The dream from last night lingered with Nina even now, the morning after, as she pushed her body to its limits. She’d gone to Ewan’s bed knowing it was stupid, but in the middle of the night it was always easier to make bad decisions than good ones. She’d left him still sleeping and come downstairs to exercise in the small room Ewan had designated as a home gym. With one wall of mirrors and a padded floor, along with a few pieces of simple but effective equipment, it was a good workout space even if it wasn’t very big. She didn’t need a huge room. She needed to concentrate . . . and doing that was more difficult right now than she wanted to admit.

She kept thinking about the dream and about her time training in the research facility after the surgeries. She hadn’t thought much about those days for a long time. Her memories of those months were littered with a multitude of blank spots because of the testing they’d done to see how well the tech worked as a security measure. They’d been able to program it very specifically, which was what had allowed her to be reset after confidential jobs, losing the ability to recall what had happened during the gig but nothing from before or after.

What was starting to happen to her now was different from that. Being reset was deliberate, pointed, structured. Yes, it left her with blank spaces in her memories, but the blanks all had clear and specific boundary lines directly related to the job. The glitches, on the other hand, swept her brain like a broom clearing cobwebs, taking everything and leaving behind jagged, dangling shreds.

Waking up in the hospital, she hadn’t known right away what, exactly, had been done to her. It was enough to understand that she was alive, that something had been done to her in order for her to be opening her eyes in the first place. As the extent of her injuries had become more apparent to her, so had the magnitude of what the tech had fixed and what it would continue to control. If Nina had ever regretted signing the forms that had allowed her to be used in such a way, she’d blocked out those memories, or they’d also been erased. What she remembered with utter clarity was the med team’s repeated assurances that the chips and wires in her brain were only ever going to help her. Never harm.

Of course, as the lawsuits had started coming in, the public opinion about the “super soldiers” turned, much of that due to Ewan’s efforts and making the tech illegal to use. Then had come the realization that the tech in their heads was, indeed, going to need upgrades the same way every other piece of tech that had ever been invented had. What that had meant, exactly, nobody had ever seemed willing to say, and although Nina had done research into the possibilities, nothing had ever been confirmed.

Because she was able to monitor her body’s natural functions with such precision, it was easy to tell that her recent spate of headaches and dizziness was related to spikes in her blood pressure. What was more concerning to her was not only that she’d been unable to regulate those spikes, but that they’d affected her so strongly. Now, she was pushing herself extra hard to see if she could cause a spike, but no matter how many crunches she did, or pull-ups, or how fast she ran on the treadmill, everything continued working exactly as it was supposed to. It was actually impossible for her to spike her blood pressure, because her body, aided by the tech, worked too efficiently.

Sweating, breathing hard, she jumped off the treadmill and hit the mats to do some push-ups. She closed her eyes, concentrating, but while her muscles ached from the exertion, it was the sort of delicious pain she always felt after a really great workout. Nothing out of the ordinary, certainly no blinding headaches, and when she leaped to her feet to study her reflection, she saw no hints of crimson in either of her eyes.

She closed them both, concentrating the way she’d taught herself in the hospital and after, ticking off details in her memories so she could pay attention to the exact places where she was blank. She could find nothing new gone missing, no new silences.

When her personal comm pinged, she answered at once without looking to see who it was. She’d assumed it would be Al again, maybe with an update about similar glitches. It was Leona, and with a sigh, Nina answered.

“You haven’t checked in,” Leona said.

Nina took a long pull from the bottle of water she’d picked up from the floor. “Nothing to report.”

“There’s always something to report.”

Nina laughed and shook her head at her boss’s transparency. “Uh-huh. Well, there’s nothing professional to report. How about that? And I’m not obligated to report anything personal.”

“So there is something personal!” Leona’s grin faded after a few seconds. She tilted her head to peer more closely at Nina through the viddy screen. “You look . . . weird.”

“I’m all right.” Nina drank more water and swiped at some sweat on the back of her neck. “Working out, that’s all. There’s not much else to do here. Very quiet.”

“His payments keep coming in on time, so you must be doing something right.” Leona’s voice was light, but her expression remained concerned. “What else is going on?”

