Ghosts in the code

Chapter 4

I shoved the laptop away so hard it almost slid off the glass desk. “You paid for Lila’s treatment? All this time?”

Damien stood behind me, city lights glittering forty floors below like they didn’t give a damn. He didn’t flinch. Face still stone. “Guilt is expensive.”

“But why her?” My voice cracked even though I tried to stop it. “After you destroyed my father?”

His hand landed on my shoulder. Heavy. Pulling me back until I was sitting on his lap like some obedient shadow. “Because some debts don’t die easy.”

I could feel the heat of his chest against my back. The steady beat of his heart that didn’t match the cold way he spoke. My own pulse was all over the place. Anger. Confusion. And that stupid unwanted pull that kept getting louder every time he touched me.

“Keep typing,” he said against my ear. Voice low. Commanding. “You’re supposed to be fixing the leaks you caused.”

I forced my fingers back to the keyboard. The code blurred for a second. I blinked hard. “You anonymously funded her for two years. While you were busy bankrupting us. While my dad…” I swallowed the rest. Couldn’t say it out loud. Not with his arm around my waist like he owned the right.

Damien’s fingers drummed once on my thigh. “Your father made choices. Bad ones. The kind that drag other people down with them.”

“Yeah? And what about you?” I kept typing but my hands weren’t steady. “You sit up here in your glass tower making those choices. Then you drag me into your bed like it fixes anything.”

He shifted under me. Just enough that I felt him. Hard. Interested. Even while we talked about my dead father. “I didn’t drag you. You signed.”

“Because you held a gun to my sister’s life.” I laughed once. Sharp. Wrong. “Real romantic.”

Damien’s hand slid higher on my thigh. Not quite threatening. Not quite gentle. “Romance is for people who can afford it. You and I have a contract. You fix my systems. You sleep where I say. You open your mouth when I tell you to.”

My breath caught. I hated how my body reacted to the words. Hated the way heat crawled up my neck. “And if I stop fixing? If I decide I’d rather watch your empire burn?”

“Then the payments to the hospital stop tomorrow.” His voice stayed calm. Like he was discussing the weather. “And you go to prison for the hacks. Simple math.”

I kept typing. Lines of code I knew better than my own name. But my mind was somewhere else. On the anonymous transfers I’d found buried deep in his financials. On the dates that lined up perfectly with Lila’s worst months. On the fact that the man currently hard against my ass had been paying for my sister’s life while I plotted his death.

“You’re quiet,” he said. Fingers tracing slow circles on my inner thigh now. “That’s new.”

“I’m thinking.” I leaned back against his chest. Let him feel my weight. Let him think I was giving in. “About how much I still want to watch you bleed.”

Damien’s hand stilled. Then tightened. “Careful. Some thoughts get dangerous when you say them out loud.”

I twisted in his lap. Faced him fully. Our foreheads almost touching. “You already know what I am. The son of the man you ruined. The hacker who almost took you down. Why pretend this is anything but hate with extra steps?”

His free hand came up. Cupped my jaw. Thumb brushing my lower lip. “Because hate keeps you sharp. And I need you sharp right now.”

The screen in front of us flickered. One of my old backdoors still blinking in the system. I could have triggered it. Could have sent everything crashing again. But then Lila’s face flashed in my mind. The weak smile in that hospital bed. The way she’d thanked Damien like he was some kind of hero.

I deleted the backdoor instead. Fingers moving on autopilot. “There. One leak plugged. Happy?”

“Not yet.” Damien’s breath warmed my ear. “Keep going. And tell me what else you found while you were digging through my life.”

I swallowed. The words tasted bitter. “I found the transfers. Two years of payments. No name attached. Just enough to keep her in the trial. You did that. While you were busy destroying everything else.”

Silence stretched. His hand on my thigh tightened again. Not painful. Possessive. “Some debts don’t die easy,” he repeated. Quieter this time.

I stared at the screen. At the half-fixed code. At the ghost of my father’s signature still buried in the old transaction logs. Then back at Damien. At the man who held my sister’s life in one hand and my body in the other.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard. One command and I could make everything crash again. One word and I could tell him exactly how much I still wanted him dead.

Instead I typed another line of code. Fixed another leak.

And hated myself for how good his hands felt while I did it.

The phone buzzed on the desk. He ignored it. But I saw the name flash. Marcus Kane. One of his board members. The one who’d been sniffing around the leaks.

“Someone’s looking for you,” I muttered.

“Let them look.” His hand slid up my back. Under my shirt. Skin on skin. “Right now I’m more interested in what you’re going to do next.”

The screen kept scrolling. Code I was supposed to be fixing. But all I could feel was the man underneath me. The one who’d ruined my family and saved my sister. The one whose touch made my body forget every promise I’d made to myself.

I hated how much I wanted to keep feeling it.

The phone buzzed again. Louder this time.

Damien’s grip tightened. “Ignore it.”

But I couldn’t. Because deep down I knew the next message might be the one that finally blew everything apart.

And I still didn’t know which side I wanted to win.