Page 63 of Cohesion

“How convenient.”

Jericho’s phone went off, the quiet buzz in his pocket loudly slicing through the tension in the air. He checked the number. “It’s Six. He might have an update.” He answered and instantly put it on speaker.

“I told Riley years ago that living on the sixth floor was just asking for trouble, and man, do I feel vindicated right now,” Six greeted him.

“Really?” Riley said dryly.

Six didn’t skip a beat at the unexpected intrusion. “I already gave you this lecture, Riles. Unless you really want to hear it again…”

Riley’s scowl deepened. “Not particularly.”

“I could stand to hear it again,” Jericho said. It wasn’t often they had the upper hand against Riley.

Riley’s lips flattened. “What do you want, Six? Did you find something?”

“Unfortunately, not really? I can’t pull shit out of thin air, and Moira and I have been working on this all day. We know, basedon your shitty description—good job, Detective—that we’re dealing with a male. We know he disabled all security, broke into the apartmentnext door, climbed across the balcony—on the sixth floor, I’d like to remind you—”

“I know what floor I live on.”

“—and walked straight through the open door.”

“Theopendoor?” Jericho asked. “Like unlocked or…?”

“Nope. Wide open door, with the curtain swinging in the fucking wind.”

Riley rubbed his brow. “It was hot, and I hate sleeping with the air conditioner on. The front door was locked, and I have a security system. It’s hardly my fault that my neighbour is clearly in need of a good one themselves. Perhaps this lecture could be given to them?”

“Says the guy who left his back door open,” Jericho countered.

“To a balcony. On the sixth floor.”

“We know what floor you live on,” Six quipped.

Jericho hid his smile behind a cough. “He didn’t go back out that way,” he figured. With Riley awake and gunning for him, he wouldn’t have had the time—or precision—to do it safely. A fall that high wasn’t survivable.

“Right. He went out the front door. While yes, itwaslocked, I’ll give you that, it doesn’t really mean anything from the inside. Security feed shows that there’s a minute-and-a-half window where it loops, twice. Breaking into the other apartment, and then when he was leaving. He can’t have been working alone, because the second loop coincides perfectly with when he bolted, and that can’t have been in the plan.”

“Unless he planned with perfect timing when he was going to be hauling Riley out over his shoulder?” Jericho suggested. He tugged Sebastian back and into his arms, resting his chin on his shoulder. “He didn’t use the elevator?”

“Not unless they invented a cloaking device I don’t know about. The cameras in there were functioning as normal all night.”

Someone strong enough to carry a person Riley’s size down six flights of stairs. And smart enough to fuck with the security. Not a comforting combination.

“We looked for prints, but from what we can tell—and with Riley’s shitty description—”

“It wasdark,and I had about point two seconds to identify them after they’d stopped trying tosuffocateme, Six. Keep this up, and you and I are going to have a personal discussion you aren’t going to like.”

“Promises. They were wearing gloves. Only prints on Riley’s door are his. And since he left via the stairs, we already knew that lifting all those prints to check them was going to be a dead end. We did it anyway, and they’re now being put through several databases to see if we can get a hit on any of them. Ask Moira how she spent her night last night. I dare you.”

Jericho wasn’t going to take that bet. He might try to trick Greer into asking, though.

“No damage?” Jericho questioned. There had to be something they could use. This couldn’t turn into another dead end, not when they already had too many.

“Not to any property, and other than a bruise on Riley’s left side that kind of looks like a boot if you squint, he’s fine.”

Jericho tilted his head as if he could see through Riley’s pristine white shirt to the bruise underneath. If he moved fast, he could have it up and over Riley’s head before he could retaliate. Maybe.

“Don’t even think about it,” Riley warned.

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