The alert had pinged to Ewan’s personal comm from the sec team, remotely monitoring his house. He’d gone to the workout room to talk to Nina about it not because he was truly worried, but as an excuse to find her after waking up alone. He’d overheard her talking to someone and waited until she was finished. At no time had another ping come through alerting him to someone actually gaining access to the property, yet the front bell had rung twice, now.

“Probably someone selling cookies,” he said lightly, watching her.

She’d gone into protection mode, and even if he’d been concerned that someone really was trying to get to him, the sight of her so fierce, so strong, so beautiful—it made his heart stutter. He did believe she would keep him safe, which was a big part of why he wasn’t worried. The other part was, as she’d pointed out, he had people who were monitoring the area and no true threats had been reported.

The doorbell rang once more.

Nina gave him a wry smile. “Sure. Because that still happens.”

“You never know. Maybe door-to-door cookie selling is experiencing a nostalgic comeback. Could be a vacuum salesman,” Ewan added to see if he could earn a giggle from her. “Maybe encyclopedias?”

“Oh, yes, the new, revised version, downloaded directly into your brain.” Nina pursed her lips. “Or it could be someone ready to murder you because of something you said in a viddy interview. How about we go with that possibility, just to be on the safe side?”

He held up his personal comm. “No more alerts. I pinged my team. They ran scans.”

“And yet, someone is ringing that bell. Which means they bypassed the fence and the plethora of NO TRESPASSING and PRIVATE PROPERTY signs.” Nina paused to lift her weapon.

“Maybe they can’t read.” He was still joking, but she wasn’t.

“Then they certainly won’t appreciate my excellent use of the word ‘plethora.’” She gestured at him to stand to the side. “You went from the highest level of security around Woodhaven, and this house doesn’t even have a front-door cam?”

“I hired you,” Ewan said.

Nina looked over her shoulder at him. Her lips quirked. “Yes, you did, but I’m not going to hold that against you. I’m going to open the door. Stand out of the way.”

He did. She opened the door with her weapon at the ready. Whoever was on the porch would definitely have a full view of it.

“Can I help you?” Nina’s voice was stern and definitely intimidating.

“Is . . . I came to see . . . Oh, wow. Um, I’m here to see Mr. Donahue.”

Nina gestured at Ewan to stand out of view from the door, and he did. “Who are you?”

“Jordie Dev. I work in his lab.”

“Ewan?” Nina gestured again, this time for him to move forward. “Can you identify this kid?”

“Jordie. Yeah. Hi. What’s going on?”

“Can I come in?” Jordie looked nervous, shifting from foot to foot. His bleached hair stood on end, the tips sparkling with some cosmetic tech that changed the color in a slow cycle. He’d painted his bronze skin with slashes of white and black along his hairline and jaw, a trend Ewan hadn’t seen before.

Nina looked at Ewan with raised eyebrows. He nodded. She stepped aside to usher Jordie into the foyer. She didn’t put her weapon away, something that was clearly making the kid anxious. Ewan didn’t blame him.

“Say, Jordie, do you often ignore NO TRESPASSING signs so you can access private property?” Her words were calm and casual, but there was no doubting that Nina was neither.

Jordie looked surprised. “I didn’t think that applied to me.”

“Do you feel that way about a lot of things?” Nina asked before Ewan could say anything. “That what applies to the rest of the world doesn’t apply to you?”

“I meant that I’m one of Mr. Donahue’s apprentices, that’s all. I figured he always said we were welcome to contact him at any time. That’s all.” Jordie shook his head and gave Ewan an appealing look. “Right?”

Ewan had never expected any of the kids to show up on his doorstep unannounced, but he understood where Jordie was coming from. “It’s okay. What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Jordie grimaced briefly; the twist of his expression was familiar. Ewan had done candy for a short time and had sold it for longer than he’d been a user. He’d never gone full sugarhead, but he’d seen enough of them to know that Jordie was on it at the moment. Although he knew a few of the apprentices used, Ewan hadn’t thought Jordie was into candy.

“Yeah, yeah, I just had some great ideas and I didn’t want to wait until you got back to the lab, because I want to move forward with them, and I know you said that we should put in our proposals with the online portal and you’d get them, but you know, I just, I just thought it would be great to talk about it with you.” Jordie bounced a little on his toes, rubbing his hands together. He gave Nina a sideways glance and a nervous smile. “Talk about it in person, you know. Bro to bro. Can we go to your um, do you have a home office or something? Wow, this place. It’s not what I thought it would be. I thought you lived in someplace special, you know what I mean? Hyper posh.”

