Page 118 of Villainous Intent

And if Wardens were connected to Solstice’s project to suppress and expose Trueborn Supers somehow, I needed to know why and how. And if these Wardens could suppress Trueborn Supers in some way themselves, they would need to be dealt with. I couldn’t chance an unknown entity blowing my secret. I would also have to scrub the data from the Underground’s database. No sense in leaving any information on them at all.

The first thing I needed to do would be to see who had accessed Solstice’s files other than himself. If there were copies of his research, they would have to be destroyed. If there were people involved who knew the actual research, well, they would have to be destroyed too.

I was nothing if not thorough.

I opened the access logs and expected to find a lengthy list of collaborators and League Underground personnel. Instead, the access log displayed only two entries besides Solstice himself: Dread and a user named Underground-Alpha7.

Dread had accessed the files three days before Solstice’s death, Underground-Alpha last accessed it ten days before his death.

I stared at the screen, momentarily surprised. Just two? And one of them was Dread.

The other user, Underground-Alpha7, was more intriguing. Alpha clearance was reserved for the highest echelons of the League Underground, individuals who reported directly to the Council on behalf of the Syndicate. Someone with substantial power and influence.

I initiated a program to start working to uncover the identity behind Underground-Alpha7—Estimated completion time: six hours, seventeen minutes.

I set the program to automatically message my secure line once it had results. No sense in sitting here watching code scroll across the screen.

My fingers tapped restlessly against the edge of my keyboard. I’d gotten what I needed from the data chip. I knew the potential threat to my secrets, and I had a plan to neutralize it. Though maybe, if I were patient enough, Dread would take care of it for me since the threat to him was the same as the threat to me. We were both rogue, both unknown Trueborns.

I composed a brief message, attaching the decoded files:

Data successfully decrypted. Project Warden appears to be research into power suppression technology specifically targeting Trueborn Supers. Files contain references to historical Warden records that remain encrypted at Council level. How would you like me to proceed?

My secure line pinged immediately with Dread’s response:

Decode the Warden files. Identify Underground-Alpha7. I want to know everything about these Wardens and who’s pulling the strings. Report directly to me when you have answers.

I cleared the screen. The programs would run without me.

My gaze landed on Annie.

If she knew what I had just done, if she knew I was feeding information to the very monster she was trying to catch, she would turn her back on me. She would walk out that door, lock me out of her life, and refuse to ever let me touch her again.

She would leave me to the static, to the fucking timer in my head.

A normal man might look at the woman he’d just fucked into unconsciousness and feel a pang of conscience for betraying her trust to ensure she stayed.

All I could feel was satisfaction as I made sure the only path she could take led back to me. I was burning the exits. I was curating her reality until the only thing that made sense was staying right where she was.

I stripped off my clothes and slid into bed beside her.

She stirred when the mattress dipped and she shifted toward me, her back hitting my chest. I sucked in a breath as her bare skin made contact with my tattoos and the sensation of her flooded my system. Fuck, she was everywhere, thrumming through my veins. It took a few seconds to reorient myself and be able to fucking think with her touching me.

I’d experimented after the tattoos had reacted to Annie. I asked a few women who worked in the developmental labs to touch the tattoos on my arm. Nothing had happened. I had a few Henchmen try, just to see, but again nothing happened.

Annie was an aberration.

I lifted my arm. I wanted to wrap it around her waist and pull her flush against me. I wanted to bury my face in her neck and breathe in the sweat and sex until the world narrowed down to just this bed.

I forced my hand to stop, fingers twitching, before dropping it to the mattress between us.

She murmured something in her sleep, shifting closer, trusting the monster who had just used her to silence the noise in his head.

I stared at the back of her neck. The bruising I’d left on her skin was already darkening. I had taken everything I wanted. I had wrecked her. I had drained myself dry.

And I still wanted more.

The static was gone, but something worse had replaced it. A gnawing hunger. I thought if I consumed enough of her, I would get sick of the taste.