Page 82 of Neon Flux

I scraped my hand down my face. “Ugh, this is such a fucking waste of time. I’ll message Akira, see if he can get me a meeting. Probably going to need some product to grease the wheels.”

Maddox nodded at that. “I’ll see what I can get from the lab.”

“She found my apartment.”

Maddox’s eyes went wide. “She shouldn’t have been able to do that.”

No shit.Alpha-level assets didn’t exist. The people called us kaijinfor a reason. We were ghosts—the things that haunted thenight. We weren’t people. We were nightmares. No one found us. No one saw us.

Except her.

He paused. “You just gave her that data last night, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Our guys have had it all week. Hadn’t gotten half of what she did. She’s pretty good, yeah?”

“She’s pretty cocky, that’s what she is.”

Maddox gave me a look. “I bet you don’t last two minutes without touching her.”

“So little faith. All right, one thousand creds says I’m a perfect gentleman.”

Before he could respond, Eon walked over.

She strolled beside me like she wasn’t being dragged into this whole mess against her will. Like she had a choice. Like she wasn’t a goddamn gorgeous liability with a smart mouth.

“You walk like an asshole,” she said, adjusting the strap of her bag.

I glanced at her. “And you talk like one.”

She smirked. “Yeah, but mine’s intentional.”

Maddox crossed his arms and coughed. No sympathy there.

I exhaled through my nose. “Hurry it the fuck up. We don’t have all day.”

She stretched her arms overhead like we were taking a casual stroll, her pace slowing. “You’re awfully eager for someone who doesn’t think we’ll find anything. You on a deadline or something?”

God, her fucking grin. I wanted to wrap my hand around that long neck and throttle her until she was screaming my name and writhing beneath me.

My thoughts of her flushed skin and labored breath were cut short by another grunt from Maddox. We’d reached the elevators. He took his leave, and it was just me and her.

I was in so much trouble.

We reachedRenard’s apartment building. The silence in the elevator as it rose was deafening.

“We aren’t going to find anything. They’ve already cleaned the apartment. It’s on the market,” I said.

“And yet, here we are,” she sing-songed.

I gritted my teeth. “Only because Tex said so.”

“I did like seeing you take orders like a good little dog.”

Before I could even think, my hand was around her neck, pressing her up against the elevator wall. I leaned in, my lips brushing her ear as I felt the swell of her against my chest. “Careful how you talk to me, doll. Remember, I’m the one with your life in my hands.” I squeezed the sides of her neck gently—just enough to make she knew how easy it would be for me to snap it.

“You’re right, because if I was in charge, I’d have you on a fucking leash.” She snarled in my face.