Page 22 of Scaled Daddy's Secret Heir
She raises a brow. “So I should stop flirting?”
“You’ve been flirting?”
She grins. “Guess you missed it.”
Gods help me.
I toss the report into the burner.
“We have another assignment.”
She sits, boots up, balancing on two legs of the chair. “Same target type?”
“Different node. Higher clearance. They want to test scalability.”
She snorts. “Translation: ‘If they’re not screwing each other yet, see if we can make it happen under live fire.’”
I don’t laugh. But only because I might if I start.
“They’ve also increased oversight,” I say. “Every file we touch, every breath we take?—”
“—they’ll be watching us. Yeah. I figured.”
I study her.
She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t shift. She just takes a sip of the coffee and stares back like I’m the one under interrogation.
“You can walk,” I say finally. “No shame. You’re in deeper than any nonconscript should be.”
She sets her cup down.
“You think I didn’t know that already?”
“Knowing it and hearing it are different.”
She leans forward.
“Are you trying to scare me off?”
“No.”
“Then why the warning?”
“Because the Alliance doesn’t stop. Once you’re in, you’re part of the machine. Even if you think you’re just fixing a gear.”
She’s quiet.
Then, “So are you going to tell me to stay out of it? Or are you going to give me the mission brief?”
I hesitate.
Not because I don’t trust her.
Because I do.
Too much.
“The brief’s on the drive,” I say, sliding it over.
