Chapter 11
Val
I shouldn’t be here this late, certainly not alone, and Gunnolf knows it, too, but I have to do my part in figuring out who in my company betrayed me and put the rest of our employees in danger. That sentiment didn’t stop Gunnolf from growling at me and practically ripping out my throat when I told him that I was going back to the office after hours.
But SableTech is mine: every server, every line of code, every damn picture on the wall. I won’t let Marcus Crowe take it from me. Not without a fight. I roll my shoulders and sit up a little straighter. Taking a steady breath, I focus on the screen in front of me.
The search window pulses as I scroll through the latest logs, tracking connections and scanning for absolutely anything unusual in the code. If Marcus got through SableTech’s defenses once, he could do it again, especially since I have no idea who his inside man is.
The thought sends a shiver of dread along my spine, but I push the sensation away. I need to focus. I need to find anything that might have slipped through the cracks. Especially since I’ve made a target of myself. Maybe, just maybe, I can get ahead of him.
My eyes see a blur out of the corner of my eye, and something in my gut tells me to glance at my security screens. I freeze, the blood in my veins turning to ice. Shadows slip across the screen. Quickly, purposefully, and barely visible on the camera covering the south entrance. I lean in closer, and my heart pounds as another figure appears, then another.
Oh My God.
My heart thumps against my ribcage as my fingers fly to the keyboard, triggering a silent alarm. I’ve got minutes, maybe less, and every nerve in my body is on high alert. I can’t sit here and wait for whatever is going to happen. There’s no time to think, only to act. I grab my laptop, shoving it into my bag with trembling hands, and a portable drive that I’ve been sending data backups onto all night.
I could call Gunnolf, but he won’t make it in time, even if he drops everything. No one will. This is on me. My mind races through my options, calculating the best route. I can just hear Gunnolf’s angry rant about how I’d told him I’d be fine: “SableTech is a security company. Our systems are locked down after the attack. No one will be there. I’ll be just fine. I don’t need anyone to watch over me.”
What an idiot I was.
My feet are moving beneath me even as my mind laments my naiveté. My boots thud loudly down the empty halls. Thank God I didn’t wear heels. I fly down the stairwell, nearly falling several times. I’m just steps from the emergency exit when the blast hits.
A deafening roar swallows the hallway, and the force slams into my back. My face slams into the floor, and my nose cracks hard. Fuck. My palms scrape against the floor, heat, and debris pelting me as the walls tremble. My lungs were gasping to breathe through the blood spewing from my nose and the smoke flooding the building.
With every ounce of determination in my bones, I wish myself up, chest heaving, mind numb with shock, and I stumble toward the exit. I want to look back. I want to save my life’s work, but I know there’s no looking back now.
The cool night air stings my lungs, and I stagger forward until I can’t go any farther. I collapse against a lamppost, clinging on for dear life, breathless and shaking. Blood still gushes from my nose, but I can’t feel a thing aside from the rapid beating of my heart and the trembling of my nerves.
I don’t have to turn around to see what’s happened, but something in me forces me to look. SableTech, my SableTech, is completely engulfed in flames. The building is folding in on itself, floors crumbling and walls buckling.
A scream lodges in my throat, but I swallow it down. I won’t give Marcus Crowe the satisfaction. All those years, all that work, gone. Destroyed in an instant. Damn him!
I clench my fists, fighting back tears. I can’t shake the feeling that I was supposed to go down with that building. But how did Marcus know I was here? He’s sent a message, alright, but he’s going to pay for every damn ember.
“Val!” Gunnolfs voice pulls my attention away from the collapse of SableTech. His expression is dark, and his green eyes are wild as they scan over me, desperate to be sure that I am here and that I’m in one piece.
“Are you okay?” He demands, growling, his hands hovering above my shoulders like he’s terrified that if he touches me, I will fall apart.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, taking a step back. The words come out sharper than I mean for them, too, but I can’t seem to control myself. There’s too much adrenaline running through my blood, too many emotions swirling around inside of me. “I got out. I told you that I’d be fine.”
He lets out a short, disbelieving laugh, running a hand through his hair. His eyes narrow as he takes in the wreckage behind me. “You call this fine? You could have died.”
“Could have, but I didn’t,” I snap back at him. I want to collapse in his arms and cry into his chest, but I can’t. I can’t even bring myself to meet the intensity of his gaze. “What are you doing here so fast?”
