jasper
Present day
Day 95
I wouldn’t have been surprised if he knew I was here already. He was bound to have some high-tech security system running in this place, but I didn’t care.
I was pretty confident he wasn’t going to pull out a gun and shoot me – so it didn’t matter if he knew I was waiting for him or not.
I heard him turning the key in his front door lock and I peered down the hallway, only pulling back when I saw the door opening, revealing the man behind it.
It was him. Even if I hadn’t already met him in person, I still would have known.
He’s just like Charlotte.
It was the weirdest thing, because in terms of height and stature they were physically nothing alike, but his features, his overall vibe was exactly like Lotte.
I could hear him in the hallway now. He strolled into the living room and sat something down on the floor with a soft thud.
I grinned to myself. It was ironic really, my hundreds of games of hide and seek with Hannah had really sharpened my senses.
I was a master at this point.
I could hear him in the kitchen now; he had the tap running – getting himself a glass of water if I had to guess.
I moved like a ghost into the living room and sank down silently into an armchair directly opposite where he had just been standing.
If he didn’t already know I was here – which I was guessing he didn’t, he was about to shit himself.
He came out of the kitchen and glanced over at his ridiculously huge setup of computers and technical kinda shit, his eyes skimming over me as though the chair was empty like it should have been.
His body froze as his brain quickly processed the information that he was, in fact, not alone.
I was right about the glass of water; it fell to the ground and smashed against the hard wood floor, liquid splashing everywhere.
I smirked as his eyes slowly made their way to meet mine.
“Tyler,” I acknowledged.
The fear in his face evaporated as he recognised me. I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my lips. I knew Tyler had fucked with some seriously dangerous people over the years, and judging by the look on his face, I’d be willing to bet my last dollar that he had thought someone had finally caught up with him.
“For fuck’s sake, Jasper, you scared the shit out of me.”
I shrugged unapologetically.
“How the hell did you get in here?”
“Window.”
“You make a habit of sneaking into other people’s houses?” He bent down to pick up the broken shards of glass.
“If the need arises.”
He glanced at me with a frown, and then disappeared to throw out the rubbish in his hands.
The dude was nervous. He might have been untouchable when he was behind his keyboard, but it was obvious that in real life, he wasn’t quite as fearless.
I watched him carefully as he entered the living room again. He was a big guy. I was no wimp, but I was glad I hadn’t come here with the intention to kick his ass – I’d win, but I wouldn’t get out unscathed.
“So… what brings you here?” he asked in an attempt to act casual.
Don’t give me that shit.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”
He froze for a moment before composing himself and shrugging. “You might have to be more specific.”
“Cut the shit, Ty,” I snapped, my cool façade slipping for the first time since this little dance between the two of us had begun.
That got a sly smirk from him.
I put my calm mask firmly back into place. “Wipe that look off your face.”
His smirk dropped slightly.
This was the part where I caught him off guard. He didn’t know it yet, but he had company in the hacking department, and if I knew anything about him, it was that he wasn’t used to having competition.
“You think you’re always on top… that you’re… indestructible… don’t you?”
He frowned, but made no move to reply.
Time to drop the bomb.
“Does the name ‘Armageddon’ mean anything to you, Tyler?”
His face paled, and I smirked and nodded knowingly at him.
That’s right.
He growled loudly and threw himself up to his feet before storming over to his computer.
He was smart alright. The moment that name left my lips, he’d known.
He tapped away for what felt like forever, only muttering the occasional curse word under his breath – I could have told him to hurry up, but I didn’t mind actually. I was a patient man, and it would be worth it when he realised the full extent of what had gone down.
I closed my eyes and waited.
The abrupt end to the tapping and the word ‘fuck’, let me know he’d figured it all out.
I opened my eyes and lazily glanced over at him. He sat, at his keyboard, his head hung in his hands, elbows rested on the table.
“So you know everything then?” he asked, his head still hung in shame.
I paused for a moment, deciding whether or not to feed him some bullshit or tell him the truth.
I went with the truth. “I figured out for myself where she was six days ago.”
His head snapped up. “But Armageddon was only in here yesterday?”
That’s what you think.
