Page 8 of Inside the Wicked

He keeps an intimate hold on me I want to rip free from, but I listen. The fact he knows about Alistair’s watchdog spikes my adrenaline and sobers me a little. I examine him closer while trying to blend in with the partygoers. He’s the same height as me in heels, and he has a slim but muscular build. He’s handsome, with dark brown tousled hair, brown eyes, and a kind face. When I see the tattoo of a serpent’s head poking out from his dark T-shirt collar, my eyes snap to his.

“You’re from Xoid?”

“My name is Rixon Bennett, but only a few know my full name.”

“Rix,” I whisper.

He nods.

My eyes widen, and I shake my head with the wave of dizziness that passes. His arm tightens as if he anticipates it. I know his name. Rhett spoke of him often as his best hacker and the one he was most regularly in contact with. The fact Rix told me his full name is a serious token of trust considering his work.

I don’t know where to begin. What to ask. My heart is racing. This feels like gaining a piece of Rhett back—something I never thought I would get again. His network found me.

They could have found me far sooner.

Now I’m clashing with anger and upset. Too many emotions turn my stomach.

“Come. I don’t think your spy will want to follow, and I’m praying I’ll keep my balls after this.” Rix’s lips press to mine suddenly—only once, but it’s long and needy, and it shocks me still. Then he takes my hand, and I can do nothing but let him lead me toward the restroom.

It’s so crowded the women barely notice Rix, who leads me into a stall and locks the door.

“Sorry,” he mutters, running a nervous hand through his disheveled hair. “Had to make it somewhat believable we’d come in here to fuck. Buys us a little time.”

We lean against the walls on opposite sides of the stall, but his proximity is unnerving.

“What took you so long?” The demand is the first thing to come out of me.Three months, and only now someone from Rhett’s network is seeking me out?

Rix hooks a brow and folds his arms. “Were you expecting us sooner?”

Yes,I want to say. I’ve thought about them often. But I’ve taken the hand of their greatest enemy, the person who took Rhett from them too, and I guess I assumed Xoid despised me for the betrayal.

“Whynow?” I amend.

Rix looks me over as if he’s wondering if his next words will pull a detonator on me. “I didn’t want to come to you until I was pretty damn sure ...” He stalls, taking a deep breath, and the music pounding in the background starts to match my growing headache.

“Sure of what?” I dare to let the slither of hope surface. It’s already pricking my eyes.

Three months. Ninety-three torturous days. What else would take them so long to come to me?

They want to be sure ...

“Rhett is alive,” he says.

My eyes blur, and I have to sit on the toilet when I’m slammed by the three words I’ve clung to all this time. Three words that are worth the agony of not falling through the deep cracks in my world since he left.

Rhett is alive.

“How do you know?” I ask. My hope is dangerous, it’s taunting, but I want to fight the demons that mock me for it.

“It’s taken a long damn time. Xoid has been a wreck without him. Everyone is lost and no one knows what to do. Who to turn to. Me and a few others have been focusing all our efforts all this time on trying to find him. He’s Rhett fucking Kaiser—there’s no way he’s going down in a car accident when I’ve seen the guy take a bullet to the chest and live.”

My brow furrows. I knew there was a reason I couldn’t fully let him go. I couldn’t accept he was truly gone.

Because he’s been out there, waiting for us.

Me.

“Oh god,” I whisper. What has he been going through all this time?

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