“I had to try and get the location—”
“No. This was a stupid idea, and you’re not doing anything like this again, that’s for sure. But I meant standing in front of a gun for me. Don’t ever fucking do that.”
Her eyes snap back up, and I’m not sure if her flushed cheeks are from embarrassment or her smeared makeup.
“I wasn’t thinking. I saw the gun and... I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting killed because of me,” she admits.
I know she means it. And that’s why I’m even more pissed.
Instinctively, I reach forward to cup her chin—but the glow in my arm snaps me back to reality, and I take a full step back.
“Promise me you’ll never do that again. I’m not worth your life. And believe me—he wouldn’t have been able to kill me even if he’d fired.”
She nods, moving awkwardly.
“Huh!” she blurts suddenly, shoving her hand straight into her winged bra with zero shame, like she’s actually trying to push me over the edge on purpose.
But then she pulls out a key.
The same damn key she slipped into my pocket when we first got here.
She steps toward Novax, pats down his pants until she finds what she’s looking for, then slips the key into his wallet and shoves it back.
I frown, but I don’t move.
When she keeps her distance, I can breathe. I can control the surges. The waves settle. The glow fades.
Thank the oceans. I actually did it without Myko; I thought I was going to lose it.
“Don’t thank them yet,”he mutters.“Your father’s going to be way more dangerous than you blowing up a few human souls. He didn’t let us leave. Said you should start handling your own messes when you don’t listen. He’s… mad.”
There it is. So much for his‘I’ll stand behind you even if you start a war’declaration.
Just another test.
I sigh.
“The keys here aren’t hard to reach, but they all have trackers,” she explains. “Part of my father’s twisted little game. He loves playing hunter with people who betray him.”
Stupid move—it could already cause damage before he knows it—but at least he’ll know who to blame.
“For some reason, Novax thought I was Diana. He couldn’t figure out how I escaped the Red Dock. So if he goes there, we’ll be able to track him.”
A smirk stretches across my face.
“So you had a backup plan. In case the drug didn’t work,” I say aloud, as if to confirm my thoughts.
Her soft laugh catches me off guard. My heart slams in my chest—and I don’t even know why.
“I told you I wouldn’t leave without the location,” she says. “If he took me, I planned to send you a hint to track the key on me. I figured you’d probably check the one I gave you and realize what I meant.”
“But we need to push him to go there now,” I mutter, already calculating. “We need something to trigger it.”
“Men’s egos are harder than their dicks after a lap dance,” she deadpans as if she did it thousands of times, and it makes me want to burn this place to the ground even more. “We let him wake up to Tatiana. She’ll mess with his head—make him think she was here the whole time. Men hate being challenged. He’ll have to go check if Diana really ran or if he’s just losing it.”
She rises up on her heels again, and just like that—my marks fall quiet. Dormant.
She’s smarter than she looks.
