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Aran

“I’m in!” Hex yells, hopping on top of the mostly ruined couch and waving the tablet. “Fuck, yes!”

My attention veers to him automatically, and I can feel a tiny smile lift one corner of my mouth. He’s gorgeous. His cheeks are rosy as if he’s run a marathon, and he’s heaving a little from all the excitement that he must be currently feeling.

It’s infectious too, and soon my heart is beating like crazy. He’s in, my troublemaker genius hacked into the secondary network.

“Hex, dear, are you okay?” Claire purrs, a hint of that predatory hunger flickering in her eyes. “I hope we didn’t scare you. But don’t worry, your lovely friend Mong and I have reached an agreement. He’ll be working for me from now on, and you will be his pet.”

Hex regards her with a tilt of his head to the side and raises a finger. “Um. First, you are an evil bitch. You don’t just drug people and make them your pets. I’m not even into that stuff. Unless Aran asked me super nicely. I’d be into anything then.” He pouts, raising a second finger and smiling sweetly at me. “And two, that’s not even Mong.”

She looks at me then, really looks. Apprehension slowly creeps into her features as they tense and erase the sly smirk from her face. “You are… that guard… You’ve been posing as VIP staff? I knew something was off!” She recovers her composure quickly after that. “Ah, but this makes me want to hire you even more. Having an asset like you in my possession would be game-changing.”

My patience runs out. She’s moved on as if she wasn’t about to take advantage of Hex mere minutes ago, as if he means nothing. To her and the rest of the cruise’s guests, he’s a pawn like any other. I am too, and so are the majority of people they meet in their lives. They don’t care about anything other than themselves, no matter how much harm and hurt their selfish ambitions might cause.

“Uh, hello? We are here to stop your evil plan, lady, not become a part of it,” Hex counters, his voice loud and accusatory.

He’s pretending he’s fine when he’s not. I can tell. It’s how he copes when he’s under distress. The tiny shivers I can catch give him away though, plus he doesn’t look Claire in the eyes even once. His voice was forcefully energetic just now, too.

But he’s ignoring his own discomfort because of our mission. Because under the smiles, the flirting and the occasional obliviousness hides a man you can count on.

And that man is mine.

Rage suddenly overcomes me, blinding and hot. I reach out and clutch her neck, deaf to whatever she says as shock and terror cross on her face. I’ll never forgive her for what she attempted to do to my Hex. She crossed a line she cannot ever uncross, even if she was the kindest, most benevolent soul in the world.

Slowly, I increase the force of my grip. Her eyes widen and she starts clawing at my hands, but I don’t waver. I can feel movement behind me, Hex rushing to stop me most likely, but I cannot be stopped right now. I am a hurricane that’s just hit the shore, and I will kill everything in my path.

“Stop… you’ll… regret this…” Claire begs, wheezing as her lungs fight for air.

Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Part of me realizes that I didn’t get the information I needed out of her, but it’s too late to stop the inevitable. A sexual predator like her cannot be allowed to live after laying her disgusting hands on Hex.

Everything but me and her retreats to the background, a mere prop to me exacting the punishment this parasite deserves. Gurgling and gasps fill the room, louder than the music from downstairs. They are desperate, just like her attempts to free herself, but ultimately futile as I drain what life she has left from her.

When I finally let go, she crumples to the floor like a puppet with broken strings, lifeless and empty. My bloodlust settles, satisfied that I’ve avenged Hex. The world rushes back in, full of color and sounds and sensations, crashing into me with the force of a speeding train. I stagger back, my head throbbing with pain.

“Aran!” I hear Hex scream from close-by, then a second later arms wrap around me, holding me tight.

“Stay like this,” I mutter after gathering all the sanity that I can currently manage. “Just for a bit.”

“Okay.”

