Page 126 of Villainous Rise

My hands trembled as memories flooded back.

“You’re keeping secrets again, playing games with my life to suit your agenda.” My voice cracked. “Did you enjoy watching me squirm in the dark? Did it amuse you to see me terrified?”

Cipher moved faster than my eyes could track. A solid wall of muscle and black armor blocked my path and he backed me up until my hips hit the edge of the table. His hands slammed down on the surface on either side of me, caging me in.

“This is nothing like Dread.” He reached up and ripped the mask off his face, tossing it blindly into the dark. His silver eyes were wild as he leaned in close. In the place of the polished, arrogant Villain was a desperate, obsessive man.

“Look at me,” he demanded. “The Dread situation was a cold calculation for my own benefit. It was a mistake I will spend the rest of my life trying to atone for. But Wraith is different. I built this identity long before you. Wraith is a ghost. He allows me to move through circles and gather information where Cipher can’t go.”

“If I expose Wraith, I lose that reach,” he said, his voice dropping to a rough, urgent whisper. “I had to be absolutely certain Havoc wouldn’t compromise this meeting before I revealed the truth to you. Every tool I have, every identity I wear, exists to serve you. I need Wraith to remain a secret so I can use him to hunt down anyone who threatens you. You have to see the difference between Dread and now.”

He finally let me slip past him and I paced away, needing space. The anger that had burned so hot moments before was cooling, leaving behind a complicated mess of emotions I was too tired to sort through, which was becoming my default mode where Cipher was concerned.

“I would have,” Cipher said quietly behind me.

I turned back to face him, confusion momentarily replacing my frustration. “What?”

“Taken his hands,” he replied, his voice made the hair on my arms stand up. “I would have hunted Wraith down and taken his hands for touching you. And I would have killed him if he’d done anything beyond that.”

My earlier threat to Wraith, to him, hadn’t been empty after all. Not with Cipher. There was something darkly comforting about his possessiveness, about knowing exactly how far he would go to protect me.

“I know,” I said softly.

“Do you?” he asked. “Do you understand what I would do to anyone who harmed you? There are no limits, Annie. No lines I wouldn’t cross.”

“I understand.”

His thumb traced my lower lip, his touch feather-light but possessive. “Good,” he murmured.

I crossed my arms. “But you could have told me you were Wraith.”

He furrowed his brow, looking slightly confused. “There was no reason to. Wraith isn’t connected to Cipher or Thomas Smith. He’s a separate entity entirely. A ghost in the system who occasionally provides information when it suits him.”

“So if you’d decided not to help Havoc at all, I never would have known about this identity. I would have remained in the dark?”

“Yes.” His honesty was both refreshing and infuriating.

“Then why agree to help now?”

“Because of you,” he said simply. “The only reason I entertained Havoc’s request was because you were involved. I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise.”

His words softened something inside me, though I wasn’t ready to let him see that yet. “That doesn’t excuse scaring me half to death in a dark warehouse.”

“I know.” He stepped closer, his voice gentler. “And I’m sorry for that. But I needed to maintain the separation until I was certain I could trust Havoc to let you deal with this.” He gestured to himself. “I trust you, Annie. But I don’t trust anyone else with this information.”

I sighed. “So why tell me at all? Why not just keep playing this game?”

“Because once I decided to help Havoc, I knew I wanted you to know the truth,” he explained. “But I needed to make sure Havoc would actually let you handle the situation alone first. I couldn’t risk exposure.”

“So this was a test. For Havoc.”

Cipher nodded. “I needed to know he would respect the boundaries I set as Wraith. That he wouldn’t try to follow you or attempt anything to interfere with our meeting.”

I shifted uncomfortably, guilt washing over me. Cipher had just admitted to testing Havoc’s willingness to let me handle this alone, but the truth was Havoc wasn’t letting me handle it alone at all.

“What’s wrong?” Cipher asked.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again, unsure how to confess that Havoc and a response team were positioned nearby, ready to burst in at the first sign of trouble. My silence apparently told him everything he needed to know.