Chapter 16
CIPHER
The wind whipped past my face as I hurtled across the city. My mind calculated flight vectors even as I cursed Dread’s timing.
Urgent meeting. Now. Non-negotiable.
Dread was going to bleed for this because Annie was going to fucking run. It was a mathematical certainty. She was terrified of what she had done. Terrified of how effortlessly she had surrendered her control to me.
If that shadow-obsessed bastard hadn’t summoned me, I could have kept her from running. At least for a while. I would have kept her pinned to my mattress, buried deep inside her until her panic dissolved into exhaustion and acceptance.
The Abandoned District rushed up to meet me. It was a graveyard of corporate ambition. Twenty years ago, it had been Chroma Bay’s financial center until the crash turned glass towers into hollow shells. Now it was where we conducted business too unsavory for even the League’s official channels.
I hit the cracked pavement hard, not bothering to slow. Concrete shattered, dust and debris exploding outward in a shockwave rattling the windows of the dilapidated warehouse ahead.
I stood in the crater of my own making and breathed.
Seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds since I’d left Annie.
The fucking countdown. I had her. She was going to be mine. I’d tasted her cunt and knew what it took to make her lose control. The countdown shouldn’t be there.
But she consumed my thoughts. When I’d see her again. The seven freckles that dotted her left shoulder. The sound she’d made when I bit her. The exact shade of pink of her nipples.
My cock throbbed. The suit was too tight, feeling even more like the prison it was.
I still couldn’t comprehend the way my tattoos had reacted to her.
The ink was engineered to sync with my undersuit, not touch.
I’d been with plenty of women and they’d never caused them to react in any way.
Yet the second Annie’s fingers traced the lines on my chest, she’d wired herself directly into my nervous system and fucked with my head.
I’d nearly lost my goddamn mind the moment her naked body crushed against mine. I felt her everywhere at once, the rhythm of her pulse had pounded inside my own veins. She was under my skin in the most literal sense possible, an obsession permanently embedded in my bones.
The static crackle of my internal comms popped.
“Sir,” a voice clipped. “Ms. Bishop has left the penthouse.”
I didn’t even blink. She was a creature of habit, and flight was her default response to losing control.
“Keep eyes on her,” I ordered. “Don’t engage. If anyone so much as looks at her too long, break their legs. Otherwise, just watch.”
“Destination is currently unconfirmed,” the voice added.
I’d bet my entire R&D budget she was making a beeline for the Tower. It was a fortress of rules where she could pretend the man who just fucked her hadn’t permanently marked her.
It didn’t matter. Running wouldn’t save her anyway.
I cracked my neck and stepped forward. The thing waiting in that warehouse needed Cipher the Villain, not the obsessive asshole I became when thinking of Annie.
My comm unit chirped in my ear again as I entered the warehouse. “Target location confirmed, sir. Dread is—,” Twenty-Three cut off and every light on my suit extinguished simultaneously. The heads-up display in my mask died and the subtle hum of power that constantly surrounded me vanished.
The suit became dead weight, while shadows shifted against the far wall. Dread. He watched, waiting for a reaction.
I forced my posture to relax.
“Well, well.” I injected boredom into my voice.
“If you wanted to get me alone in the dark, Dread, you could’ve just asked me to dinner first.” I stood still, trying to map the warehouse.
The echo of my voice bounced off pillars and revealed the cavernous space around me.
My suit might be dead, but I was far from helpless.
I tracked a shadow moving to my left without turning my head to maintain the illusion that I couldn’t see in the low light.
The charade was a necessary evil. Taking the Serum years ago had been a purely theatrical exercise.
The manufactured sludge did nothing to me considering my Trueborn biology.
I could have walked into the registration office the next day and claimed the injection gave me my perfect night vision, flight, and my enhanced physical power.
Some manufactured Supers came away from the shot with top-tier abilities. But claiming that level of power invited a look closer—to figure out what it was that made the serum work so well on them.
My cover would evaporate if they looked too closely. It was much safer to play the role of a moderately enhanced Villain who needed a suit and technology to survive.
“I’m on a bit of a schedule tonight,” I drawled. “So if we could speed this along? Unless you brought me here just to stand in the dark and listen to me talk. Which, honestly, I get it. I have a fantastic voice.”
He was circling, testing my awareness.
