Not at Scythe. Not at Morpheus.
At me.
His hand closed around my throat before I could even think to move. He hauled me up off the floor like I weighed nothing, slamming me back against the concrete wall so hard the impact knocked the air from my lungs. “SPEAK, DAMN YOU!” he roared, his face inches from mine. His eyes were wild, feral, burning with a fury I had never seen before. “SPEAK!”
I grabbed his wrist and tried to pry his fingers away, but his grip only tightened. My vision blurred at the edges, black spots dancing across my field of view as my lungs screamed for air.
“So help me God, Alexandra,” he snarled, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “If you don’t fucking speak, I will fucking walk away!”
His words slammed into me harder than any punch could have.
Walk away.He would leave me. Would turn his back and walk out of this basement and never look at me again. Would go back to being the man who fucked club whores and felt nothing. Would erase me from his life like I had never existed. And I would be alone.
Completely, utterly alone.
“Nano,” I choked out, my voice barely a whisper as his hand released me.
Just like that. No warning. No hesitation.
He let go, and I collapsed against the wall, gasping for air, my hands flying to my throat. I blinked through the tears, trying to focus, trying to understand what was happening.
And then I saw it.
Nano had turned away from me. His back was to me, his shoulders rigid, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He took a step toward Morpheus.
And his eyes.Oh God.His eyes were empty. Completely, utterly void of everything. The fire was gone. The rage was gone. The obsession, the need, the desperate, twisted love—all of it was gone. He looked like a corpse. Like something that had died and was still walking.
He was walking away.
No!“Wait!” The word tore out of me, raw and desperate. I tried to crawl toward him, my hands slipping on the blood-slicked concrete. “Wait, please!”
But he didn’t turn around. Didn’t even pause. He just kept walking, and something inside me shattered. Not the defiance. Not the pride. Not the stubborn, desperate need to hold on tothe one thing I had left. It was something deeper. Something fundamental. The part of me that had convinced myself I could survive this. That I could endure anything as long as I didn’t give in.
But I couldn’t survive losing Nano. I couldn’t survive watching him walk away and knowing I would never see that fire in his eyes again. Never feel his hands on my skin. Never hear him call mehis. I couldn’t survive being nothing to him.
“He has an apartment in Rapid City!” My words came out in a rush, desperate and broken. “Near downtown. On 4th Street. The big building on the corner. Apartment 3B. But I don’t know if he’s there anymore.”
Nano stopped, but he didn’t turn around. Didn’t look at me. But he stopped.
And that was enough. That was everything.
Wanderer and Vortex moved immediately, heading for the stairs without a word. I barely registered their departure. My entire focus was on Nano’s back, on the rigid set of his shoulders, on the way his hands were still clenched into fists.
“His name?” Morpheus asked, his voice calm and measured, like we were having a casual conversation.
I swallowed hard, tasting blood and bile. “I only knew him as Michael Campbell, but I found a book, a ledger with the name Arizona M. Stone on it.”
The second I said his name, Cerberus rushed up the stairs, his boots pounding against the concrete.
“The biker,” Morpheus said, stepping closer. “The one he paid.”
I shook my head, tears streaming down my face as I stared at Nano’s back. “I never saw him. I only heard his voice.”
Oscar stood from the chair where moments ago he had been tied and beaten. His face was a mess of blood and bruises, but hiseyes were clear. Focused. “Tell me you took it, Alex. Tell me you have the ledger.”
I nodded, my gaze still locked on Nano. “It’s in my backpack.”
“Come on,” Carver said to Oscar, his voice surprisingly gentle. “Her room is upstairs.”
