Page 78 of Deadly Blooms (Psychic Unraveled #1)

SHIT, MEET FAN

Graham

Well, the cat was outta the bag.

Probably was for the best. Still—the last thing I needed was Maggie thinking my losing my badge—if it came to that—was somehow her fault. It wasn’t. I’d been wrecking my own shit long before she showed up. I was without question, the undisputed master of my own disasters.

And the fan? Yeah, it’d revved up. The shit was airborne.

“So,” she said, real casual, “you gonna tell me what’s going on with Derek, or am I gonna have to figure it out myself?”

I puffed out my cheeks like a kid caught shoplifting. “It’s something to help us break the case,” I muttered, already bracing for impact.

She wasn’t amused. “You mean the case you’re not even supposed to be on?” She opened the door, climbed out, and beelined it for the house like she had a holy fire in her spine.

“Shit,” I hissed, flinging my door open to follow—only to be yanked back by my goddamn seatbelt like the universe personally wanted me to fail.

I wrestled with the buckle. “Max! Wait!” The thing finally clicked and I was free. “Let me explain!”

But the front door slammed shut before I hit the porch.

And I had about sixty seconds to figure out how to explain that Derek had turned her attic into a low-key cyber-crime war room before she found it herself and threw me out with the trash.

How the hell did one even start that conversation?

Once inside, I was immediately greeted by the thunder of little paws—Chester, galloping like a damn warhorse straight for my ankles.

“Hey, bud.” I sidestepped but he was already trying to weave through my legs like I was the goalpost in his halftime show. “Now’s not the best time.”

I took a step—he blocked it. Determined little shit.

“It’s good to see you, little man,” I muttered, scooping him up before he got us both killed. I pressed a kiss to the top of his furry head, cradled him like a football, and bolted for the stairs.

My gut already told me I was too late.

I hit the landing just as Maggie closed the attic door behind her.

Fuck.

“Max, wait!” I yelled, taking the steps two at a time like it’d make a difference. Spoiler: it didn’t.

I reached the top in time to hear her gorgeous voice echo through the attic.

“What kind of masturbation station did you two set up in here?”

Jesus Christ.

I slapped a hand over Chester’s ears. “Shh—there’s a child present,” I whispered, hoping the fact that I was lovingly shielding her kitten bought me about five seconds of forgiveness before all hell broke loose.

She was already halfway across the room, running her finger along the tops of the monitors like she was checking for porn dust.

I spotted Katie on the couch next to Silas—both staring like this was their favorite episode of Jerry Springer. I dropped Chester onto Katie’s lap.

“I can explain,” I said, voice cracking with a panic I really wished I had a better handle on.

“Explain what?” She turned, irritated, and a light pink flushed the tips of her ears. “Explain how you’ve torched your own career and, for some selfish-ass reason, decided to take Derek’s down with you?”

Ouch. That one punched low.

“What do you mean? I’m doing this for you.” I tossed it out like bait, hoping to catch where she was at—how much she really knew.

“You got suspended, right?”

I nodded.

She lowered her voice, “Which means… you can’t legally work my case anymore.”

Another nod. God, this was brutal.

She started slowly pacing the attic, her eyes skimming the setup. Then she stopped. Turned. And locked eyes with me—just enough concern in them to make me ache.

“Which also means you don’t have access to any of the case files anymore.”

Goddamn it, she knew.

She’d already put it together. Of course she had. I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking—trying to run a felony-grade tech rig right under her nose in her own damn attic.

“You—you asked Derek to set this up,” she said, breath hitching on the accusation. “You told him to hack into the precinct. Pull everything he could. Didn’t you?” She exhaled like she’d been holding that in for hours. Maybe she had. “This is entirely selfish of you.”

Her words slapped the air between us, and suddenly my body felt like stone.

“How in the hell is this selfish?” I growled. I threw my hands out, motioning the mess around us—the rig, the board, the spiraling storm we’d all stepped into. “I’m literally risking everything—for someone else.”

“Yes,” she fired back, “but with the ulterior motive of getting that promotion you’ve been chasing for years.”

“Max, come on,” my voice cracked, “I haven’t thought about that. Not once. Not since this all started. Not really, anyway.”

We stared at each other for a moment, a slight bitterness roiling between us.

“Look, I can’t just sit around and play beefy babysitter. It’ll drive me insane. I have to do something. I need to be out there finding the sick bastard who’s been getting off dissecting people.”

