“Now you want me to deal with this?” Nightheart sighed. “I’m beginning to think you weren’t worth the trouble.”
“I’m not the asshole who poked a sleeping bear,” Cypher snapped. “You deserve all of this and more, you piece of shit. Are you going to help me or not?”
Nightheart’s voice lowered. “On one condition.”
Cypher scowled. “What?”
“Your contract with the EPED is extended fifty years, and we take them down on my terms.”
He didn’t care about the terms, only that NeoElite games would be ruined. “Ten years.”
“Forty.”
“Ten.” He wouldn’t cave.
“Thirty-five.”
“Over my dead mechanical body,” Cypher warned.
“Thirty-five, or you’re in this alone.”
Cypher palmed his face. “Twenty.” He caved.
“Deal.”
Cypher sat back.Twentymore years of dealing with Nightheart, twenty more years of servitude to get his vengeance.For Vee.
It’s all for Vee.
Realizing what he’d just done—what he’d just signed up for—hit him like a truck.
An encrypted file popped up in his systems, and he opened it to find a new contract. It was the same one as before but with the extended time frame. He accepted the terms and shot it back to Nightheart.
All for her.
He did it for her, without a thought.
What have I become?
Is this what happened to his other Cyborg brethren when they met the women they were with? Katalina worked for Dommik and they’d bonded in close proximity, Stryker had answered Norah’s distress call and fell for her during a world-ending storm… And then there was Gunner, who actually got close enough to a woman during his exile because they had been jailed together while she’d pretended to be a man. No one woman would’ve gone near Gunner otherwise—willingly at least.
Human women were becoming dangerous creatures to Cyborgs. And it wasn’t only shifter Cyborgs taking mates, it was the other models as well. Jack and Atlas came to mind.
As if his thoughts summoned her, Cypher heard Vee’s soft footsteps behind him. He always knew when she was checking in on him, even though sometimes he pretended he didn’t.
But I’m Nightheart’s man now, and almost for an entire duration of a human lifetime.A human lifetime… Cypher looked at Vee.
“When do you want NeoElite gone?” Nightheart’s voice came through.
“As soon as possible,” he answered, still gazing at Vee. “But I have several things to take care of first.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll reach out to you later.”
He was about to shut the line when Nightheart stopped him.
“Cypher, I don’t want to have to keep reiterating this, but for all our sakes and especially mine, don’t get caught by the media again. You owe me your soul already.”
