Page 111 of Reckless: Collision

“Give me thirty seconds.” The confidence in her voice never wavers. “Finn, connect your tablet to the next junction box. Now.”

He moves without hesitation while we provide cover. The sound of boots on tile grows closer.

“They’re trying to lock me out.” Her words quicken, pitch rising at the end of each sentence, a breathlessness entering her typically controlled tone. Not the tight, thin sound of terror, but something brighter, sharper—the verbal equivalent of a runner’s high. “Cute. Really cute. But they forgot something important.”

“Which is?” Theo whispers.

“Rule one of cybersecurity—never assume you’re the smartest person in the system.” Her typing becomes almost violent. “Fifteen seconds. When I say go, move to the sample room. Don’t stop, don’t look back.”

The footsteps get closer. Too close.

“Ten seconds.” Keys clicking like gunfire. “See, they think they’re trapping us. But they just gave me access to something much better than security cameras.”

“Cayenne...” I warn, because those footsteps are almost here.

“Five seconds. Fun fact about modern buildings—everything’s connected. Security systems, environmental controls...” She actually laughs. “Sprinkler systems.”

“Three.”

The footsteps round the corner.

“Two.”

Jinx raises his weapon.

“One.”

The world erupts in chaos.

Every sprinkler in the corridor activates at once, but that’s just the beginning. Emergency lights start strobing, doors all over the facility begin opening and closing in random patterns, and through it all, I hear Cayenne’s voice, deadly calm:

“Go. Now.”

We run, guided by her voice while behind us shouts of confusion echo through the facility. The guards are caught in her mechanical storm, trying to respond to dozens of system failures all at once.

“Sample room, straight ahead.” She’s got cameras back now, directing us through her carefully orchestrated chaos. “You’ve got two minutes before they figure out what I did. One card reader, but...” A pause, then the door clicks open. “What’s a little more breaking and entering between friends?”

Finn moves to the storage units while we secure the room. Through the comms, I hear Cayenne continuing to wreak havoc on Sterling’s systems.

“They’re trying to trace me.” She sounds almost gleeful. “Running into their own redundancies. Getting tangled intheir own security measures. It’s like watching someone punch themselves in the face.”

“Sample secured,” Finn announces, his beta scent sharp with anxiety that hits me through our pack bonds.

“Time to go,” I order, but Cayenne interrupts.

“Wait. Downloading something interesting. Thirty seconds.”

“We don’t have thirty seconds,” I growl, alpha instincts surging as the pack bonds pulse with shared tension. Her scent memory hits me even through the comms—bright lemon and electric ozone, now edged with a desperation that makes my alpha pace. Something about this matters to her. Something that makes her risk everything, even as the pack bonds thrum with collective danger.

“Trust me, Alpha.” The steel in her voice matches my own, but there’s something underneath. Something that makes my fingers itch to touch the mark I haven’t yet left on her throat. “You’re going to want this.”

And despite everything, despite all my doubts and fears, I do trust her. Because she’s earned it with every calculated risk, every protected escape route, every moment she’s chosen the pack over her own safety.

“Fifteen seconds,” she counts down. “Also, I may have convinced their system that there’s a fire in the executive wing. And that the cafeteria is flooding. And that the elevator shafts are experiencing critical failures.”

Jinx’s grin turns feral. “I think I’m in love.”

“Ten seconds. Get ready to run. I’m about to give them a corporate nightmare they’ll never forget.”

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