Page 15 of Cohesion

“Just like that. You want specifics, you can ask him. Spence? No one knows. He appeared one day, and he never left.”

What? That all sounded like horseshit. What kind of government organisation hired people like that? “An interesting recruitment process you have there.”

“We collect only the best,” Jericho quipped.

“And what about you and Hunter?” Peyton asked.

“What about us?”

“Where did you come from?”

“Nowhere,” Jericho said shortly. “We were built from nothing and turned into weapons.”

That at least sounded familiar. Did it haunt him the same way it haunted Peyton? Jericho seemed untouchable, like all the worries in the world slid right off him, never staying long enough to stick. Did he get scared? “And are you still just a weapon?”

“We were never ‘just’ anything, and no. I refuse to be used for an agenda I don’t agree with. Loyalty can’t be bought or bartered. We built something of our own that we control, and now we work for ourselves and only stick our noses where we want to.”

“You say ‘we’ an awful lot, when you talk about you and Hunter,” Peyton said, unable to keep the sliver of jealousy out of his voice. What were they to each other? Was that why Jericho didn’t want to pursue anything with them? Peyton’s hands drew into fists, anger throbbing under the surface. If that was the case, he shouldn’t have slept with any of them.

“What?” Jericho’s brows drew in for a heartbeat, and then he burst out laughing.

Peyton gritted his teeth. “What’s so funny?”

Jericho pulled over to the side of the road, putting the SUV into park. He kept one hand on the wheel and turned. “Are you jealous, Peyton?”

“I’m not into sleeping with someone who’s taken,” Peyton said stiffly.

“Is that what you think of me?”

“I don’t know you.” He wanted to. Jericho had layers, and Peyton wanted to peel all of them away so that he could see into the heart of who this man was. For himself. For Will. Trust was difficult, but hewantedto trust Jericho.

Jericho cupped the side of Peyton’s face, smoothing a thumb across his jaw. “Hunter is my brother.”

Peyton repeated the words in his mind. Brother. Hunter and Jericho were brothers. “Brother?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” Jericho asked, mouth quirking.

“I wasn’t expecting that.” Things clicked into place. The “we.” That where one was, the other wasn’t far behind. Peyton had never been on the field at the same time as his older brother, Danny, who he’d followed into the military. The team Danny waswith now had been Peyton’s, once upon a time, and there was only room for two snipers. Peyton and Tyler, now Danny and Tyler.

If they’d been the two snipers, how would he have been? Overprotective. Scared fucking shitless. He knew that Danny went headfirst into dangerous situations, the same way that Peyton once had. Danny held the position with far more grace, and Peyton knew that the guys would keep him safe. Knowing and being there were two different things. Better and worse in a lot of ways.

“Someone like me can have family too.”

“That’s not what I meant.” The question, “Older?” slipped out; he was too curious not to ask.

Jericho chuckled. “Does he look older than me? I’ll have to let him know. I’m older, by three years.”

Hunter seemed older, and it had nothing to do with how he looked. Did they present that way on purpose? Jericho was a chameleon; it was possible.

Jericho slid his fingers up and into Peyton’s hair. He hadn’t done it back up after Sebastian had pulled it down that morning. They all seemed to like putting their hands in it, and Peyton was okay with making it easier for them.

“I like it,” Jericho murmured.

Peyton wasn’t following. “Like what?”

“That you were jealous. Worried I had a side piece?”

Peyton didn’t bother denying it. It would fall on deaf ears and be a lie. “Try worried thatwewere the side pieces.”

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