Page 27 of Neon Flux

I got clean. I got away.But his hand was still wrapped around my arm like he owned me, and I couldn’t do a damn thing.Coward.I ground my teeth and let those memories fuel an anger that swelled in my gut. I let just a sliver of the electricity in my blood shock him, and his grip loosened.

“Get the hell off me, Rook.” I shoved him, and his smile dropped into something ugly.

“Come on, once a whore, always a whore. You telling me you never work anymore?” He sneered.

I thought of my upcoming job, what I had to do, and all the anger drained out of me. I was just pretending anything had changed—that I’d ever really escaped. He saw my resolve falter and moved in again, grinning like he’d already won.

“Is there a problem here?” Dev had come out of the back room.

“Oh, just reminiscing about old times, when Eon used to bend over for any trick with two hardcreds to rub together.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I hated that more than I hated him. Hated how weak he made me.

Dev moved between us. “Get the fuck out of my clinic.”

“What? You getting kickbacks from the cock-sucker now, Dev? Didn’t think she was your type. Guess lips are all the same, no matter who they’re on.” Rook shrugged.

“Get the fuck out while you can still walk.” I’d never seen Dev so serious.

“Come on, we’re just joking around. You owe me creds anyway.”

“I don’t owe you a goddamn thing.” Dev reached under the counter and pulled out a gun I’d never seen before, aiming it at Rook’s head. “Get out.”

Rook’s smile only widened. “I’ve got a shield. That won’t do shit.”

“Ever tested it?” I’d finally found my voice again.

The grin vanished. His face shifted to that ugly place all men go when they feel rejected by someone they think beneath them. He turned and spat on the floor.

“That’s what I get for dealing with whores and fags.”

Dev didn’t lower the gun, and Rook backed a step away.

His frown deepened before something cruel sparked in his eyes. “Whatever. I was going to offer you my condolences, but—”

“Condolences for what?” I shouldn’t have let him bait me. But the bottom had dropped out of my stomach.

His sneer stretched wide. He flicked the side of his Vysor, and an article popped up on mine.

Beloved professor found dead in Blue District home of suicide.

Professor Tanaka’s smiling eyes stared back at me from the obituary photo. The blood drained from my head, and Dev grabbed me just below the elbow.

She would’ve never gone out like that. I knew who had really done this.

“My condolences, Eon,” Rook said. Then he turned and left the store, slamming the door so hard a new crack split across the glass and a small piece fell, shattering on the floor.

“You okay, E? What did he send you?” Dev asked, squeezing my shoulder.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Where did you get that gun, Dev?”

“What, you’re the only one around here who gets to have a dark and shadowy past?” He wiggled his eyebrows, trying to get me to smile.

It didn’t work.

My hands were still shaking, but I shoved everything down. Work. I needed to work. Anything to keep my mind busy as my pinky twitched again, my mind on that fluorescent vial.

“Hey,” I said, nudging him. “I need you to run an optimization on my Flux chip.”