I know what this is. It happens when I fail to control myself, when my training can’t overrule the intrinsically impulsive nature I carry. The disassociation usually lasts for a while, and so I prepare myself for hours of suffering, only to breathe normally again not two minutes later while Hex whispers endearments and praises in my ear.

“You were so hot, Aran. Like a true psycho daddy. I suspected you were one, but holy shit, seeing it in person makes me wanna bang you right here and now.”

What nonsense is he spouting? He should be put off. Scared. Rethinking his life’s choices. Running as far away from me as he can.

But no, Hex doesn’t do that. He nuzzles his nose along my neck and inhales me deeply, shuddering as he stifles an erotic moan. He’s crazy in his own way, in the best way , and that makes him perfect for my fucked-up self.

I kiss his hair, letting his sweet scent enter every pore of my skin. There is a hint of me in it, a subtle trace that’s easy to miss, and it activates those dark and possessive desires I’ve been trying to fight for so long.

I don’t have to anymore. I’ve capitulated, surrendered to what my heart truly wants so I can move forward with the man I love by my side.

“I’m loving this, I really am. And I’m getting really horny. But . We might have a slight problem because your obsessive-possessive morally black side acted without thinking.”

Nothing can be a problem right now. This is bliss. Heaven on Earth. I can’t believe I defied this for so long. I’m such an idiot. Hex wants me, he always has, and the same is true for me. It should’ve been enough. Being with him is worth breaking any promise, I don’t know why I tried to fool myself otherwise.

“So,” he continues, his voice a little muffled as he rubs his cheeks against my madly beating heart. “I hacked into the secondary network, yeah? And while you were Rambo-ing around, I also located the entrance to the secret labs… But to get in, we need the biometrics of someone with access, and the only such person we’ve currently identified…” He darts a look at Claire’s corpse. “You kind of killed her.”

Yes, I can see how that could be a problem. But I am the type of man who won’t let a minor setback like this prevent me from completing a mission.

I extricate myself from Hex, stroke his cheek, and kiss his nose. He seems a little confused at first, but soon leans into my touch like a cat begging to be scratched. My hands begin to roam him, and he sighs in contentment.

“Feels good… but we really need to figure something out. I’m already searching for the names of the other VIPs with access, but that takes time. I could try to hack directly into the biometric terminal itself, but those can be tricky, and a single mistake can trigger a failsafe mechanism, which will send an alert that someone is trying to bypass the scanner.”

“How troublesome indeed,” I agree once I am satisfied that Hex hasn’t suffered any injuries.

“You don’t sound like you are troubled at all,” he shoots back, slanting those cute eyebrows at me.

I kiss the furrowed gap between them. “Because I am not.”

I leave him frowning at me and approach the shelf. A knife sits inside the box where the guns must’ve been hidden, its thin blade glinting under the scattered light.

This will do.

“You might want to turn around for this,” I say as I take it and hunch over Claire.

Hex jogs over, crouching down next to me. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Solving our problem,” I say and stab the corner of her right eye with the knife.

“Eww!” Hex grimaces but doesn’t look away.

He observes me as I work to get her eye out intact. It’s a finicky job, but I eventually succeed.

“This is both disgusting and cool at the same time,” Hex comments, handing me a clear plastic packet from somewhere.

Once the eye is inside, we haul the bodies behind the couch and clean up the mess so the room doesn’t look like a bomb dropped inside it. It won’t fool the rest of the guests forever—especially with the door that I broke—but it should buy us the time that we need if my other scuffle doesn’t raise the alarms before then.

“Let’s go!” Hex urges me out the door.

“Where are we going?” I say as we descend the stairs and rejoin the loud crowd.

I already know that the entrance to the secret part of the ship is on the residences’ deck, but Hex hasn’t told me yet where, and that deck is huge.

He whips his head back and grins. “It’s her cabin! That’s where the entrance is!”

Of course, it’s her cabin. That makes total sense. The only problem, though? There is surveillance all over the hallway with the VIP cabins and a ton of security guards.