Chapter 40

Sedative Queen.

Sage

I holstered my sidearm and dropped to my knees beside the console, brushing aside a loose rug that didn’t belong. Typical, hide the manual override in plain sight. My fingers found the edge of the panel and I pried it open, revealing a mess of tangled wires and blinking lights like a neural network from hell.

“Figures,” I muttered. “Mirov’s paranoid ass probably had this built by some ex-KGB techie with a God complex.”

Conner chuckled softly behind the bars. “You’re talking to yourself again.”

“I process out loud,” I shot back. “And if I don’t talk, I might scream.”

He went quiet, but I felt his eyes on me, steady, unflinching. The hum of the cage buzzed in the air, that low electric purr crawling along my skin like a threat. Every second it stayed on was a risk. Mirov was coming. This whole ambush reeked of him. He’d designed this for me. Conner was just a bonus. I took a breath, grounded myself. Focus.The current was running through a looped failsafe, probably tied into a backup generator. If I tripped it wrong, it could fry Conner. Or alert Mirov. Maybe both. I traced the wiring like a bloodline, mapping it with my fingers, then reached into my belt and pulled out a flat black multitool. The screwdriver clicked as I adjusted the head.