Jasper

Three days in, I was one big sore muscle. Everything ached.

Mina was a beast when it came to physical exertion and stamina. I’d worked out for two to three hours a day, sometimes more, in prison, but that was mostly weightlifting. Mina did resistance training, aerobic workings, ran, and walked. She had more stamina than anyone I’d ever known, and I had to admit, I was beat.

And the sex was just as much of a workout.

We had nothing but time on our hands. In prison, that had been a curse, a burden, and that time passed slowly. With Mina, it was a blessing and a gift, but we stayed busy, and the hours flew by. She was always on the go, and I had trouble keeping up. Still, I was determined, and it was an enjoyable challenge.

Today, we’d decided to take a break and work out what we wanted to set up with the police. I had to silently admit my gratitude. I had nothing left. I was exhausted and needed a day to let my body recuperate from the strain I’d put on it. I was moving slowly and trying not to let it show, though I felt like I failed miserably at that.

As I carried the breakfast dishes to the sink – we’d gotten some groceries so we could cook – I winced, my right calf protesting with a spasm, and Mina quirked a brow at me. “Are you alright?”

I sighed and grumbled, “I never thought I’d meet a woman who could best me physically.”

She laughed, a husky sound that made me want to bend her over the counter, even if it meant I’d be in absolute agony. “I thought you were in shape.”

“I am. That doesn’t mean I’m the Energizer bunny.” Except in bed, but I didn’t say that out loud. “You’re something else.”

“I hope that’s a compliment,” she said, and I didn’t have to look at her to know she was smiling. “I’ll try to take it a little easier. I could probably use the break anyway.”

I loved her body, and I knew part of the reason it was so perfect was that she kept up this kind of regimen. But I was relieved that she was willing to make some concessions. I’d burn out and give up if we kept up this pace. “I’ll catch up eventually,” I told her. And I would. But not today. And probably not in the next week.

“So, I think the first step is to make the list and put together the access details.” She dove right in, no preamble, no warning, and I simply nodded, leaning against the counter and still not turning around. I was worried. I’d let it go for a while, like a mini vacation from the woes of life, but every time we stopped and had a moment to rest, it all came flooding back. My nerves tightened, which didn’t help with the soreness, and my jaw clenched.

The truth was, I liked the idea of setting up my former friends. I’d never felt so betrayed in all my life, especially by Sam. I hadn’t mentioned the texts I’d been ignoring and the calls that had been going to voicemail, but they’d been hounding me nonstop. The greedy bastards were threatening violence to me, to the ‘bitch’ I was fucking, to the guys who employed me at the bar.

But setting a trap for them was more dangerous than even I could comprehend. We’d gone in unarmed last time, at my insistence. We were military, and if we’d had weapons, we would have been considered deadly weapons. My prison sentence would have had me old and gray before I even had an errant thought about seeing the outside of the gate again. But I knew they wouldn’t go for it this time without guns. I had a feeling that, even if the rest of them were too cowardly to pull them, Jake would have a happy trigger finger.

If this was going to work, Mina had to be home. And that meant she could get hurt, badly. She could be killed. I wasn’t about to let that happen. So it meant everything had to be flawless. I didn’t like the idea of involving the cops because I couldn’t trust them to respect her life or mine the way I did. And yet, I knew it was the only way.

I’d thought about it late into the night before I’d fallen asleep around three in the morning, and I’d decided on the best way to start. “I think I should report it to my parole officer first,” I said out loud. “He’s a good guy, and he’ll back me up, probably report it himself, especially if he knows I want to help.”

“Okay,” she agreed easily. It was just one more aspect of her personality to appreciate. When something seemed reasonable, she didn’t question it. She just went with it, especially if she felt I knew more on the subject than she did. “And the list?”

I nodded slowly. “If we want them caught, we have to send them to the right place, where they’ll actually be able to find what they’re looking for, and where they’re actually implicated.” But I also thought it would be a good idea to replace the real art pieces with good replicas, just in case. I didn’t want any of the precious items damaged, and if they managed to get away, I didn’t want them to have the authentic pieces in their hands. They wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway. I was the art expert. No one else knew anything about it. “So, I’ll recreate the list with the instructions per your dictation.”

“Great. Whenever we can make this happen, I’ll plan a vacation, just like this, so I’m not home. That will make it easier for them to take the risk.”

It was bulletproof on the surface. But there was a problem with the theory. I turned, grabbed a chair, and straddled it, facing Mina. “That won’t fly,” I told her. “Because they won’t trust me that far. They’ll purposely choose a different date, thinking it’s a setup, and they’ll want to make sure you’re home. Even if they don’t know we’re together, they’ll know that the threat of you getting hurt will keep me in line.” I’d realized that last night. They’d always called me a bleeding heart, and maybe I was. When we’d made our first attempt, I’d insisted that we didn’t hurt anyone. It didn’t matter who they were or how little they meant to us. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. The only purpose was to help someone.