“You think I was going to leave you here completely alone even though you’ve been getting threats on your life?” His voice is tight with anger.
“You’re not my keeper, Gunnolf.” The words are out before I can stop them. I draw a deep breath in through my mouth. The blood has slowed from my nose, but it’s still too difficult to breathe through it. He winces as his eyes trail the blood from my nose down my shirt.
I have no idea what I look like right now, but given the intensity of the impact, I’m fairly certain it’s not a pretty sight.
“I know I’m not your keeper,” he says, his voice softening. “But I care about you. If anything had happened to you… I would have… I wouldn’t have been okay.”
A sharp pain in my chest is like a knife to the heart, and finally, I surrender, stumbling forward and collapsing into his strong arms. He holds me without another word. His own heart beating just as wildly as mine.
Sirens fill the air around us, “can we get out of here?” I finally say.
“No way, you need to get looked at by the paramedics.”
“Take me to the hospital, then please. I can’t stand around and watch the rest of my building burn to ash.”
Gunnolf glances toward the remains of SableTech, the flames dancing in his eyes, mocking me. His jaw tightens as he takes in my wounds and the seriousness of my expression.
“Okay,” he finally says, his voice low and steady. He leans over and slides an arm under my knees, lifting me effortlessly from the ground and his lips gently pressing against my cheek. I’m too tired to protest as he carries me through the chaos and flashing emergency lights.
I rest my head against his shoulder, feeling the steady beat of his heart as he holds me close. My cheek stings, every breath reminds me of the impact as my face slammed into the floor, but even more, I can feel the trace of Gunnolf’s soft lips.
The next few hours pass in a blur. At the hospital, the bright lights and sterile walls make me nauseous as the doctors probe and examine every bruise, cut, and scrape on me. I answer the same questions from three different doctors, each more persistent than the last.
Gunnolf never leaves my side. His hand hovers near mine. He doesn’t speak much, but his eyes watch every movement, every test result, like he’s committing each detail to memory.
“Your nose isn’t broken, Ms. Hayes,” the doctor tells me, adjusting the light above my face, “but it’ll be sore for days and the bruising… it’s going to look worse before it gets better.” She gives me a sympathetic, almost apologetic look, as she touches the edge of a bruised cheek with a gloved finger.
I offer a tight smile, nodding, though every word she says is a reminder of tonight’s disaster. SableTech, leveled. My company, my home away from home, all gone. By the time they’ve finished running every test they can think of and patch me up, dawn is creeping over the city.
The doctor prescribes rest and leaves me with a caution about avoiding mirrors for the next few days. I almost laugh but the ache in my ribs reminds me to hold back. I’d already been planning on it.
“You ready?” Gunnolf asks once the final doctor leaves. His hand already extended toward me.
“Let’s go,” I murmur, accepting his hand as he helps me to my feet. Now that the adrenaline has calmed down, every muscle in my body protests but I push the pain down. Right now, I need rest more than I need answers.
The drive back to Gunnolf’s house is a quiet one. I’m drained, lost in my thoughts as I gaze out the window, the city blurring by in the early morning light. Gunnolf’s presence is a steady and silent comfort beside me.
When we pull up to his house, I take it in with fresh eyes, the place is calm and welcoming in the pale light. An odd sensation creeps over me as I step out of the car. Home, it feels like home.
I don’t make it far. I sink into the couch, letting the quiet settle over me like a blanket. Gunnolf moves through the room purposefully, grabbing blankets and bringing me a glass of water.
“Rest,” he says firmly, his eyes softening as they meet mine. “Doctor’s orders.”
I nod, feeling my body relax even as my mind churns with thoughts of SableTech, Marcus, and everything I’ve lost in the past few hours. But as the silence stretches between us, Gunnolf’s gaze hardens, his jaw clenched like he’s fighting against something. Finally, he speaks, his voice low and rough.
“Val…” He trails off, hesitating, and I feel a pang of something almost like dread settle in my chest. He takes a steadying breath before looking at me, his expression fierce and filled with frustration. “Maybe we should…reject the bond.”
For a moment, I’m too stunned to reply. “You want to reject the bond?” I repeat, the words cold on my tongue.
