Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 225

Chapter 225

“She hesitated.”

“Something hit her,” Dottie murmured. “Not the punch. A memory. But she didn’t fold. She took it, buried it, kept going.”

Lola finished the drill, calm as a machine.

Dottie set her mug down with a soft clink. “That right there worries me.”

He turned. “Why?”

“You ever watch animals before a storm?” she asked. “They go quiet. Not fear–knowing. That kind of calm only shows up when something’s coming.”

Enzo’s jaw flexed. “You think it’s connected?”

“I know it is.” She gestured toward the other monitors–the graphs, the manifests. “The air’s been weird for weeks. You feel it, I feel it. Hell, maybe she felt it first.”

On the secondary screen, the west port data blinked again–just one line, a tiny stutter that shouldn’t have been there. Enzo noticed it. Dottie noticed him noticing.

“What now?”

“Glitch in the tracking string,” he said, voice mild.

“Same shipment?”

“Yeah.”

Dottie’s eyes narrowed. “That’s twice.”

“Jake’ll fix it,” he said, but his tone had gone flat.

She took a slow sip of tea. “Or someone doesn’t want it fixed.”

He didn’t respond. Just tagged it again, different color.

File it under later. After she’s safe.

Dottie turned back to the main feed. “She’s good, too good to stay in controlled drills. Rafael gives her precision, Dom gives her pressure, you give her safety. None of that tells us what happens when the world stops following rules.”

He didn’t move, eyes still on Lola.

“She’s ready,” Dottie said finally. “You should test her. Real conditions. No warning.”

Enzo’s head turned. “You’re serious.”

“As a bullet,” she said. “She’s been coiled too long. That girl’s half feral when she’s bored. Give her something real to bite.”

He exhaled slowly. “You’d bet against me?”

“No.” Dottie’s grin pulled slow, equal parts pride and trouble. “I’d be on her. You’ve never seen that girl when the leash slips. If I’m the witch, she’s the demon I conjured and couldn’t put back. Push her hard enough and she doesn’t fight–she hunts. It’s not survival, it’s possession wearing muscle.”

She’ll meet the hit halfway and dare it to do better.

And so will I.

Jake secure Rafael’s feed. No traces.

Then he paused, thumb resting against the glass.

She’s going to lose her mind when she realizes it’s me.

She’ll curse, swing, then kiss me just to prove she’s not mad.

He could already hear her voice: smug, breathless, alive.

He typed one more note into the encrypted file on the manifest discrepancy.

Tag: Marco/West Port / verify containers.

Then minimized it.

Later. After the test. After her.

He looked back at the screen one more time. Lola’s image glowed faintly in the dim light, muscles coiled, posture perfect.

“Alright, diavoletta,” he muttered under his breath, voice low and fond. “Let’s see what happens when the gloves come off.”

The feed flickered once, catching the glint in her eyes before cutting to black.