Page 14 of Inextricably Tied

“Of course. It won’t tell us anything, either. Says it doesn’t remember. That it wasn’t ‘awake.’”

Harbinger tilts her head, as if she’s considering the thought for the first time. “What if we take him with us?”

Tamneth’s shock is palpable. “Absolutely not. The night terror is unpredictable.”

“Oh, now it’s unpredictable?” Flint’s hatred for the OID outweighs the rest of his worries. “What happened to all the ‘trials’ you ran? The cuffs being secure?”

“Yes, but —”

“So you were willing to risk Harbinger for information — scraps of information, mind you — but us taking your prisoner is a step too far?”

“It’s a danger to the public.”

“Or you’re on your last leg to make things right after you fucked up the investigation.”

“That’s not —” Tamneth splutters. “You can’t trust this thing.”

“We don’t trust you.” Flint barrels straight into negotiations, not giving Tamneth a breath to cut in. “So you’ll pay for all expenses: lodging, travel, meals —”

“That’s not —”

“I’m not finished. You pay us a flat fee up front, no matter what we uncover. No matter if or when we decide to pull out. And no one from the OID has any part in our investigation.” Tamneth blanches at the sharp kick through his line in the sand. “They don’t travel with us. They don’t interrupt us. You give us what you have, case files and evidence, and we’ll take it from there. We check in once a week. Otherwise, you stay out of our business.”

“I can assure you, our agents —”

“Non. Negotiable.”

Tamneth’s glare cuts to Harbinger. She doesn’t help him. He tries again.

“We can’t allow you to disappear across the country unchecked. There has to be a representative from the OID with you.”

“You fucked up,” Flint answers. “You hired us to save face. You need us a hell of a lot more than we need you, so take your pick. Hand the terror over, or we walk.”

Tamneth’s mouth pulls into a thin line. He doesn’t contradict them.

“We leave tomorrow afternoon,” Flint finishes. “Make sure the money’s in our account, and the terror is waiting for us.”

They leave Tamneth without another word, a wisp of shadowy feeling stirring inside Harbinger. When the partners make it back to the parking lot, Harbinger pops the SUV’s passenger side door open before she realizes Flint is watching her.

“Look, I’m sor-”

“What did you see?” The SUV squeaks when Flint leans against the hood. “When you read him.”

Harbinger taps the connection inside her. It sounds hollow, like a pebble knocked down into a cavernous hole, echoing as the rock skips and falls into the depths.

“It was like a dream.” Dreams she’s had for longer than she cares to remember: the stone slab in the water. The house she won’t go near. She shakes them out of her thoughts. In the vision with Agony, everything was distant. Blurry. Dark. Already, the image slips away from her like a nightmare she can’t hold onto. “There was something there. Something moving. Pieces I couldn’t make out.”

“And the connection?”

Her brows knit. Flint waits for her answer.

“It’s not the same as ours. It’s not like a floodgate; it’s more like…a pathway.”

Flint’s expression is unreadable. He keeps a tight lock on his emotions, even when she says the words he doesn’t want to hear. “I have to go deeper.”

Flint huffs. “He’s dangerous, Harbin.”

“No more than a serial killer on the loose.”