I wasn’t even breathing when the lock clicked open.
I hadn’t meant to remember the override code, not consciously anyway, but apparently betrayal triggers your memory like trauma kindergarten... and Ryan had basically shoved me into a graduate course. The second the door shut behind me, I knew I’d crossed whatever invisible line was left between confrontation and flat-out war. The light on his desk buzzed to life and I stood there... inside his office... erased from the system but not from the memory of his passwords. His chair was still warm. Maybe I wasn’t the only one breaking rules tonight.
I went straight for the drawer. Locked. Laughable. I reached under the chair. The key was still there. I smiled like someone who’s been handed a gun and told not to shoot.
I opened the drawer and
