Jasper, page 10
“Then go investigate Mason,” she exclaimed, glaring at him. “I’m not here to take you away from that.”
“You aren’t making me do anything,” he admitted, staring at her. “As a matter of fact, if you had your druthers, you would have forced me out of here a long time ago.”
She flushed. “I wouldn’t be that rude,” she said stiffly.
He burst into laughter. “Oh, you would so.”
She flushed a brighter red and then came back with another retort. “Honestly, I just want this all to go away.”
“Okay, so if you were alone, and you had answered that doorbell, particularly if you’d answered it right away,” he began, “what would your reaction have been?” She stared at him, nonplussed. He nodded. “Your reaction would be to turn around and phone somebody. So now you’ve got somebody here, who’ll be looking for a bigger explanation as to what’s going on.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have called anybody,” she replied. “Maybe I would have just kept it to myself. How can you be sure of that?”
“It crossed my mind, but then, when your dead body shows up in a few days in some alleyway, or if somebody comes to check on why you didn’t show up at work, and they find you dead on your couch, is that any better?” He watched as the color drained rapidly from her face.
“Exactly,” he stated. “I’m not trying to scare you, but to warn you. Also I’m not here to create a villain where there isn’t one or to make a bigger deal out of this than it already is. That is not my intention either. We have more than enough problems without creating something out of nothing,” he declared, shaking his head, “but regardless if this is related to Mason or not, it’s obviously a problem for you, and one we have to solve before you are free to move around again.”
He sighed. “In fact, as it is right now, you’re also incapable of moving around because of that hit-and-run. Maybe that was something they wanted too. Maybe they wanted you injured, incapacitated, maybe at home instead of the hospital, so they could come here and get the information they wanted from you, or maybe they were looking for that video.”
She stared at him. “Are you talking from experience?”
“Yes. However, I don’t know what their threat entails, what they plan to do next,” he conceded, “but that is a threat against you. And that’s just making me incredibly frustrated. Have you reviewed the tape further? Maybe you missed something earlier?”
She sighed. “I can look at it again, but I really don’t see what is so all important about this one off-the-cuff video.” With a growl, she reached for her cup of tea, stared down at the empty cup, then slammed it on the coffee table, perhaps a little too hard.
He nodded because he understood what that was about. “I know exactly how you feel,” he muttered, and then he laughed. “But I can still get a cup of tea for you.”
“No, … forget it, and, if you weren’t here, I would probably go for something a hell of a lot stronger.” He stared at her with interest, and she shrugged. “Just kidding, but maybe coffee would be better.”
“Good,” he said, with a nod. “I can do coffee, and, if you’re fussy about the way you like it, you can just sit there and tell me how you want it.”
“I’m not fussy,” she replied. “Right now I’m just sad. I hadn’t expected this turn of events.”
“No, I’m sure you didn’t,” he agreed. “I don’t think any of us did, but it’s one thing to get run down and have it be an accident. It’s an entirely different thing to now have somebody come to your house and threaten you with violence if you don’t keep your mouth shut.”
“Yet they didn’t say what they would do,” she pointed out, “so it’s hardly a threat of violence.”
He sat down hard on the couch beside her, jostling her leg. When she winced, he reached out, patting her hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“No, you didn’t want to hurt me, but you do want to shake some sense into me.”
He opened his eyes wide and then nodded. “I would like to do that, and it would be a hell of a lot easier if you would listen. This note probably came from the same people who ran you down. Since that wasn’t enough, prompting this threatening note, do you think the next thing they have planned for you is nonviolent? I suspect it will be more violent than the hit-and-run.”
“I’m listening,” she stated, “but there’s a limit to what I can do. Obviously right now I’m injured, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“That’s fine. … I get it, but neither one of us can stay here indefinitely, and if this isn’t connected to Mason, … it’s still something worrisome.”
“Either way, something is simmering under the surface,” she agreed.
“True, and we still have to solve it, if you plan to have a life again.”
She winced. “So, will we wait to solve it?” She was exasperated and totally exhausted too by the looks of it. “This is your investigation, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s my investigation,” he confirmed, looking at her, “but I have to delve into your background a whole lot deeper, and I’m pretty sure that’s not something you want.” She stared at him, and he watched as the last of the color drained away. He didn’t think her face could get any paler. He nodded when he saw the shocked look on her face.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Because, if this is something I’m investigating, then I have to know absolutely everything about why it’s happening. So, I’ll have to narrow down the facts and see what I can find for other reasons—not Mason-related—that you may not realize where somebody would hurt you, would retaliate.”
“Nobody’ll hurt me,” she said stiffly.
He frowned. “You keep saying things like that, and yet—”
“Yet what?” she asked.
“Yet I don’t believe you. It seems to me that we have a bigger mystery here than maybe you’ve let on.”
“I don’t have any secrets, if that’s what you mean. I don’t have any murdered family members who have come back to haunt me. I don’t have any of that stuff,” she said, her voice rising an octave higher. “I’ve been a nurse, working at this hospital for a very long time, and I’m hardly someone who anybody gives a crap about.”
