Chapter 26: The Arrest (Nate POV)

That call, “He was your last ally. Now you’re really alone,” left me cold, the burner phone shaking in my hand. I sat on Talia’s couch, the TV still looping Liam’s testimony, his voice cutting me over and over, “He acted alone.” My chest hurt, my eyes burning, but I couldn’t turn it off. Talia was gone, Liam had betrayed me, and now some stranger was taunting me. I didn’t know who to trust, what to do, just sat there, numb, waiting for the next hit.

It came fast. My phone, the real one, not the burner, buzzed on the table, somehow still alive despite everything. I grabbed it, my hands shaky, and saw an alert, news again. “New Evidence in ZenithTech Breach: Chat Logs Implicate Carter.” My stomach dropped. I opened it, my breath short, and there it was, a screenshot, blurry but clear enough. A chat log, my name, NCarter, messaging someone tagged “Comp_X”: “Got the code. $20K, half now.” Dated the night of the breach.

I stared, my heart pounding. “No,” I said, my voice breaking. “That’s not me, I didn’t write that.” But it looked real, my ID, my style, tied to a competitor I’d never heard of. The article said it surfaced this morning, handed to the feds. My hands shook as I scrolled, comments already piling up, calling me a sellout, a criminal. “Final nail in the coffin,” one said. That’s what it felt like, Harper’s last move, hammering me shut.

I dropped the phone, my head in my hands. Fabricated, just like the logs, the money, but tighter, sharper. They’d built a wall of lies, and this was the top brick. Liam’s testimony had cracked me open, this buried me. I couldn’t fight it, not alone, not with Talia gone and no way to get the truth out. Harper had won, and I was done.

The knock came hard, three bangs, loud enough to shake me. My heart stopped, my eyes darting to the door. I knew who it was before they spoke, same as last time. “Federal agents,” a voice called, deep and firm. “Nathan Carter, open the door.”

I stood, my legs weak, my breath fast. No running, no hiding, just me and this. I opened the door, slow, and there they were, two agents, same dark jackets, same cold faces. The tall one from before held a tablet; the shorter one stepped in, his hand on my arm. “Nathan Carter,” he said, “you’re under arrest for further questioning, corporate espionage, data theft.”

“I didn’t do it,” I said, my voice shaking. “That chat, it’s fake, all of it.”

“Tell it downtown,” the tall one said, his eyes flat. “We’ve got enough now, move.”

They didn’t cuff me, not yet, but the grip on my arm was tight as they pulled me out. The hall blurred past, my shoes scuffing the floor. I kept my head down, my chest tight, the chat log flashing in my mind, “$20K, half now.” Harper’s work, had to be, sealing me in. The elevator dinged, and they shoved me out into the street, a black car waiting.

That’s when I saw him, Liam. Across the road, by the parking lot, standing next to his car. My heart jumped, my eyes locking on his. He looked wrecked, pale, hands in his pockets, staring at me like he couldn’t move. Our fight, his testimony, hit me again, “He acted alone.” He’d done this, helped them build this cage, but now he just watched, shaken, doing nothing.

“Liam,” I said, my voice low, not loud enough for him to hear. The agent pushed me forward, but I kept looking, his face twisting, guilt all over it. He didn’t step closer, didn’t say a word, just stood there, letting them take me. My last ally, the guy I’d trusted most, and he couldn’t even meet my eyes now.

They opened the car door, shoving me in the back. The seats were hard, the air stale, the agents climbing in front. I glanced out the window, Liam was still there, his head down now, hands clenched. He looked like he might break, but he didn’t move, didn’t stop them. The car started, pulling away, and he faded out of sight, leaving me with nothing.

The ride was quiet, just the hum of the engine and my own breathing, fast and shallow. The tall agent drove, the short one next to me flipping through his tablet, probably that fake chat, more lies to bury me. I leaned back, my hands shaking in my lap, my mind spinning. Arrested, again, but this time felt different, final. The news, Liam, now this, Harper had played it perfect.

We hit a light, the car idling, and the short agent glanced back, his face blank. “You pissed off the wrong people, kid,” he muttered, low enough the other guy didn’t hear.

I froze, my breath catching. “What?” I said, my voice barely there.

He didn’t answer, just turned back, leaving his words hanging. The car rolled on, my heart pounding, that muttering stuck in my head, wrong people, pissed off.

The words seemed to hang in the air, reverberating in my mind. ”Pissed off the wrong people.” Who were they talking about? The feds? Harper’s backers? The walls were closing in, but this was new, this was the first real hint that something bigger was at play here. The agents were just the messengers, the tools in someone else’s game. I wasn’t just a pawn in a corporate betrayal anymore. Someone else, someone powerful, had made their mark on me.

My hands clenched into fists in my lap, anger mixing with fear. I could feel the weight of it, this wasn’t just a setup. This was a carefully crafted campaign to break me. They were closing the net, pushing me into a corner where there would be no escape, no way out. No way to prove I was innocent. If I didn’t have the video, the flash drive, the evidence, Harper would have won. She’d taken my life, my career, my allies, and now the feds were moving in, tightening the screws.

I couldn’t focus on the passing scenery, my eyes locked on the two agents in the front. The car sped down the empty street, the headlights cutting through the dark. Every minute that ticked by felt like it might be the last I had to make a move, to figure out my next step. The tension in the car was suffocating. Even the agent who’d spoken to me earlier had grown quieter, his face unreadable. They were here to take me down, and I didn’t know how to stop them.

The voice in my head screamed at me to act, but what could I do? I had no one left. No one to turn to. Zoe wasn’t answering, Talia had vanished, and Liam, Liam was gone, a ghost in the wind. My hands trembled as I tried to formulate a plan, but every time I thought of something, the walls closed in tighter. The world around me felt like it was closing, suffocating me. If I didn’t act, I might lose everything.

The car hit another stoplight, the tires humming on the pavement, and I glanced out at the street, watching the headlights cast shadows on the pavement. “Pissed off the wrong people.” The words wouldn’t leave me. Whoever they were, they had to be powerful. And right now, I had no idea how to survive it.