It was the first time in many years Juliet had consciously and utterly relied on a man for her safety. Theo had saved her. He'd pulled her from the collapsing data center and navigated the hacker's traps.The admission, even to herself, was a bitter pill. She'd built her empire on fierce independence, a shield against the kind of powerlessness she'd felt in that hospital room. Yet, here she was trusting Theo with her life.
Juliet found herself leaning against the side of her waiting car, her customized suit rumpled and her meticulously composed façade shattered. The city lights were beginning to brighten in the distance, painting the sky in bruised purples and grays but the darkness of her past felt more profound than ever.
Theo, surprisingly calm despite the recent chaos, spoke briefly with her head of security, giving clipped, precise orders for the data center to be secured. He didn't look at her, didn't offer comfort. When he finally got into the passenger seat beside her, the silence stretched, thick and suffocating. The scent of dust clung to them both.
As they exited the alley and merged back onto a wider thoroughfare, they passed a brightly lit newsstand. A stack of newspapers lay in a pile, and even through the rain-slicked glass, one headline screamed at her in bold, aggressive type:
"GREY EMPIRE STOCK PLUNGES AFTER LAB SABOTAGE."
Corporate sabotage. The hacker hadn't just revealed her past; they were systematically dismantling her present.
Juliet couldn't take it anymore. Her voice was hoarse, raw with exhaustion and a simmering fury.
"Prague. How do you know about Prague?"
Theo simply stared straight ahead, watching the city lights begin to emerge. "My job is to find the truth, Juliet. All of it. And Prague... it was a loose end in the original Aegis files, buried deeper than the rest."
"And the hacker? You said... you think it's the person who took the files sixteen years ago." Her voice trembled despite herself.
"Who was it? Did you see them in the footage?"
Theo finally turned to her, his profile illuminated by the waking city. His eyes, usually sharp and calculating, held a complex mix of fatigue, triumph, and something she couldn't quite decipher – a flicker of shared danger, perhaps, or a nascent respect. He didn't confirm or deny seeing the hacker in the footage directly. He just listened to her with his silence unnerving, as if measuring her reaction.
As he held her gaze, Theo subtly shifted, his knee brushing against hers in the cramped space. It was a fleeting contact but the spark it ignited was undeniable. A jolt of raw awareness that cut through her exhaustion and fear. Her breath caught and she felt a sudden, unwelcome awareness of his lean, powerful body just inches away.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice hard, cutting through the silence.
"What will you do with what you found? With Sophia's records? With... Prague?" She threw the last word out like a challenge, waiting to see his reaction.
There was a calculating gleam in his eyes, a mixture of assessment and something unreadable. He didn't flinch at "Prague."
Instead, he just held her gaze, a slow, dangerous smirk beginning to form on his lips.
"What will I do with what I found?" he repeated, his voice low, almost a murmur. "Still deciding."
The three words hung in the air, a chilling promise and a veiled threat. He had unearthed her deepest, most painful secret, held it in his hands, and now he was choosing to keep his cards close.
He knew her vulnerabilities, the truth about Sophia, about Prague.He had risked his life for her, yes, but he hadn't committed to being her ally.
Trust was a luxury she couldn't afford especially now. The game was far from over.
Her empire was compromised, her past was bleeding into her present and the man who held the key to both was still deciding which side he was on.