“And yet somebody does give a crap about something here,” Jasper declared, as he tossed the note back down on the coffee table in front of her. “Somebody cares a hell of a lot, and forgetting about that fact,” he snapped, taking a moment, while she waited and seemed to be listening, “forgetting will get you killed.”
*
Tesla shifted in her seat, reminded that the cramping was horrific today. She’d tried to hide it from anybody around her because she didn’t want to listen to any more comments about what she should and should not do, especially the people who told her to go home. As for the baby, well, … the baby was definitely not impressed today.
Whether the hospital food, the stress, or the sleeplessness, Tesla didn’t know, but she was getting a good workout from the inside out, and it was a little bit too much today.
She got up and slowly paced the small hospital room. Her world had shrunk down to just this, to her beloved husband, waiting for him to wake up, waiting for him to show signs of anything. Doctors and nurses came and went, muttered, and nodded, gave her half smiles, then quickly disappeared, knowing that she would ask questions. So far, it appeared that nobody had any answers. The hospital, the baby, and hope were the only constants in this equation for the last few days, and that was that.
That was the worst part—the waiting, the not knowing what was going on, not understanding how something like this could continue to be a mystery in this world. Surely they could do more for her husband than to keep him in this coma.
And they used all kinds of medical words that Tesla had been busy looking up, but nothing that told her anything, as if they didn’t know themselves. Most of them basically just told her too early to say anything definitive, to give him time, that he was working on his healing, he was alive, and his body was working on coming back to her. She wanted to believe them; she had to because the other option was out of the question.
When a knock came on the door to Mason’s hospital room, she turned to see it burst open, and her little boy raced to her. He cried out, “Mommy,” and threw himself into her arms. She held him tightly against her and just rocked him on the edge of the cot. It was so damn good to see him, but, at the same time, it was also damn scary to even begin to think that he was here. He was only three years old, and so much of this was scary for him.
Was it even safe for Sebastian to be here?
Well, that was a question she would love to have an answer for, and quick. She didn’t know anything about it. She looked over to see Markus standing there, his arms crossed, as Sebastian babbled away.
“Uncle Markus brought me. He said Grandad needed a break.” Sebastian gave her a big, fat grin.
“Oh, did he now?” Tesla asked.
Sebastian nodded.
“I can’t imagine why,” Tesla said in a dry tone.
Sebastian looked over and said in a coo, “Daddy is sleeping?” Such a wealth of disappointment filled his tone that it made her smile.
“Yes, honey. Daddy got hurt, so now he’s sleeping, … so he can heal.”
“Good,” he said, “I want him to come play ball with me.”
“When he feels better and when he’s back home again, then we’ll line that up,” she said, chuckling. She let Sebastian ramble on, answering his questions, just enjoying holding the squirmy little three-year-old whom she loved with all her heart.
When she looked up at Markus, his gaze narrowed on her face. She glared at him. “I’m fine.” He just raised an eyebrow and didn’t say a word, as she groaned. “So, today might not be the greatest day as a pregnant woman,” she admitted, with a shrug, as she shifted Sebastian around.
“Huh.”
“Yeah, and that … doesn’t mean anything.” He didn’t respond, which was in some ways even worse. “Honest, Markus, I’m fine.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said quietly, “because you know, when Mason gets out of this, if anything happened to you in the meantime, … he’ll have every one of our heads.”
She winced and then chuckled. “That is something to keep you guys in line at least.”
“It’ll keep us in line,” he said, with a warning look in her direction, “by keeping you in line.”
She didn’t like that at all, but she understood it. “I’m fine. Baby’s just extra-active today.”
At that, Sebastian patted her belly several times and said, “When is baby coming?” He cried out loud enough for people to hear him loud and clear, making her blush. “I want baby.”
“Baby’s coming soon enough,” she said. “Baby’s not fully cooked yet.”
Sebastian looked at her and then giggled. “Like cookies?”
“Something like that,” she said, with half a laugh. The absolute innocence in his face and his tone of voice always put a smile on hers. She looked over at Markus and whispered, “Thank you.”
He nodded. “We can’t stay too long. After this, we’re going bowling.”
“Bowling?” she repeated.
At that, Sebastian went off in squeals of delight, hearing the word from her. “They’re really big balls,” he said excitedly. “Uncle Markus has to take them off the rack, but I’m really good at rolling them down the runway.”
She blinked at the thought, her mind kicking in at seeing her little toddler, with Markus standing behind him, helping him push. She slid a glance over at Markus, who had a big grin on his face. “What about Bree?” she asked of his wife.
“She’s thrilled. If you ask me, she would keep this guy forever.”
“Well, she can’t have him,” Tesla declared and then chuckled. “However, I really do appreciate that everybody is pitching in to keep him company.”
