Cold sweat broke out along my spine. “Fuck. It’s really her.”
“I’ll let Reo know.” He gave me the phone back and pulled out his own. Next, he typed into it.
I couldn't look away from the screen. Couldn't stop seeing myself through someone else's eyes—prey, marked, catalogued for slaughter. “What the hell did the Fox say to make her spy for him?”
"He could've turned her recently. Or been whispering in her ear for all her life. Planting doubts. Feeding resentments. Not everyone he uses is clever. They just need to be loyal to him."
“And she was most likely working with Kenji’s Eyes.” I took one last look around the red room—the canvases, the chaos, the perfect bed hiding terrible secrets.
Hiro gestured for us to leave. “And yet. . .there may be more snakes. We still have Hina to check too.”
Chapter forty
The Nest of Snakes
Nyomi
The third door read "Hina."
Hiro moved in front of me, gun raised, body coiled into that lethal stance I was beginning to know too well. "Stay."
I nodded, pressing my back against the hallway wall.
My mind was still reeling from Mami's sketchbook. Every time I blinked, I saw charcoal and red ink. Saw Kenji's hand wrapped around both their cocks. Saw Hiro on his knees. Saw the words bleeding crimson across the pages like prayers to a god who would never answer.
Focus, Nyomi. You're almost done.
The door clicked open.
Hiro disappeared inside.
I waited.
The silence pressed against my ears. My pulse still hadn't settled from the last room—from the spy phone, from the photos of me being stalked, from the reality that Mami had been watching all of us this whole time.
But was it just Mami? Fuck. The Eyes. Now Mami. How many more snakes are there?
The door opened.
Hiro holstered his gun. "Clear. And you can relax—this room is different."
"Different how?"
"You'll see."
I stepped inside, and the contrast hit me immediately.
Where Yuki’s room had been graying obsession over Kenji and Mami's room had been chaos wrapped in taboo passion, Hina's room was clarity.
Order.
Hope.
Young.
Modern.
Bright.
