where?”

“Virginia. Fuck… I need to leave.”

I sat up fully, heart slamming in my chest. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”

He turned slowly. “No one knows I’m here. And no one can know. If they suspect I’ve broken cover—”

“You have! You’re here, Kabir!”

He closed the distance between us. “I had to see you. I had to know . But I can’t stay. I’m in too deep now. I have access. Intel. Things we didn’t even know existed.”

I got up then, standing on my shaky legs. “So what, you show up in the middle of the night and then vanish again like you were never real?”

“I will come back.”

“When?” My voice cracked. “When this is all over? When they’ve already won?”

“I don’t know. Maybe weeks.”

“Or months. Or… never,” I whispered.

He stepped closer, slowly, gently cupping my face again. “I’m closer than we’ve ever been. I can feel it. If I pull out now, we lose everything.”

I closed my eyes as tears slipped out again.

“I can’t lose you twice,” I said, barely audible. “I thought you were dead.”

“I thought you were,” he said, thumb brushing a tear away. “But you’re here. I’m here. And I promise—I will come back, Heer .”

I shook my head, breath catching. “Don’t say that.”

He kissed my forehead.

“I mean it. You have me. I’ll be back”

My eyes flew open.

“I have you?” I echoed, pulling back. “You say that, Kabir—but I don’t want to have you. I want to keep you.”

His lips parted.

“I want you more than just in between the fucking missions,” I continued. “I want us . The missions be damned.”