I can’t. I won’t.
It feels wrong. I’d feel like I was betraying Nick. Westin hugging me was one thing . . . But this? No way. Being hugged by Riot once without my permission was enough for me.
“You’re not supposed to exist,” I remind him. “You were supposed to have disappeared. I can’t hug an invisible man.”
I open the fridge, grab two sodas and hand him one.
“I’m here to protect you. I told those fuckers I wasn’t working for them anymore. I’m sure they’ve figured out I’m here by now,” he says. He pushes his soda aside like he always does.
“How would they? I took the grid down around my house. They can’t hack into any of my security no matter what they do. And you haven’t left since I snuck you in here. Your car’s gone. How’ll they know?” I flip the tab off the soda can, scrub the top down, then open it with my own special opener. I pour mine into a pre-approved glass.
Once I’ve taken a few sips, my nerves have reduced some, enough so I can breathe again.
My head pounds and my legs tremble under me.
“Sit down. Let’s figure out how we can protect him.” He wears a slight grimace on his face.
“Thanks, Riot, but I’m not going to drag you into this any further than I already have.”
I walk over to the couch and fall into the seat.
When my feet go up on the coffee table, his eyes go wide and he wears a crooked grin.
“Well, I want to help somehow.” He leans over and removes my shoes for me.
“Thank you. And don’t you dare sanitize this table for me tomorrow since I put my feet here,” I say, smirking.
He chuckles. “You know me so well.”
“Only because you know me so well.” I take another sip.
“I can’t help it, Dena. You know how I feel about you.” He drops to his knees next to me, and his eyes go soft. “I’d do anything for you. I’d never hurt you like he has. Never.”
I blink and my heart slips into my spleen. “God, I shouldn’t have brought you here—I’m hurting you, and I don’t want that. I don’t mean to. You’re too good a person to be treated this way. I mean, you already gave up your beloved dog to come live here in my home for the time being.” I groan and tip my head back with my eyes closed for a second, then drop it back down to look at him.
He has no idea I did this for Nick, not him. I knew if Riot lived here in my home, even if just for a little while, I wouldn’t allow Nick to break my home’s defenses so he could get at me. Riot was the only protection I needed from myself.
“No, no, it’s not like that,” he says, inching toward me, and his hand goes to the arm rest on the couch, very close to touching me.
I look at his hand and shift away from him. “I know how you feel, I do—but I’m sorry, I just don’t feel the same way.”
“Maybe in time, you will . . .” His eyes mist.
“No, Riot. I don’t think so. I’ve had a few boyfriends over the years, and it was cruel of me to be with any of them because I knew I couldn’t love them. I’ve only ever loved Nick,” I explain, my voice soft. “No one else has ever done it for me but him. Even when I was talking to him online and didn’t know it was him—there was this charge I got from him. I feel safe with him, and no one else makes me feel that way. I can’t explain it, but it’s there. It’s always there, and it takes over my entire body and mind.”
I scoot away from him.
“That’s because you never let yourself try. You’d be safer with me, and I wouldn’t push you into it. I’d be patient. Hell, I’d wait a million years for you to feel even a fraction of what I feel for you.” He blinks and tears gather at the corners of his eyes.
I have to look away.
“Maybe we should . . .”
“Yes, Dena, fuck—let’s try,” he says, voice eager and high pitched.
He must think he’s completing my thought for me.
“Maybe we should stop talking about this. I’m tired, and I don’t want to hurt you any more than I already have. I’m thinking we need to find you somewhere else safe to be for a little while at least.” I stand up, and he follows me toward my room.
I turn and brace myself with a hand on the wall. My head drops, and I look up at him through my lashes, trying to hide my facial expressions. I feel like absolute shit.
“I can’t love you—because my entire heart, body and soul belong to someone else, and I won’t take them back because I don’t fucking want to,” I say so quiet, he leans forward to hear me.
His face drops.
I turn around, head into my room, and say, “Lock down room.”
The locks do their job, and before I can think, I’ve told the chip to open my window, and I’m climbing out.
I have to see him. Even if it’s just from a distance . . .
* * *
I sit on Nick’s bed, inhaling his scent.
I can do it if I want. I already turned off his security scanners.
His dad won’t know I was here.
Neither will Nick.
He’s gone.
So is Jason.
I unlock Nick’s computer, infiltrate his hard drive and then break into his father’s surveillance system.
Nick’s not there in his dad’s home either.
I find Nick’s notes for the chip he’s inserted in his arm.
God, watching the video footage of him doing that, had me freaking out.
Doing it himself? What the fuck was he thinking?
I pull out my hand sanitizer and wipe down his side table for him.
He never cleaned it thoroughly after performing that procedure on himself.
When I’m done, I lie down on his bed and stretch out.
What if I fall asleep and let him find me here?
I slip the slimboy two into the slot on the side of his laptop and download all his secrets.
Yes, Stephen, I know the slimboy can do a lot more than what I intended it for. I’m not an idiot. I know exactly what it can mean, and I’ve already beaten you to it.
I flip him off wherever he is as I continue to siphon his son’s information.
