LOGINShare
Chapter 28
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56
Related chapters
Jericho Chapter 29
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
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 30
JERICHO Time had no essence. It slipped and spilled. It ticked and rolled. From one moment into the next torturous moment. My will to live dwindled and the thread of life I grasped now sat at the edge of my fingertips. I wasn't sure how much time passed but once the torturing started, I stopped caring. The pain had me retreating into the darkest corners of my mind and yet, solace and silence still evaded me. I shifted in and out of lucidity as gruesome, unspeakable acts were performed on my body. The fowl, metallic stench of blood permeated the air, and my screams and pleas caused a dull ringing in my ears. Hatred danced across my tongue with bile as its partner and my heart playing a hazardous rhythm. Echoes of agony rattled my bones. I sat, chained to this chair with no means to fight back. My kneecaps had been shattered, fingers broken, hair pulled out, nearly drowned, flesh carved from my body, and when I lost consciousness, they brought me back to repeat it all over again. I ha
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 31
ODETTE One week. For one week I refused to leave Jericho's beside unless I had to. I couldn't keep food down but I forced myself to try because, I knew when he finally woke up, he wouldn't be pleased with seeing how much weight I had lost in just a handful of days. He would wake up, though. He had to.I needed him. It sounded strange to place so much importance on any single individual. To love someone was to give them a part of your heart knowing it would be a part you could never get back. They would take that piece of you into the afterlife if they departed, allowing you to wither away as a result of their loss. Because, without them, you were incomplete. Jericho was the sun in my solar system. He was the anchor. Bursts of warmth and mirth only existed when I orbited him. Without him, I was cold and desolate, aimlessly floating around space with no tether. He was my best friend. He was every word. He was every sentence. He was every line. He was everything. To love someone so
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Prologue
***Author's note:Please read book 1: GunnarBook 2: AceBefore continuing with this...________________________________JERICHOI sat back in my seat and brought the crystal glass filled with a measure of whiskey up to my lips. The cool contrast against my hot flesh was welcomed, especially when I felt like I was suffocating in this suit. I wasn't used to it the way my elder brother was—wearing his midnight blue suit with pride and sophistication as he spun his wife on the dancefloor. This was probably the first and last time I would see Gunnar Astor dancing and all because his wife, Quinn Astor, wanted to have their first dan
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 01
JERICHOCoding. It was a part of what I did and I loved doing it. I loved being able to hold the power of something at my fingertips. Writing code meant programming something to do exactly what you wanted it to do and I was one of the best in the world at it. I had my own style—every hacker did—but mine was impenetrable. No one could breach any of my firewalls once I was done.I could sit up till the late hours of the night concentrating on coding. The same went for tonight. Sure, exhaustion weighed down my eyelids like ten-pound dumbbells and my muscles creaked in agony every time I moved because of how stiff they were.When last did I wake up?I shook the question away and returned to the code I was typing out. It was something I had been working on for a while and I had a lot of time on my hands since I graduated early with my Master's. It was a big thing but I refused to let anyone make a big deal out of it. Especially when the important people in my life expected it to happen.If
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 02
ODETTEI was careful. Always careful. Always meticulous. Always following the rules. I grew up in a family with generations of law enforcement. My mom and dad were both cops. Only, my dad had a better fate whereas mom ended up murdered. There was a whole backstory to it, one I had learned as I matured and conducted my own investigation. Dad never liked bringing it up and I couldn't blame him. I once asked the old-timer why he never moved on from mom, why he never remarried and maybe found a sliver of peace. He responded that Eleanor Gibson was his only love. She was his true love and he would wait until death could reunite them because he could never let her go.Half of me thought it sweet. The other half found him foolish, especially as time went on and I became a teenager, then a young adult. And now, a female cop—following parents' footsteps.Point was, I thought it was foolish beca
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 03
JERICHOI sat back in my lazy boy with Slash curled at my feet. He was in a bad mood ever since I told him about Odette because he was as much her dog as he was mine. I still remember when her father had helped me pick him out as a pup. Most of the time he stayed with them while he trained and eventually became Odette's dad's partner on the field. Both Gunnar and Ace were so busy or never cared to notice Slash missing around the house. As long as I kept him out of their way, they didn't care. They weren't dog people anyway.As Slash grew older, he became weaker and slower. It led to him retiring and becoming a full-time pet. So, he grew up around both Odette and me easily becoming our dog.I brought my beer to my lips, letting the bitter brew slide down my throat while my brother watched me from across the room with his piercing hazel eyes. That was the thing about Ace. He may have been a co
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Jericho Chapter 04
ODETTE"What are we doing here?" I asked just as the elevator doors parted.It took two weeks for the doctors to finally give me the okay to be discharged and, as I expected, Jericho was there to bring me home. Only, instead of pulling into the basement parking of my apartment building, we had pulled into his. This shouldn't have perplexed me and yet, it did."Your dad is busy at work and your..." He paused, the only sound meeting my ears was the muffled squeaky turns of the wheels of the wheelchair against the carpeted floor. When he stopped outside his apartment door, he said, "your boyfriend made a quick recovery and will be back on the job soon. So, you're staying with me.""No way," I began shaking my head and instantly regretted it when a spike of pain jarred my body, "I'll be fine on my own."
