Page 48 of Inextricably Tied

“I know you have a sense of my emotions.” He presses fingers to the bridge of his nose. “That they aren’t aligning with what I’m saying. But that’s how it has to be. I need you to take my word for it, even if you can feel the difference. I need you to trust me.”

Like you trusted me?

She doesn’t have to say it. Flint can’t look at Agony. Only the gods know the new ways he plans to fuck with the tenuous intimacy Flint and Harbinger have.

“I’m gonna shower.” A cold one. Without another word, Flint moves into the bathroom where he can finally breathe.

Anything involving the three of them is careless, a game they shouldn’t even think of playing. But since the fire, Flint’s mind wanders down roads it shouldn’t. Perverse places he’s ashamed of, twisted positions he never wants to put Harbinger in. Maybe that’s why he hates Agony so much, for putting these contorted ideas in his head. Knowing that doesn’t keep the thoughts at bay, slipping like water down Flint’s neck.

Harbinger bent over Agony. That sickening smile curling beneath her, weaving filthy words against her chest while Flint drags his cock out of her. Flint’s hand wrapped around Agony’s throat to see if it thrills her. Forcing Agony to watch as Flint takes Harbinger apart on his tongue, Agony’s smartass mouth telling her how delicious she looks.

It’s dark. It’s dangerous. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s nothing Flint can afford to give attention to.

Knowing that doesn’t stop the ache through Flint’s swollen cock. Harbinger appears in the bathroom at the sense of his arousal, and Flint tries uselessly to hide it.

“We can’t leave him alone,” Flint reminds her.

“I can see him.” She sinks to her knees in the doorway, bare hands on his thighs. His dick twitches. She looks up at him beneath her lashes. “Color?”

It should be red. It should be no, absolutely not, we can’t trust him…but it’s not. She can feel that it isn’t. And still, she waits at his feet, like she’s giving him permission to want this. Like he isn’t sick for thinking of it.

“Green,” he finally breathes.

Harbinger glances toward Agony in the other room, his chains clinking in response. “Green, fucking…”

All their groans bind together when Harbinger wraps her lips around Flint, positioned so Agony can see. It’s the sight of her perfect mouth and Agony watching her work that makes Flint come down the back of her throat.

Once should be enough. More than enough, but every day is a fuse lit by petty arguments, burning through them until they combust. Harbinger riding Flint in a dark parking lot while Agony curses from the backseat. Flint fucking Harbinger against the motel wall where Agony can only see their shadows. Flint eating Harbinger out until she has to shove him away as Agony begs for mercy.

Always, emphatically, it’s green from all three of them.

It’s hard enough for Flint to keep basic emotions from Harbinger, but now, his feelings don’t make sense. There’s a spike of jealousy when Agony grins at Harbinger, and then the thud of Flint’s pulse when Agony turns that grin on him. Constant tension in Flint’s body, prepared to slam Agony against the wall…and then the memory of Agony’s tongue against his hand that swells heat in Flint’s stomach.

He refuses to look at it, focused instead on the countless dead ends they keep running into. After they talk with the families, they investigate the places the girls were last seen, the shops Reid frequented, the sporadic sightings that hold no real hope. Harbinger picks up plenty of information from different surfaces, but nothing that leads them any closer to the girls.

By the end of the second week, even Agony’s cavalier attitude is flagging. The OID has gotten around Flint blocking their number. Now, they call from a new line each time, trying to track the three of them. Flint flips through the leads they’ve exhausted. Agony checks behind him, abandoning the oversized child’s puzzle that Flint bought him as a joke.

“So we confirmed all the girls in this stack attended schools where Reid sold printers.”

Flint glances up from his own pile. “Right.”

Agony searches for a sticky note. “And the ferryman from the Break called back. Said he recognized Reid from his younger days, when Reid got caught sneaking into the Break to hunt animals?”

“Correct. Every area — city, township, whatever — has its own governing body. And that body works out protections for its community. The OID oversees investigations throughout those areas, especially when a crime crosses multiple regions, but the OID loves to overstep.”

Sarcasm drips from Agony’s tone. “Sounds shockingly familiar.”

“They insert themselves in community issues so often, any ‘help’ they give is more of a power trip than any real investigation. But the Break’s governing body — the Conclave — would remember Reid from his past. He wouldn’t be welcome back in the Break. At least, not openly.”

Agony’s fingers drum on the table. “Still no word from the Timbers, though.”

It’s strange, hearing Agony talk about things he’s learned from Flint and Harbinger. “No. Reid’s hunting history might be a longshot, but we should at least look into it. After that, though…” Flint surveys the files they’ve picked through more than once. “We’re running out of leads.”

Harbinger rubs her temples when she leans back from the table. She’s been silent all evening, enough that both men pause to watch her now.

“If we can’t think of anything else…” She grits her jaw, like she’s not sure she wants to finish. “I have somewhere we can go.”

She waits for one of them to offer an alternative. Unfortunately, Agony is hideously fascinated by her pain, and Flint will be damned if he cuts her off now that she’s finally sharing something.