Page 42 of Neon Flux

“Shut up, DITA.”

CHAPTER 13

CY

“You look like shit.” Maddox peered at me over the short wall of my cubicle. “Were you here all night?”

“Fuck yes, I was here all night. I’m trying to find these bitches who conned us. Where the fuck were you?” I rubbed the back of my head, the lack of sleep making it ache.

“I was out in Green, investigating theterrorist attack. You know, the actually important event of last night.”

“And you think the fact that my Vysor was tampered with and yours was off while you got your dick sucked during the exact time of the attack was just coincidence, huh?” I leaned back in my desk chair and looked up at Maddox. His lips curled into a frown.

“I think…you’re taking this a little bit personally,” he said.

“Damn right I’m taking this personally. That bitch knew who I fucking was, Maddox. That doesn’t worry you?” Alpha employee profiles were some of the most highly secured data in this place. As far as the world was concerned—Maddox, Tex, me—we didn’t exist. So how did she know that we did?

“She was there to distract me from doing my fuckin’ job.”

“You didn’t make it hard for her, did you?”

That was the root of it. I’d broken my own rule and underestimated her because she was gorgeous, and I’d needed to get my dick inside her as fast as possible. Stupid, rookie mistake.

I leaned back, rubbing my eyes. Maddox gave me a look that clearly communicated how much of a dumbass I’d been. He was lucky he was a good partner, ’cause he was getting on my nerves right now. I rubbed harder until stars sparked in my vision. I’d been going through Elysium University’s records all night looking for her, but I’d found nothing. My eyes ached in their dry sockets, but I couldn’t stop now.

When I opened my eyes again, Maddox was leaning over my terminal screen.

“You find her in the enrollment list?”

“No, nothing.”

“You think she was really a student?”

Fuck.Fuck!Of course she wasn’t a student. God, she’d set a trap for me, and I’d fallen right into it like some idiotic Sky District asshole.

Maddox frowned at me. “You really didn’t consider that?”

“Shut the fuck up, man. Goddamnit. I have less now than I did last night.” I flicked the side of my Vysor so the image I’d taken of the mirror displayed on my terminal for Maddox. “This is all I have.”

Maddox’s lips twitched into a smile.

“You think this is fuckin’ funny, asshole?”

“Just sounds like something you would say.”

It did. Something clicked in my sleep-deprived brain. She didn’t know who I was—she knew me. And she hadn’t been able to resist letting it show.

“Gotcha, bitch.”

Maddox’s humor deflated again.

“What?” I asked.

“Be careful, Cy. I’ve seen you get obsessed like this before. It never ends well.”

“I’m not obsessed.”

Never mind that I’d had to retreat to the supply closet multiple times in the night because I’d gotten so hard over the thought of hate-fucking her with my gun to her head until she screamed my name, I couldn’t focus. Even now, I was thinking about how good she had tasted when she’d finally let go and come all over my tongue.