JERICHOMusic blared from the speakers which hung above our heads, buzzing in my ears like an incessant insect. There were a million other places I'd rather be right now—like behind a keyboard or decoding that book I had spent so many sleepless nights trying to understand. Anywhere but here would have been a better place. The club scene was never my thing. Rowdy crowds, sweaty bodies, and horny teens and young adults groping one another never once appealed to me. Maybe that was another reason Ace constantly worried about me and taunted me about getting laid. His body count was probably the length of a novel while mine could barely fill one page. I was no virgin the way he assumed I was, but I was picky with who I spent my time and slept with. The cool rim of the glass was a stark contrast to the heat of my lips. I tipped my head back and allowed the brandy I had been nursing since I arrived to slide down my throat—the sweet notes reminded me of Odette. Maybe that was why I ordered it

ODETTEThere was a bounce in my step and a glow in my face which was not there yesterday. It was surprising how one action, one night, could change so much about a person. The smile marking my face was unflinching and, although my muscles pained from being set in the same position for so long, I found I liked having it light up my face. It made me look years younger, like a giddy teenage girl who had just discovered what love was for the first time. I laughed lightly to myself, shaking my head at my own thoughts as I gripped the handle of the coffee pot as firmly as I could. My hands ached after clawing at Jericho's back most of the night for stability as I trembled beneath him. He liked it. Practically begged for it. The coffee pot shook as I lifted it out of its holster causing me to close my fingers around the handle tighter. Determination had my brows scrunching together and my mouth pinching in a thin line. I had a lot more reasons to want to be better now, even if I couldn't b

ODETTE"Do you need anything else?" Ace asked as he stood in the center of my loft-style apartment. I gave the small place a once over. It had been ages since I had been here. Everything had collected a thick layer of dust. A double bed sat at the furthest end of the room with green—the color of Jericho's eyes—nets around it. When I had bought the nets I remembered thinking of him. It was a green that was difficult to come by so I made sure to grab them.More toward the center was a sleeper couch with two single sofas on each side. My television was mounted on the wall to save space. I had a kitchenette through a door on the left and a bathroom through the door on the right—equally as small. It wasn't much but it was home. It was what I could afford on a cop's salary and I was happy with it. "I don't think so," I murmured dejectedly. After I argued with Jericho, the bubble of elation that cocooned me had burst. I felt like a drug addict suffering from severe withdrawals, aching for

JERICHO I scrubbed a hand down my face, scratching the stubble coating my jaw as my eyes skimmed over lines and lines of unintelligible scrawl. If the book wasn't written in a code I couldn't crack, it was also written in scrawl only a doctor could probably decipher. Then it hit me. What if this section of the book I was unraveling wasn't written in code at all? What if this was some type of medical note? It would explain so many things. It was a long shot but I knew Gunnar would have someone on his team able to make sense of the lines which seemed to blend into one another. The quicker I could get the information we needed, the quicker I could get Odette back. Admitting my love for her was one of the scariest and bravest things I could have ever done. I may not have been wired like my brothers. Violence was not my first solution to every problem. And yet, the thought of firing a gun and settling a bullet between two eyes wasn't as disconcerting as admitting my love for Odette. W

ODETTE"What do you mean?" Anger flashed like a hot, searing beam of light against my vision, causing tears too well to ease the burn, "I haven't been gone for more than seventy-two hours and something bad has already happened?"Gunnar's hard voice drifted into the receiver of the encrypted burner phone Ace had prohibited me from using. Shuffling sounded in the background before a string of muffled curses followed, "I'm at his apartment. He called me and I told him I'd meet him when I landed. He never answered any of my phone calls after that. I came straight here after I landed. Everything in his apartment is thoroughly destroyed."My irritation fizzled and popped in my eardrums, like the pressure experienced at high altitude, while my blood thrummed and heart pounded like a war drum against my ribcage, "How long ago did you last speak to him?" My tone may have seeped out of me leveled and cool but my hands quivered as they wiped away my silent tears. The scars caught and held my at