Page 191 of Only Fools Rush

The words whispered through my brain.

I loved her.

“Thank you, Ryu. Seriously. I’ll keep it on me no matter what.”

My heart pounded, trying to process the realization, as I leaned down to kiss her. “No matter what, okay?”

I loved her.I loved her. I loved her teasing, her smile, her viciousness. I loved her kindness and her mean streak. I loved her ponytails and the smell of her sweat and the way she ran her fingers through my hair.

Should I tell her?

No.

“I bet it could fit in my bra. Or my underwear.”

I groaned as countless dirty thoughts laced through my brain. I loved her sass. I loved how she teased me. I loved the feeling of being buried inside her. I cornered her against the wall, hands on either side of her head. My dick was already pressing against my zipper, practically begging to be let out. “How about we play a game? You hide it, and I’ll try to find it.”

“I like this idea.” She giggled, slipping the knife into the pocket of her leggings for now. “I have to find a good hiding place.”

I loved her, but I couldn’t tell her that. I didn’t even knowhow. What was love when you lived a life like mine?

She stood on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips, and I couldn’t resist rutting my hips against hers.

Sunshine.

She tasted like sunshine, a bright light sustaining me through the dark.

It was at that moment that I truly understood what Caspian meant all those times he saidwewere supposed to protect her, keep her out of harm’s way. The sudden fear that I might lose her laced through my heart like a harpoon.

I gave her that knife, but I prayed to the great cosmic void that she’d never have to use it.

“We have to go down to the gym,” she murmured, but she grabbed my cheeks and held my lips to hers. “Wynn is waiting.”

“He can wait,” I murmured as I carried her back to my room and kicked the door shut.

53

CIEL

Istared down at the map of New York City. On it, I had drawn both horizontal and vertical lines to separate it and the surrounding boroughs into a massive grid system.

“I can take out the internet in each of these grids, one by one,” I said, pointing to the red lines slicing through the map. I’d planned out the timing of this meticulously, set up the programming, and made sure that I could execute it on command. All I needed was a thumbs up that we were good to go. “One minute and thirty seconds to each grid, rolling through the city, piece by piece.”

I’d been poring over the problem of Max’s hacker since we’d finished the Alacrán Cartel. Leona would say that I was burying my lack of feeling in this work, but it was the only thing I knew how to do. My work always made me feel better.

This plan was a huge fucking risk, but it just might work. It just might help us narrow down her location and finally remove Lucia Greco as a threat.

Leona stood beside me, also staring at the map. She was the one who triggered this idea with her question in the kitchen.

“You think you can figure out where she is by cutting the internet out?” Her eyes flickered back and forth over the gridas she processed the plan. Obi stood beside her, watching, and listening. The two of them had been practically inseparable since they made up, always ducking their heads, andplanning.

I nodded. “She’s most likely using a grounded internet connection, something direct, and hardwired. I can knock it out for a short time. As soon as she loses connection, though, she’ll boot up her satellite link—probably faster than anyone else in the city. I can then ping outgoing connections to the satellites to narrow down possible locations. Even if someone else gets up and running as quickly as Lucia should, we’ll have at least a massively narrowed-down list of options for where she could be. Then we can follow up one by one until we find her.”

“What if she doesn’t have a sat link?” Leona asked, tossing her braided hair over her shoulder.

“I have one,” I responded with a shrug. “Any hacker worth their salt would have a backup internet connection. Without it, we’re unable to do our jobs. It was probably one of the first things she did when she set up systems in New York. And if I cut out all the internet in the area, she’ll be forced to attempt connecting via satellite.”

“Why so short of a time period, Ciel?” Obi asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you not think it will take her longer than a minute and thirty seconds to connect? Or that it will take you longer to ping her location?”