“And if I decide to ruin you?”
“Would you really do that to all of our kind, just to get back at me?” Nightheart countered.
Vee shook her head. “I don’t understand. What is it that you want?”
Nightheart darted his eyes back to her, and Cypher stiffened. The other Cyborg’s gaze sparked yellow—excited—for a split second. It put Cypher on edge.
“Well—”
“Don’t bring her into this,” Cypher warned.
“I want to know. I have a right to know,” Vee said.
“—I want Cypher to join my team,” Nightheart finished, drumming his fingers once on the table before him.
“That’s it? That’s what all of this is about?” Vee muttered. “My life upended, my apartment destroyed, the threats… For him?”
Cypher tensed.
Vee visibly wilted. “Why?”
“He’s lost nearly everyone else, and to replace them, he has to be a piece of shit about it,” Cypher answered for her.
Nightheart shrugged. “It got you off Ghost, didn’t it?”
“Ghost?” Vee asked.
Both he and Nightheart shook their heads.
“It’s not going to happen,” Cypher warned.
“Ms. Miles…” Nightheart ignored him and turned back to her. “If you can’t fulfil your end of the contract, it’s also forfeit.”
“That’s not fair!”
“It’s in the terms.”
“I’ll buy it,” Cypher growled.
Vee turned to him. “What?”
“I’ll buy out her contract.” He stood, offering his hand to Vee. “We’re leaving.”
“Cypher, you can’t,” she whispered. “That’s too much money…”
He glared at Nightheart. “Take my hand, Vee. We’re leaving. Now.”
Her hand slipped into his, and he curled his fingers around it, pulling her up. He led her to the door.
“There will be repercussions,” Nightheart said.
“For you.”
“For her. I can make it all go away.”
Cypher tugged the door open but stopped at the threshold. He glanced down at Vee, who chewed on her lip, her brows knitted with worry. She looked up at him, and his heart fell.
“What will you do, Cypher?” Nightheart asked. “Once you buy it out? Leave and go back to your life before? No one wins but you, if you can even call that winning. You’ll take away her future, everything she’s built all these years, and leave her with nothing while you go back to a small metal room, gatekeeping a ghostly kingdom.”