“Or is this some kind of test?” I asked, turning deliberately in the wrong direction. “Because I’ve got to tell you, my patience for games is wearing thin. I was in the middle of something much more entertaining than whatever this is.”
The shadows coalesced and Dread stepped forward. Even in the darkness, his presence was unmistakable. His peculiar stillness made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and his glowing red eyes made him look like the devil himself.
“I do appreciate the bravado, Cipher.” His voice slithered through the darkness. “But I can taste the fear on you.”
I held myself perfectly still as I felt him reach inside my head and pluck at the strings of my anxiety. The pressure in the air spiked. The scent of antiseptic filled my nose. I could feel the cold leather of the restraints against my wrists.
I shoved the memory down. Buried it under layers of cold, hard rage. Fuck Dread and fuck his powers.
“The only thing I fear right now is you drawing this out longer than necessary,” I said. “Some of us have lives beyond dramatic entrances.”
Dread chuckled, the sound echoing unnaturally. “Perhaps I can help speed things along.”
My mask’s display flickered on. Systems rebooted. Power coursed through the circuitry.
Dread’s hand moved and everything went dead again.
My pulse throbbed in my ears as he held out what he was holding for me to see. The familiar metallic gleam. The intricate engravings along the handle. The faint blue glow emanating from its head.
The Tinkerer’s Hammer.
Fuck.
He was the rogue Annie was hunting and he was standing right in front of me.
“Impressive toy.” I nodded toward the Hammer. “New acquisition?”
“Let’s call it an unexpected opportunity. One that’s opened my eyes to new possibilities.”
My suit came back online as he tapped the Hammer against his palm and power surged through my systems. Everything operated at 120% capacity before shutting down again.
“Temperamental, though,” he added. “Still learning its quirks.”
This changed things with Annie. If I told her about Dread, our partnership would end before it truly began. I’d have no reason to interact with her anymore. But if I didn’t tell her...
The rogue wasn’t technically my problem. My agreement with Annie was to help her while she found the rogue. Not to do the finding myself. A technicality, but one I could exploit. If I just happened not to mention this little encounter...
“Yes, your toy is very fascinating,” I said. “Maybe something you could share in a group chat? Did you really need to call me here to show it off?” I gestured vaguely around the decrepit warehouse. “Not that I don’t appreciate the ambiance, but a text would have sufficed.”
Dread’s lips curled into what passed for a smile on his gaunt face.
“I have a business opportunity for you, Cipher.” He twirled the Hammer between his fingers. “One that could prove mutually beneficial.”
The Hammer swung in a lazy arc. The things I could do with that technology. The Tinkerer had been a genius in his own right, but with my mind and that Hammer...
“I’m listening.” I didn’t bother masking the greed.
Dread reached into his coat and pulled out a small metallic chip between two long fingers.
“I acquired this. I need you to decode it.”
“And what do I get out of the deal?” I crossed my arms. “Decryption services aren’t cheap. Especially on short notice.”
Dread’s lips curled into that unsettling smile. He raised the Hammer and its faint blue glow pulsed like a heartbeat. My own heart beat along with it. The Tinkerer’s Hammer. The technological marvel that had inspired my earliest designs.
It could be mine.
“Complete this task for me, and any other information retrieval I require afterward...” Dread said. “And the Hammer is yours.”
It was too good to be true. No one gave up power willingly. Especially not someone like Dread.
“I’m not buying it,” I said flatly. “Why would you give up something this valuable? What’s your angle?”
Dread shrugged. “It doesn’t fit my aesthetic.” He twirled the Hammer once more before letting it hang at his side. “I don’t care for technology, and I don’t care to learn how to use this properly. Its use doesn’t spark fear in the human heart quite like my shadows.”
In demonstration, darkness pooled around his feet and tendrils of shadow crawled up the walls like living things.
“How long does this deal last?” I asked. “Am I signing up to be your personal hacker indefinitely?”
Dread held up the data chip. “It depends on what’s on this. Decode it first, and we’ll discuss terms for any additional services I might require.”
“And if I refuse?” I asked. “What then? You drag me out here, show off your new toy, and expect me to jump at your command?”
Dread smiled. A stretching of lips that revealed too many teeth. Even I, who prided myself on unsettling others, felt a cold finger trace down my spine.
“If you refuse...” His voice dropped to a whisper. “While this Hammer does have quite the learning curve, I’ve already mastered it enough to destroy you.”