Page 167 of What We Burn

“Yes.”

“And if he hurts another woman before eventually?”

The question lands in the center of the table.

I hate that there isn’t an answer that won’t hurt her.

“Then that’s the cost of choosing where we put our effort,” I say. “We can’t be everywhere, baby girl. We work the most immediate threat first and live with the fact that the list keeps growing faster than we can shrink it.”

Her mouth hardens.

“That’s a shitty system.”

“It is.”

She looks down at Stine’s file for another second before Holden reaches over and slides it back beneath Knox’s notebook. Sage scowls.

Knox watches her.

“You okay, Fury?”

“I’m angry.”

“Good. Angry is useful.” He rises from his chair and steps into her space. “Angry keeps you breathing. Alive.”

Sage tips her head back to look at him.

The air changes.

Not softer. Hotter.

Knox lifts one hand and brushes his thumb across her bottom lip. She catches it between her teeth.

His eyes go dark.

“Need help working some of it off,” he says.

FORTY-THREE

MICAH

Sage releases his thumb. Then she turns and looks at the rest of us. “I want all of you.”

Every man at the table straightens at once. Knox leans down and presses his mouth to hers, kissing her slowly. When he lets her go, she turns back to me, putting one knee on either side of my chair and settling into my lap. “I want all of you.”

Her mouth comes down on mine.

I catch her hips as she kisses me, hungry and demanding, her fingers burying in my curls. She tastes like mint toothpaste and sleep. Her body is warm beneath the T-shirt, bare except for the thin cotton between her thighs.

Around us, paper moves.

Holden swears as he starts gathering files. Milo snatches his peanut butter jar away from the edge.

“There are limits to what I want mixed into my snacks.”

Sage breaks the kiss long enough to glare at him. “You’re eating celery.”

“Exactly. I’m suffering enough.”