Page 64 of Cohesion

Sebastian turned to Jericho, a question in his blue eyes. Jericho shook his head subtly. Riley’s mind-reading skills were such bullshit.

“We’ll keep searching, but this is just giving us more questions. We can now confirm that he’s definitely got people working with him, and they’re ones that know their shit. We’ve even worked outwhythey went for Riley. What we haven’t worked out is why.”

“What?” Sebastian said, blinking, his face screwing up in confusion. “You just said you knew why.”

“They somehow got hold of prison records, and other than you, Riley is the only one that visited Jericho as Warren during his short stint. It’s the only out-in-the-open connection there was to find. So we knowwhythey went for Riley, see? Just not what they wanted with him.”

Sebastian tensed. Jericho absently rubbed his hips with his thumb, for whatever comfort that was able to bring. There were a lot of people in the line of fire for this case, and all of them were connected to Sebastian. And not simply because Sebastian was in the middle. Merely an unpleasant coincidence, with threads that they couldn’t quite fit together.

“Keep searching,” Jericho said.

“I’ll get back to you if we find anything. I have some stuff running in the background, and Moira is looking into it, but I’m on the move for the rest of the day, so chances are we won’t get a hit today. Just keep watch on your boy.”

“Will do.” Jericho knew that Six and Greer were knee-deep in a missing persons case that was all kinds of fucked up, and if some people didn’t end up on the business end of Six’s sword, Bianca, he’d be surprised. They were only ever given jobs that involved dangerous people, were too much for regular law enforcement to handle, or a case where the government wanted them to shut the threat downbeforeit actually became one.

The threat against Sebastian was a priority, especially since one of Jericho’s personas was also under fire, but they were far from the only ones that were important. That Hunter had sentJericho to protect him in the first place was one of the biggest gestures they could have made.

They usually had major workloads, but Hunter was careful to only agree to a certain number of requests and at varying degrees of importance. He wasn’t big on overworking his team. It just wasn’t an efficient use of their time, and they always made stupid mistakes if they had too much on their plates. Adding Peyton would help with that.

Right now, it was a special kind of hell with this bullshit killer gunning for them. If it had just been Jericho, it would have been easier; he could look after himself, and he’d just be extra careful. Needing around-the-clock supervision for Sebastian was stretching them thin. And Jericho’s attempts to put himself directly in the line of fire as Warren, in order to goad the asshole out into the open so they could finish this, weren’t working.

“I’ll see you soon. Don’t forget that the rookie is waiting for you when you’re ready.”

“He doesn’t like it when you call him that,” Jericho said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, well, I don’t like it when my strawberry to yoghurt ratio isn’t an even fifty-fifty, but what can you do?” Six hung up before anyone could respond to his ridiculous statement.

Sebastian went to move out of Jericho’s hold, and he tightened it, not allowing the distance. “Where are you going?”

“What do you mean, ‘where am I going’?”

“I didn’t stutter,” Jericho said.

“I’m going to the bathroom. Is that alright?” Sebastian asked sarcastically.

“Where’s your nearest conference room?”

“Across the hall. Why?”

“Spence and Ken will be in there. Take one of them with you.”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

“Does it sound like I’m kidding?” Jericho asked. He took security seriously, especially when it had anything to do with someone that he had a personal stake in.

Sebastian pulled away from him, turning and crossing his arms over his chest. “Are we really going to have a repeat of this today? I’m atwork,and maybe the security isn’t up to your standards, but someone intending me harm isn’t just going to waltz through the elevator doors. I didn’t realise I was back in primary school, where I needed a permission slip to use the bathroom or get a drink. May I have a slip, Mr. Rowlands?”

“That’s so hot. We should roleplay teacher-student style.”

Riley groaned in the background, with an, “Oh, please,” under his breath.

Sebastian looked at the ceiling, and Jericho wondered how much it would take to make him snap. “Bodyguard doesn’t mean babysitter. I’m allowed to leave my fucking office without your fucking permission.”

“You wanna say fuck again?” In other contexts, preferably.

“Fuck.”

“You’re just making me hard.” Jericho glanced down. “Hard-er,” he clarified. Just being around any of them accomplished that within minutes. “I’m still stuck on ‘Mr. Rowlands.’ Can I call you ‘Mr. Devlin’? Do you have a ruler in here for when I’m being naughty?”

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