Reed's Pov
I stared at the screen unmoving. I knew something like this would happen but not this soon, the explosion at the hospital, the direct threat to Nicholas, and Miller's wrongdoings all stacked like dominos waiting to fall in this week's top three disasters. "He's smart, he'll find a way out of it" Donovan said behind me his voice steady and i turn my eyes narrowing
"Why aren't you worried? He's our one shot at fixing this mess and those people in that building? They didn't deserve to be collateral damage"
Donovan stopped scrolling through his tablet his silence stretches "He's got a lot to lose Reed that's why he won't fail." He looks up at me "This isn't his first rodeo and it won't be his last. Yeah, he's our way out which is why I trust he'll pull through" He swallows and clenched his jaw "those people? They didn't deserve what happened to them but the kind of people who did that? They don't care who dies and who stays as long as they get what they want."
I nodded but it didnt help the guilt clawing at my chest. God I'm such an idiot, any time it's about Nicholas, I get anxious and i don't know how to deal with it. I can't stay away from him he's a darkness I should avoid but I don't want to, the version he shows the world is powerful and in control. I've seen the vulnerable man behind the mask, I know the way he hides his hurt in dominance and precision and God help me I want to tear it all down not to hurt him not this time, but to rebuild something stronger together. I broke him once when I walked away when he needed me most. I chose duty, I thought I was protecting us both but it wrecked us, it wrecked me.
Part of me still regrets it my decision but the other part knows I had no choice because without that break, without that fracture, he wouldn't be who he is today. Back then being gay in the military wasn't something you could admit. Being queer meant being seen as weak and less of a man. It didn't matter how many lives you saved, how sharp your aim was, how loyal you proved yourself to be, you were still a liability and a whisper away from being discharged. I hated that, I still do. The world's shifted since the rules look different now but the scars? They don't fade, they live in us in the spaces we don't talk about and now here I am drawn to him all over again like a moth to flame.
"You're awfully quiet over there Reed. Up in your head again?" Donovan's voice cut through the low hum of monitors and tapping keyboard keys. I glanced over at him he was watching me not with suspicion but something close to understanding. The guy was sharp, way too sharp.
"Nah I'm good" I said brushing it off. "What's the latest?" I stepped up beside Lucy the lead IT specialist, her eyes locked on the code racing across her screen, her fingers flying over the keyboard. Her hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense bun her face pale from too much blue light and not enough sleep.
"We're in the second shell of the network" she said eyes flicking between lines of code on the screen "The specs Nicholas gave us helped bypass the perimeter the last layer's tougher. It's layered with something proprietary his maybe"
We were in the Command and Control Center-Ops Room if you kept it short. One whole wall was covered in screens flashing real-time satellite feeds, motion alerts and the circular desk in the middle looked like a grounded spacecraft surrounded by rows of consoles and specialists hammering away like caffeinated demons. This? Was so not my area of expertise. Who the hell gets excited over cracking firewalls or brute-forcing encrypted data? For fuck's sake I need to find a new hobby, probably something with just enough physical activity to keep my thoughts at bay.
"Can you crack it?" I asked and Lucy sighed
"Eventually, he built it in redundancies smart ones some of it designed to stall us and reroute processes. He built it this way to keep people out or to only let the right ones in" I didn't answer because she was probably right. Lucy's voice cut through the low hum of typing
"I think you need to see that," she said pointing to one of the bigger screens. It had switched to a live broadcast, an elegant studio with subtle lighting came into view. Nicholas sat composed in a summer-weight grey suit. The fit was tailored down to perfection with the way it hung when he crossed his legs. Across from him sat Selene Kai in her signature navy, she's the media's political golden child and I'm not surprised he got her.
"Turn it up," Donovan said, Selene spoke in a smooth and authoritative voice.
"Good afternoon everyone I'm Selene Kai, and today I'm joined by a man whose name seems impossible to avoid lately. Nicholas Grey, welcome"
"Happy to be here" Nicholas replied. She folded her hands with a practiced smile
"Let's start with the obvious. There's been disturbing footage released in connection to Miller Carson's violent altercations, unauthorized entry into classified locations, even suspected ties to human trafficking. He's now under federal investigation. You two have long been seen as professional rivals, tell me honestly, do you feel a little relieved he's off the chessboard?"
