Chapter 26 #3
Annie didn’t answer, but her panic attack had fully receded. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides.
“I’ve fucked her in my car, in restaurant bathrooms, in elevators. She’s convenient when I need to get off.”
In reality, I barely remembered the woman. Some meaningless encounter from before Annie, when sex was just another way to pass time between the moments that actually mattered.
“You’re disgusting,” she hissed.
“You asked.”
“And tonight?” Her voice rose. “Were you planning to fuck her again?”
“I had her up against the wall in the bathroom twenty minutes ago,” I said. “Quick and dirty. Just how she likes it.”
Annie’s face contorted. For a moment, I thought she might hit me. I wished she would.
“Fucking bastard,” she spat out.
“Never claimed otherwise.”
“I thought—” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
She spun away from me, the fog parting and swirling around her as she moved. Her silhouette became indistinct, edges blurring in the mist.
The silence stretched between us, filled only with the soft hiss of fog condensing on the pavement.
“Would you like the truth now instead of that fiction?”
Annie didn’t respond. Didn’t turn around. Her silhouette remained motionless, shoulders rigid.
“I don’t know her first name.”
Annie’s head tilted slightly, listening.
“Winters. That’s her last name. I only know that because I heard someone call her that while you and I were dancing.” I stepped closer. “I don’t remember the names of any of the women I’ve fucked. Not a single fucking one.”
Annie’s shoulders tensed further, but she stayed silent.
“I couldn’t pick any of them out of a lineup if my life depended on it.
Just warm bodies to fuck when I needed to scratch an itch.
” The words were ugly, but true. “I don’t remember their faces.
Don’t remember what they sounded like when they came.
Don’t remember if they were any good. They were all meaningless.
Convenient. Everyone got what they wanted.
They got fucked. I got off. End of transaction. ”
Annie’s breathing changed, but I couldn’t read it. Couldn’t tell if she was angry or hurt or relieved.
“But I remember everything you’ve ever said to me. I remember every sound you’ve ever made. Every expression. The way your skin feels. The way you taste. I remember every single thing about you, Annie.”
Annie’s shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath. Still facing away.
“I didn’t fuck her tonight. Didn’t want to.” I clenched my fists, fighting the urge to reach for her. “But I wanted to hurt you. I wanted to make you feel what I felt watching him touch you. Kiss you.”
Annie finally turned, her face pale in the diffused light filtering through the fog. Her eyes were dry now, but her expression was unreadable.
“Say something,” I demanded, hating the edge of desperation in my voice. “Tell me to go to hell. Tell me you never want to see me again. Just say something.”
She stared at me for a long moment, her gaze traveling over my face as if searching for something.
She turned away from me again, facing the wall of fog that had swallowed the bay.
She stared into it like she was trying to see through the impenetrable gray, but there was nothing to see. Just endless nothing.
“Havoc used to take me flying in the fog,” she said quietly.
I waited, watching the way her fingers twisted together.
“He’d just launch us straight into it. No warning.” A small shiver ran through her. “One second we’d be standing somewhere solid, the next we’d be hurtling through absolute nothingness.”
“Sounds fucking terrifying,” I said, because it did if coming from the perspective of a normal human.
“It was.” She nodded. “But in a good way, you know? Like how people ride roller coasters to feel that controlled fear.”
I wanted to move closer but didn’t, though every instinct screamed to do it. To touch her. To make sure she was real and not just another shape in the fog that might disappear.
“I kept thinking we were going to crash into something,” she continued. “A building. A bridge. I’d brace for impact every second, certain we were about to slam into solid concrete.”
Her voice grew softer, almost lost to the nothingness surrounding us.
“Havoc told me it wasn’t an issue. Said his reflexes and senses were fast enough that he could navigate through anything.” She shook her head. “He explained the physics of it once. How he could detect changes in air pressure or something. Process information faster than normal humans.”
I knew exactly what she meant. I could do the same thing. Another Trueborn ability I kept hidden.
“It was still terrifying for me though.” She turned slightly, her profile visible now. “I never got used to it. That feeling of hurtling through nothing, completely blind, trusting someone else to keep you from splattering against the side of a skyscraper.”
The parallel wasn’t lost on me. Annie, hurtling blind through this relationship. Me, a potentially destructive force. Her, terrified but still here.
I’d never been good with metaphors. I dealt in facts, in concrete reality. But even I could see what she was really talking about.
“Was it fun?” I asked, watching the fog swirl around us. “Flying through the fog?”
Annie didn’t answer immediately. Her silence stretched long enough that I wondered if she’d heard me at all. Then her lips curved into a small smile.
“It was,” she said softly. “Terrifying, but exhilarating.”
A shiver ran through her body, goosebumps rising on her bare arms.
I shrugged out of my tux jacket and held it out to her. “Here.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“You’re cold,” I countered flatly.
“I said I’m fine.”
I sighed, stepping closer and draping the jacket over her shoulders anyway. She stiffened but didn’t push it off, which I counted as a win.
My mind raced, weighing risks against potential rewards as a dangerous idea formed. An idea with catastrophic potential if it backfired. But I was Cipher. Calculated risks were my fucking specialty so fuck it.
“What would you do,” I began carefully, “if I told you I didn’t tell the League doctors everything the serum gave me?”
Annie turned to face me fully now, her eyes narrowing slightly. “What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath. “The serum. It gave me more than what’s in my official file.” The lie tasted bitter, but it was safer than the truth. “I can fly. Not just with my suit. Actually fly.”
Her expression didn’t change like I expected it to.
“I could take you,” I continued, gesturing toward the fog. “Flying. Through that. If you wanted.”
Annie studied me for a long moment, then she did something that stopped my heart. She smiled. A small, sad smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“I’d like that,” she said quietly. “But you don’t have to lie to me.”
“What?”
“I know what you are, Cipher. I know you’re Trueborn.”
The world narrowed to a pinpoint. Every muscle in my body locked into place. My lungs forgot how to function. My brain, my fucking genius brain, stuttered to a halt.
She knew.
The implications cascaded through my mind like dominoes falling. If she knew, if she’d known all along...
“What?” I said again, as if hearing her say the words a second time would change their meaning.
Annie took a deep breath, her eyes never leaving mine.