Jasper didn’t know what to say, as those words hit him in the chest. He stopped walking, and she just continued, as if she never said it. Something broke in his heart. He did sometimes judge her. Vincent had said she was ridden hard by shame and guilt, but Jasper hadn’t really listened. She was so confident, so strong. She held her chin high and let nothing like that show.
Sometimes, he looked at her and he saw the thief, the criminal, the assassin. The one who knew things that disgusted him, like the Dark Web information. He wasn’t sure how to reconcile his feelings for a woman who knew and could do those things.
Other times, he saw the hero. The woman who risked it all to help other people, ones who didn’t know her and kids who couldn’t help themselves—a hero willing to embrace the darkness to keep others out of it. He saw the woman who had decided that Quinn didn’t just need to learn to read, but also appreciate it, and risked her tentative friendship with him to make it happen. And Quinn was beginning to enjoy reading, a gift Jasper and Vincent could never figure out how to give him—had failed to give him because they hadn’t been brave enough to stand in front of him and push the limits of Quinn’s patience.
“I don’t just mean the things I did, Jasper,” she continued looking back at him. He met her obsidian eyes. So dark a brown that they seemed black. He fell into them as she spoke. “I don’t just mean what I did as Axel’s Shadow, his monster. I don’t think the way you do about being an agent. I don’t trust the system the way you do, and sometimes, I wish I could. There are things about me that define me as a criminal, now and always. It’s the mindset of being on the other side of the law, and I know that. And sometimes I hate myself for it.”
“Sawyer…” Jasper took a couple steps towards her.
“I know that you may never really be okay with me or the things I’ve done,” Sawyer laughed bitterly, “and that’s one of the reasons I haven’t pressed the issue of our kiss before everything happened in Atlanta. I don’t deserve someone as good as you, Jasper. Then I went and slept with Vincent, who… I understand. And he understands me. More than I thought he could. More than I thought anyone could.”
“We’ll need to revisit this,” Jasper whispered, pointing to the motel and wondering if she may be right. He thought about him and Zander. They had always wanted to share her because they both completed their triad in different ways. And now Vincent, who did understand her in ways Jasper and Zander no longer could. Jasper could see how Vincent would become important to her. Hell, for all their troubles, Vincent was important to Jasper and Zander. They were important to him, which was why they talked to him about her and their idea.
He didn’t need to always be okay with everything, either. He had a few good friends to knock him around if he was hung up on something, friends he talked to regularly, even if they were having problems. Especially if they were having problems.
They got to the motel and she went to her own door while Jasper went to tell Vincent the plan.
“Get some sleep,” Jasper reminded her. “We’ll be out late tonight.”
“You, too,” she muttered, phasing through her door to go inside. Jasper chuckled at her lazy use of the ability.
He never used it like that, preferring to conserve his magic. She hadn’t when they followed her in New York. This new, lazy use of magic was a recent development. Something that she started doing when they finally took and kept the inhibitor off her.
When he was done with Vincent and Elijah, who were having no luck convincing any Reader to come in and help them, he made it back to his own room. He ignored Zander and just fell onto the stiff, awful motel mattress.
Work-wise, the day felt wasted.
In terms of his friendship and maybe something more with Sawyer? He thought that maybe there might have been some progress made. The case just wasn’t the time to dwell on it. It would be revisited though, now that he knew more about her feelings, that was certain.
18
Sawyer
She was ready, as the sun went down. She was happy the IMPO used all-black uniforms, meaning she didn’t need to pack clothes for just things like this. Cut down on the size of her suitcase.
She wasn’t looking forward to this, but she would do it. She would do what she was good at to get the answers the team needed. She just wished she was good enough at anything else that was good, that would be useful, instead of a B and E. On a sheriff’s office of all things.
Just like old times, she snorted to herself internally. Break in to some officer of the law’s work space or home and learn all about him. Great.
Jasper and Vincent walked out of Vincent’s room at just before midnight and she gave them both a once over. Vincent wasn’t coming tonight, but the entire team was going to be on standby for this in case she and Jasper needed a fast out. They looked good, and Jasper looked ready, decked in his all black uniform. Vincent carried two ski masks, and Sawyer, while knowing they were necessary, wasn’t looking forward to wearing them during the hot Texas night.
“Ready?” Vincent asked her, and she nodded in response. “Good. I’m going to drop you both off about a block away from the sheriff’s office. I recommend you get cloaked when you both get a bit closer. Jasper learned where the cameras in the building are, and he’ll direct you to the best ways of getting around them if you don’t want to hold the cloak.”
“Are you going to wait at the drop off point?” She met his eyes and he shook his head.
“I’m going to drive a little way out of town and come back around. One hour. That’s all you two get. They can think I drove to another town with you guys to look at something and then came back. But the pickup location will be the same as drop off to make it easy.”
“If that’s all,” Jasper cut in, “let’s get moving.”
They loaded up. She and Jasper sat in the back together and none of them said a word as they jumped out at drop off. She pulled on the ski mask and looked to Jasper as Vincent drove off.
“Hope you can keep up,” she told him.