I pointed to the west wall, where Katie had built a makeshift murder board, every photo a missing piece, every thread a lead we hadn’t followed fast enough.

She didn’t look away.

“But wait—” I narrowed my eyes. “How did you know Derek was the one who set this up?”

“Once you told me about your suspension,” she said in a steady, low voice, “The pieces fell into place. All the secrecy from earlier—Derek showing up, the shady attic setup… it all clicked.”

She crossed her arms again, fingers toying with that little moon necklace she always wore, the one that suddenly looked like a little guillotine.

“If you still had access to the precinct database, there’d be no reason to build some kind of cyber command center in my attic, right? I’ve seen enough true crime shows to know when something’s off.” Her eyes narrowed. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me. Don’t you trust me?”

I stepped toward her, “Of course I trust you.” I took her hand in mine, and exhaled through my nose, trying to hold on to the fraying edge of calm.

“I didn’t want to drag you into something illegal.”

She tilted her head. “Then why the hell did you set it up in my attic?” She pulled her hand back.

God, that hit harder than it should have. I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry as sandpaper.

“Well… Derek’s done this before,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “If he set it up at his place and it got traced, his home would be the first place they’d check. Here it buys us time.”

She didn’t respond, just stared—like she was waiting for the rest of the bullshit to fall from my mouth.

Her gaze swept the space slowly, calculating.

The crime board was covered edge to edge in photos of victims, sticky notes detailing times of death, scribbled theories about copycats, patterns, and potential suspects.

Every piece I’d seen in the precinct files…

and a few we’d only dared speculate about.

Honestly? It was pretty fucking impressive. If it weren’t highly illegal, I might’ve been proud.

Fuck it.

It was a masterpiece.

She turned toward me, eyes flicking up and down like she was running diagnostics.

They slid to Derek, who was leaning back in that obnoxious black and green gaming chair he insisted on lugging here.

His hands were folded behind his head, and that smug expression was already grating the inside of my skull.

Maggie held both our careers in her hands—one word to Nettles and this entire operation would go up in smoke. I’d be out for good. Derek? If he played it smart, maybe he’d bargain his way into some official role with a slap on the wrist and a warning not to be too brilliant without permission.

She rubbed her forehead, slow and deliberate. A crease formed between her brows. Shit. Then came the nose crinkle. I braced myself. I could already hear her telling me to pack my shit and get out.

But instead, she looked at Derek and said, calm as a whisper, “Did you install a kill switch?”

Derek blinked, straightened, and sat up like she’d just professed his love for her.

Without a word, he tapped a key. The rig flashed once—then all the monitors flipped to a Skyrim loading screen.

“Yes. Yes I did,” he smirked and slipped right back into that too-casual yet cocky tone of his.

“When the kill switch is triggered, it severs all active connections—precinct, municipal, and any external access points—and reroutes everything to a decoy gaming server. It timestamps the reroute to at least thirty minutes before the kill, so if anyone’s watching, it just looks like we’ve been here grinding dragons. ”

He gave a sheepish shrug. “Right now it’s Skyrim, but I can switch to Call of Duty, Baldur’s Gate 3—whatever fits the mood. I haven’t set up the second tower yet, but if we ever get raided, it’ll look like a shared gaming center.”

Maggie stepped closer to the screens, her face softening just a little as the snowy Skyrim intro music started to hum through the speakers.

“Nice. It’s been a long time since I’ve played.” She glanced back at Derek. “I’ll need a refresher.”

That caught us both off guard.

Then she turned, nodding toward the power box in the corner. “And the generator’s backup in case we lose power, right?”

Derek nodded slowly, like he wasn’t sure if he was being pranked.

“So… you’re cool with this?” he asked.

She exhaled, shoulders dropping. “Well, I’d rather not have an illegal hacking base in my attic…” Her gaze cut to mine, looking like she was trying to determine my punishment, “but I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

She let that hang there.

“If we’re going to figure this out,” she added, eyes locked on me, “we need to do it fast. This is temporary. I have no intention of going to prison.”

“I won’t let that happen.” I stepped toward her and took her hand again without thinking.

She didn’t pull away this time.

“Graham,” she said, stepping closer, voice low but steady. “If you’re going to protect me, we need to have a mutual understanding.”

My heart thudded against my ribs. I didn’t move.