Page 55 of Reactant

“No.”

Jericho pulled the man back to his knees and dusted his shoulders off, keeping his gaze on Quinn. Putting on a show. Forhim. “Well… all yours, then. Why don’t you teach me how it’s done?”

Quinn bit his tongue to stop from retorting to that. He stepped closer, but Jericho didn’t move. Quinn could feel his body heat like a searing flame. He forced himself not to glance over Jericho’s form again. He was taller than Quinn, but he had a similar build to Sebastian. Which was not a comparison he wanted to touch with a ten-foot pole.

“You know,” Grady said. “I can see why Devlin associates with you. You’re as fucking smarmy as he is.”

“Pet lawyer comes in handy,” Jericho said.

Quinn narrowed his eyes. Jericho winked at him. It was a slow slide of his eyelid and shouldnothave been attractive. The asshole knew exactly what he was doing. Quinn just couldn’t work outwhyhe was doing it.

“Pet lawyer,” Grady repeated, snorting.

Great. Quinn wondered how much he would need to bribe Grady not to call Sebastian that the next time they saw each other.

Quinn put his gun back into his holster again, hoping he wouldn’t have another reason to get it out. He would already have to find a way to explain away the one shot he’d fired. Making it two was asking for trouble.

“Tell us what you’re doing here,” Quinn said. “I’dlike to know.”

“You only have to ask us,Quinn,” Jericho said in a low tone. “I’ll answer any questions you have.”

Quinn ignored the way his gut twisted. Was the sultry voice deliberate, or did it always sound like that? “We can help you,” he said to David. “We can protect you from whoever hired you.” He refused to look at Jericho even though he couldfeelhis gaze on him. There was no ignoring that.

David sneered at him. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with. I’m not telling you anything, you got me? It doesn’t matter what you do to me. What they’ll do is worse than anything you could come up with.”

The stubborn tilt to his chin told Quinn he was telling the truth. He’d done enough interrogations in his life to know when someone just needed a push to reveal all their secrets, or whether they would remain a vault. They weren’t getting anything out of this man. Not without employing tactics that Quinn wouldn’t entertain even if it were a life-or-death situation.

Jericho slid closer to Quinn, and Quinn was drawn back to his unusual blue eyes once more. They were a littletooblue, a strange unnaturalness to them. Studying them this close up, he could see the faint line around the irises. He was wearingcontacts.

Clever. He was intentionally making them stand out so that it was all people remembered. The second he took them out, the only identifying feature that a witness could remember no longer existed.

“Don’t think he’s going to tell you anything,” Jericho whispered, moving impossibly close. He leaned lightly on Quinn’s side, fingers trailing across Quinn’s lower back. He should have pushed him away, should have stopped whatever this was in its tracks, and made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with it.

Quinn could feel the flush going up his neck, and his lips parted, trying to find the words to tell Jericho tomove.

It registered too late what Jericho was doing. He’d pulled Quinn’s gun out, aimed and fired before anyone could react. A clean shot through the back of David’s head. David slumped forward without a sound, blood slowly spreading outward.

Quinn grabbed Jericho’s shirt, hauling him so close he could feel Jericho’s breath against his face, the tips of their noses brushing. “What thefuckwas that?” he growled. “Are youinsane?”

Jericho shifted, and the familiar weight of his gun settled back against Quinn’s hip.

“Thanks,” Jericho whispered, smiling faintly.

“We should have taken him in,” Quinn hissed. He would have found a way to explain it without putting himself and Grady in hot water.

“He was never going to give us any of the information we needed,” Jericho replied. “You know that.”

“That’s irrelevant.” They didn’tkillpeople simply for being reticent.

Jericho slid his hands down Quinn’s arms, letting his fingers rest on Quinn’s wrists, where he was still holding tight to Jericho’s shirt. The weight settled on Quinn like a branding touch. “There was no letting him go.”

“That isnothow we do things!” Quinn said furiously. He didn’t know what he was angrier at: his response to this infuriating man or the fact that he’d just used Quinn’s service weapon to kill someone. “It doesn’t matter whether they can give us information or not. We don’t just execute people! We take them in for further questioning, then we lock them up where they can’t hurt anyone else.”

“He can’t hurt anyone now.”

“That kind of justice makes you just as bad as they are,” Grady said angrily. “Give us one good reason why we shouldn’t takeyouin now.”

Quinn jerked in surprise, having completely forgotten they weren’t the only ones in the room. He let go of Jericho and took a hasty step back. What the fuck was wrong with him?

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