I nodded. “You don’t know me very well.” I stretched my legs out in front of me and crossed my feet at the ankles. “But I’m the kind of man that sees things through – leaves no stone unturned. When I figured it out, I knew she hadn’t done it on her own. I had a hunch about you, but I didn’t have the… skills… to prove it. That’s where Armageddon came in.”
“Why haven’t you gone to her yet?” he asked, disbelief colouring his voice. I could understand his confusion – I’d spent all this time desperately searching for her and it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to an outsider that I hadn’t rushed to her side immediately.
I smirked. “I had a few things to organise first. You’re my last stop.”
I could barely contain my excitement knowing that I would see her tomorrow. But I knew it was important that I kept my head on straight – I wasn’t done here yet.
Get through this and then I can go to my girl.
“I’ll be heading there as soon as I’m done with you.”
I didn’t mention the fact that I didn’t actually find out her location until Armageddon had hacked into Tyler’s server.
The house on the clifftop could have been anywhere. The clifftops near the ocean stretched for hundreds of miles along the coast in this city alone. And now I knew that she wasn’t even in this city…
So even though I’d known where she was in theory, it was still like finding a needle in a haystack.
I’d remembered that she’d told me she had travelled there every summer when she was younger, but her description of ‘about an hour’s drive’ from some small time airport wasn’t exactly helpful information.
That, paired with the fact that she’d moved around a lot as a child, didn’t make for easy hunting.
I could have called her parents for the answer, but I didn’t really want to involve them in this. I didn’t even know if they were aware that Hannah had dropped off the face of the universe or not.
And that wouldn’t have helped me sort out Tyler either.
This had been a much better plan.
“Why are you here, Jasper?” Tyler’s voice snapped me from my thoughts.
“You know exactly why I’m here.”
He swallowed deeply, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
I got to my feet and approached him slowly. He mimicked my actions until we were face to face.
“If you ever go after my woman again, I will end you. No amount of hacking skills could stop me from finding you and making you pay. Do you understand?” I ground the words out.
He looked guilty as hell. Not only that, but he looked afraid. I was pleased to know that falling in love hadn’t made me any less intimidating.
Actually, it was quite the opposite where Hannah was concerned. She had softened me in a lot of ways, but when it came to protecting her, protecting us, I knew I would stop at nothing.
Now he knew that too.
Most men would have given up at the first hurdle, the second perhaps. But I wasn’t ‘most men’. I was here. Ninety-five fucking days after she walked out that door, I was here… and I was less than twenty-four hours away from holding her in my arms.
I was going to win.
He sighed. “I won’t apologise, because I know you won’t accept it anyway, and if I’m being honest with you, and I think it’s about time I was, I’m not actually sorry for telling her how I feel.”
Well shit.
The guy has some balls after all.
“I do regret going to see her behind your back, and I’m sorry for enabling her to put everybody through this – you especially. I know that I can’t understand it entirely until it happens to me, but I’ve been given a glimpse into what the two of you share, and it’s pretty incredible. I know I could never compete with that.”
“No. You couldn’t,” I agreed.
I stared hard at him for a few beats, making sure that he understood my message loud and clear. When I was satisfied with what I saw, I turned to leave.
He caught my shoulder mid-turn. “That’s it? You’re not going to ask me anything else?”
I just laughed and shrugged off his hand.
“A told me everything I needed to know,” I called back as I walked away.
“Exactly. You know I went there, to see her… aren’t you going to ask me what happened while I was there?”
I paused and looked back at him over my shoulder. “You’re here and not there. That’s the only answer I need.”
I reached for the door handle.
“What if I slept with her while I was there?” he asked.
I knew he hadn’t. I could hear it in his voice. And even if he’d sworn black and blue that he had shared Hannah’s bed, I wouldn’t have believed him for a second.
Hannah was infatuated with me. Totally and utterly besotted.
As I am with her.
She would never do that; she would never risk our relationship that way. I doubted she would have even had the thought enter her mind.
I rested my hand on the handle and looked back at him for the last time.
“You know, man, one day you’ll meet the right woman and you’ll understand why that question isn’t even worth answering for me.”
I left with one thing on my mind.
The only thing that mattered now.
Hannah.