Page 95 of Villainous Intent

His gaze shifted past me, his eyes widening.

I looked back just as Annie stepped cautiously onto the bridge, her arms crossed tight over her chest. The mask sat perfectly in place, framing those cutting eyes which had been rendered a warm, deceptive brown. The sweatshirt hung off one bare shoulder, and she stood barefoot on the decking. Combined with the way her hair looked a little wild from the flight, she looked exactly as though she had just rolled out of my bed.

She also looked absolutely furious.

Velocity stared at her, then snapped his attention back to me.

“You...” Velocity choked out, his voice cracking as he looked between the two of us. “You went to get your fucking girlfriend while you left me locked in here?”

“I have my priorities,” I drawled, glancing back at Annie. Her eyes narrowed behind the mask, promising absolute murder.

I cut the external speaker to the containment cell with a subtle flick of my wrist, silencing the Hero’s sputtering protests. I turned fully toward Annie and waited. When she didn’t speak, I said, “No lecture? No impassioned speech about the sanctity of Hero life and proper prisoner protocols?”

She didn’t even look at Velocity. She kept her gaze locked on mine, her arms still crossed tightly. “League members are permitted to hold Alliance prisoners for up to twenty-four hours before it’s considered an infraction.”

I blinked. That was not the reaction I had anticipated. “You’re not clutching your pearls? I’m almost disappointed.”

“Fuck your disappointment,” she snapped, finally ungluing her feet from the doorway and taking a few steps onto the bridge. “Havoc raised me. You think I don’t know what happens behind closed doors, away from the public? I know the rules exist to manage the chaos, not erase it.”

I moved toward her, tilting my head to consider her as I approached. “What do you know about the asshole in the tank?”

She just stared me down, those brown-tinted eyes flat. “I’m not giving you privileged intel on an Alliance Hero.”

“I gave you access to League files,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, you can do that because you’re a criminal. You break the law. I’m not. I don’t.”

I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at the silently shouting Velocity. “You’re standing on my bridge. You’re seeing my prisoner. That makes you complicit.”

She actually laughed. “You fucking kidnapped me. That doesn’t make me complicit, that makes me a victim. There’s a form for that, by the way. League abduction report, subsection B. You’ll need to file it within twelve hours of my abduction.”

Before I could formulate a retort to that staggering display of administrative defiance, she stomped past me. She marched straight to my command chair, the central seat, the one with the optimal sight-lines to every diagnostic console and tactical screen. She plopped right down, curled one bare foot beneath her thigh, and glared at me from the dead center of my power.

Fuck.

She was in a rage, sitting in my chair, surrounded by my systems, wearing my technology on her face. Her posture radiated defiant ownership. She could command this entire aircraft from that position through sheer force of will.

I loved it. I loved the breathtaking audacity of it. Her absolute refusal against my absolute control made my cock instantly hard.

I walked over until I stood beside the chair, looking down at her soft, furious form. “Comfortable?”

“It’s a nice chair,” she said, refusing to look up at me.

I leaned down, bracing my hands on the armrests, caging her in. “You really aren’t going to help me with him?”

“Not a chance.”

“Even though you know I’ll get the information anyway?”

“Then get it,” she challenged, giving me a glare. “Do your Villain thing. But don’t ask me to grease the wheels for you. I have lines, Cipher. You drag me across most of them, but that one is still there.”

I stared at this principled, infuriating woman sitting in my chair, telling me no. She was fucking perfect.

“Fine,” I murmured. “Keep your lines. For now.”

I pushed off the chair and turned back to the containment cell, flicking the comms back on.

Velocity’s voice filled the bridge, tinny and grating through the overhead speakers. “—think you’re some kind of prize? You think he’ll keep you? He’s probably bored already. You’re just a warm hole to him. Bet you have daddy issues, huh? That why you’re on your knees for a Villain? Sucking Cipher’s cock for attention?”