Page 111 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir
“Does anyone else know you’re here?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
I nod. “The ship’s untagged. Hacked the tracking stub out of its registry myself.”
“And your contact protocols?”
“Air-gapped. Physical pings only. Self-destructing relays.”
She blows out a shaky breath.
“You think this ends with you surviving,” she says.
“I don’t care if I survive,” I reply. “I only care thatyoudo.”
And for the first time since I arrived, her posture softens.
Just slightly.
Like the steel she’s built around herself is bending. Not breaking—but allowing weight.
“What if I don’t want to be protected?” she asks.
“Too bad,” I say. “You’re getting it anyway.”
“You’re not in charge of me, Kalev.”
“No. But I’d rather be buried next to you than live knowing I didn’t try.”
Her eyes flash.
I meet them with all the conviction I have left.
And I say, quietly, “You will never be a target to me. Not now. Not ever.”
The words don’t sound like promises.
They sound likeoaths.
The kind we swore in the bloodiest mudholes in the system. The kind you carve into your bones when you’re not sure if you’ll live long enough to speak them again.
Silence settles again, but it’s different now. Dense. Muted by everything we haven’t decided to say.
She shifts again—barely noticeable.
But I see it.
She’s still guarding that hallway.
CHAPTER 34
LEAH
My mouth is dry.
The kind of dry that cracks, that aches, like I’ve swallowed desert glass instead of words. I stand there, spine iron-straight, arms folded like a barrier I know won’t hold. Kalev watches me with a stillness that makes everything louder—the hum of the fridge unit, the tick of the wall regulator, the whir of the wind at the sill. My pulse hammers behind my ribs like it’s trying to break free and run.
