Page 88 of Shadowed Sins: Nitro

She starts deleting every active bet with vicious efficiency. "During missions, when I stayed close, you were different. More focused."

"You kept the noise quiet." My voice barely carries above the wind. "Your voice in my ear, your hand on my shoulder. My brain had something else to think about besides failure rates and death statistics."

"The team saved you from Tommy's ghost once with safety nets and monitoring." She looks up from the phone, and her eyes are dark with something that should terrify me. "I'm not that nice. I'll save you by being the worse addiction. The one that ruins you for anything else."

Storm clouds are gathering over the city below us, the light shifting to that strange gold that happens before everything changes.

"Tomorrow's operation requires your complete attention. Tonight..." She stands, pulling me up with her, and the contact makes us both gasp. "Tonight we get you there."

"I don't know what this is between us." Her thumb traces over my knuckles, sending a jolt through my body. "But watching you destroy yourself isn't acceptable."

"Why do you care?"

"Because you matter. To the mission, to the team." Her voice catches despite her attempt at control. "To me."

The admission costs her everything. But then she adds, darker: "And because I don't share. Not even with your ghosts."

My breath catches. "Mira—"

"We need to clear your head before tomorrow." Her free hand comes up to my throat, not choking, just possessing. "I have ideas about that."

"What kind of ideas?"

"The kind that require you to trust me completely." She steps closer, our bodies pressed together now. "And the kind that will exhaust you enough that you can't think about numbers or odds or anything except—"

"Except what?"

Her smile turns wicked. "Except how many times I make you come before dawn. How many marks I leave on you. How thoroughly I'm going to ruin you for anyone else."

"That's your solution? Fuck the gambling out of me?"

"No." She presses harder against me and I can feel how fast her heart is racing. "My solution is to give your brain something more dangerous to be addicted to."

"Which is?"

"Me." The word comes out like a threat and a promise. "Two days of distance was supposed to create professional boundaries. But it made me realize something terrible."

"What?"

"I've been lying to myself. This isn't just physical." Her mouth hovers an inch from mine. "It's an infection. And I'd rather die from it than cure it."

She pulls back slightly, still holding my hand in a grip that's just shy of painful. "But not here. Somewhere private. Somewhere I can take you apart properly without worrying about tourists calling security."

"The team—"

"Thinks you're running tactical reviews. I told them you needed space to process the mission parameters." Her thumb finds my pulse point, pressing hard enough to feel my racing heartbeat. "They don't know I followed you."

"You lied to them?"

"I protected what's mine. There's a difference." She starts leading me toward the parking lot, and her grip suggests resistance isn't an option. "Your car or mine?"

"Yours." I let her pull me along, my body already responding to the darkness in her voice. "I'm in no condition to drive."

"Good. At least you're starting to recognize your limit there." She glances back, and the hunger in her eyes makes me stumble. "Too bad I'm about to destroy every other limit you have."

"This is fucked up."

"Everything about us is fucked up." She opens the passenger door with unnecessary force. "Your parents abandoned you. Myfamily was murdered. We're both damaged beyond repair. But maybe our broken edges fit together."