Page 28 of Cohesion

“And where exactly is she?” Quinn asked, folding his arms over his chest.

Jericho ran a hand through his hair. Quinn was going to push about this, and if he was going to try this whole “sharing” thing, this was as good a place as any to start. It wasn’t a national secret. “She’s staying with us. At our home.”

“Yourhome?” Peyton asked incredulously.

“Did you think I lived under a bridge like a troll?” Jericho asked, lips quirking. “Warren’s apartment was a temporary shithole. Hunter and I have an actual house together, one not at risk of falling down around our ears. And with reliable hot water.”

“I want to see her.”

“We can have it arranged,” Hunter said. He flicked his wrist. “I have to go. Jericho, can you contact Zoe, ask her to keep an eye on our…”—he glanced at Quinn in amusement—“smarmy lawyer. Report back if she sees anything suspicious.”

Jericho nodded.

“It’s good to have you on board, Peyton. I’m looking forward to seeing how you work with the rest of the team.” Hunter clasped Jericho on the shoulder and then left the room.

The silence he left behind was deafening.

“What are you going to do next?” Quinn asked before it became unbearable, and Jericho said something weird.

“We’ll get protection on the lawyer. Sebastian is already being watched, which you know. We’re following up some leads for Mulhall. Peyton and I will be investigating some places that he was last seen, see if we can’t find anything that might lead us to him.”

“How did you find all that information?” Quinn asked, his forehead creasing.

“We have eyes everywhere.” Surveillance. Contacts in all walks of life that kept tabs on things for them, reported back. Six couldget inside any database within a few hours and siphon whatever they needed. Everything else was good old-fashioned legwork.

Greer and Riley had been their main eyes into the mainstream police force for a long time. Jericho had been a mere side step from all four men for years. He couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if their paths had crossed earlier than this. If even for one day he’d taken the lead instead of Hunter, taken a case to Sebastian himself. Would it have played out like this? Would his attraction to Quinn, to all of them, have been the same? The four of them hadn’t been together very long, their paths only intersecting and aligning so perfectly recently. How far down the “fate” rabbit hole did they go? If he’d met Sebastian before this, when he was alone, would they have felt this attraction?

He’d known all of their names in passing for too long. Knew more about every one of them than he had any right to. Jericho had known Riley even before Quinn hadmetPeyton. When Peyton had been… young.

Riley didn’t yet know that Jericho was sleeping with his baby brother. Not a conversation he was eager to have anytime soon. Jericho was doing his best not to think about their twelve-year age gap. Riley wouldn’t be so generous.

“Greer is still working on Sweeney and following things up from that angle,” Jericho said. “If we can find something and make him sing, then maybe we can get all this shit sorted out quickly.” He doubted it would be that easy, though on the odd occasion, things did work in their favour. He would hold out hope until there was none left to hold onto. Greer could be a persuasive asshole, and he was like a dog with a bone: he wouldn’t let go until this was done. It’s what made him so damn good at his job. Both of them.

Jericho tilted Quinn’s chin so that he could take a kiss. “We’re going to finish this,” he said against Quinn’s lips. “And we’ll keep him safe, I promise.”

Chapter Four

Will woke with astartled yelp and promptly slipped off the side of the bed, landing in a painful tangle of limbs and sheet. A second later, a wet nose shoved into his face. He blinked at the fur invading his personal space. “Um. Hello.”

Persephone sniffed his cheek, licked it, then sat beside him, watching intently as he tried to disentangle himself from the sheet. He groaned and rubbed his elbow as he sat up, righting himself.

“Will?” Peyton peered over the side. “You okay?”

“Think so.” The bed wasn’t big enough for jump scares like that. They needed a bigger one to fit all five of them. Too many limbs, not enough spread.

Will met Jericho’s brown eyes, and his heart skipped a beat; he loved seeing the natural colour, so like his own, and nothing like the fake colours he wore during the day.

“What is that noise?” Sebastian grumbled, turning over and burying his head in the pillow with a groan.

“Phone,” Quinn said, yawning. “Someone’s phone. Not mine.”

“It’s mine,” Jericho said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

“Important call?” Sebastian asked mildly, twisting his head only enough that he wasn’t mumbling into the pillow. One eye opened, staring at them sideways.

Jericho shifted around Peyton and leaned down to kiss the top of Will’s head before he grabbed his phone from the nightstand. “’lo?”

Peyton’s muscles flexed in his arm as he hauled Will back up onto the bed. Will’s foot slipped on the sheet under him on the carpet, and he fell against Jericho, automatically wrapping him up like a spider as he tried to slow his descent. Peyton grunted when Will’s knee hit something. He was too afraid to ask what. Hopefully nothing too important.

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