"I don't play games with people's lives. I may not have agreed with his methods but I never wanted harm to come to him. If the system is flawed then we fix it." Nicholas replied in a smooth tone. Bullshit I thought, he'd burn the system, the board and everyone seated at it if they got in his way but he'd do it quietly, elegantly so that no one would even realize the fire had started until the smoke hit their lungs.
"You were once tied to military intelligence, defense analytics and classified programs. Then you walked away, Why?" Selene asked curiously
"I believe in structure and logic, In protecting the vulnerable. There's a difference between defense and control, sometimes the people giving orders forget what they're supposed to protect and in all honesty, I wasn't interested in being someone's weapon." She blinked once composed but caught off guard tilting her head slightly,
"Let's shift the conversation a little if you don't mind. There has been speculation over the years about your family, particularly your father. There are no records or photos of him, not even a name. Was that intentional on your part?"
"I never knew him," he said his voice low "neither did my brother." Selene waited sensing there was more and there was something in the slight pull of his brow the way his jaw set like he was weighing what to say. "Our mother never said his name not once and our grandparents never brought him up"
Selene's voice was careful and almost hesitant. "Do you still want to know who he is?" His face didn't change but his voice did quieter with an edge of something close to resignation.
"I used to" he said, "For a long time I did. But now? I'm not sure it matters."
Lucy glanced at me from across the console whispering "Damn." Selene crossed one leg over the other, the faintest smile playing on her lips
"Well Mr. Grey, people are curious who do you come home to at night? Is there someone in your life? A mystery woman perhaps?" he didn't answer but there was a flicker, a tight pull at the corner of his mouth
"Who says it's a woman?"
Selene's brows lifted just slightly but she held her composure. On our side of the screen Lucy froze mid-keystroke, her head snapped toward the monitor so fast I heard a soft crack in her neck whilst Donovan muttered a sharp curse under his breath and me? My fingers clenched and I wasn't sure if I was breathing.
"Oh," selene said smoothly her voice curious but careful "I suppose no one did" there was a pause just long enough to feel it before she added "That'll definitely stir some interest"
"I'm not here for the headlines."
"You've been described as obsessive, intense and calculating, is there anyone past or present who breaks through that exterior?" there was a small shift in his expression like the question reached somewhere he was avoiding.
"There was someone" he replied
"Are they still in your life?" Selene asked intrigued
"It's... complicated" he responded. Selene didn't move to shut off the recorder just yet she tilted her head studying him not like a reporter chasing the next big story but like someone trying to read grief in a language not everyone understood.
"What made them different?" she asked and this time her voice wasn't probing it was personal, soft like maybe she'd had someone once too.
"They saw me," he said "not what I could do or what I'd already done, just me and they didn't run away, they accepted me for what I am and I wasn't sure if I hated them for that or loved them more because of it."
Selene opened her mouth like she might ask more but thought better of it she clicked the recorder off with a soft snap. "That'll be all thank you Nicholas and thank you to our viewers for tuning in and sharing in this moment." She smiled, practiced but her eyes lingered on him a second longer than necessary when the light above the camera turned off.
"Who do you think the person is?" Lucy asked as she continued typing. "It's done, I'm seeing system-wide confirmation." Lucy spoke when I didn't reply.
I stepped closer watching the numbers and graphs load. "The system's running on every piece of Nicholas's design" she said with a hint of disbelief in her voice "The military's whole setup has been overhauled. The old systems were slow, outdated and also vulnerable as hell but not anymore." I watched a line turn green on her screen then another then more. "Now the communication runs instantly between bases and departments and it's locked tight. No one's hacking this. You'd have to physically break into the servers, and even then..." I let out a slow breath.
"So it worked?" I asked and she gave a small nod
"Yeah for once It's all faster and safer. The really impressive part? The system can now predict certain threats before they even happen." I turned toward her and said
"Predict how?"
"Not in a creepy surveillance kind of way" she added quickly already sensing my worry "It doesn't spy on people it just watches how information flows, what's normal, what's not. If something looks off it raises a flag and gives them to us to check it out before anything serious goes down." Donovan leaned in behind us.
"That could save lives."
"It can," Lucy said and I pulled in a breath
"I need coffee before I even think about what comes next."