Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 224

Chapter 224

…

Enzo

:

86

The war room ran like the body of a machine–screens whispering, low light drawn thin by the afternoon sun. The hum of servers mixed with the faint clink of Dottie’s spoon against her mug. Nothing about the space was pretty. It was practical: steel, tempered glass, the smell of burnt coffee and control.

Dottie had been in there most of the week, claiming boredom but moving through his systems like she owned them. Enzo didn’t mind. When the woman who’d built half the city’s best survivors said she needed something to do, you gave her access and tried not to get in the way.

She leaned over the far table now, scanning manifests like they were recipes. “East dock gets its maintenance window tonight. Gino’s got coverage until midnight. Then we flip to Jake for the data check. The west port’s backlog’s still sitting on your desk.”

Enzo gave her a look. “You just get bored and decide to manage my empire for me?”

“You left the door unlocked,” she said, unbothered. “Don’t complain when someone useful walks in.”

He didn’t. Her version of meddling usually saved him three hours.

He glanced at the side monitor, rows of shipping data scrolling in neat precision. Ordinary. Until it wasn’t.

He caught the skip.

A double–entry–two identical container IDs but one timestamped five minutes later than it should have been. One manifest showed 312 containers inbound; the other logged 314 out.

His thumb paused on the trackpad.

That’s not drift.

Dottie looked up at the silence. “Problem?”

“Maybe.” He zoomed in, eyes narrowing. “West port manifest’s off by two.”

“Two?” she said, unimpressed. “Probably a scanning hiccup.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced. The discrepancy was too clean, too neat–like someone had hidden behind precision.

“You’ll make Jake run it again?”

“Already did. He says it’s stable.”

“Then it’s not.”

He smirked faintly. “That’s what I said.”

He tagged the line for follow–up and let the anomaly sit in the back of his mind like a splinter.

1/2

11:35 Mon, Oct 20 M

Chapter 224

Keep that thread. Threads pull curtains.

:

He switched feeds. Rafael’s facility came online on the central screen–quiet hum of the mats, bright overhead light. The shift from port data to her hit like oxygen.

86

Lola.

She was on the mat, taped hands, hair pinned in messy buns already half–escaping. Rafael circled her, motion slow, patient, precise. She dipped under his reach, moved in a clean line, grabbed his sleeve, and dropped him without ceremony.

Dottie followed his gaze. “You watching your girl again?”

He didn’t answer.

“Of all things,” he said finally, “why Judo?”

Dottie’s mouth curved. “Because it starts with not getting flattened. You make somebody’s weight your weapon, they stop thinking you’re small. Once she could do that, I started layering everything else.”

He flicked her a glance. “Everything else?”

“Everything,” Dottie said. “Bits and pieces stitched together until it made sense. Some from rings, some from alleys. Enough to keep her standing and make the other guy regret trying. I didn’t train her to win tournaments, I trained her to survive the kind of men who don’t play fair.”

On–screen, Rafael swept toward Lola. She caught his balance mid–motion and dropped him cleanly. He hit the mat laughing. She didn’t

smile; she reset.

Dottie’s tone softened, just a fraction. “That’s why I started her in defense. You teach a fighter how to fall right and they stop fearing gravity. Everything after that’s just choices.”

Of course you started her there.

They watched in silence. Rafael called something; Lola answered with a half–smile and reset. The rhythm was smooth, until it wasn’t.

A flicker. A blink too long. Her shoulders stiffened for a heartbeat. Then she forced motion back into the world, like nothing had happened.

Enzo leaned forward. “Run that back.”

Dottie rolled her chair closer, rewound. “There. You saw it.”

Chapter Comments