Page 28

CY

“ T his is the place?” Maddox asked, but even through his usual monotone I could sense his judgment.

The Hellfire Club was a dive, even by Neo Stellaris standards.

Neon sign flickered in and out, half the letters already dead, leaving only H E L L to glow in dim red.

The walls had glitchy screens showing footage of dancers who probably hadn’t worked here in years.

Bass-heavy synth music inside was loud enough that I could feel it thrumming in my chest before we even stepped through the doors.

I adjusted my jacket and shot Maddox a sidelong glance. “You expecting a red carpet? Maybe a high-end lounge?”

He didn’t respond, just scanned the exterior, his expression unreadable. Not that I expected much else.

I pushed the door open, and we stepped into a haze of smoke and low-lit desperation.

The air reeked of cheap perfume, sweat, and spunk.

A handful of patrons were scattered around, nursing drinks, eyes flicking toward the main stage where a dancer swayed half-heartedly to the beat.

She looked bored. Most of the crowd did too.

Rook was easy to find—a king in his own crumbling kingdom.

He was lounging in a semi-private booth, half-shadowed by the dim lighting, a drink in one hand, the other draped over the shoulder of a dancer curled up next to him, stoned out of her mind.

His suit was immaculate, a sharp contrast to the wreckage of the club around him.

His white-blond hair was slicked back to show of the scar that ran down his pale face.

Same old Rook. Pretending he was still in control, even as the world burned around him.

Maddox and I approached, and his eyes flicked up, a slow, knowing smile creeping onto his face.

“Hey cabrón, long time no see. What brings you back to my gutter?” Rook was all teeth as he smiled at me. He could smell the creds waiting for him a mile away.

“Need data. You think you’ve got something?” His smile grew even bigger, if that was possible. He waved for us to follow him.

Rook drew us into one of his VIP booths—low VegLeather benches lined the three walls of the cramped space, with a round table at the center.

I flopped back onto the far bench and crossed one foot over the opposite knee, my arms stretched along the back of the couch.

Maddox sat down beside me, ramrod straight.

Rook fingered the data pad near the door, and a pair of small tits attached to a decent body digitized from the projector at the center of the small table.

“Relax for a moment, and I’ll be right with you gentleman.

” He leered before popping out of the room, the door sliding shut behind him.

It cut off the sound of the club, and all I could hear was the beat the virtual stripper danced to.

A frown twisted Maddox’s mouth. “Relax, man. Rook knows better than to fuck with us. He doesn’t get paid that way.”

“You used to run with him, right?” Maddox asked.

“Rook? Nah. He wasn’t Chrome Kitsune. He’s just always had his fingers in everyone’s ass, always had dealings with them.” I let out a huff. “If he was Kitsune, he wouldn’t be welcoming me with open arms like this.”

Maddox nodded. I’d never told him much about my time as a Kitsune, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that when you leave a gang, it’s not just hard feelings and a few shed tears. Normally, at least a few people ended up dead—or in my case, a lot of people.

The door slid open, and Rook flopped down on the bench across from me. “What sort of data are you looking for?”

“Just looking for some answers,” I said. “About Renard.”

His smile didn’t falter, but there was a flicker of something in his eyes. Interest? Annoyance? Hard to tell.

“Renard, huh? Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a bit.” He leaned back, spreading his arms out across the seat. “And why, exactly, would I know anything about him?”

“Cut the shit, Rook. We know he was here—often. What was he doing?”

“I assume what everyone here is doing—getting their dicks wet.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, exasperated, when the song playing changed and a new digital girl materialized in front of us. Now this one had perfect tits. I let myself enjoy them for a moment—then my jaw clenched.

It was her.

Green hair framed that gorgeous, freckled face as she rolled her body. Eon Ibarra, caught in a perfect digital recreation. Well, almost perfect. Even though she moved like a damn dream, her eyes were dead.

Maddox caught my gaze, and when he recognized her, went even stiffer—if that was possible. Rook saw the movement and followed both of our gazes.

