Page 64 of Dangerous Deviance
He put his hand on the back of my head, his fingers tangling with my hair. That softness made me melt, made me feel like I could be whole again, but it only lasted for so long. I knew the urge to fight would come back, and then, what would I do? I couldn’t hold onto Wil’s touch forever. I needed to be on my own.
“You’re mine, Ellie,” he said, locking his dark eyes on mine. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I wanted to believe him, but I didn’t know how. If I had let my sister down, let her be captured by the Skyline Shift, losing the one person I cared about more than anything in the world, then how could I trust anyone? How could I trust Wil to protect me?
My heart sank with my body, drifting down, heavy, as if nothing would ever bring it back up.
CHAPTER 16
Wil
The closer we drove to Muro, the less confident I was that we would get answers. With each passing minute, I only had more questions. Was Ellie’s sister truly dead? And if so, who had killed her? And why was Ellie able to fight the programming from the Skyline Shift one moment, and let it control her completely the next?
I didn’t understand the switch between being mine, and being my enemy. I wanted to trust Ellie, but she and I both knew that she wasn’t wired to trust me. She had been conditioned to kill me.
She was mine, and yet, she wasn’t.
“We need to figure out a way to help the women,” I said to Derek. He adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, then checked his speed.
“How do we do that?” he asked.
“I called Ethan,” I said. “He’s going to take a look at the camp they were in.” Derek nodded. “But is there a professional that can help?” I asked. He pressed his brows together. I shook my head, gazing out at the faded green hills passing to the side. “This is some weird cult shit. I don’t like it.”
“None of us do,” Derek said. Our phones buzzed at the same time, likely a group message from Axe. Derek nodded at me to read the text and I checked my device.
Another one of Muro’s women, Axe sent.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
“What is it?”
“Axe found another one.”
“Another woman?”
“Yep. Another female soldier.”
I rubbed my forehead, scowling to myself. I had the space to protect Ellie, and hell, if I wanted, I could house two or more of the women in the extra rooms in my penthouse. But I couldn’t babysit, run Jimmy’s,anddeal with a war, and I sure as hell didn’t have any loyalty to the rest of the women. Ellie was different. But even with Ellie, I couldn’t keep her in handcuffs for the rest of her life. There had to be another way. A way to fight this. A way to unearth Ellie’s soul. To free her from everything. Perhaps even to free her of me.
But that wasn’t a possibility I was willing to accept right then. First, we had to figure out Dr. Bates and Miles Muro. Then we could figure out the rest.
“This is bullshit,” I muttered.
“Focus on Muro,” Derek said. “Then we’ll figure out the prisoners.”
The building to the Midnight Miles Corporation was sleet-colored against the overcast sky. I always knew I hated the bastard—Miles fucking Muro—but the fact that he had ripped Ellie from her life, conditioned her to be his undercover soldier, erased her memories, had her torturedandraped her, made me sick. I had grown up in the Adler mafia; crime was in my blood. But I couldn’t fathom this. I wanted to squeeze the life out of him.
And yet I knew I was just like him. Muro had trained Ellie for his own ends, and what was I, if not doing the same thing?
The difference was that Muro didn’t care if Ellie lived or died. But I would protect her, forever and always.
Which was another damn problem.
Instead of letting us pass through the gates, the security team checked our car twice. After discussing the situation on their headsets, maybe with Muro himself, the guards’ eyes cast up to the skyscraper, then they returned our pistols. I glanced at Derek, who gave a subtle nod. We had guns hidden inside of the seats too, ones that they hadn’t found, but Muro didn’t care that we were armed. Almost like hewantedus to bring our weapons. To play a game. And that made me uneasy.
“The hell was that about?” I asked, looking at Derek as he parked. I checked our guns, making sure they hadn’t messed with them or the ammo. To my surprise, they were still completely intact. “They let us keep the guns?”
Derek shook his head, glancing at the building. “I don’t like this.”
