Chapter 18 · Someone Else's Key

"Let go of my throat, Drake."

My voice comes out wrecked, sanded down by the bite still throbbing under my jaw. Milo doesn't move his hand. If anything his fingers curl tighter, thumb pressed right against the pulse he already tasted, like he's counting it.

"Not until you tell me who that voice belongs to." His mouth is still an inch off mine, breath scorching against my lips, slamming into mine every time he talks. "Because it's not Ops. Ops knows my name. That thing on the speaker just called us both like we're a matched set."

"Maybe we are." I shove against his chest, bone against bone, no give in either of us, just gravity pinning us together harder the more I push. "Get off me and I'll go find out."

"You'll go nowhere." He doesn't budge an inch, just leans his full weight down until the grating bites into my spine. "Your badge is in the scrubber grate, Captain. You've got no clearance, no override, nothing but a busted collar and a bite mark I put there myself.