Page 109 of Cohesion

“It’s Peyton. Are you Rohan?”

Rohan cleared his throat. “I—the guards let me call you. I’m, um, I’m in their office. I have some information for you?”

Peyton flicked the phone on speaker and placed it on the counter, Six and Will crowding around him. “What is it?”

“It wasn’t easy. Sweeney is a pretty secretive guy, but I managed to find out from a guy that knows a guy that knows another guy that he recruited some help from a bar called the Nebula. It’s—”

“We know where it is,” Six interrupted. “Are you sure it wasthatbar specifically?” Sounded like he didn’t want it to be.

“Y-yes. Positive.”

“Fuck,” Six breathed out. He turned away and ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the ends. “Anything else?”

“N-no, just that it seemed to be a place that he went a lot. Knew some people. It’s likely this other guy, um, Arthur, I think? He’d probably go to the same place.”

“He will have,” Six said.

Peyton waited until Will had thanked Rohan and let him know that they would contact him as soon as they knew something, and then he rounded on Six.

“What the fuck was that?” Peyton demanded. “You know this place?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”

He’d more than heard of it. He was being cagey about it, and Peyton wasn’t in the mood. If there was information that could help them find Sebastian, this wasn’t the time to hold it close to chest.

Jericho, Quinn, and Hunter emerged from the hallway, sleep deprived but alert.

“Was that Rohan?” Quinn asked, a tinge of hope mixed in with the despair in his tone.

“Yes,” Peyton said. “He—”

“They got men from the Nebula,” Six said, unimpressed.

The colour in Jericho and Hunter’s faces drained. What the fuck was going on? What was this place?

“He can’t be that stupid,” Jericho said, leaning a hip against the island bench. “That’s not a pool he can swim in.”

“I doubt he shares the same opinion,” Six drawled. “Not all of the men we’ve encountered are of the calibre he would get there, so he’s getting them somewhere else as well, but that sniper? And the expert grab when they got Sebastian? The guy arrested isn’t one of his, neither is the one that was killed at the scene. But the smoothness of it… makes me think it was at least coordinated by one of Xavier’s men.”

“Xavier,” Quinn said slowly. “I know that bar. Are you talking about Xavier Alicent?”

“That’s the one,” Six muttered. He glanced around, agitated. “We’re gonna need more firepower.”

Peyton’s upper lip curled into a snarl. “Would everyone fucking stop for two seconds and tell me what the hell you’re all talking about?” Being kept in the dark wasn’t his favourite activity at the best of times. Right now? It was pissing him the fuck off.

“Alicent,” Will said, rolling the name around on his tongue. “Alicent. Wait. As in that businessman the cops have been trying to nail something on for years?”

“If you say he’s mafia, I will lose my shit,” Peyton promised. “None of us could be that unlucky. How would some two-bit criminal get the attention of the fucking organised-crime syndicates that are all but untouchable?”

“He’s not,” Hunter said quietly. “He’s what he says he is. He owns dozens of lucrative businesses and has his fingers in a lot of pies, both political and otherwise. However, it’s believed that he also deals in the less-than-savoury parts of Sydney and the rest of the world to supplement the millions that he has.”

“Because hedoes,” Quinn said. “We just can’t prove it.”

Hunter nodded sideways, agreeing with him. “Regardless, I don’t understand why he would be involved. It’s not his style.”

“Oh my god, what the fuck,” Peyton said incredulously. What the ever-loving fuck was going on? “That’swho we’re up against? Some fuckin’mob boss?”

“He’s not mob, or mafia, or whatever,” Six said. “He’s just an asshole.”

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