“I have an estate, yes. But right now I live here.” Ewan glanced at Nina, but her attention was focused on Jordie. “I do have a home office, though. We can talk in there. It’s down the end of this hallway and the first door on the right. Why don’t you go ahead and wait for me? Are you hungry, thirsty, anything?”

“Could use a snack, yeah, sure.”

Candy made the metabolism run faster, hotter. Sugarheads ate a lot to keep up. Jordie was whip-thin with hollowed cheeks and circles under his eyes that spoke of sleepless nights.

“I’ll bring something in. Go ahead.” Ewan waited until the kid had gone down the hall before looking at Nina.

She was still watching Jordie, maybe to make sure he was going where he’d been told. “I’ll make something, if you want.”

“You’re not my maid. Or my secretary.” Ewan shook his head, moving closer to lower his voice. “It’s Jordie, baby. It’s shiny fine.”

“He’s acting plenty weird.”

“It’s the candy,” Ewan told her flatly.

She frowned. “I got the feeling he didn’t use candy.”

“I didn’t think he did, either, but you know how easy it is to get. It’s practically issued in elementary school lunches.” Ewan shrugged and gave her a curious look. “How would you even know about him?”

“I talked with Betts when we were at your lab. She said Jordie was the only one who could really be any competition for her, because the other kids were pretty involved with the sugar. I took that to mean that he wasn’t.”

Ewan chewed on that for a second. “That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have taken it up. He’s twitchy like he’s been on a bender, or he’s a new user.”

“Let me ask you something,” Nina said after a second. They stood so close together he could feel her breath on his cheek. “Are you at all worried about him?”

“No. I have no reason to be. Anyone I take on as an apprentice has to have passed several rounds of security clearances, aptitude tests. That sort of thing. And . . . he’s Katrinka Dev’s son.”

She nodded and glanced down between them, perhaps noticing how close they were standing. She took a step away. “I’ll make some snacks. I need to eat something myself, anyway. I’ll bring it to you.”

“Hey.” He snagged her wrist as she moved away. Beneath his fingertips, the pulse of her heart throbbed faster for a second. He smiled. After a second, so did she. “Thank you.”

She waited until he’d let her go before nodding. “You’re welcome.”

Neither of them moved for a few seconds. Her slow smile warmed him inside. With the hand not holding her weapon, she ran a fingertip down his arm and tapped it gently a couple times before backing away. She glanced at him over her shoulder, too, that same smile clear even from a distance.

I love you.

The words stayed unspoken, even though he opened his mouth to call after her. If only it was as easy to stop feeling it as it was to stop himself from saying it aloud, Ewan thought as he headed to meet Jordie. Except he didn’t want to stop feeling it. He didn’t want to stop loving Nina, not even if it hurt to keep doing it.

Jordie was staring out the window overlooking the backyard when Ewan came into the office. He turned, still a little twitchy but less so. He’d probably taken a hit. “You have a lot of real grass. Not synthgrass. Wow. Who takes care of it?”

“I have people who come and take care of it.” The comment was a little strange. Ewan was starting to think maybe this kid was simply a little odd, in general, candy use aside. “So, Jordie. What can I do for you?”

“I have some ideas, Mr. Donahue.” Jordie looked eager. Smiling. Shifting back and forth. His hands made fists, relaxed, then again, but not in a threatening way. More like he was trying to keep himself from gesturing too wildly. “Some really great ideas. They just couldn’t wait for the online portal approval, I mean, sometimes it can take weeks before you grant the permissions, and I just couldn’t wait. I wanted to talk to you about it now.”

Ewan had set up the online portal for his apprentices to use precisely so they didn’t have to wait for personal time with him. They were supposed to enter all the details of the project they were interested in doing, including the proposed costs, outcomes, and materials needed, along with any access to current tech that they might need. He made a point of looking over the portal weekly, although there had been times when it had taken him a bit longer to approve proposals. None of his other apprentices had ever shown up at his door.

“All right, Jordie, let’s see what you have,” he said now. “Take a seat.”

Jordie didn’t sit. He paced. He started gesturing finally, fingers flaring or snapping as he spoke. “So, this tech, you know the enhancement tech. It’s incomplete. It needs upgrades to it, but there haven’t been any.”

“It’s illegal to upgrade that tech,” Ewan interrupted before the kid could get any further.

Jordie paused, twisting at the waist to look at him. “That’s just stupid.”

“It’s still against the law.” Ewan frowned, looking the kid up and down. “Jordie, how much candy did you take?”

“Not much. A little to help me focus, that’s all.” Jordie’s grin tilted. “That’s all. You know what candy’s like, Mr. Donahue.”

Ewan did. This seemed more than that, however. He hadn’t spent much time with Jordie, who’d always been quiet and reserved in the lab. He kept to himself, without the outgoing personality of his mother. The kid had pulled together some amazing projects in the past, but Ewan realized now he had little idea of who Jordie was as a person.

