Page 97 of Wicked Nightmare

Her tits swayed in front of me, and when she leaned forward offering a nipple, I took it greedily, sucking hard as she rode me faster, the mattress creaking in protest beneath us.

Her breath hitched, and she cried out as her orgasm washed over her, her pussy clenching around my cock so tight my vision blurred.

"Fuck," I moaned as I came inside her, gripping her hips. "I was gonna say I don't wanna come fast. Why the fuck would you ride me like a goddamn devil?"

Lakey collapsed on top of me, wrapping her delicate frame around mine. "Because I can." She giggled.

I lay there, allowing the tension to bleed from my body, slowly realizing how exhausted I was before I pulled the blankets over us and closed my eyes. "Night, baby girl."

Her breath evened out, her tousled hair everywhere, covering half her face, leaving only one eye open and staring at me.

"I know you're awake," she mumbled sleepily yet managed to sound coherent enough.

"I wasn't even thinking about you," I lied, probably badly judging by the way she laughed.

"Yeah right, I can feel your heartbeat hammering out of your chest, liar. I'm gonna sleep now, k?" She giggled again before closing her eyes, leaving me alone with my thoughts as her soft breathing pulled me into a dreamless slumber.

But before I went under, one thought kept circling. Rose had talked. She'd opened up. And what she'd described, the tests, the trials, the systematic breaking of human beings, it was the same thing that had been done to us. We just couldn't remember most of it.

Rose could. Rose remembered everything.

She remembered the rooms without light. The doctors with their clipboards. The drugs that erased your sense of self. She remembered what we'd been designed to forget, and that made her the most important person we'd ever met.

It also made her a target. If Chimera knew she was alive, knew she was with us, knew she could talk, they'd come for her. For us. For everything we'd built. Our apartment, our system, our life, all of it would become collateral damage in whatever cleanup operation they'd deploy.

Which meant we had a choice. We could dump Rose at a hospital, wipe our hands clean, and go back to hunting Chimera on our own terms. Safer. Simpler. Smarter.

Or we could keep her. Protect her. Use what she knew to fill in the gaps in our own shattered memories and build a case so thorough that when we finally found Chimera's head, we'd know exactly where to cut.

I already knew which option Lakey would choose. She'd chosen it the second she saw Rose tied to that chair in the basement.

And I'd already chosen to follow her. Because that's what I did. That's what I'd always done. That's what I'd always do.

Rose was either the most valuable asset we'd ever stumbled into, or the most dangerous liability we'd ever brought into our home.

Probably both.

Definitely both.

Chapter Thirty: Lakey

The girl needed some fresh air, poor thing. Stuck in this dingy apartment for days, nothing but weird vibes and shadows and Cam pacing the hallway at three in the morning because he heard a car door. I couldn't stand it anymore. And if I was bored, Rose was probably crawling out of her skin.

She didn't complain. That was the thing about Rose. She didn't complain about anything. Not the lumpy couch, not the questionable food, not the fact that neither of us had thought to buy her more than two outfits. She just sat there, knees tucked up, watching us with those big eyes. It made me want to punch a wall because nobody should be that used to getting nothing.

"Come on, Cam." I batted my eyelashes at him, full performance mode. "We gotta take Rose out. Let her see the sun before she withers away in here."

His eyes squinted, those dark eyes narrowing.. "It's not safe."

I sidled up to him, ran a finger all the way down his chest, cupped his cock for a hot second, then let go. "Aw, don't be such a buzzkill. We'll be careful. In and out, quick as you please." I winked. "I promise to make it worth your while later."

His resolve was cracking. His lips twitched, fighting a smirk.

"Please?" I breathed, standing on tiptoe to nip at his earlobe. "For me?"

Cam groaned, shoulders sagging. "Fine. But we stay alert, got it? First sign of trouble and we're out."

I squealed, throwing my arms around his neck. "You're the best, you know that?"