Page 322 of Flirting with Darkness

He arched that slit eyebrow at her. “I’m the only one who gets to decide what I will and will not deal with.”

Nova couldn’t stop staring at him.

Fuck, he needed to stop saying things like that.

On a whim, she crossed the room and kissed his cheek. Nova didn’t trust herself to do more than that and still be able to leave. “I’ve never had anyone treat me the way you do.” She hugged him then, trying not to fixate on the fact he didn’t hug her back. “I need some time to figure things out.”

Nova left before she did anything else stupid, yanking her hood up so no one could see her eye. She traced the scar on her eyebrow. For some reason, knowing Dex had a matching mark made her hate it less.

Her hand dropped and she shook her head.

There was work to do, and she needed to figure out exactly who Dex was before she fell head over heels for him.

If it wasn’t already too late.

23

DEX

Dex watched the footage for the thousandth time, hand resting on his mouth as he tried to figure out something from the video.

Whoever had broken into the building was a pro.

They’d disabled the alarms and picked the lock in record time, and Dex thought the general attitude of the hunter was probably the most extraordinary thing about him. He was pretty average height for a human male, but that wasn’t what made him intimidating.

It was the way he walked – leading through the hips with the rest of his body following suit, shoulders swaying, slightly crouched to make a smaller faster target. His confidence though…he walked straight toward the guard on duty like he owned the place and wrapped his arms around the security’s neck with a controlled aggression Dex honestly thought was incredibly impressive.

Just enough force to knock out the guard without doing severe permanent damage but every movement told anyone with half a brain not to underestimate this hunter. The way he adjusted the body to make it look like the guard was sleeping was almost gentle in stark comparison to his attacks.

Dex watched again as the hunter didn’t even bother messing with the cameras. He just leisurely walked toward the stairs, stopping for a split second to listen. The footage then cut to the stairwell and Dex followed him up into the IT department.

Another smart move.

Most people would have gone for the CEO’s office or someone else they thought was in power. Sure, they did hold the highest positions in the company, but it was the computer geeks who held the keys to the kingdom. The people in power would be fucked if the IT director ever locked them out of their own servers.

The director’s office door swung open and Dex watched again as he set up the download and then went to stand behind the door like he had all the time in the world. With such a deep hood, all Dex could see was the monstrous skeletal face mask that went up and over his nose. The shadows covered any defining feature and the gear he wore covered everything else.

Strapped to the nines like he planned to go to war.

The hunter didn’t move a single muscle until the download finished. Dex watched as he went back down the stairs. His second favorite part was about to happen.

A security guard entered the same stairwell.

Without hesitating, he gripped the railing and launched himself over, dropping three stories and landing with a silent roll before ducking under a stairwell, waiting until the guard left to move again.

The skill and confidence the hunter possessed was rare – not just for hunters, but for anyone. It had been impossible to track him down once he left the building.

They’d pulled footage from every business they could, but once he’d reached the rooftops, they’d lost him, and Dex had no idea where he’d come from or where he’d gone.

The only thing he could maybe use to identify the hunter was the face mask, but a quick search brought up a million similar masks you could get from just about anywhere.

In and out with minimal fuss, including minimal damage to people and things. He’d even repaired the alarm system before leaving. It had been so clean, so professional, Dex was finding it difficult to actually be mad about this.

But what was the motive?

Financial records could easily lead the hunter to a million different things he might be interested in, but Dex needed to figure out if this hunter had been hired by a rival or the Council of Paranormals.

Neither was a good option, but at least with the Council, he wouldn’t have to worry too much. Dex wasn’t breaking any rules and he was very careful about his human interaction. A quick warning to the entire Grim Corp to make sure they were all on their best behavior had already gone out just to be safe.

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