Page 29 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)

W

e’ve got her.”

Trevor, his Chief of Security, stood before Black in his impeccable TacWeave uniform. Black’s Opti flashed as he received the files.

“She’s with the Adlets?” Black stopped playing with his ring and looked at his security officer.

“She is sir.”

“That’s going to destabilise the area. Who’s taking over?

“The Styx have been trying to make incursions. And The Harpies have some grudges.” He stood fast. Chest out. Arms behind his back. The steady whir of the overhead fan meting out the seconds.

Callum spun his ring around his finger for several more moments. “What aren’t you saying?”

The officer swallowed thickly. “We don’t have reliable intel on what’s down there. None of the biosig sensors function and even if they did, they wouldn’t pick up the ones we can’t read.”

“Have you sent drones?”

“Several. The Chargers consider them gifts.”

Black snarled. “But your ghosts can’t use cyberware. They’re good for B&E. Espionage. That sort of thing. How dangerous can they be in an assault?”

“They’ve been taking out people and we haven’t figured out how.” Trevor shifted uncomfortably. “It’s like they have an off-switch.”

“Then run a diagnostic.”

“Every piece of cyberware is completely devoid of soft. Like they gained superuser permissions and wiped all of it. It’s beyond factory reset.”

Black inhaled deeply and leaned back in his chair.

He could send his men down there. He could contract another gang to do it.

Shareholders wouldn’t like that. He knew the facts, though.

People, as much as he hated it, were becoming a scarce resource.

Competent people, even more so. Consolidations had happened the year previous, so it’s not like he could scoop up unemployed security either.

They had probably gone mad from losing their chem tech subscriptions anyway.

And the fact that Adlets had shown up, killed five and then left with only one person’s face on one of the few remaining visual cameras in the building when every other sensor had been disabled meant that they now had even fewer people.

One face. The face he had been looking for. That can't have been a coincidence.

“Assemble a SecTac team. Four maximum.”

“That’s it?”

Black ignored the question. “She’ll likely be wearing a mask. Look for the red spikes and find where they’re hiding.”

“Sir?”

Black shooed his security officer away with a waggle of his fingers and turned his chair. Once he no longer heard Trevor’s footsteps, Callum took the elevator up to his penthouse.

Imposing black stone and dark hardwoods decorated the space. Oiled brass and grey iron fixtures accented it. Rough. Masculine. Utilitarian. The only emotional piece was the cage in the centre. Empty. For now.

Callie’s door chimed. Her Opti told her that it was after eleven.

Sparx was with Tornit tonight, Talia tended to just let herself in.

The homeless would only take whatever she left out, they never rang the door.

Callie didn’t know who to expect. She tried to tune her Opti into the biosig scanner at her door, but nothing showed up.

Sighing, she crawled off the bed and shuffled to answer it. Sesi leaned against the wall opposite with a smile. It wasn’t flirty or even sly. More impatient, if Callie had to put a word to it. Then she realised she was only in boyshorts and a loose top, clearly braless.

“Do you always answer the door like that?” Sesi mocked.

“What are you here for?” Callie ignored the question, trying to sound annoyed instead of overjoyed. Her blush didn’t help.

Sesi half tilted her head. “I just wanted to talk.”

“It couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“Away from prying eyes.”

“Sparx?”

“I mean, yeah, but Tornit is just as culpable.”

“Alright then.” Callie moved to the side so that Sesi could step in. The door slid shut behind them. Callie’s heart began thumping loudly. This is what she wanted right? Why was she so nervous about it? Her eyes searched her guest.

Sesi stood cool. Confident. One corner of her plush lips in a permanent upturn.

The darkest eyes she had ever seen outside of a DocPod job.

Shorter than her, but with a wide stance like she owned the room.

It was Sesi, but her face wasn’t displaying the emotion she wanted it to. That’s why her pulse was racing.

After the few moments of silent scanning had passed, Sesi spoke. “I need your help with Talia”

“What?” This was not where Callie thought things were going.

“Look. She cares about you. I care about her…”

“You came here to talk about Talia?” Callie interrupted. She couldn’t help but feel a little rejected. She hoped her terseness would cover that up.