“Ah, you like her, do you? Can’t blame you—she was one of a kind, that one.

” He shook his head. “Sadly, she’s not one of my girls anymore.

But luckily, I’ve got her on file here forever.

So really, she’ll always be mine.” He gave me that toothy grin, and I nearly cracked my teeth as my jaw clenched harder.

My hand flipped to my waist when Maddox shot me a warning look. I grabbed my VaPurr out of my suit jacket instead of my weapon and flared it up, leaning back again. Rook didn’t relent.

“I can load her up onto one of the RoboPussies we have, if you’re into virtual—”

“Not looking to blow a load, Rook. Although with the way you’re jerking me around here, I just might. Do you have anything useful here, or are we done?”

His smile dropped immediately. “You know in this business, confidentiality is everything. If people hear I was giving out client data—”

“Then no one has to hear about it. It’s either you tell us, or all those virtual pussies you have on file suddenly disappear during your next system upgrade. So what’ll it be?”

Rook’s neck was sweating, and he was pissed, but he couldn’t fight me any more than he could fight POM.

“All right—but this doesn’t get out. Yeah, Renard came here. Liked the girls—liked the girls a lot. But he also liked meeting with the Chrome Kitsune leaders, who also enjoyed my girls. You read me?”

“Who? I want names.”

His lips tightened, but Rook was, first and foremost, a coward. This was just a waiting game now.

“Hideki Hinokawa.”

I sat up at that. Hinokawa-san was oyabun—the head of the clan. If he’d been meeting with Renard, this wasn’t some petty street deal.

“You got recordings?”

“What, do I look like an idiot? Of course not. That’s why they were meeting here.”

I scoffed. I’d have internal check his drives later, but there was probably nothing. Rook was a coward, but he was right. He wasn’t an idiot.

“What else?” Maddox asked, his arms still crossed.

“Not much. The whole point is, I didn’t know what they were chatting about.”

Maddox grunted.

“He have a favorite girl?” I asked. Rook nodded. “Send her over. Maybe I will get my dick wet after all.”

Maddox grunted again, and Rook grinned. “I know we’re friends, but the goods ain’t free.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand, and he left. I practically felt the creds get pulled out of my account.

Maddox frowned. “Cy, we’re working. And don’t you think it’s in bad taste—”

“I just want to talk to her, jeez, partner. Always assuming the worst.”

“Yeah, sure. Well, I’ll be outside. Don’t need to be a part of this.” He stood and walked out.

“Prude!” I called after him, but he didn’t react. As the door slid closed again, it was me and the virtual Eon left in the room.

I leaned into the holo, and for a moment I thought I saw her look right at me.

“Can’t find you, but can’t get away from you, can I?

” I took another hit from my VaPurr and let the feeling surge through me, my implants reacting, and the pain in my shoulder lessened.

One more hit and I practically couldn’t feel it at all.

The lights in the room started diffracting, and I knew I’d taken too much—but I couldn’t seem to find the will to care.

I looked back at Eon on the table, when she stood up and crawled into my lap. “Miss me, corpo?”

“Not even a little bit, doll.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” Goddamn, this Vector must have been fresh, because I swore I could feel her hands grip my collar, the weight of her in my lap.

“How much longer are you going to make me wait for you?”

“I always get what I want. No matter the cost.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” She grinned, and those deep violet eyes sparked. “So what do you want first, handsome?”

“What?” I shook my head.

“Damn, you’re out of it. I asked what do you want, handsome?”

I blinked, and green hair and perfect lips faded into something else—someone else. Dark hair with blunt bangs framed a pretty face with a strong jaw. Renard’s favorite girl.

“What’s your name?”

“Akiko.” She was rolling her whole body against mine, her legs spread over my lap and the tempting heat of her pressed against my hardening cock.

But I’d been distracted enough this last week.

Business came first. I grabbed her hips in a firm grip so she couldn’t move.

