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“I guess I’m not one of your people after all.”
“You made it clear many times that you weren’t. You were so fired up last month about going back to the highborn—let them help. Or use your abundant financial resources to secure a safe house. Better yet, go to the oracle. You’re safer there.”
Dixon scribbled on his notepad.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Tristan said, waving his brother away. “She won’t need our help because the committee won’t do a damn thing to her. Even if they did, we couldn’t help, and you know it. We can’t take that kind of heat, and we have other things to focus on that are more important.”
Dixon gripped the couch cushion. His knuckles turned white, but he didn’t argue.
Lila found herself doing the same.
“I didn’t know you’d be here tonight, Ms. Randolph. I know you don’t care, but I feel it only fair to warn you that Katia will be coming over. You don’t have to leave, but—”
Lila snatched up her laptop and marched into Dixon’s room, not wanting to hear the rest of his speech—a well-rehearsed speech, by the sound of it. The last thing she wanted to do was sit on the couch while Tristan and his new lover watched a movie together or stopped watching it and made out a meter away.
She curled up on Dixon’s bed, her laptop abandoned on his desk, listening to Tristan’s hushed voice in the other room.
Moments later, the apartment door opened. Katia did not hush her voice.
Neither did Tristan in reply.
Dixon slipped inside the bedroom and gently closed the door. He sat down on the bed, the mattress dipping under his weight. “I should go somewhere else,” Lila whispered, not wanting her voice to carry. “This is your room, and—”
He shook his head and dug into his pocket for his pencil. I like you being here. It’s been ages since I’ve had a woman over. It’s soothing.
“I seriously doubt it’s been ages.”
He’s an idiot, you know. You’re a far better hacker than Toxic and Reaper. We could use someone like you, no matter what sort of heat it might draw. He should be offering you a job and protection.
“He’s right. I’m not like Toxic. I’ll be a lot harder to hide.”
He never questioned hiding me, and I wasn’t some teenager charged with misuse of a computer. They didn’t cut out my tongue for fun.
Lila did not know what to say. She’d asked over and over again about the circumstances behind his torture, but he had never explained.
Dixon didn’t explain now, either. He rubbed his scalp and returned to his notepad. Tristan didn’t question hiding Maria or Oskar. You’ve pulled his ass out of the fire so many times, and what does he do in return?
“He’s right. He’s finally learned some restraint. He’s finally considering the consequences of his choices. I only had to tell him a thousand times.”
The oracle will help you.
When Lila didn’t reply, Dixon climbed into bed and curled around her, his weight and heat a comfort.
She needed that c
omfort, for small moans leaked through the wall near their heads.
Dixon held her tighter as the moans grew louder. He pulled out his notepad. We could make noises of our own.
“I don’t want to,” Lila whispered, even though the thought tempted her.
I didn’t mean they had to be real.
Lila shook her head.
He’s being an ass.
“Is he? I’m in his apartment—”