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
Latest chapter
Jericho Chapter 31
ODETTE One week. For one week I refused to leave Jericho's beside unless I had to. I couldn't keep food down but I forced myself to try because, I knew when he finally woke up, he wouldn't be pleased with seeing how much weight I had lost in just a handful of days. He would wake up, though. He had to.I needed him. It sounded strange to place so much importance on any single individual. To love someone was to give them a part of your heart knowing it would be a part you could never get back. They would take that piece of you into the afterlife if they departed, allowing you to wither away as a result of their loss. Because, without them, you were incomplete. Jericho was the sun in my solar system. He was the anchor. Bursts of warmth and mirth only existed when I orbited him. Without him, I was cold and desolate, aimlessly floating around space with no tether. He was my best friend. He was every word. He was every sentence. He was every line. He was everything. To love someone so
Jericho Chapter 30
JERICHO Time had no essence. It slipped and spilled. It ticked and rolled. From one moment into the next torturous moment. My will to live dwindled and the thread of life I grasped now sat at the edge of my fingertips. I wasn't sure how much time passed but once the torturing started, I stopped caring. The pain had me retreating into the darkest corners of my mind and yet, solace and silence still evaded me. I shifted in and out of lucidity as gruesome, unspeakable acts were performed on my body. The fowl, metallic stench of blood permeated the air, and my screams and pleas caused a dull ringing in my ears. Hatred danced across my tongue with bile as its partner and my heart playing a hazardous rhythm. Echoes of agony rattled my bones. I sat, chained to this chair with no means to fight back. My kneecaps had been shattered, fingers broken, hair pulled out, nearly drowned, flesh carved from my body, and when I lost consciousness, they brought me back to repeat it all over again. I ha
Jericho Chapter 29
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
Jericho Chapter 28
JERICHOI awoke chained to a chair. The warmth of a low-hung light bulb had sweat beading over my forehead, rolling down until it burned my eyes. I was dragged from my bed and knocked unconscious. Those were the last memories I had. Now, I was God only knew where with no one to find me. The heated steel ring on my index finger burned. If Gunnar figured out I was missing, he could track the ring. I just needed to buy myself time. There was no point in him plotting my rescue if I was no longer alive. He would just end up walking into a trap. Maybe that was the point. Maybe Eddie wanted Gunnar to find me, and walk into this trap so he could eliminate us both. The thought had a wave of adrenaline surging through my veins. I struggled against the chains which bound my wrists, tugged until they rubbed my flesh raw and a shot of pain zapped through my tense muscles like a bolt of lightning. The hiss that fled through my clenched molars echoed off the concrete walls. A chill passed in the
Jericho Chapter 27
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
Jericho Chapter 26
ODETTEAfter a close to eighteen-hour flight with two stops in between—one of which Gunnar had made, we landed in South Africa, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. We were hauled up in a hotel room near the beach. The city we were staying in—from the little I had seen—was beautiful. Durban seemed to be filled with people of different races and ethnicity. It was different from what I had expected. Then again, I didn't know what to expect when Ace said we were going to a safe house. All I knew was that we wouldn't be staying at this hotel for very long. Even with the ocean view with golden sands and the warm, yellow glow of the sun shimmering off the waves or the salty sea breeze which carried an array of aromas from the restaurants lining this stretch of road, I couldn't truly enjoy the experience. One: I was running away and hiding from dangerous men trying to kill me. The thought gnawed restlessly at the back of my mind no matter how much I tried to stifle it. Two: Jericho, my best fr
Jericho Chapter 25
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 Chapter 24
ODETTEJericho set me down and gestured to our clothes sprawled over the floor, "Put something on," he said as he shrugged on his boxers and grabbed a hair tie from the pedestal to prop his hair into a top knot. A grimace twisted his handsome features when he noted the coffee which had spilled when he had been straddling me on the bed, fucking my breasts and mouth, "I'm sorry. I know you were proud of making that and I'm proud of you for doing it all on your own with no assistance required. I'll clean it up.""It's okay," my cheeks heated as blood pooled beneath the thin veil of skin, "I have no complaints."He closed the space between us, gripping the back of my neck and sealing his mouth against mine with a searing kiss, "Good because I have none either."The knock sounded again, louder as if the person was trying the punch a hole into the door. A low, annoyed growl rumbled at the back of Jericho's throat. It was such a sexy sound that shot right through me like a lethal bullet to
Jericho Chapter 23
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
