“Then get to work.”
“Fine. I have to go up front anyway, but now I’m really looking forward to tonight.”
As she turned and walked away, every step of hers left a bruise on my restraint. Walking into Evie’s trap had become a habit.
A trap that I knew I’d set up for myself the second I gave in to her.
And I kept giving in. I was always the one reaching first, touching first, dragging us across that line.
I needed to stop.
Stop pretending this was anything more than her using me—blackmail was the cherry on top for her. She’d be done with me soon, and if I had any sense, I’d get out before that happened.
Chapter 25
Evie
We were already parked behind the Vault, engines cooling, the night settling around us like a cloak. I didn’t rush to get off, my hands brushing along Aiden’s back instead.
“Ready?” he asked, and flexed his jaw. “This isn’t for fun, Psycho. We’re here for answers.”
“Who says we can’t mix business and pleasure?”
He glanced back, his eyebrows raised. “Oh yeah? Should I? I guess I could handle adding some pleasure tonight. Maybe bring someone home with me. Would you mind riding with someone else later?”
A horrible mix of rage and jealousy surged through me. I inhaled, his scent hitting me, and pressed forward, teeth sinking into the delicate skin of his neck. He hissed, his body jolting and going rigid as I bit down more. I expected him to push me away, but he leaned back, a curse escaping him followed by a sharp inhale.
He liked it.
And that was dangerous.
Because I liked it, too.
“Evie,” he finally yelled, trying to lean forward to break away from me. I let him go, swinging off the bike.
“Pretty,” I said. “Good luck finding a girl here tonight withthaton your neck.”
“What the fuck, Evie?” He sat there, fingers brushing at the spot, jaw tight, clearly debating how much he wanted to throttle me versus laugh.
I ignored him and swung off the bike, waving my hand with a grin in his direction as I headed right for the door.
Shaking off our conversation, I walked into the Vault with one thing in mind.
Find Anderson.
No one else here knew—maybe besides Aiden and Asher—that I was starting to suspect Anderson could be coming after us due to me digging into Veritas. One late night doomscroll had led me to an old Veritas article. A local paper had decided to write about theinterestingstartup that was somehow making waves while doing little to nothing all those years ago.
The article had been buried, hidden far into the internet so no one would find it. No one but me.
In the article, Anderson had been referenced. There was no first name so I couldn’t confirm it was the same one, but I was starting to think the chances of it not being him were slim.
Lucky for me, it didn’t matter. We were here to find Anderson because of the strange timing of his name being brought up to Rook and the threats, so I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone.
I glanced behind me, Aiden not far away.
Maybe there was one person.
My focus turned back to the VIP section Asher kept in the corner. I had studied as many people as I could think of who may have had ties to bigger criminals, like Anderson.
