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“You okay?” he asked with a hand over the receiver.
“So sorry to bail, but Alice had too much to drink, so I’m taking her home,” I supplied simply. He gave me a sympathetic smile, tossing up a casual wave before directing his attention back to his receiver.
“Don’t lookat me like that,” Alice said through a petulant scowl once Jax had us on the road.Fuck, she was cute.Especially in trouble. Shrugging, she protested, “I followed my gut, okay?”
“And where’d that get you?”
“Face first in a rosebush?”
Scoffing, I grumbled, “At least you’re honest.”
“Andright, might I add.” Triumphantly, she turned her phone in my direction. “Jax took a look. Every fifth letter was a fraction of a point smaller than those around it.”
“It looks like gibberish,” I admitted.
“Correct. But we tried an anagram. Then a shift. Still nothing, so we applied the keyword Trah, but got nothing. Flipped it to apply Hart, and ran it through again. It’s aVigenère cipher,Greyson.”
“How the fuck do you know so much about codes?”
“Bored teenager on a perpetually rainy island, what the fuck else do you do but hit the library?” she supplied, nonplussed. I wasn’t positive, but I was pretty sure there were a great many things she could have filled her time with, short of becoming a spy kid. Not that I was complaining. Her brilliance was as tantalizing as her beauty. “Beside the point. Look at the translation.”
I did. And right there, in plain English, were the wordsTransfer complete. Obsidian Secure.
“What the fuck?”
“That’s what we have to figure out. But, Greyson…?” When I just locked our gazes, she swallowedhard. I couldn’t help but watch the muscles work, wishing it was for a much more satisfying reason. “Reggie came out of the bathroom I heard them talking in.”
The conceptthat my uncle was potentially embedded in theObsidianweb rendered me silent until we got home. The man had a daughter, for Christ’s sake. I couldn’t refute it in good conscience. But my mind couldn’t quite compute the obvious as a potential reality, either. There were too many red flags to toss aside. As far as we were concerned, he was now a suspect and Jax would be launching an immediate investigation. My skin was left crawling, eclipsing my promises of punishment for my naughty, brilliant, reckless girl and ourbiblicalevening, instead leading me directly to our room and into the shower.
Water frigid as a polar plunge, I submerged myself under the steady streams and jammed my eyes closed. But it was the idea that my own blood would profit off sex slaves that sent my fists slamming into the tile wall.
21
Feminism, Who?
ALICE
“Fuck!”
Heart heavy, I stepped into the bathroom, where I found Grey bare, leaning his forehead on his fists where they clenched against the shower wall. I couldn’t even fathom what must be going through his head right now. Not that either of us were shocked that Reggie made shit choices, but this seemed…extreme, even for his Royal Dickness.
Grey’s shoulders rose and fell in labored breaths as the water sluiced down his magnificent body. He truly was an unfairly gorgeous specimen. Equal parts honed muscle and just enough give to make him cuddleable. But that ass just never quit—a pert bubble butt, if I’d ever seen one. Watching streams of water pour over those tight glutes had mesalivating. If he didn't look so distraught, I’d get on my knees and sink my teeth into it.
Maybe getting on my knees was a good idea, regardless.Distract him from the hell inside his head.
It was the rustle of fabric as I slowly unzipped my dress, which had tortured hazels flicking to me, my chest still heaving. Grey’s mouth opened and closed twice, and I slowly slipped free, the gown hissing as it hit the floor. He looked me up and down,tracking my movement as I unclipped my strapless bra and let it follow suit, all too pleased with his sudden, intense focus on my peaked, desperate nipples.
While I still assert there’s no graceful way to slink out of underwear, I did my best before standing at my full height, waiting for a cue.
Tonight had my blood roaring in my ears, and there had never been a sweeter sound than his voice when he came through that door. It was safety and comfort, and surety that we would find a way out, all at once. Our playful promises exchanged on the phone kept my head on straight until he had me in his arms.
I needed them again. Those capable muscles wrapped around my body. His strong hands on my skin. Maybe it was bolder than I had a right to be, but I needed Greyson like the air in my lungs. Needed him to pull my mind into the moment and away from the idea that I’d shared air with a man who sold humans for profit. Away from the idea that the troubled creature before me would have to destroy his own uncle. Monster though he may be.
Lifting my chin, I let my hands settle by my side as his hungry gaze scraped over my body.
My ego purred as he gave me a curt nod, but something in me broke when he stretched a hand toward me, as though he’d wait for mine to fill his palm. As though he was as desperate to touch me as I was to be touched. When I reached up to take off the gaudy, amethyst-jeweled necklace our stylists paired with my gown, he shook his head.
“Leave it. You look royal.”