I looked down at the ruined machine, then up into his furious eyes, and let a slow, cold smile spread across my face.

“If you think destroying a piece of plastic stops what is already in motion,” I said quietly, “you really haven’t been paying attention.” I watched his confident expression falter, watched the first flicker of real fear cross his face, and I said nothing more.

Because what Kieran did not know — could not know, standing there panting over a broken laptop — was that every critical file I owned had already been copied and backed up to encrypted external servers days before he set foot in my home.

He had come to destroy evidence.