“Of course they’re pitching in,” he said, with a grin. “You know we all love this guy,” Markus said, as he pointed to the bed where Mason was crashed. “He just needs to wake up.”
“He does, indeed,” she said, glaring over at the bed where her husband was snuggled in. “The sooner, the better.”
He laughed. “You know him. He’s always got to do a job the right way,” he said. “He’ll come out when he’s darn good and ready and not before.”
She laughed. “Isn’t that the truth,” she murmured affectionately.
Just then Markus turned to Sebastian and said, “Come on, buddy. Time to go push those bowling balls.”
“Yeah!” He raced to the door and then stopped and ran back to Tesla and threw his arms around her and gave her a big, sloppy kiss. “Bye, Mommy.” And, with that, he was gone.
She sighed, wondering where the world just went, as it seemed to have come and gone in her life with the aplomb of a very confident and happy little boy. One thing she had done well in this world was her little guy. Sebastian was her one true success in this world. He was a very well-adjusted and happy little boy, and, although she didn’t want to think of a life without his daddy, she knew that they would get through it one way or another, if they had to.
She was so damn grateful that she had Sebastian right now, a light in her life. Given the circumstances, she was also damn grateful for all his well-respected uncles because they made her bedside vigil, watching over Mason, a hell of a lot easier right now.
With that thought, she shifted back onto the cot, closed her eyes, and curled up for yet another nap.
Chapter 8
‡
Later that night, as Amber tried desperately to fall asleep, her mind swirled endlessly from one danger to another that her foolish actions may have gotten her into. She didn’t have any history that she could think of that would lead to this current threat. However, it made more sense that her hit-and-run was connected to Mason’s shooting, since she had been at the hospital and had foolishly taken that video. She had reviewed the video multiple times now. Nothing stood out to her. And, if this violence directed at her was connected to that video, how could she possibly let these strangers know that she wasn’t a threat, when in their minds she was probably too big of a threat already. Her thoughts kept running wild.
The threatening note didn’t bother her so much as the fact that it could just be a prelude to something much worse, and that was a concern and not anything she wanted to consider. She was a sitting duck here, being injured as she was. Since Jasper had opened the door to find the note, if they had been watching and recognized him, did they know what was going on? It just seemed as if so much could be involved in the way of ugly options, and she had no idea how to even begin to free herself from this mess.
One thing she knew was that she was fighting Jasper tooth and nail. God only knows why she was giving Jasper such grief. She appreciated the fact that she wasn’t here alone and couldn’t imagine being all alone right now, wondering and worrying whether these guys would come back. In her mind, they would definitely come back. She had hoped that maybe seeing Jasper here would have been a deterrent, but it might just as easily have been the opposite. They might have decided that he was a problem and needed to be taken out too.
When a light knock came on her bedroom door, she called out, “Come in.”
Jasper walked in and smiled. “I didn’t think you would be sleeping.”
“I wish I was,” she murmured, as she shifted in bed, barely wincing this time.
He noticed that. “So, either the pain pills are good or you’re starting to feel a little better.”
“I’m tired and I’m sore, but I am feeling a little bit better,” she confessed. “It’s just a strange scenario right now.”
“It is,” he agreed, “and I want you to leave this place.”
She squeaked out in shock, “My home?”
“Yes, leave your home.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to run. I don’t want to leave my apartment to these guys,” she added in a firm tone. “I get it. It’s not all that great, and I could probably find another place to live, but why should I let them force me from my home?”
“It’s a lovely little place,” he agreed calmly. “Yet again, if this is connected to Mason’s deal—and I don’t see how it can’t be—they know where you live, so let’s have you live somewhere else.”
“But if I leave, eventually they’ll find me again,” she stated, struggling to keep the bitterness from her tone. “All they have to do is follow me from work. Apparently these guys are pros. I don’t quite understand how I got into this mess, but I’m even more confused as to how to get out of it.”
“Getting out of it isn’t easy,” Jasper shared, with a nod. “We’ll have to solve the Mason problem in order to have that happen.”
“Good, feel free.”
“I would, except that now you’ve been threatened and quite likely because of me, so I can’t go very far.”
She glared at him. “I’m not holding you responsible. Taking that video was my fault and my fault only.”
“If I hadn’t asked you to keep an eye out, I doubt that you would be in this situation.”
She didn’t know what to say to that because it may be true, except for the fact that she often kept an eye out on people. Therefore, maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference at all. She knew it would be hard to convince Jasper of that. “I don’t want you feeling guilty,” she said, with a groan. “I just want all of this to go away.”
“Yeah, well, denial has never worked for me, and I can see that you might want to try it, but I can tell you right now that it’ll get worse before it gets better.”
She winced. “You could just lie for a change.”
He chuckled. “No, that won’t help anybody.”
“Maybe not, but it would make me feel better,” she complained, gritting her teeth.
“It might make you feel better, but it’ll be temporary. Let’s get you someplace where they don’t know where you’re staying, and then we have a chance to get them off your tail.”
“Where would you like me to go?”