“I’ve done this before,” he responded with a soft chuckle. She just stared at him for a moment. “Surprised? I normally do this with Vincent. This isn’t the first time we’ve needed intel and had to get it by less-than-moral means.”
“Well, you should have said that earlier.” Sawyer snorted. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I’m uncomfortable with it,” Jasper whispered to her as they started moving towards the sheriff’s office. “But the greater good, right?”
“Yeah, the greater good,” Sawyer agreed.
“Don’t feel guilty for this, Sawyer,” Jasper sighed. “This is the job. We do what is necessary to catch the bad guys.”
“Yup,” she said softly.
“Are you armed?” He asked as the sheriff’s office came into view.
“To the teeth,” she answered.
“Good,” he said with a finality, letting her know it was time to be quiet. Fine with her. They needed to focus.
They dodged cameras as Jasper pointed them out. Sawyer cloaked them when they needed to go through the front door. She didn’t want him phasing through one of the thick walls, so the thinner glass was their only option. She hated holding the cloak for them both to phase, her concentration split between the two bodies trying to go through an object and keeping the cloak active, but she managed.
As they crept down the hall, Sawyer keeping the cloak well maintained as Jasper led them to Stevenson’s office. Elijah had told them which door was the correct one before Sawyer had gone to get ready.
Jasper gave her a nod and she phased in first, ready to attack anyone who might be in the small office. She waved a hand back through the door when she cleared it, and Jasper walked in next, also phasing straight through.
She dropped the cloak and sighed. There were no cameras in the office, so she could take a breather.
“Look through everything,” Jasper mouthed at her. She nodded and started shuffling through papers.
S
he didn’t like what she found in the bottom drawer of Stevenson’s desk.
A list.
She snapped her fingers to get Jasper’s attention, and he appeared at her side. She handed it to him and watched him pale in the dark room.
It was a list of people.
Four of the names were the victims of their killer.
They weren’t marked out or anything, just there. She didn’t know what to think about it, but they were going to keep it.
She watched Jasper fold it up and slide it into his pocket. He gave her a nod and went back to his own section while she kept looking through the bottom drawer.
In the silence of the night, she heard it: the rumble of Stevenson’s pickup truck. She looked over to Jasper, who narrowed his eyes towards the parking lot. He had his phone out and looked like he was snapping a picture of something.
“We need to go,” she mouthed at him. He just gave a curt nod and pointed at the window. She cloaked them and phased through the wall to the outside. She reached through the window and held him steady, so he could get through with the prosthetic. It was a pain, and she hoped his Source had more energy than hers because she was going to get too low doing both of them at once constantly.
They went behind the building and waited for a moment, Sawyer keeping the cloaking over them. They heard the truck cut off as what sounded like other vehicles showed up.
“Fuck,” Sawyer mumbled. Jasper just nodded.
They took off, running for it. They didn’t bother going back to the pick-up location. They beelined for the motel without looking back. They had to loop around the sheriff’s office though, which slowed them down.
Once they were far enough away, Sawyer dropped the cloak.
“Why would they all be there in the middle of the night?” Sawyer hissed to herself. Jasper responded anyways.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Midnight gatherings at the sheriff’s office? A list with our victims on it?” Jasper groaned and shook his head. “At least I got his address, but we didn’t have time to clean up as well as I had hoped.”
“It’s always the easy ones,” Sawyer said sounding as if she was speaking from experience.
“What?” Jasper frowned at her as they kept walking back for the motel. He had his phone out and Sawyer assumed it to text Vincent.
“It’s always the easy jobs that go so wrong,” Sawyer elaborated. “The ones that are standard, should go as planned. They have developed a habit of going wrong.”
“Why do you say that?” Jasper asked, looking distracted as he typed on his phone.
“It’s how this all started,” Sawyer muttered under her breath. One easy job, should have taken thirty minutes on the inside to do during the security guards’ smoke break.
“When do you want to check out his house?” Jasper asked her, sliding his phone into his pocket.
“Tomorrow, while he’s at work. If he has kids, they should be in school.” Sawyer sighed. “Another ten minutes of walking back to the motel?”
“About that,” Jasper groaned. “It wasn’t a total bust, and we learned the sheriff is doing some weird things at night.”
“Nope, not a total bust,” Sawyer agreed. She kept her eyes ahead of her. No reason to look behind them. There was no one out at this time and it was dark enough that she and Jasper would just blend into the rest of the night.
Sawyer liked that, blending into this darkness, under the glow of the moon. It felt like home, and she even had a friend there with her. For the first time in a long time, Sawyer thought that maybe she wasn’t truly alone in the dark.
“I want you to start dream walking during my nightmares,” Sawyer whispered. She watched Jasper stumble to a stop and look at her. “We stepped around the conversation a couple of times now, but yeah, you can do it.”
And maybe she wouldn’t be so lonely in her dreams, just like she wasn’t in the dark Texas night with him.
“I can do that,” Jasper whispered back finally.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, snaking her arm into his. They had walked like this as kids. He might not remember, but she did. She’d enjoyed doing it in town.
They walked in silence together, over the yellow grass and between houses.
When they got back to the motel, Sawyer held Jasper from going to his own room for a moment.
