Page 68 of Neon Flux

“And I don’t want to have to hurt you, doll.”

“Who’s the liar now?”

He couldn’t hide his grin at that. “Fair enough. But not like this. You’re tough, that’s obvious. But this little bug taps directly into your nervous system, releasing hormones that mimic the worst, purest kind of pain. You can’t resist forever. The longest someone ever lasted was about eight minutes at full strength.”

“What strength am I at now?”

“Sixty percent.”

“That’s fucked. Just another innovative use of technology by POM.”

“Sure is. But it’s not really the tech, right? It’s your body. It was designed to avoid pain, to do anything to get away from it. But we don’t let shock set in. After eight minutes, you’d tell me anything I wanted to hear. After ten minutes, you’d do anything I wanted—even kill your own grandma. Anything at all, to get the pain to stop. You can’t fight a million years of evolution, doll.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

He let out a small chuckle. “Maybe I’m just old school—don’t like doing things the easy way. Besides, it would scramble your brain. It wasn’t designed to withstand that. Seems an awful waste since apparently you’re some genius-level hacker.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “Don’t like your women braindead, huh?”

“Give me some credit.” He reached forward and grabbed my chin, his thumb tracing over my lips. “Why do you think I like you so much?”

The hunger in his gaze was something I’d seen a million times before, and I’d used it to get what I’d wanted. Now I was tied up, at his mercy, and I knew I wasn’t in control. Now it felt much more dangerous—more dangerous than the device strapped to my chest.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t use it.

“Also, I’m not a hacker. What is this, 2064? I’m a cyberrunner.”

“Oh? Cyberrunner, sex worker—any other skills you’ve got hidden away, Mary Sue?”

“What can I say? I’ve got depth. Not my fault you only know how to fight and fuck.”

His eyes lit up. He made it too easy.

“You been thinking about that, huh?”

“Not as much as you’ve been thinking about me. Found me awfully quickly, Cy. You must’ve really missed me.” He kept aneutral face, and I pushed him. “How many times did you jerk off thinking about me before today?”

Maddox let out a soft cough and turned his back on us, busying himself with something. I’d almost forgotten he was there.

“That mouth is going to get you into trouble.”

“Always has. But I want to see how far you’re willing to go to get what you want.”

He leaned over, hand on the arm of the chair. The other reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun. He traced the tip down the curve of my jaw. I swallowed as it slid down my neck, pausing on my pulse before slipping lower over my collarbone. His cheek brushed mine as he leaned in closer, his lips next to my ear.

“Doll, something you will learn about me—no matter the cost, I always get what I want.”

The pistol traced lower, and he hooked the weapon under the edge of my shirt, lifting it. There, along my ribs, ran a vivid raised scar. Pink hardened skin webbed with smaller white lines, indicative of an electric burn.

Cy ran his long finger along the scar gently, almost with reverence. The sensation was equally unwelcome and ticklish and arousing, and I bit my lip to stop from responding to any of those feelings.

“I know the first time we met wasn’t at The Blackout. You were inside the Tech data center with your anarchist friends, and we had a little date, didn’t we?”

His Flux snaked down the pistol, zapping the sensitive skin of my scar, and I hissed.

“I may have been thinking about you, but you’ve been thinking about me a lot longer, haven’t you, doll?” He pressed the weapon more roughly into the scar, and I bared my teeth at him.

His lips moved against my ear again as the device on my chest heated. “Answer the question.”