Page 34 of Cohesion

Peyton didn’t answer. Riley could have been seriously hurt, and he was hiding secrets that Peyton was involved in now. He wasn’t going to let Riley bully him into revealing allhissecrets without him coughing up some of his own.

“To clarify, I workwithHunter,” Riley said shortly.

“I’ve been informed of the distinction.” He didn’t care.

“It interests me how you know that. Who is Hunter to you?” The question was asked with no inflection, but Peyton knew his brother too well. He waspissed.

“He’s my new boss,” Peyton said pleasantly, forcing a huge smile on his face. He shifted in the chair, trying to get comfortable. He couldn’t even blame that on Riley. All the chairs in the precinct, outside of the desk chairs, were super fucking uncomfortable. The military was the same. It was some kind of upper-brass torture technique.

“No.”

“Wasn’t a question, and I wasn’t asking for permission. Did you askmewhen you got into bed with them?” Peyton faltered. “Uh, relatively speaking.” Fuck.

Riley sat forward. “Are yousleepingwith Hunter, Peyton?” he asked dangerously.

“No.” Which was true.

Riley didn’t back down, his cold blue eyes too knowing. He had his detectiveandbrother face on.Double fuck. “You didn’t. Please tell me that you didn’t.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mum said you were sleeping with three other guys—”

“Why did she tell you that?” Peyton asked weakly. Why were they gossiping about him? What else had she said? Did he want to know? Fuck, probably not.

Riley’s face hardened. “But I didn’t think you’d be so fucking stupid as to get into bed withJericho Rowlands.”

“Guess you don’t know me that well,” Peyton said loftily. He leaned forward, mimicking Riley’s posture. He might be able to intimidate the entire police force in New South Wales, but Peyton wouldn’t let Riley do it to him. He’d seen him puking his guts up after sneaking out to go drinking and then passing outwhiletheir mum was lecturing him.

“End it, now.”

“Let me think about that…” Peyton pretended to, tilting his head in thought. “No. Hell fucking no. You don’t have a right to tell me that. Piss off.”

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Riley said carefully. “Tell Hunter no and get away from Jericho. You had your fun, now let it go.”

“I’minterested to know howyouknow Hunter and Jericho,” Peyton said conversationally. He leaned back in his chair, spreading his knees, completely relaxed. Riley could order him around all he wanted to, but it didn’t mean anything. He had no intention of stopping anything he was doing with Jericho. Especially not on his brother’s orders. And what jobs he took were his own business. Maybe Riley was irritated that Peyton hadn’t taken up his offer to join the force, but that washischoice. He wasn’t cop material and would chafe under the bullshit.

“I met them on a case when I was a rookie in my first year. The rest is history.”

Eleven years. “Not my history,” Peyton said flatly. Riley didn’t respond to that, face passive, so Peyton changed tactics. “Wereyou going to tell anyone that you almost got kidnapped in your own place? Or were you planning to keep that a secret?”

“That isn’t how I would describe it. And I don’t think that you can talk. How’d you hurt your arm?”

Peyton used every ounce of self-control that he had to stop himself from looking at his arm. The sling was long gone, and there wasn’t even a twinge anymore. He wasn’t going to give himself away even if Riley was already a fucking know-it-all. “You know how, becauseyouwere keeping secrets first.”

“This isn’t like when you stole the last piece of cake at Kellan’s birthday party and then blamed it on Lucas. You could have been seriously hurt, and you should have told someone. Does Mum even know?”

Peyton wasn’t about to list all the times he could have been seriously hurt, or how many times hehadbeen during his time in the military. How many times he’d almost not come home. Times he wouldn’t have if Felix weren’t as good as he was. They all carried different secrets. Ones he would never tell his brothers. Because they all still saw him as someone in need of protection. He’d lived through things none of them could ever imagine in their worst nightmares.

Sometimes it felt like he’d left pieces of himself overseas. Important pieces. He tried to pick them up, but they slipped through his fingers like sand.

“Evidence is gone. She doesn’t need to know.”

Riley sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What are you doing? Is this really what you want to be doing with your life?”

“Don’t you dare try to tell me to get away from this when you’ve been part of it for… for how long, Riley? Your job isn’t dangerous enough, you wanted to add to that? You scared the shit out of me.”

“I haven’t had anything to do with their work for a long time,” Riley answered. He rubbed his jaw. “Not beyond allowingtheir agent more leeway than he should get and being available for questions. It’s been a good eight years since I’ve actively participated in anything they do.”

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