Troy let them have their ways ogling his car, his attention already shifting past them—and landing on Luca.

He was standing just off the main entrance, arms folded loosely across his chest, weight settled back into one hip like he wasn’t trying to control the space—

But did anyway.

Dark hair, just long enough to fall out of place if he let it. Sharp lines through his jaw, stubble sitting clean along it like it belonged there. His shirt clung just enough to show the strength underneath without making a point of it, sleeves pushed up enough to expose ink that told its own story.

Roman lines. Structure. Precision.

Even his tattoos made sense.

Troy’s gaze lingered for half a second longer than it should have.

Because this—this matched. The way Luca built. The way he thought.

Controlled.

Intentional.

And far too sharp for anyone’s good.

“About time you showed up,” Luca said.

No greeting. No preamble.

Troy’s mouth curved. “Had to make sure the place was worth the drive.”

Luca’s gaze flicked briefly to the Mustang, then back to him. “It is.”

Simple and certain.

Troy respected that.

He stepped forward, closing the distance without hesitation, aware of the way the rest of the team shifted slightly around them—not stepping in, not stepping back, just—watching.

Assessing.

“You guys built all this?” Troy asked, nodding slightly toward the compound.

Luca’s mouth twitched faintly. “Some of it.”

“That’s a yes,” Troy said.

“That’s a partial answer,” Luca replied.

Troy huffed a quiet breath. “Fair.”

A beat passed between them.

Not awkward. Not uncertain. But definitely measured.

Then—Luca pushed off the wall.

“We should go upstairs,” he said. “To the command center.”

Straight to it. Troy liked that.

He fell into step beside him as they moved toward the stairs, the rest of the team trailing in behind them in a loose formation.

“Someone once said,” Troy murmured, glancing sideways at Luca, “if you follow the signal long enough, it stops being noise and starts being intention.”

Luca didn’t break stride. Didn’t even hesitate.

“Only if you know what you’re listening for,” he replied.

Troy’s gaze sharpened slightly.

Yeah. That tracked.

“Good answer,” he said quietly.

Luca didn’t look at him. “I know.”

They hit the second level and moved inside, the shift from open air to controlled space immediate and deliberate. The command center opened up in front of them—and for the first time since he’d arrived—Troy stopped.

Not because of the room, though it was impressive.

Glass panels, layered workstations, clean integration of tech and structure without clutter or excess. It was designed for efficiency, for flow, for people who knew exactly how to move within it.

No—that wasn’t what caught him. It was the system.

Running along one section of the wall, integrated so seamlessly into the structure it almost looked like part of the design rather than something built on top of it.

Luca’s architecture. Not the version anyone else saw.

Not the one the Directorate thought they were inside.

This was—deeper. Troy stepped closer without thinking, eyes tracking the movement across the interface, the way data flowed—not forced, not rigid—alive.

“Jesus,” he murmured.

He could see it. Not just what it did. But how it thought.

He let out a slow breath, something shifting under his ribs that had nothing to do with threat or strategy.

“This is what they’re trying to take,” he said quietly.

Not a question.

Luca didn’t answer. Troy’s gaze stayed on the system for a second longer before he glanced back at him, something quieter threading through the intensity now.

“They don’t just want your code,” he said. “They want the way you see the world. And to get that, they need you.”

****

Troy’s words didn’t land lightly. They didn’t slide off the radar or get lost in the room.

They settled.

They want the way you see the world. And to get that, they need you

Luca didn’t look at him straight away. His gaze stayed on the system, on the flow of data across the interface that had always made more sense to him than people ever had. Patterns, logic, structure—those were things he could trust.

People—people were harder.

Behind him, the room had gone quieter. Not silent. Never silent with this group. But the noise had shifted, the easy edge of movement replaced with something more focused.

More aware. Kael stepped forward, the weight of him settling at Luca’s side instead of across from him this time.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

Simple question, but the answer was anything but.

Luca exhaled slowly, dragging a hand across the back of his neck before letting it fall.

“It means,” he said carefully, “that what I build… it isn’t just about the code.”

Tane let out a quiet breath. “We figured that much.”

Luca’s mouth twitched faintly. “You’ve only seen the surface.”

Niko shifted slightly, leaning back against the edge of the console. “And underneath it?”

Luca hesitated. Not because he didn’t know.

Because once he said it—there was no pulling it back.

“They don’t want to replicate it,” he said finally. “They can’t.”

That got Kael’s attention.

“Why not?” he asked.

Luca’s gaze flicked to Troy for half a second, then back to the system.

“Because it’s not structured the way most systems are,” he said. “It adapts. Not just in response to input—but in anticipation of it.”

Troy stepped in then, energy shifting, interest sharpening into something almost tangible.

“It’s predictive architecture,” he said, moving closer to the system, eyes tracking the flow with a kind of focused intensity that didn’t miss anything. “Not reactive. It’s not waiting for instructions—it’s already moving before they’re given.”

Luca didn’t interrupt or move to correct him.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

Troy’s voice picked up slightly, the explanation pulling him forward without him even noticing.

“This isn’t something you copy,” he continued. “You don’t reverse-engineer this kind of system. You don’t rebuild it from code. Hell, you can’t!”