Page 26 of Serpentine

Logic is an old foe for me, and I worry she’s fitting in here a little too well. Maybe there’s an angle she’s working on that hasn’t revealed itself yet. My guard will remain up with her. Even though the taste of her is still fresh on my tongue as it was when her slickness was gliding over my mouth.

“Can you pull surveillance and maps for where they want to meet?” Miles asks me, handing over an address on the back of one of our business cards. I assume they’d left it at the scene for the board to find the other night.

“I can, yes. Give me a couple of hours.”

I clear my plate and head toward the basement when Aella stands. “Can I come? I mean, can I help? I have nothing to do.”

“You’ll be in the way.” It’s curt and to the point, and I don’t know if I’ve overstepped with my tone, but she doesn’t bristle.

“I won’t be.”

Miles’s eyes meet mine as if to say she’ll see your lair.

But something about her doesn’t put me on edge. If anything, it feels like she might be the one who can see me. Other than Miles, of course.

Having a woman see me on that level would be entirely different.

“You’d better not be, Bambi, or you’ll be punished,” I tell her, and something heated blazes in her eyes as she hurries to clean her place.

Miles stands and thanks her for breakfast. “Kylo, clean the kitchen,” he commands, and Kylo groans but nods.

Aella eyes him for a moment before following me downstairs.

“Listen,” I say, getting to the bottom step and turning toward her, “I don’t want to hear a commentary on how I live or how things are down here. And don’t move anything. I’ll know.”

“Okay,” she says hesitantly. If she wasn’t worried a moment ago, she is now.

I rather like that she is. It means she cares.

Or that she’s afraid of me. Both make my blood boil.

She steps into the room, and I flick the lights on. Red illuminates everything as I move over to my desk and power up all my screens.

I swivel in my chair and watch her take me in. Because this room, this massive space, is me.

“The lighting,” she starts, and I roll my eyes and turn back around.

“It makes my brain happy,” I admit, face turned away from her. It’s a strange thing to say, but it’s my truth.

“It’s kind of soothing, in a way,” she says, moving to my side.

Her arm rubs against mine, and it’s the first time an abrupt touch hasn’t set me on edge. It’s confusing for my logical brain to take in.

“There’s so much space down here. You stay down here alone?” she asks.

I work my fingers over keys, pulling schematics for the address on the card. It’s some abandoned building in the empty portion of Twin Pines’ industrial district.

“Yeah, Dad finished the basement for me in my teens. It’s my space, where I can go when I need to dig in.”

I wince as I’ve given her too much information. While my brain is processing what’s in front of me, it doesn’t have time to filter what I say.

“Dig in?” she asks, her eyes returning to me from where she’d been looking at everything.

“It’s what we call it when I lock myself away. It’s not like I’m crazy or anything. It’s just sometimes I need to...”

“Regulate?” she asks, attempting to help me finish the thought.

“Yes, that’s a perfect word for it.”

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