Rrrrrrruuuuuugggaaah . . . Rrrrrruuuuuggggaaaahhh . . .
The unmistakable sound of Nick’s motorcycle rumbles into his garage.
The slimboy slurps up the last juicy remnants, and my spine stiffens. I have to leave.
He can’t see me here.
I’ve put him in danger.
I pull the slimboy out, shove it in my pocket, put his laptop back where I found it, and as I’m climbing back out the window, the way I came in, a hand lands on my ankle, yanking.
I turn, and with apologetic eyes, kick Nick’s hand off me.
He sucks in a gasp of air. “No! Stay! God, don’t go!”
I quickly climb out, and I run as fast as my legs can carry me.
I’ve run and saved him. I barely did it without killing myself over it, but I managed to keep him safe.
I drive home, tuck myself back up in my room and the rest of the night I go through all of his information on my laptop.
Oh, fuck.
“Nick . . . You can’t do this!” I bite my lip and fight off the impending tears.
* * *
“What’s this?” Tyson, my ex-boyfriend, asks me the following morning.
His auburn hair is slicked back, and his blue eyes twinkle at me.
He rolls his broad shoulders back, and for once looks comfortable with his lanky height.
“It’s what you stole forever ago,” I say, sighing and rolling my shoulders. My back’s cramping up. How long does he expect me to stand here? I’m already annoyed I had to go to such lengths to find him.
“No shit? You completed it after all this time?”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Have I ever once left a project unfinished? You know my OCD stupid-ass can’t let anything go, not even Nick. I found him.”
“No way! You found that prick? How?”
I laugh, and when I sn
ort, his brows knit together and the left side of his lips quirk up. “I’ve never seen you like this before. You’re damn near giddy.”
“Yeah, I know. He does that to me.” I wipe the drool off the corner of my mouth with my sleeve. “I’ve got a sickness, remember.”
“Fuck! You really are in love. You just touched your saliva and didn’t freak out. What the hell, Ides?”
“Look—I found you, I found him. That’s all you need to know . . .” I point at my invention on the table in front of us.
“Nuh uh, I paid for this costly metal and for the research to go into this, so tell me. How’d you find him?” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“You can’t tell anyone.” I brace myself on the edge of the table.
“Why?”
“Let’s just say, he thinks he found me first, and I don’t want to bruise his delicate ego. He goes nuts when he thinks he’s lost,” I say, smiling over memories of how he goes ballistic. “I knew it was him, and I made sure to be where he could contact me online.” My hands go numb and my chest heats. I suck at lying, but Ty appears to believe me so far. I kept searching for Nick, but never knew he’d found me until that day he stole my car and kissed me before I drove it back home. I was in denial then, and almost still am now. I can’t believe Nick’s this close to where I am, and he loves me.
“Oh I see.” He smirks. “Won’t touch you afterward if he thinks he’s lost?”
“Psht! No! He fucks me harder than ever—like a wild fucking animal,” I blurt. I laugh and cover my mouth.
He shoves me, and I brush at the spot he touched me right away.
“Well, I see some things don’t change then, do they? Still a germophobe?”
“When you’re around? Always.” I grin. “You need to get reacquainted with soap, Ty. It’s good for you.”
“So, tell me how you found him,” he repeats, ignoring my teasing.
“It was pretty easy once I started looking into all my competitors. Only two companies were constantly trying to steal my inventions—Hillcourt and Schilling Corporation. And Schilling had made the stupidest deal with me ever to make a basic pet finder chip with remote. They were paying way too much for it. I, of course, made it much better than what they commissioned me for. I did it on purpose—I knew Nick had to be in their company at some level since I found his father was the head of operations. At first I wasn’t sure if it was him since they both changed their last name to Reid, but when I hacked into his father’s computer, descrambled the hell out of it, I found records of Nick being at the top of the company and his father’s personal lawyer—stupid bastard. His dad’s so cocky now he thinks he owns half the country. He has no idea I’ve basically liquidated portions of my company to pay triple what he has for their loyalty. Most of the people that work for him can’t stand that slimy shithead anyway. Once I figured out Nick was there somewhere, I made a prototype and started carrying it around with me all the time so I could look really paranoid.”
“You are paranoid,” he says with a tight smile.
“I know, but more so, ya know?”
He nods.
“I started going places in my car again in hopes he’d try to track me down out in public, and he did. I was surprised how he took it from me—he’s smart. Smarter than any man I’ve ever met, and, Jesus, he really gets me going.” I fight off a wave of arousal, thrumming and pulsing in my veins.
“Anything else you did, you crazy bat-shit genius?”
“Yeah, I paid his roommate to make sure that his dad zeroed in on me and told Nick to get the prototype for him. Not only is his dad arrogant, he’s greedy and cheap as hell. I knew he’d try to stiff me. I gave him a broken prototype.” I shrug.
He laughs. “How’d you swing that?”
“Well, it wasn’t broken exactly, but the chip had a glitch in it. I figured if anyone tried to use it, I could push the proper buttons and it would dissolve the connections in a matter of minutes so it would stop working. Needed some kind of failsafe,” I say.
He slaps his palms on the table, chuckling.