Nina hesitated, uncertain if she wanted to confide in Leona about the glitches. It felt bad enough that she’d shared with Al, who also worked for Leona but was not likely to have spilled any of Nina’s concerns to her. Still, the glitches did have the potential to affect her job performance. Leona had the right to know.

“I’ve been having some issues with the tech,” Nina said, giving up the struggle.

Today, Leona’s hair was bright orange with blue tips, and she ran a hand through the shaggy style now to push it off her face as she frowned. “What kind of issues? Are they related to the job? The client is not allowed to do any resetting until after the contract is finished, and then only within the contracted parameters. If he’s messing with your head . . .”

“No. It’s not like that.”

Leona’s frown didn’t ease, and her gaze grew steely. She’d thrown down with clients before. Her first priority was always the safety of her employees. “Is he messing with your head, Nina?”

“Not like that,” Nina repeated.

“Is he messing with your heart?”

Nina didn’t want to discuss this any more than she wanted to talk about the glitches, but it seemed easier to admit out loud that she was having problems with her tech rather than the fact she hadn’t walked out on Ewan, even though she should have. Could have. Didn’t. Couldn’t. With a small sigh that became a groan, she finished the water and tossed the empty bottle into the recycling bin in the corner of the room.

“How about we pass the Bechdel-Wallace test and change the topic. Has anyone else come to you with any issues?” Nina asked bluntly. She had no idea how many of the other enhanced were working for ProtectCorps, because it wasn’t her business and had never mattered before, but if Leona had contact with others, she might have heard about similar issues.

“With the tech?”

Nina nodded. “Headaches. Some broken blood vessels in my eye last night. My blood pressure keeps trying to rise, too.”

“I thought the tech regulated your blood pressure.”

“It’s supposed to,” Nina said. “If there’s a problem with it, though, it could be messing with the blood pressure. Which could lead to headaches. Broken blood vessels. I suppose in severe cases, it could lead to patches of memory loss.”

“What?” Leona sounded shocked.

Nina sighed. “Memory loss, specifically, unrelated to the job.”

“Have you seen a doc?”

“I had a regular checkup before I started this gig, and there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s the tech, degrading. What else could it be?” Nina said.

Leona looked concerned but not convinced. “Could it just be . . . normal health-related problems?”

“The tech would regulate anything out of the ordinary, unless the tech is going bad,” Nina told her. “In which case, even if I’m just suffering from run-of-the-mill getting older and having high blood pressure–type things, the tech is still not regulating it the way it should.”

“It could be stress,” Leona said after a second’s brief hesitation. “I mean, I hate to bring it back around, but you are living with and working for a man you were romantically involved with. That would be enough to send my blood pressure soaring. Hell, the last few weeks before I got my ex to move out, I just about had an aneurysm listening to the sound of him chewing.”

“It’s nothing like that,” Nina said. And I can’t recreate the problem. That troubles me.”

Leona frowned. “What do you think that means?”

“At the baseline, that whatever’s going on is out of my control,” Nina said.

“And you can’t stand that.”

“No,” Nina said with an irritated scowl. “Should I stand it, Leona?”

Leona shook her head and made a placating gesture toward the screen. “No, of course not. I didn’t mean that how it sounds. I just meant that the fact you can’t control it could also be a reason why it’s happening. Stress.”

“I have one of the most stressful jobs in the world,” Nina said sourly. “And this hasn’t happened before now.”

Leona grinned. “So, blame it on Mr. Ewan Donahue. Want me to add a hazard surcharge to his bill?”

“That won’t make this go away,” Nina said, but laughed, because she knew Leona was hyper serious and would do it.

“It might not, but it will make you feel better about it.”

Nina shook her head. “I have enough money. Anyway, I’ll figure it out.”

“I wish you’d go get another checkup, at least. And we can bill that to Donahue for sure.”

“Yeah. I’ll make an appointment.” Nina didn’t think another physical was going to make a difference, but it was unlikely to cause a problem. For now, she was going to keep paying attention and making notes about what was going on. She changed the subject to divert her boss. “What’s up in your world?”

They chatted a few minutes longer before Leona signed off. Nina considered starting another workout. Her body would manage it, but her mind was less than interested. Too much exercise could be boring. Still, she hadn’t yet managed to get her blood pressure to spike again, and she wanted to keep trying.