Sesi sighed and fell back against the wall. “You’ve adapted to fit in really well with us, but you’re still new here. Talia is a lot more fragile than she seems. She’d try to kill me if she knew I told you that,” she added with a flick of her eyes.

“So, explain it to me then.”

Sesi lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not going to talk shit about Talia.”

“You just did.”

“Talia is about to get her wish.” Sesi looked down at her hands, rubbing the pads of her fingers together. “And she’s going to be a mess when it happens.”

Callie wasn’t sure what this had to do with her.

“And right now,” Sesi looked off into the corner of the room, “I’m the only one she trusts to come to in the aftermath. I need you to be the one to pick up the pieces this time.”

“She doesn’t trust me. Not like she trusts you.” A tinge of jealousy crept into Callie’s voice.

“She will. And she won’t have a choice. I won’t be there.”

Callie frowned.

“Why?”

“Because they want me in exchange. At least, part of me.”

Callie huffed and shook her head. “Unbelievable,” she muttered. “Just my luck that I fall for someone who’s still not over her ex, and surprise !” Callie threw up her hands with as much sarcasm as she could muster. “Her ex isn’t over her either!”

“We’re not together. We’re done.” Sesi said, almost like she believed it.

“No, you’re not. You don’t offer to die for someone you’re not in love with,” Callie spat.

Sesi’s eyebrow twitched. She wasn’t going to die for Talia, only offer her womb. Callie’s point still stood, though she wasn’t going to let it lie without a rebuttal.

“And you don’t kill people to protect someone you’re not in love with,” Sesi spat back.

For weeks, the thought of giving Talia what she desperately wanted had kept Sesi awake. For weeks she had planned exactly how she would do it. How she would leave one camera on. One that would lead Black to find her. Bring him to her doorstep, ready to negotiate.

Sesi relished the control. She savoured the thought of knowing that she had accounted for every variable. That she had calculated the trajectory of every piece falling into place.

This was not that.

Yes, the thought of controlling Callie as another piece in her plans kept her awake at night in the best way possible, but now that she was here, the only thing in Sesi’s mind was Callie herself. She wanted Callie in her mouth. Inside her. In her veins. In her pores.

And so, when Callie launched herself forward, Sesi was as open to receive her as humanly possible.

Callie’s tongue plunged wantonly into Sesi’s mouth.

There was no hint of testing or decorum.

There was no shame, no fear of rejection.

Tongues circled and danced – predator and prey in a game with one outcome and two winners.

Sesi’s head hit the wall and Callie pinned her. It was so very unlike her. She surprised herself at how controlling she acted – if it could even be called control. Something else took hold. Something else took her will away. She simply obeyed its commands.

Sesi braced herself against Callie’s hip bones. Her thumbs skirted across muscle and sinew. She wilted as her hands melted into the softness of her abdomen.

Callie suddenly pulled away, gasping, as though she forgot she had to breathe. Her grey eyes wide and pupils blown in the ever-present winter dark, searching darker brown for a sign that she should stop. She found none.

Callie crashed back into Sesi, her head hitting the wall with an audible thump , though it might as well have not made a sound for how much attention they paid to it.

Sesi’s fingertips found the underside of Callie’s breasts after skipping across heaving ribs.

There was no rational explanation why Sesi should find so much joy in them, but she felt like weeping.

They were the softest, most delicate thing in the world, and yet, Callie’s nipples pebbling against her thumbs felt softer yet, begging to be pulled.

Sesi did as Callie’s body instructed and she was reaped a full-throated moan into her mouth.

Sesi pulled and pinched and teased, playing Callie like a violin. This wasn’t the control she had ever had in mind, but it was everything she could ever want in the moment.

Callie stepped away again and threw her shirt to the floor since Sesi didn’t seem to be getting the hint. She worried that Sesi was getting hung up on offending Talia for whatever reason. But Callie didn’t fucking care right now.

Callie hooked her fingers around Sesi’s belt and tugged her off the wall.

A jolt of heat rushed to Sesi’s core, certain she had just soaked her boxers.

Mercifully, she took her cue and made a show of peeling away her TacPants while Callie sat on the bed, storing away the memory of how the lights from the giant neon billboards outside her window illuminated Sesi’s curves.