“All right, I’m getting a boner here and too jealous to stand this close to you. Tell me what this new invention does. When I stole it four months ago, I had no idea why this one was such an obsession with you, so I figured it had to be really important.”
I swipe at my bangs, touching my forehead. Could they get out of my way please? I hate it when they touch my skin if I’m even the tiniest bit hot. Plus, it reminds me of how Nick’s constantly flinging his hair out of his eyes. He looks so fucking hot when he does that, I have a hard time not staring.
“This is the cobra,” I say.
“And?”
“And it has two purposes. It’s a mini-snake for plumbing,” I begin.
He smiles and his crooked teeth glare at me. I have to look away.
They’re kind of yellow, too. Ewww!
Vapor’s are so straight and the prettiest white ever. How does he make them so shiny? I really need to ask him about it. Maybe when he’s fucking me. He likes answering me when he’s deep inside. Well, sometimes. Depends on his mood and how much I’m responding to his passion.
He clears his throat and gives me an amused look.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” I place a hand on my hip.
“No—I’m not the genius here, you are.” He strokes his hand along the thin, coiled metal piece.
“There are villi that pop out like tiny legs and they’re razor sharp. They can cut through any clog in seconds, and it has no limits how deep it can go.” I bite the corner of my lip as I smile really hard. This is my favorite part.
“So, you’re getting into plumbing now? I mean, I know you’re gonna save the world from sewage and germs one molecule at a time, but this has got to be expensive as fuck. Who’s gonna be able to afford this?”
“Actually, it’s not that expensive at all,” I say, breathless.
“How is this possible? The metal alone to build this thing was well over three grand.” He clicks his tongue at the end, then pushes off the table and starts to walk away. “Unless you’re gonna tell me what this really does, then I’m leaving.”
“Okay, see ya,” I say, packing it back up into my backpack.
“You’re such a bitch, you know that, right?” He chuckles and turns back around.
“Yeah, I know—Vapor likes to call me that all the time, only when he says it . . .” My chest heats and my legs tingle with wicked desire.
“Fuck, I don’t wanna hear this,” he groans and tips his head back while shoving his hands in his pockets.
“All you’ve gotta do is find a way to get this into Schilling Corporation’s hands. I’d do it myself, but this one I want completely anonymous. I don’t want his men—yes, even the ones I’ve bought allegiance from—to know about it. This is a very dangerous weapon.”
His eyes shoot up and widen significantly. “Are people going to get hurt?”
“C’mon! You know me. I don’t hurt anyone physically. He’s gonna get hit in the wallet and a few other choice places. There should be some good tears involved.” I clasp my hands together. “But no permanent damage.”
He sighs and his shoulders sag. “Fine. You know, I thought when I ditched you forever ago, I’d never see you again, but here you are, back again like a lovely, itchy rash. You really should figure out how to stop rubbing me the wrong way.”
“Ty, you’re the one with skin issues, not me,” I say, stepping away from him. “And you’re the one that invested in my company and decided to supply us with the metals we needed. That was all you, buddy.”
I pull the cobra out, and set it back on the table.
“I figured that was how you found me. And, by the way, they’re called freckles—a lot of people have them—they’re not skin issues.”
“They’re called repellent, and I could barely stand to look at them. I don’t know why I ever thought I could give you head,” I say, grimacing.
He laughs. �
�What’s this now? You were gonna give me . . . ?”
I jerk my head away. “No, I didn’t say that. Well, I . . . Never mind.” My cheeks heat, and I wave, then leave the room before I say anything else stupid.
He has the cobra. He can figure this out without me. I can’t be near those skin spots. They scare me.
They’re the gateway to zombies. No other explanation for frightening skin like that.
Chapter 12
Vapor
“What the hell is this?” I ask, staring at some freaking metallic thing climbing down the kitchen sink.
“This, Son, is the future,” Dad says, gloating.
“Looks creepy as hell,” I say, rubbing my chin. A chill rips down my spine. “Where’d you steal this one?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he says, chuckling. He slaps me on the back.
“Do you have to do anything to get it to work?”
“Nope. It does it all by itself. I just wanna make sure it works completely before we tear it apart and duplicate it for resale,” he says, leaning over the sink.
“What if it ruins the pipes? You don’t honestly trust this is going to do anything good?”
“Oh ye of so little faith and such a big fucking mouth.” He slaps me upside the head.
I growl. “Whatever. You’ll be the one paying to get all new plumbing put in.” I walk away, rubbing the spot on my head he smacked.
What a douche.
I’m sick of him stealing shit he could easily pay for.
What’s the point? It’s not even fun anymore.
“Hey, man, he wants you back in ten for a meeting,” Jason hollers at me as I stride over to my bike.
I flip him off and drive off.
“He’s gonna cut you off!” he shouts.
I keep my finger up in case he didn’t see it. In case his vision is locked on my dad’s ass.
Bastard can get his nose a little browner—he’ll figure out how to get that shit up his nostrils, he’s so glued to my dad’s crack.
I’m done with that.
I ride over to the outer gate of Ide’s fortress.
My fingers shake as I pull my phone out.
Slick as Ides Page 15