“If it’ll keep you safe, then yes,” his voice cracks and his eyes glaze over. “Val, tonight… it nearly killed me to see you like that.”
“So, you think you can just toss me aside and that will protect me?” I scoff, “You don’t know me at all.” I straighten myself ignoring the ache in my ribs as I do. “I was getting into trouble long before you showed up.”
His lips press into a tight line, and he runs a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply. “Maybe so. But now… there’s too much at stake.”
“And yet, I survived tonight,” I say, my voice firmer than I feel. “With or without you, I’m still here. And I’m not giving up.” I leave the rest unsaid, but he understands what I mean.
His gaze softens, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly as he takes in my words. “Stubborn as hell,” he mutters, a trace of reluctant admiration in his tone.
“Look who’s talking,” I reply, offering him a small smile. “Why do you hate businesswomen so much?”
I don’t know if it’s delirium or curiosity that finally makes me ask the question that’s been on my mind for a while now. Overheard hushed conversations and comments from the team, including Minna, have always made me feel a little out of place in this connection.
Gunnolf sighs so heavily, if he’d lived in a straw house, it would have blown over. His eyes flicker over me and his cheeks heat to pink, something I hadn’t expected to see. “I- I don’t hate businesswomen…”
“I know you do, I’ve heard the whispers, and I’ve faced a bit of your insults myself, remember? What I don’t know is why?”
“It’s a long story,” he says sheepishly.
“And I don’t think I’ll be able to rest without a bedtime story; how perfect.”
After a full minute of silence, Gunnolf swallows hard and stares at the water glass on the side table next to my head, “It’s not hatred, really, just more like intense distrust. When I was younger, my mom gave up everything for my father. She dropped out of college and worked three jobs to fund his education. She built him up, and when he graduated, and it was supposed to be her turn, she became pregnant and never returned to school. She never did anything but keep a home and raise me. Only for my father to cheat on her and start a family with a woman in his company who was known to be an ambitious businesswoman. Nothing like my mother. It screwed me up. It devastated my mom, she’s never recovered.”
“Do you hate businessmen too?” I ask, my heart wrenching for Gunnolf’s pain, but a part of me is concerned that he might be misplacing much of his anger.
“It’s time for you to get some sleep,” is all he says before scooping me up and bringing me to the bedroom. This conversation isn’t over, but for right now, I’ll let it slide.
Hours later, I wake up in a daze. Sore as hell. God, this hurts so much worse today than it did yesterday. The sun has risen high enough in the sky that the room is filled with a warm golden glow. Gunnolf should be at work by now but instead he’s on the chair in the corner of the room talking softly on the phone.
My ears are ringing from yesterday’s blast. I can’t make out a single word he says before he meets my gaze and ends the call, moving over to me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Not good,” I say pushing myself up to a seated position, a fresh ache throbs through me. Dang. “I need to check through some files —there’s something I need to look into, can you grab me my laptop?”
Gunnolf cringes and my stomach drops I already know what that means “I’m sorry Val but your laptop was totally busted up in the blast.”
My heart thuds in my chest, “Can you grab me my bag? I need to make sure that the hard drive in there is still intact. Those things are pretty indestructible, but I need to be sure.”
“Val you were nearly blown up yesterday, what you need to do is get some rest.”
“This is important,” I say locking eyes with Gunnolf. He hesitates for a moment but then nods and retreats downstairs. After a few minutes, he comes back into the room with my bag, a cup of coffee, and a cheese Danish.
“Here, you need to eat something.”
“A Danish?”
“You deserve a little treat. Once you’ve eaten you can check the hard drive.”
My stomach grumbles. I hadn’t had dinner the night before, I’d been so anxious to get to the office. I want to argue but Gunnolf is right. I’ll think better once I’ve had some food.
Gunnolf’s gaze flickers to mine once I’ve finished eating, a glint of determination in his eyes, “Better?”
“A bit but I can’t say the same about your sheets,” I say gesturing to the crumbs.
“That’s what washers are for,” I don’t have to ask again. Gunnolf is already handing me my hard drive.
Thank God, it’s intact. My fingers pulse as I run them across every seam and corner just to be sure. “It looks good, but I’ll have to plug it in. Do you have a laptop here?” He nods. “Will you grab that for me?”
“And then what?”
“And then I figure out who the hell in my company is involved with the Marcus crackpot.”