Page 99 of Inside the Wicked

“I wish he wasn’t,” I mutter. I don’t know how much I mean it. I love my dad despite our tension right now, and I’m proud he’s living his dream, but I wish I could be a nobody. Nobody but Rhett’s.

Rhett sighs. “I know.”

I gave him my phone last night, and somehow he’s confident they won’t be able to trace it. For now. The longer I hide from my dad, the more advanced his search will become. I considered throwing it out, but Rhett was right in saying a few texts could come from anyone, so I kept it to a call at least once a week.

We get to the Den, and seeing Shadow is the first thing to lighten my mood. He’s been staying here while our situation istoo unsettled. Here he’s an asset, everyone loves him, and he gets to be spoiled by so many.

“Hey, boy,” I say, kneeling to hug him. “I’ve missed you.”

Shadow was the only thing holding me together most days for months. There’s something so unexplainably healing about canine companionship.

“Shit, Ana, do you know how out of his mind your dad is about you right now?”

Adam’s voice is the first to bound over to us. We meet him and Rix at his usual station.

Rhett says to him sharply, “You can’t keep coming here right now. It’s too much of a risk if they decide to try track you thinking it might lead them to Ana.”

Adam’s brow furrows, and Rix tips a look back at him where Adam stands behind his seat.

“I told you he’d be pissed you’re here,” Rix says.

“He’s always pissed I’m here,” Adam grumbles. Then he directs to me, “What are you thinking though? This is getting out of hand.”

“Nothing is everinhand about what we do. Get used to it or get out,” Rix says.

He’s typing away and clicking through various channels I can’t keep up with. I cast a look between them, but the tension can be felt. I won’t pry about what’s causing it.

“That’s it then? I got you into the club and now I’m not useful?” Adam bites back.

Rix stops what he’s doing, spinning in his chair. “Are you hovering until I give you some task to do? I would have found another way into that club. Get over yourself.”

“Me?” Adam says incredulously.

Rhett edges closer to me with a tiring expression. “We shouldn’t have come here.”

“You said we needed to check on the Liam and Allie search,” I say.

His arm curves around me. “I could have called in, and I have my own equipment at home. I’d very much like to take you back.” His face inches closer with every word until his lips are hovering over mine.

“I thought they called you in for something?”

“I don’t care about whatever it is anymore.” He kisses me, bringing our bodies flush, and I wish we’d never left our bed either.

“Rhett,” Oma calls over.

Rhett groans, letting me go to glance over at the elderly woman lingering in her doorway as usual. I smile and wave to her.

“I thought you said you needed me?” Rhett asks Rix over his low bickering with Adam.

“I didn’t. Oma made me get you in.”

“You haven’t talked with anyone yet,” I say.

I wish he would talk to me about what he went through at the hands of Alistair, but I can’t force it out of him. He coaxed me to seek help with Oma, and I can’t explain how she has this natural ability to dissolve a person’s walls and let the flood drown them, then teach them how to swim.

“It can wait,” Rhett says, turning his focus back to the monitors.

“So can sex,” I say.

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