She tried not to react, but I saw the flinch.

“Tell me about Renard.”

“Who? Only people here now are you and me, handsome.”

“Let’s start again, sweetheart.” I flashed the gun under my jacket, but her eyes locked onto the POM badge over my heart. “Tell me about Renard.”

The color drained from her face. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? Kaijin—POM’s boogeymen?”

“And boogeywomen. We don’t discriminate.” I gripped her hip just a bit harder, and she winced.

“I don’t want any trouble.”

“Then tell me what I want to know.”

She let out a sigh, and her mask dropped. “What’s there to tell? You wanna know his favorite positions or something?”

“You ever overhear one of his meetings with Hinokawa-san?”

Her eyes went wide. A bad lair. “No, I never—”

I shifted her forward, then grabbed the gun out of my holster, tracing the barrel along her thigh. “Don’t lie to me.”

She whimpered. “Okay, okay. I guess he’s dead, so what does it matter?

They were always talking about…data storage.

How much Hinokawa had in the Kitsune den.

That’s all they talked about, like a damn business negotiation.

Renard wanted more room on their server—wanted them to upgrade their processors.

Said the ‘project’ wasn’t moving fast enough. ”

“What project?”

“She shook her head. “I don’t know, I swear. They never said—” She was shaking now, but she wasn’t lying.

I pulled her head against my chest and stroked her hair gently. “I believe you. Anything else I should know?”

She didn’t try to pull away, speaking into my chest. “The guy paid a lot extra to go raw—loved it. Actually got two girls here pregnant.”

“Names?” I asked. She gave them to me and I noted them down, but I doubted that would lead anywhere besides a few hush-money payments. Having some C-suite’s illegitimate brat was probably one of the most stable jobs in this city.

I leaned back. Why would Renard need to store data with the Kitsune? He was in charge of the biggest tech infrastructure in the world. Unless he was up to something he didn’t want anyone to have eyes on. More questions than answers—but it was a start.

My eyes drifted to Eon’s holographic form again.

“You know her?” I asked Akiko, motioning to the table. She turned her head back for a moment.

“E? Yeah, a while ago.” She kept grinding on my lap, but I raised my eyebrows.

She sighed and slowed her hips. “She was…she was a good one. In this line of work, some people get nasty—think it’s you against everyone else.

But E always looked out for everyone. I was in a bad spot once; an ex was threatening me.

I don’t know exactly what she did, but a bunch of his data got leaked, and he’s in jail now. Don’t have to worry about him.”

Of course she fucking did. A cyberrunner with the heart of an angel. “Know where she’s at now?”

She shook her head. “Nah, E was always on the move—never stayed in one place, not after she got out of here. The only place you could ever find her consistently was on the Net. And no, I don’t have her updated contact there either.”

I leaned back against the chair, letting out a sigh. So much for that.

Akiko leaned up against me, her hips grinding against my half-hard cock and her nipples pressed into my chest as she whispered in my ear, “Hey, I may not be her, but I’m not too bad.

Come on, I rarely get good-looking guys like you.

We could have some real fun.” She was smart—knew it was a good idea to have a guy from POM leave remembering her fondly.

I smirked, and my hands went up her thighs. She let out the sweetest little moan. Sometimes I fucking loved my job.

“I don’t know, you seem like an awfully bad girl to me.”

She smirked and ran her hands under my jacket and down to the waist of my pants, and I groaned as she didn’t hesitate to grip my cock with her full strength. I shifted to pull a condom out of my jacket pocket when the flashing lights of the digital projection caught my attention.

Eon moved—almost exactly the way that Akiko did—hips rolling, her eyes half-lidded with pleasure.

I took another hit as Akiko rolled the condom down my cock. Then it was Eon’s hand on me, her sweet pussy wrapped around me. I wrapped my hand around the base of her throat, just enough to feel how her heartbeat sped up.

Keep running, doll. I can’t wait to catch you.