Page 10 of The Devil's Bargain
“I’m sorry.” Titus made sure he knew he meant it. “We had nothing to do with his death.”
“I know that now.”
“We’ll help you find who did,” Aodhan’s sleepy voice finally joined the conversation. He groaned and sat up, curling up against Titus’s side and dropping his head to his shoulder. “We’ll help you find whoever is responsible, and we’ll put them in the ground. You don’t even have to ask us to do it, Be’urn.”
“No,” Calix stated. “I do have to ask. No more running, right? No more pretending that I’m something I’m not.”
“And what are you?” Titus couldn’t help but ask.
Cal held his gaze steadily. “I’m a monster. Just like you.”
Chapter 4:
“Tell me what you found out.”
Aodhan clicked his tongue and dropped down into the luxury seat directly across from their Third. “Straight to business? Already?”
They’d boarded the spaceship less than an hour ago, had only just barely exited Alter’s atmosphere, and without skipping a beat, Calix already wanted to discuss Bruce.
Another man.
“Ew.” Cal’s mouth twisted in displeasure and he rested a glare Aodhan’s way. “Are you jealous of an old man?”
“Mercy is old,” he pointed out, though they both knew there was at least twenty years between their First and the deceased chief of police.
“He was like a father figure to me.” Calix crumpled a napkin and tossed it at his face.
Mercy abandoned his seat closer to the cockpit and joined them, opting to settle in at the empty space at Cal’s right side. His hand cupped Cal’s nape, and a soothing sensation trickled through the bond tying the three of them together.
“Cut it out.” Calix batted him away, but when the director merely gave him a pointed look, heaved a sigh and gave in. “Whatever. You’re going to do what you please anyway.”
“I’m glad you’re learning, Azi.” Mercy smiled teasingly.
“Hello?” Aodhan crossed his arms and leaned back. “I’m still here.”
“Don’t pout.”
“Kind of hard not to when you’re both ignoring me.” In his own way, he was trying to help settle Calix’s nerves, and they must have known it, because their Third chuckled at his bratty behavior.
“Bruce, Aodhan,” Cal said. “Tell me about Bruce. Did Amory really have something to do with it?”
“We found her nearby,” he divulged, realizing there was no way around this conversation, despite how early in the day it was and how exhausted he still felt. Even with Calix locked in through the connection, he felt antsy being so far from home, where he knew they could keep a closer eye on him and ensure he didn’t try anything stupid.
Cal claimed he didn’t want to run anymore, but Aodhan knew the truth of what they were. The truth about how overbearing and smothering those first few weeks of being bonded to a Connect could be. Even he’d wanted an out more than once after he’d linked himself to Mercy.
“Bruce was murdered while I was with you,” he continued. “That night you came all over your food?”
“Could we not?” Calix’s cheeks turned a pretty shade of crimson.
“I was watching through the cameras,” Mercy added.
“Through the illegally planted spy cameras, without my knowledge.” Their Third turned his irritation onto him.
“Yes,” Mercy agreed. “Those.”
“He called me and ordered me to leave you alone,” Aodhan said. At the time, he’d lied and told Calix it was the hospital, but really, Mercy had been worried he would get too turned on by Cal’s actions and take things too far.
“You weren’t even supposed to be there,” Mercy scolded him. “You’re lucky all you got was a night of edging as punishment. It should have been worse.”
