Chapter One

“What do you mean he fucking quit?”

Jaxon stared at his boss, Logan Cobalt, from across the man’s office.

“He gave his notice while you were helping out Pegasus in California.” The man tossed a pen down and leaned back in his chair with a frown on his face. Big, muscled, and very good-looking, his boss was one intimidating son of a bitch. The man was in his late forties, but other than a touch of gray in his hair, you really couldn’t tell.

Jaxon turned from Logan’s all-too-knowing gaze and faced the window. Did the man ever take a break? Logan was married and as far as Jaxon knew, his pint-sized, FBI agent husband was a catch.

In the darkness beyond the man’s office window lay the Colorado skyline, but only the office behind him reflected in the glass.

Even that disappeared to be replaced with Hayden’s beautiful face.

His best friend for almost the last decade and his roommate for the last five, Hayden Thorne, had always been there for him, had his back when shit hit the fan, and had talked him away from the ledge too many times to count.

Which begged the question…what the hell would make Hayden quit Cobalt? Or better yet, who?

Jaxon had already taken care of the son of a bitch from Hayden’s past, so it couldn’t be that.

“He never said a word to me,” he mumbled, raking his loose hair back over one shoulder. He kept it long, but lately, it was getting downright lengthy and he thought briefly about visiting Alfanis’ located on Colfax Avenue before he went home, but a quick glance at the clock showed him it was too late, and since the barber shop didn’t open until nine tomorrow morning, he would have to make due.

“Have you called him?” Logan asked.

No…fuck…he hadn’t called Hayden. He snapped around to face Logan, and the man’s green eyes drilled into him, but this time there was a slight squint to them.

“Do you know where he went?”

“Yeah,” Logan growled.

He didn’t like the look on his boss’ face.

“Where?”

After Logan explained that Hayden had made, in Jaxon’s opinion, one of the stupidest decisions he’d ever heard, Jaxon stepped out of Logan’s office and closed the door. He yanked out his cell phone, dialed a number, and then stood there in the hallway of Cobalt Security’s high rise and clenched the phone in his fist.

“Jaxon?” Dave said.

“We need to fucking talk,” he said, and the words came out from between his clenched teeth.

Three weeks later…

The place was dark and dingy, the building old and broken, casting shadows where pristine walls had once stood.

Having stalked his prey for fucking weeks after his conversation with Logan and shortly thereafter, Dave, he still couldn’t get a bead on Hayden.

The guy was good, but he’d known that because they’d worked together for roughly eight years, but he hadn’t known Hayden was this good and it was disconcerting. Plus, a little fucking scary if he was being honest.

He was still kicking his own ass that he’d missed just how good Hayden was. It wasn’t that he thought Hayden was soft, because he wasn’t. And while Hayden was excellent at combat and weaponry, the pretty man didn’t seem the type to be able to elude him for this long. Hayden also didn’t seem the type to go and work for Erebus.

Fucking Erebus.

It stuck in Jaxon’s throat to think of Hayden mixed in with the former SecDef’s group of assassins. Well, not mixed because frankly, they mostly worked solo and only once in a while they would call upon each other when needed—but those times were few and far between. Jaxon knew firsthand of the inner workings of Erebus because he used to be one of them. He used to skulk in the shadows and steal the lives of rapists, murderers, pedophiles, and whatever sick fucks roamed the earth and he’d lived in the bloodiness of death for years.

Until the day he’d gotten a call from Logan Cobalt about a bodyguard company he was starting up. It seemed the best way to get free of the darkness and a way to spend more time with his two best friends, Ryder and Hayden. Jaxon had introduced Hayden to Logan and the man had hired him when Hayden had graduated. Hayden made an excellent bodyguard, and while he didn’t have a military background like Jaxon, the man was a former MMA champion and also a trained marksman. So, okay, Hayden had the skills but was it wrong to think that the guy was also smoking hot? And what the hell did that have to do with Hayden’s skills as a bodyguard?

Nothing!

Yet, it was ludicrous to actually think of Hayden as a trained assassin. The guy was exuberant, a flirt, and Jaxon wanted to kill anything that would remove those traits. He couldn’t imagine what a life with Erebus would do to Hayden.

What the fuck had driven him there? Jaxon sank deeper into the darkness, his black clothing keeping him hidden from view. He had tied back his long hair in a thick knot at the back of his head, but the front strands had since fallen out.

He leaned against the cold siding of a vacant building that used to be an office of some sort, but a few years ago, people primarily started working from home, which opened up a lot of real estate.

He wondered where Hayden was at this very moment. Had he made his first kill? Dave wouldn’t tell him the exact job, only the general vicinity. Jaxon squinted into the darkness.

Was Hayden even still here? What if—

“You have a fucking death wish.”

A chill went down his spine at the quiet, silky tone. The voice sounded familiar and he wracked his brain trying to place it without turning around. He prided himself on his memory and it came to him just as he slowly pulled his hands free of his leather jacket.

And because he was dealing with someone he’d met in the past, he kept his palms up and away from his body before turning slowly around.