At the sound of footsteps in the doorway, Nina tensed with an internal chuckle. Maybe Leona was right, at least a little bit, about Ewan being part of the cause. Her heart had certainly started beating a little faster all on its own.

“Hey,” he said quietly when she didn’t turn to face him.

Their eyes met in the reflection of the mirrored wall. He looked good, all tousle-haired and lean in his low-slung pajama bottoms, feet and chest bare. He would always look good to her, she thought. No matter what had happened between them. No matter what still might happen.

“What’s up?” she asked him when he said nothing more.

Ewan held up his comm. “Wanda Crosson is petitioning for an early release.”

“She won’t get it, will she?”

He shook his head and slipped the comm into the pocket of his bottoms. “I don’t think so. Nobody seems to care very much about her anymore.”

“Are you worried?”

“No. Not really.” He cleared his throat. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. Fine. Shiny fine,” she added for clarification.

“No more . . . ?”

She shook her head. “No.”

She didn’t mention to him that she’d been trying to push her body into recreating the glitch. Her working out wouldn’t seem unusual to him, and he didn’t need to know how hard she’d been pushing herself. Ewan moved farther into the room. Nina waited for him to mention last night, the way she’d slipped in and out of his bed without a word. When he didn’t, she pushed some hair out of her eyes and studied him.

If he’d crossed the room and taken her in his arms, if he had kissed her, she would have let him, she thought. Ewan stopped more than an arm’s reach away from her. The yearning ache she’d admitted to the day before rose again inside her, biting her more fiercely than she’d ever bitten him.

“If you change your mind about me calling my doc, let me know,” Ewan said finally. “I can make you an appointment.”

Nina smiled, thinking of Leona’s declaration that they’d make Ewan pay her medical bills. “I can call one for myself, if I want one.”

“I know that.” He paused. “It would be easier for you. He’d come to the house. Unless you’re planning to leave.”

She studied him. “I have an open-ended contract.”

“That means you’re as free to leave at any time as I am to relieve you,” Ewan pointed out.

“With Wanda Crosson petitioning for early release, there might be some new fresh dangers for you,” Nina answered after a few seconds. “It’s probably best that I stay, at least for now.”

Ewan nodded, face solemn, although she thought perhaps she’d caught a glint of amusement and relief in his gaze. “Are you done working out?”

She bounced on her toes, jabbing at the air. “Depends. Want to spar with me?”

Ewan snorted under his breath. “What, and give you the chance to punch me in the face? Admittedly, I deserve it, but that doesn’t mean I’d like it.”

“I wouldn’t really try to hurt you,” Nina said.

Ewan looked at her, saying nothing, memories of the times when she had hurt him clear in his gaze. Heat rose in her throat and tried to flush her cheeks, but she kept herself from showing any visible reaction. She couldn’t stop herself from recalling how his skin felt under her fingertips when she dug her nails into him, or how he moaned when she did. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about it, but she could definitely keep herself from showing that it affected her. Ewan could not, but she could just as easily ignore the hitch in his breath as she could fake her dispassion.

“Something came up on the security screens,” Ewan said finally.

Nina frowned, moving toward the door at once. “You should have said that right away.”

Behind her, he followed. “It didn’t seem to be anything important. A bump in the motion detection, that’s all. It could be the wind. A rabbit. Anything.”

“Your security here isn’t anywhere close to what it was at Woodhaven. And there are no rabbits left here,” Nina said over her shoulder as she went at once to her room and grabbed her shockgun from the harness she hadn’t been wearing because it hadn’t seemed necessary before.

She regretted that decision now. No matter what Ewan’s sec team had said, no matter what the reports declared, she’d already seen the lengths people would go to in order to harm him. It wasn’t out of the question to think someone new might have built up a grudge.

“You know I have people to check out stuff like this. They can be here within minutes,” Ewan said from the doorway.

“If you’re mine, you are mine all the way,” she told him without thinking, the words slipping off her tongue too quickly for her to bite them back.

“I remember that,” Ewan said. “But I didn’t think I was yours anymore.”

The sound of the front doorbell ringing stopped them both. Ewan took a step toward the noise, but Nina moved in front of him. She shook her head.

“Nobody should be ringing that bell without notifying you in advance they were going to be there,” she told him. “You let me go first.”