“Anyway, Mr. Donahue, here’s the thing, the thing is this, that enhancement tech needs upgrades, right? I mean there are people who have it who need it, like your bodyguard out there. Nina Bronson, right, she’s one of the enhanced. She needs upgraded tech. But here’s the thing, Mr. Donahue, it’s illegal because you lobbied to make it so, right, which is just—” Jordie put his fingertips to his temples and spread them out with a low noise, “I’m going hyper mental about that. Right? You invented it, then you turned around and blocked the use of it and more than that, you like, made it totally against the law.”

“You pay attention to the news.”

Jordie looked surprised. “Yeah, sure. Of course I do, Mr. Donahue. How else would I know what’s going on in the world?”

“I can’t approve any projects that are illegal, Jordie. You know that. You signed the agreement when you accepted the apprenticeship.” Ewan frowned again, studying the kid.

“But, see, Mr. Donahue, I don’t want to go against the law. It just says you can’t upgrade the tech that’s already been installed, right? And you can’t use it on anyone new. But I don’t want to do that, Mr. Donahue. What I’m talking about is accessing the existing tech.” Jordie spun on his heel, a broad grin stretching his lips over his teeth. “Using it as-is, but enabling new functions, stuff the tech’s already capable of doing, if only you reprogrammed it a little. The base tech is . . . well, it’s close to brilliant, Mr. Donahue.”

Ewan held back a grim laugh at Jordie’s assessment, which might have been meant as a compliment, but sounded more like a patronizing pat on the head. “Thanks.”

“Imperfect though. But you know that.” Jordie spun again, this time in a complete circle. “I can make it so much better.”

Bitterness flooded Ewan’s mouth. He remembered being an arrogant young apprentice, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this cocky. “What exactly are we talking about?”

“Remote functions.”

“Snacks,” said Nina from the doorway. She held up a platter of sandwiches. “Peanut butter and jelly. Hope that’s shiny fine with both of you.”

“Mr. Donahue, I bet you have the good stuff. Real jelly, right? Real peanut butter. Not synth.” Jordie went still. No more twitching. His hands rested calmly at his sides, thumbs hooked into his pockets. “Of course you do. You’ve got enough money to have the best of everything. Including her. Right?”

Nina crossed to put the platter on Ewan’s desk. “Kid’s got a point.”

She sounded light about it. Ewan didn’t feel the same. He was still thinking over what Jordie had begun to tell him. The kid had already grabbed up a sandwich and was taking a bite, making loud noises of appreciation and smacking his lips together.

“Slow down,” Nina cautioned. “You’ll choke.”

Jordie chewed and swallowed with an exaggerated motion of his head. “Thanks. You got any synthmilk? Or real milk, yeah, that would be even better.”

“Sorry, no,” Nina said with a look at Ewan.

The food seemed to calm the kid even more, and that made sense, if he was on a candy rush. Ewan didn’t take a sandwich, but he did sit at his desk and pull up the apprentice portal on his monitor. He scrolled quickly through Jordie’s previous requests. He hadn’t noticed a pattern to the kid’s previous work, but looking now, he could see there were definitely parallels in the projects he’d chosen.

“Jordie.” Ewan watched the kid chew, swallow, and nod. “I’m not going to be able to approve any research or work on projects related to the enhancement tech.”

Nina’s head swung around, her eyes widening. She might be able to control her body’s involuntary physical reactions, but this was clearly an emotional one. “What about it?”

“I have some ideas, Ms. Bronson. Some really amazing ideas, about how to fix up that tech, make it really more useful. . . .” Jordie paused to shove more sandwich in his mouth, which silenced him while he chewed it.

“Upgrades?”

Ewan couldn’t miss the glance Nina flicked his way. “He’s not talking about . . .”

Jordie faced Nina, his brow knitted. His mouth twisted as he swallowed the last bites of food. Crumbs clustered in the corners of his lips, and he didn’t even bother to lick them away. He cocked his head to stare at her intently. “Mr. Donahue says they’re illegal. We can’t work on them.”

“I know what Mr. Donahue says,” Nina told the kid quietly, “but I’d like to know if you have something in mind.”

Frustrated, Ewan shook his head. The urge to shout the kid down was intense, but he held back. Screaming at sugarheads never did any good; you couldn’t rattle them. “Jordie, I’ve already told you that I can’t condone any kind of illegal work in my lab. No compromise on that.”

Before Nina could speak, Ewan held up a hand. “I refuse to allow kids to risk their futures for any of this, Nina.”

“I see.” She looked angry, but nodded.

