“You really had to take me like a damn criminal from my date, huh Daniel?” I muttered, flicking my fingers through the metal cuffs like they were toys. “Was the dramatic entrance really necessary?”
Daniel didn’t even blink, he just kept driving. Eyes forward. Hands tight on the wheel. Like he wasn’t dragging me away from the one girl I care about.
“That wasn’t the mission we sent you for,” he said, his voice cold.
I rolled my eyes. “Right. The mission.” I leaned my head back and let out a long breath. “Debby was a distraction. A distraction I didn’t see coming.”
Silence.
Then Daniel sighed. “You got too close, Kyle. You started slipping.”
“I wasn’t slipping,” I snapped. “I was… showing her my life. That’s not against protocol.”
He glanced at me, his jaw tight. “She started asking questions.”
Of course she did. Debby wasn’t stupid. She saw the cracks I thought I’d hidden. The way I dodged questions about my past. The random disappearances. The expensive apartment, the cooking, the money.
She saw me.
And maybe that’s what scared them.
We drove through an empty part of the city, where the streets turned dark and industrial. Daniel stopped the car in front of a warehouse with rusted walls and no signs. He got out and barked, “Hurry up.”
I stepped out, ignoring the sting of the cuffs digging into my wrists. “You know I could’ve just walked away,” I muttered, following him toward the warehouse doors. “These cuffs are for show.”
Daniel didn’t respond. He reached for a keypad hidden behind a stack of wooden crates and punched in a code.
Click.
A massive steel door creaked open.
We walked inside.
The air changed instantly—cooler, more sterile. The sound of the city disappeared. The warehouse was just a cover. What lay beneath was the real deal.
Daniel led me through a long, narrow hallway with white walls and LED lights buzzing above us. Security cameras followed our every step. At the end, another door slid open with a hiss.
We stepped into Core 7, the classified base for Operation Ravenlock—my real assignment.
The air here was different. Sharper. Cleaner. Monitors lined the walls. Holograms flickered. Analysts sat behind glass, typing away like they were defusing nukes with every keystroke. Security agents moved in sharp uniforms.
This wasn’t some kid spy fantasy. This was the real thing.
And me? I was the prize.
The prodigy.
The hacker who was too dangerous to be left unguarded.
I graduated from high school when I was 14. College by 18. MIT-level genius—only I never officially enrolled. They kept me off the records, buried deep behind fake names and classified files. Why?
Because people wanted to use me.
Cartels. Black market traffickers. Foreign governments. They all wanted my brain.
So they hid me in plain sight. A high school senior surrounded by teenage drama, hormones, and hockey games.
Until I met her.
Until Debby Carter walked into my life with her soft voice, sharp wit, and those wide brown eyes that saw right through me.
And now, here I was—back in the cage.
As I stepped deeper into the base, the door at the center slid open. A tall man in a crisp black suit turned toward me. Silver hair. Steel-gray eyes. He always looked like he belonged in a Bond movie.
Agent Maddox.
The man who “owned” me.
“Kyle,” he said, arms crossed. “I’ve heard you’ve been busy with a girl.”
I smirked. “Missed me?”
His expression didn’t change. “You broke protocol.”
I shrugged. “I’m 20. You can’t keep me in a box forever.”
“You think this is a joke?” he snapped, stepping forward. “You left a trail, Kyle. Photos. Conversations. Feelings. You told her things you weren’t supposed to.”
“She doesn’t know anything,” I said quickly. “Not really.”
Maddox stared at me, like he could read the truth just by looking into my soul. “You were about to tell her everything, weren’t you?”
I said nothing.
He scoffed. “You lose your damn sense every time she’s around.”
“I remember who I am,” I growled. “For the first time in years, I actually feel human. I’m not just a tool for your damn missions.”
Maddox stepped closer, his voice dropping to a cold whisper. “You’re a weapon, Kyle. Nothing more. That’s why we created this cover. To protect your mind from falling into the wrong hands. And now?”
He turned and pointed at the monitors.
One of them zoomed in on Debby. She was in her bedroom, pacing.
Another monitor showed a message on her phone.
I froze.
The message read:
“You think Kyle’s being honest with you? Nah. Do you know why he’s 20 and we’re all 18? That’s because he skipped two years. And do you know where he was during those two years? Juvenile hall. Prison. Wake up, Debby Carter.”
My heart dropped.
“Who sent that?” I demanded, stepping forward.
Maddox just looked at me. “This is what happens when you get too close.”
Debby’s face crumpled on the screen. Her phone slipped from her hand.
She believed it.
She thought I was a liar.
“Kyle.” Maddox’s voice was sharp. “You’ll finish your assignment. But the girl? She’s done. She knows too much. And you know what we do to folks who know too much.”
“No,” I said, the word ripping from my throat. “You’re not touching her.”
“She’s not your concern,” Maddox said flatly. “She’s collateral.”
I stepped closer, eyes locked on Debby’s photo. Her hands were trembling, her face frozen in fear as she stared at the message.
And that’s when it hit me—I’d screwed up. Bad.