“When’s Vincent getting back?” she asked softly.
“In another ten minutes or so,” Jasper responded, frowning towards her door. “Is Quinn in your room?”
“Yeah,” Sawyer huffed. She had forgotten for a moment that Quinn had decided to stand guard over her, now. It had been an eventful day.
“He hates hotels and stuff or even sleeping in a room,” Jasper mumbled, explaining it to her. “Why?”
“He wants to protect me,” Sawyer said with a sigh. Seconds of silence later, and Sawyer heard it, the soft growl of one of the wolves. Quinn opened her door and poked his head out. She gave him a weary smile.
“Are you going to come in and rest?” he asked in the hoarse voice that sent shivers down her spine.
“Yeah, but I was thinking about waiting on Vincent to make sure he gets back as well,” she told him. Jasper chuckled softly.
“We’re fine, Quinn,” Jasper told him with a smile. “Just had to cut the trip short because Stevenson showed up with friends. We didn’t stick around to find out why.”
“Jasper can wait for Vincent,” Quinn growled softly. He kept those ice blues locked on her. “You need sleep.”
Sawyer raised an eyebrow at him and turned to Jasper, who seemed unable to contain himself. He turned away, and she narrowed her eyes on his shaking shoulders. When he finally turned back, he was composed and steady.
“Wait with us, Quinn,” Jasper told him. “I’m going to get Zander and Elijah. We need to have a meeting.”
Quinn just stared at her, and Sawyer stared back. She ignored the shirtless chest, the dark tan caramel skin so like her own, and the rippling muscles Quinn kept in perfect condition.
She was having a hard time ignoring it. Her eyes followed the thin trail of dark body hair he had from belly button to… his pants. That line ended at his pants.
I need to stop being horny, Sawyer thought to herself. She’d just gotten laid a few days ago, and it had led to a whole mess of problems, just like she thought it would. She didn’t need to get riled up for another round with any of them again.
And Quinn? He barely liked her, most of the time. Sure, they were growing in their friendship, but she was not going to pull off getting into bed without being bitten. Some bites, she was more than okay with. The ones she could get from Quinn? Those were probably more dangerous than she cared for.
“So, everything went to hell,” Elijah grumbled as he came out of his room. Sawyer snapped out of her fascination with Quinn’s chest and shrugged at Elijah. Shit, he was also shirtless.
“Not really.” she sighed, ignoring his lack of clothing with a professional and bored act. She watched Jasper bring out Zander next. “Are we all just going to stand here and wait for Vincent?”
“Why not?” Jasper asked with a small lift to his shoulder. He pulled out the list she’d given him and handed it to Elijah. “I’m thinking these are all Magi. Our four victims are on it.”
“Shit,” Elijah mumbled, taking it from him. “I’ll give James a call or Vincent will to get verification on everyone here. We don’t need their Registrar entries, as far as we know, so it shouldn’t take too long.”
“I thought as much,” Jasper said, leaning against the motel’s wall.
“So, Sheriff has friends he likes to see in the middle of the night, the fishy bastard,” Zander growled out.
“We’ll talk all about it when Vincent gets back,” Sawyer told him softly. “No reason to repeat this once for each of you.”
Vincent did get back, and they all talked about what their next move would be. It hadn’t been much of a discussion in Sawyer’s opinion. Elijah sent a copy of th
e strange list to James, and that would take time for more information to come back. They had no idea when another one of those meetings would be, so they just had to wait and get lucky to see it again.
But they had the sheriff’s address, and that was something they could do something with.
“The school day here starts at eight a.m.,” Jasper told them from his computer. “We’ve seen the sheriff wandering the town quite early in the day. My guess would be, if he has kids, that he drops them off then gets to work.”
“No wife?” Vincent asked from his spot, sitting on his desk. “And why is it so hard to find out anything about this damn man? We’ve never had a local law enforcement guy this secretive.”
“Have we seen him with a wedding ring?” Jasper asked back.
“No,” Sawyer and Elijah offered at the same time. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he chuckled.
“I’m more interested in the ring he does wear. I’ve had James running it through our known symbols database. He hasn’t gotten a solid hit on it yet.”
“Known symbols?” Sawyer frowned.
“Non-Magi people use it for gang symbols and things of the like, but the IMPO? Anti-Magi symbols, cults, things of that nature. Similar reasons. People get that stuff inked onto them or wear it, and it’s impossible to remember them all. I gave James a quick sketch of the ring and sent it in already.” Elijah pulled out his own notepad, and Sawyer took it slowly. She flipped it open, curious to see it was actually a sketchbook. Elijah the artist? She eyed him before looking down to the sketch he was pointing at.
It was perfect.
She had known he had skills and tried to flip through the sketchbook to see more, but he snatched it away.
“I wanted to see if you draw a bunch of naked men and women to appease those hot fantasies I know you have,” Sawyer teased. Elijah purred, leaning in close.
“I don’t need to draw hot fantasies, I just need to ask you to fulfill them,” Elijah growled playfully at her. She would have in that moment. Like Quinn, he didn’t have enough clothing on. All of that was a problem, and there were other problems in the room.
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