Page 37

CY

T ex held Eon back for a moment. Maddox sidled up to me, leaning in to whisper, “You want me to go with?”

“She’s already flighty. You don’t want to know what it took to get her into this meeting. Having the two of us there again will only make that worse.” Not really a lie.

Maddox didn’t buy if for a second. “Uh-huh. You going to be able to keep things professional this time, Cy?”

I let my studded tongue stick out of my mouth. “When have I ever not been professional?”

“Exactly. Besides, I need you to get in contact with the Kitsune.”

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 kaijin for a reason. We were ghosts—the things that haunted the night. 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 reached Renard’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.

Her, on top of me, a collar around my neck as she yanked. Who’s my good boy?

“Careful, dogs bite.” I was so fucking hard, and she knew it. It wasn’t an accident when she rolled against me.

“Then show me your teeth.”

“We have reached the penthouse. Please exit the elevator.” The electronic voice echoed around us, and for one more moment the energy between us thrummed, an inescapable force. Then she shoved me off, and I let go without hesitation.

She walked into the apartment, and I adjusted myself before following after her.

They’d cleaned the place up, not a speck of blood to be seen. Realtors didn’t even have to disclose anything in Neo Stellaris. A heart attack, that was the story.

“Damn, maybe I should have gone corporate.” Eon sighed, eyeing the place—with its two-story ceilings and all-black fixtures. For a second, it almost looked like she wanted to roll around on the real wool rug, but she resisted.

“Told you. Once you see the benefits, suddenly your soul doesn’t seem so valuable, does it?

” She shot me a look but traced her hand along the marble counter as she walked through the kitchen, her eyes darting everywhere.

“Don’t know what you think you’re going to find.

You won’t find an electron out of place. ”

She ignored me, wandering deeper into the space. She stepped into the office off the living area, the glass doors wide open. When you lived in a place like this, you wanted your guests to see every inch of it. She scanned the shelves in the back and frowned, then came back out.

“It’s all fake, huh? Staged?”

“Yeah, like I said—” She pushed past me and found the main comm panel for the security system near the front door.

She pulled out one of those nerdy retro keyboards that only total techheads used and hardwired into the panel.

I walked over and watched her breach the system in under ten seconds. Not bad.

She shrugged. “For such a fancy place, they have shit software.” I knew for a fact it had taken our guys four hours to break the encryption of the security feed here, but she’d already seen all that data. I told her so.

“Just checking to see if you missed anything.” She shot me a condescending grin that had me pissed—and my cock twitching again. I rubbed the back of my head and walked away before I got worked up. Again.

For a few minutes, the only sound in the apartment was the clack of her mechanical keys, until I heard her let out an annoyed groan. She yanked her hardwire and stomped over to me.

I gave her my own condescending grin. “Find anything?”

She crossed her arms and twisted her mouth. “No. Visual and audio was useless. Thermals showed the same spike we saw on the EM data, but we already knew that.” She bit her lip as she thought through everything, and I couldn’t stop watching those plump lips twist and blanch. Fuck me .

Everything about her was a fucking distraction. The tight crop top hugging her tits, the sliver of skin between that and her baggy pants, which did nothing to hide that tempting curve at the base of her spine—and everything below it. No wonder I couldn’t keep my hands off her.

“I told you. So unless we’re going to fuck against those windows, I don’t know what we’re doing here.”

She made a disgusted face and flipped me off. “Fuck you, Cy.” Like she hadn’t just pressed herself against me in the elevator, her breath hitching when my lips grazed her skin. Fine. She wanted to play like that—I would play.

“That’s the idea, doll.” My mind was already there—her back and ass pressed against the glass as I squeezed those creamy thighs and had her screaming my name again. Thrusting into that tight cunt while I looked out over the whole goddamn city.

Instead, she rolled her eyes at me.

“Get a grip. Preferably on yourself. Where was he murdered?”

I pointed to the bar by the windows, and she sauntered over, the view of her ass only making things worse. She stood up on her toes and peered into the cabinets, just slightly bent over the counter. Fuck me! She was doing this on purpose.

And I was done restraining myself.

I walked up behind her, caging her against the cold marble with my arms, burying my face in the hair at the base of her neck.

She growled as I pressed my cock against her ass. “I said fuck off, Cy!”

“Why? We’ve got this whole place to ourselves. Just finishing what you started.” I knew it would piss her off, and I reveled in the pain as she slammed her elbow into my ribs. I grinned and pressed in harder.

Then I felt her power rise, and she threw me back with it. I slid across the seamless floor, ready for her, as she spun, eyes glowing. I let my own Flux meet hers, so fucking ready for this fight, when her eyes went wide. But they weren’t looking at me.

Look at me. I let my EM field pulse, and her eyes snapped back to mine. That’s it, look at me. See me.

“Do that again,” she said, dropping her Flux. Her eyes darted away again. “Look.”

No, look at me, doll.

“You idiot, look at the walls.” I was only looking at her. I’d been trapped in the line of her jaw as it tightened, and I had to tear my eyes away.

When I did, my eyes went just as wide as hers. The glimmer of what looked like glowing symbols ran over every wall in the apartment.

“Flare again—that’s what triggered it.” She turned her back to me, running her hands over the cabinet again. “Do it!”

“Yes, boss.” I grunted and set out another pulse. The walls flared up again. Glyphs glowed a deep blue on every wall, every cabinet—even the windows. Only the furniture was blank. She ran her finger over the couch, its surface empty.

“What are you waiting for? Get some vid!” She was already recording with her Vysor. I rolled my eyes at the command but did it anyway, my Flux pulsing to keep the glyphs active.

She sprinted out of the room and up the stairs near the entryway.

“Nothing upstairs!” she called, running back down. “And it’s clearest here—where he was killed. Keep scanning!”

When I was sure I’d captured everything, I found her running her fingers over the glyphs again by the bar cabinet.

“I don’t recognize this language,” she said, barely a whisper.

“Looks like gibberish to me.”

She gave me a look that said I was a complete idiot. “Do you really think this is just random. I may not recognize the language, but there are patterns here…it clearly means something.”

“Got an idea already, genius?” My sarcasm was thick.

“I can’t read it, asshole. I’ll have to decode it later, but like…what the fuck is this, Cy? Have you ever seen something like this?”

I shook my head, dead serious for once. “No—well, except my implants.” The circuits glowed just like this did, activated by my Flux. She bit her lip at that, and I was distracted again.

Her eyes drifted to my face, and something inside me settled as she looked at me. Her hand twitched like she wanted to touch me, but she thought better of it. She was looking at the glowing circuits on my face.

“Early implants had Stellarium cores. That’s what reacts…” She trailed off, letting out an aggravated huff. She was frustrated with herself, but her eyes sparked—I could see it. That glint of excitement. Another puzzle she needed to crack. And just like that, she wasn’t looking at me anymore.

“Guess you have your work cut out for you.”