Page 56 of Fool Me Twice

Hart sprang to his feet, his chair rolling off behind him. He gathered his things quickly and made for the exit, heart in his throat. Fix lumbered after him.

“Hart! Where are you going?”

“To get answers.”

“Hart—”

“Don’t follow me, okay,” Hart said, whipping his head around to stare at Fix through the red haze. “I mean it.”

“You expect me to let you go when you’re acting so irrational?” Fix asked, almost scoffing.

“I have it under control,” Hart gritted out. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

Fix glowered for a few seconds, looking like he wanted to argue the point further before nodding tightly. “If I don’t see you or you don’t text within twenty-four hours, I’m coming after you. Whether you like it or not.”

Hart nodded once before leaving the building.

The drive to Cane’s side of the city was a blur, and he definitely broke the speed limit. He parked haphazardly in front of the warehouse and bolted from the car, ignoring the police tape that had been left up.

He climbed the stairs to Cane’s office like he was being chased by every single demon Cane had ever unleashed from within him. They nipped at his heels and made the roiling emotions he didn’t know how to contain thrash inside his body.

The space smelled like Cane. Like smoke and alcohol and danger, and Hart sucked it in deep, let it fuel the storm inside him.

He pushed past Ares, who stepped aside easily, bursting through the door and leaving it rattling wide open as he advanced.

“What aren’t you telling me?” he hissed, eyes zeroing in on Cane, dressed the same as he always was, sitting behind his desk with his phone to his ear.

“I’ll call you back,” Cane said, eyes cutting over to him and making him shake.

It had only been two days, but it felt like a lifetime since he’d seen him. Since he’d had those eyes focused solely on him.

Cane slowly lowered the phone and stood up, leaning both hands on the desk. “Is that any way to start a conversation, sweetheart?”

“Don’t patronize me,” Hart said, stalking forward. “What are you hiding from me?”

Cane kept him laser-focused, not backing up. The muscles in his bare arms flexed. “The fuck are you talking about?”

“I spent the last two days buried in old cases trying to find anything to solve this mess around you,” Hart said. “I keep hitting wall after wall after wall. And I don’t think it’s me. Or whoever cursed you.”

He didn’t really know what he was saying. What he was implying. He was seeing red, so pent up and angry for no reason that he couldn’t even think straight. What he really wanted to say was; why weren’t you around, why didn’t you find me, why do I need you so much?

“I’d watch my mouth if I were you,” Cane warned.

“You’ve been watching it enough for both of us. Is that what this is? This supposed curse? A ruse to lure me back in?”

Cane rounded the desk and grabbed him by the arm in one movement. Hart barely registered it before he found himself pressed against the desk face-first, Cane flush behind him, chest to his back, mouth just next to his ear. Hart could smell him. Finally. He could feel him. Finally.

He whimpered, eyes rolling back in his head, the whimper turning into a hiss when Cane bit down on his earlobe. “As if I need ruses to get you where I want you.”

Hart panted into the wood under his face, fingers curling in the papers there as Cane wound an arm around his stomach and the other up toward his neck. He yanked him upright against him and nosed behind his ear.

“We have unfinished business, you and I,” Cane whispered.

He slipped his pinky under Hart’s waistband but no farther. He found the space between his shirt buttons and used his nail to scratch at his skin but wouldn’t press. Hart couldn’t contain the cry of disappointment, head falling back on Cane’s shoulder.

“I need you to tell me the truth,” Hart said, his voice coming out in short bursts. He was barely holding on.

“Is that what you need?” Cane asked, breath hot and wet on Hart’s neck.

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