Chapter 251: A Ride with Mercury.
"That’s jumping to an assumption," Becky said through my comms.
The car idled at the curb, Mercury already behind the wheel, engine purring. I stood outside it, one hand resting on the warm hood, waiting for Melissa.
"Just call her," I said. "She told me his hair was blue."
"Blue hair doesn’t make him Nesto."
"Which is exactly why I sent you her number." I turned slightly away from the car. "Go there. Confirm it yourself."
Mercury lowered the driver’s window and glanced over at me. Becky kept talking in my ear, circling whatever question she really wanted to ask. The humid breeze slipped through the open window, stirring loose strands of Mercury’s hair and carrying the faint, sweet scent of her shampoo.
"Just call her, Becky. Please."
I disconnected and walked around to the passenger side.
"You good?" Mercury asked as I approached.
"Yeah." I opened the door and dropped into the seat. "Why?"
"Thought you were on the phone with Sherry and she’d broken your heart." She said it while staring straight ahead, then muttered something under her breath I didn’t catch.
"You’re obsessed with Sherry," I said. She’d found a way to drag Sherry into every conversation for the last two days.
"Nah." Mercury leaned across the center console toward me, close enough that I could smell her shampoo. "Forget Sherry. I’m obsessed with you."
I turned to look at her. She’d said it the same way she said everything else—zero filter between brain and mouth, eyes locked on mine without a trace of hesitation.
"Do you just say whatever comes into your head?"
"Whatever crosses my mind," she corrected, completely unbothered that I wasn’t in the mood. Her gaze shifted to the building entrance. "Where the hell is this pretty bitch?"
Melissa came through the glass doors beside Mute. My attention went to him immediately.
She walked beside Mute, the two of them deep in conversation, bodies angled close in that way that screamed private. Their voices were too low to carry, heads tilted toward each other. The golden hour light painted long shadows behind them.
Mercury watched them through my half-open window, lips pursed.
"Those two are definitely fucking."
I didn’t touch it.
At the entrance, Melissa rose onto her toes and gave Mute a small, quick kiss on the cheek. Then she turned and started toward the car, heels clicking sharply against the pavement, posture straight and elegant.
[Keep your mind blank. That’s the only thing that makes marking Melissa Veyron difficult.]
She reached the car, opened the back door, and slid inside with smooth grace, the fabric of her skirt whispering as she settled.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Close the fucking door," Mercury said, tone flat, offering zero adjustment for the fact that she was speaking to the Director of Field Operations.
Melissa pulled the door shut with a solid click.
"Mind your language, please."
"This is my territory," Mercury said, revving the engine with a throaty growl. "I say what I want in it."
"Is she always like this?" Melissa asked. The question was aimed at me, but I let it hang.
"You fuck him." Mercury’s eyes locked on Melissa through the rearview mirror as the car pulled smoothly through the government gates, tires humming over asphalt.
"I what?"
"That guy you were with. You fuck him."
Melissa shifted in the backseat, clearly recalibrating everything she’d expected from this trip. "You’re insane."
"You’ll love me more when we’re moving." It was the exact line Mercury had dropped the first time I met her, back when our car had been heading out toward the Fallen City with May up front and Sherry beside me.
I turned my gaze to the window and let the capital slide past in a blur of concrete, glass, and half-rebuilt streets. I kept my mind as empty as possible. No purpose. No countdown. No names. Nothing she could reach in and pull out.
"Abram." Melissa’s voice came from behind me, calm but probing. "What’s the naked mansion actually like?"
Mercury took a sharp turn, the car leaning slightly, following the glowing route on the dashboard display.
"You said you’d already met Mrs. Rivers," I replied, twisting in my seat to look back at her.
"I have. But not there."
"And why the hell is it called the naked mansion?" Mercury asked, glancing in the mirror.
"That’s the whole point of the name."
"It’s a place where lies aren’t tolerated," Mercury cut in. "Everyone comes clean. Emotionally naked."
"No, it’s a place where—"
"Fuck." The word slipped out of Melissa before I could finish. Her eyes widened slightly, a flicker of surprise crossing her face.
[Telepathy in use against you.]
[Misdirection failing. The ability is stronger than the barrier.]
[Recommendation: hold nothing related to your purpose in active thought.]
Okay.
"Fuck." Mercury lifted her hand off the wheel for a second as realization hit, then gripped it again. "Please tell me it isn’t what I’m imagining."
"It is."
She let out a bright, delighted laugh. "I’m fine with that. It’s the lady in the back I’m worried about."
"There is no version of this where I walk around naked outside my bathroom," Melissa said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What about your bedroom?"
"Bathroom and bedroom are the same category."
A reluctant hint of laughter threaded through her voice, her posture easing just a fraction.
Mercury eased off the accelerator. The naked mansion had come into view ahead—the tall wrought-iron gates, the long curving drive, and the grand building waiting behind them exactly as I remembered it.
Mercury caught Melissa’s eyes in the rearview mirror again, a wicked grin spreading across her face.
"Has anyone ever squeezed your tits properly? Like, really properly?"
"You are genuinely insane," Melissa said, a mix of disbelief and reluctant amusement coloring her tone.
And then the music reached us—bass-heavy, pulsing, layered with overlapping voices and laughter—spilling out through the open gates as the naked mansion announced itself before we’d even come to a stop.