Page 95 of Sunflower

Relieved, I let out a breath. Thank fuck. There was no way I’d sit back and let Mam dictate my career. Especially on her very first day back.

“Although I’m sure she and Barry will be happy to hear that I’m reassigning you.”

I scowled and sucked in that breath I’d let out, feeling my hackles rise. Joey reached over and placed his hand on my thigh, rubbing his thumb in small circles to settle me down. It annoyed me that it worked. Iwantedto be angry about Mam throwing her metaphorical weight around, damnit.

“Don’t give me that look, Callum,” Orchestra said sternly as she pointed her index finger at me. “I’m doing this because I need someone to cover Marcy while she’s out. You know whatshe’s like with computers. I hear, not just from this office, but from New York as well, that you have a reputation for being able to fill gaps in order to keep things moving. Hence the reason for your codename.” She raised an eyebrow at me in suspicion. “Or are you telling me that everyone lied to me?”

“No, ma’am.” Begrudgingly, I sucked my bottom lip in but conceded her point. My psychometry power meant that, in most instances, I could pick up on what other people had done in the past simply by touching their workstations and learning through osmosis. That’s how I’d gained the reputation I had, and exactly why George had given me the codename Honeycomb. I’d filled the gaps when people had gone on leave, and I’d been good at it.

Filling in for Marcy, however, was going to be interesting. Her power was being an aligist, kind of like a super-powered polyglot. Where polyglots could learn to read, write, speak, and understand multiple languages, aligists could do the same withanylanguage, including computer code. With her out of action, my reputation meant that I was the next best choice to fill the gap. I only hoped I was up to the task.

“Good.” Satisfied, she nodded once. “A lot of the work on this case is going to be digital research, at least in the immediate future. After Coalminer completes his first interrogation of Leland, I’m sure we’ll get answers to our most pressing questions, but the more evidence we can gather, the better position we’ll be in when it comes time to prosecute.”

Joey and I nodded.

“Right, if there’s nothing else, you two head on upstairs and get some sleep. It’s been a long night and I’m sure you’re tired.” Dismissing us, Orchestra looked down at the desk and pulled the next folder from the thick pile to her right, reading the name on the tab. “Send Koby in next, please.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, quickly rising from my seat and glancing over to Joey to see him hesitantly do the same. I slowed down, wondering what was on his mind.

“Orchestra, can I ask a question?”

She looked up and smiled softly at Joey. She’d only known him a few hours, and he already had her wrapped around his finger. “Of course.”

“Why are you so comfortable bringing me in?” he asked, his hands fidgeting in front of him. “I’m not saying that I’m ungrateful for the opportunity, but I’m trying to understand. None of what’s happened to me over the past few days seems like typical procedure. It all feels especially fast and reckless, if I’m being completely honest.”

Swallowing a grin, I looked at Orchestra to see how she was going to answer him, only to find her giving me the exact same look. We both knew our world worked differently than the one Joey was used to. It would take time for him to adjust. Until then, it was up to us to reassure him.

She sat back and scratched at her nose, pushing her glasses up. “In his visions, George saw you working with Callum well into the future. He took that as confirmation that he could trust you, so he did. Trust is a simple thing to have when you can see things the way he can.”

“Yeah, but…” Joey paused, frowning as he thought about how to best say what he was thinking. “Reading me into a situation that, by rights, I really shouldn’t have been? Trusting me to know what I was doing when talking to Leland? You’re telling me that all of that was because of what George saw in his visions?”

She nodded. “He’s one of the best seers we have in the world, Joey. If I can’t trust his visions, who can I trust?”

“But isn’t that playing God? In trusting his visions to that degree, isn’t he removing a person’s choice?”

Orchestra leaned forward, an elbow on the desk allowing her to rest her chin in her palm as she looked at him carefully. “Are you saying that you would have done anything differently?”

Joey frowned at her. “I’d like to know that my choices were my own, and not the design of someone else.”

“Who’s saying they weren’t?” She tilted her head to one side. “Visions change based on the choices people make. I’m not George, but I have to assume he’s taking those choices into account when he makes the decisions that he does. Reading you into all of this, sending you in to speak to Leland the way you did…” She looked at me and smirked. “Hell, even sending Callum on his date with you in the first place. Why couldn’t they have all been based on the choices you would make that led to the visions George had?”

He continued to frown as he let out a long slow breath, letting a quiet grumble of disagreement go as he shook his head. “I don’t know if I hold the same amount of faith in George that you do.”

With an amused twinkle in her eye, Orchestra smiled knowingly. “And maybe that’s one more reason why he was so insistent on bringing you in. He saw that you’d keep him honest.” She sat back and waved her hand in the air. “Go upstairs, Joey. Get some sleep. Everything you’re thinking about now will still be there to think about tomorrow.”

Still unsure, Joey nibbled his bottom lip, but eventually gave in to her directive. “Yes, ma’am.”

Once we cleared the threshold of the suite we’d been allocated, I grabbed hold of Joey and drew him close to me, latching onto his lips with mine. I kicked the front door closed behind us,before we stumbled our way to the bedroom and tumbled onto the mattress together.

Thank fuck we’d been given a suite on the other side of the floor to Mam and Barry’s. I had a distinct feeling we were going to get loud, and Ireallydidn’t want to worry about them overhearing us.

We clawed at each other’s clothes, pulling off jackets and tossing them to the floor, not caring where they’d end up.

“Want you,” Joey panted, leaning his head to the side to allow me to suck on the side of his neck. “I wanted to edge you until you were begging, but… oh God, do that again… but I can’t wait that long, damn it. Need you too bad…”

With my mouth still buried in the crook of his neck, I grinned, then nibbled at his skin, making him curse again. My hands smoothed their way down his sides before I hooked my thumbs under his shirt and slid the hem up, revealing his delicious pink nipples. As I lifted his shirt over his head, I clamped my mouth down on one nipple, sucking hard until it stiffened and peaked, lapping at it before I switched focus and attacked the other one.

“Ugh, sweetness, yes,” he moaned, his fingers dragging their way through my hair, holding my head close to his body so I could keep torturing him. “Just like that…”

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