Jordie had started pacing again. “It’s not illegal, I mean, technically, it can’t be, since nobody’s thought it up yet, so they didn’t outlaw it. I could get to work, it would be great, you’d be so rich, Mr. Donahue, you’d be so rich. We’d all be rich . . .”

“It shouldn’t be about money,” Nina said.

Jordie stopped then, for the first time seeming to really listen to what someone else was saying. “Well . . . if it’s not about money, Ms. Bronson, what should it be about?”

“I won’t approve any proposals related to the enhancement tech, Jordie,” Ewan said firmly and stepped in front of the kid to catch his attention. “You need to go home, now.”

“Is that . . . is that your final answer?”

Ewan, aware of Nina’s gaze upon him, kept his eyes on Jordie’s. “Yes it is. You’ve had a lot of great projects. I suggest you focus on one of them. Put this one aside.”

“Okay. Fine. I guess you’re the guy in charge.” Jordie snagged another sandwich from the platter. “I’ll take this to go, is that all right, Mr. Donahue? I haven’t had real jelly in a long time. Well, never, I don’t think. It’s not like my parents can’t afford it, you know what I mean? But they spend their money on other things. Usually other spouses. Real jelly is hyper delish, Mr. Donahue. So good, am I right? Ms. Bronson knows. She does, I can tell.”

Nina gave Jordie a half smile. “Yes. It’s good. Hyper delish, for sure.”

“I’ll get out of your way now, Mr. Donahue.” For a moment, Jordie’s shoulders slumped. “I sure do wish you’d reconsider. This idea that I have, if you’d only listen to it, I promise you it could change everything.”

Jordie didn’t give Ewan the chance to protest or even to agree. He lifted the sandwich in the air and gave Nina a nod. He left the office and Nina went after him to stand in the doorway, watching as let himself out the front door. She turned to Ewan.

“He’s a strange kid,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said. “He was hopped up on candy, that was easy to see. Beyond that, I don’t know what all that was about. He’s always been one of the more creative kids in the program. Some of his work’s been really far reaching, broad scope, very inventive. Most of it didn’t work the way he’d anticipated because he tends to dive in too deep without all of his research done first, but he often managed to get close.”

“What was his idea? For the enhancement tech?”

Ewan straightened. “It doesn’t matter, Nina.”

“It could,” she told him. “I wish you thought differently.”

“Would it matter, even if I did?”

“It might. To me,” Nina said.

Ewan sighed. “It would still be against the law, Nina. You’ve told me more than once that you’re not willing to get any upgrades unless all of you can. And none of you can, not legally.”

“It would matter to know that you wanted to.” Nina picked up one of the sandwiches but put it down without taking even one bite. “I guess it would make a difference to know that you would if you could. If you think it’s important and worthwhile. I don’t know, Ewan. I guess I’d like to know that you’ve changed your mind about it.”

He hadn’t, at least not in the way she wanted him to. Changed his mind about reversing the Enhancement Repeal Act, yes. About the use of the tech, no, and especially after watching the way it had affected her, it didn’t seem as though he ever would.

“You mean everything to me, Nina. Can’t you see that?”

She nodded after a long minute, her mouth pulling into a frown that hurt his heart to see. “I do see it. That’s why this is all so hard, Ewan. Believe me, I’ve never been the sort of girl to wail and whine and cling on when someone doesn’t want me—”

“I do want you!” he cried, frustrated that she couldn’t seem to realize that. He calmed somewhat at her expression, but only a little. Softer, he added, “I want you, and I want to be with you. That should be so obvious.”

“And I’ve never been the sort to hold onto something after it had gone sour, either,” she finished. “You’re not the first man I’ve ever loved, Ewan, but I had thought maybe you’d be the last.”

“But not anymore?” he asked, tasting another wash of bitterness. “You’re ready to call it quits, huh? Ready to move on?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Ewan shrugged, turning from her to get back to his desk. “You didn’t have to say it. It was all over your face.”

“I’m afraid it’s all ruined,” Nina told him. “That we’ll never be able to get back what we had.”

His heart sank even further. “Baby, don’t say that. Please.”

“It’s how it all feels.” Her voice trembled. Broke. She turned an anguished expression away from him. “You broke my heart in ways I didn’t know it could be broken, and that’s saying a lot, considering the fact I was dead on an operating room table for nearly eight minutes.”

Stricken, he went to her. Reached for her. Yet in the last moment, he could not bring himself to touch her.

“We need to get you some better security,” Nina said abruptly. Her back straightened. She cleared her throat and faced him. “Nobody should be able to walk up to your front door that way.”

“I . . . I’ll get on it,” Ewan said, wishing there could be more and unable to find it.

Nina nodded. “Yeah. Good.”

“Good,” he echoed, and that was that.