But again, the tables had turned. Everything I stood for was being questioned, and with me no longer in charge, all bets were off. They would go in hot and loaded, violent and ready for a fight. These were the men I’d trusted since we were boys, and I knew them almost as well as I knew myself, in some ways. But their need for wealth drove them now, negating a lot of the good qualities they’d once had.

“So, I have to be there. Or at least, seem like I’m there.”

“You have to be there,” I stated flatly, locking gazed with her. Those pools of hers, the gorgeous eyes, were hypnotizing, but I couldn’t get lost in their depths just yet today. “Are you willing to do that?”

She nodded without hesitating, my brave woman. “I trust you, Jasper. If you think I’ll be safe, I have no problem being there.”

I couldn’t guarantee that, especially since it was my biggest fear that I would let her down. “I will keep you as safe as possible, but I can’t promise that I’ll think of everything they might do before they actually put it into play.”

“That’s good enough for me,” she said, though I could see a modicum of fear in her expression now. That was good. She needed to understand the chance she would be taking.

I reached out and took her hand, caressing its smooth surfaces. She’d never worked a day in her life, and she probably got manicures on a regular basis to keep her nails up to par with the rest of her image. I marveled at the preciousness of each finger, then the palm of her hand. “You’re so beautiful,” I whispered, wishing I had better words to describe what I saw when I looked at her. The beauty ran deep, and I knew that if we got through this together, I would be incredibly lucky if she agreed to stay with me, but all I could think about was that I’d found the woman who had convinced me to start over, in my personal and professional life, the woman I had fallen for and found myself wanting to settle down with.

“Thank you,” she whispered back. “We really need to make some serious progress on this plan today before you get tired of looking at me, though.”

She was right. We had a lot of planning ahead of us. But I scowled at her last statement. “Mina, I’m never going to get tired of looking at you. Ever.”

She smiled, swallowing hard. Had I gone too far? But she just nodded eventually and said, “I’m glad. I’d hate to find out you were ready to move on without me, just because you were tired of looking at me.”

I hoped she was joking. I couldn’t imagine her insecurity, considering how much appeal she held, inside and out. But I didn’t address it. I just kissed her soundly and told her, “I have to see my parole officer tomorrow. That means going into the city. I’ll have to address the situation then. Technically, I’m supposed to report any dealings with anyone that could be influential in a decision to do anything that might violate my parole anyway. That means the door is wide open to telling him what’s going on and what I want to do.”

She nodded. “Will that have any implications against you? I mean, can you get into trouble for the position you’re in?”

I thought about it, and she had a point. I had a bit of concern that I might already have violated the terms, and I certainly couldn’t tell him I was hiding out up here. I wasn’t supposed to leave the five boroughs. But I wasn’t going to worry her. Besides, I had to have faith in my PO if I intended to follow through with all of this. “I think that, under the circumstances, coming clean and giving useful information about other criminals would get me a pass, even if I could potentially get in trouble. So, I’m not worried about it.”

She narrowed her eyes, obviously not quite convinced, but she didn’t argue. “And if he doesn’t move on it?”

I’d thought about that, too. The whole plan hinged on my parole officer speaking with the right people, detectives who could organize the sting and wanted to put the time and effort into it. Any break in that chain could cause it all to fall through. I lit a cigarette and took a long drag, stalling before I answered. “We should have a backup plan, just in case.”

Mina grimaced, but it didn’t mar her looks. It was absolutely adorable. “What does that look like to you?”

I had several ideas, most of them pretty unsavory. There was a violent streak in me I didn’t like to think about and I didn’t want Mina to see, so I didn’t voice my desire to kill every last one of my MC clan. At this point, their lives meant nothing in comparison to Mina’s safety and my freedom. I also knew taking that sort of action could land me right back behind bars, till I took my last breath.

There was one decent option, though, one I’d turned down before. “If this doesn’t go as we hope, I think we should make plans to leave. Go somewhere to hide out. We can still call in an anonymous tip because they’ll try to pull of the heist with or without the information, and that’s fine, as long as you’re not there.” I didn’t like the idea of leaving home, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t lived other places before. That was military conditioning – make the best of any situation, anywhere in the world. “That would involve getting false IDs, documents, papers. We’d probably have to leave the country, or at least move all the way across the country.”

I thought she’d balk at the idea, but her eyes brightened, and she leaned forward eagerly. “We could go anywhere, you know. I have holdings in Swiss banks and in the Caymans, so the payments wouldn’t be traceable.”

I smiled at her childish excitement, the sentiment contagious. “I’ve always wanted to spend some time in Europe. Or the Caribbean.”

“Spain is gorgeous. You’d love Barcelona.”

I laughed. “Remember, this is a backup plan.” I wanted to settle down, to a real life with a real future. I didn’t want to have to hide under a false name, playing at some menial job I didn’t enjoy. And I didn’t want Mina to give up everything here, either. It would be a while before we could sell off everything anyway. “But if you want to check into it, and Barcelona is where you see us, I’m all for it.”

Mina

I hated Jasper going back to the city, especially alone. It made me a nervous wreck because I knew those men would be hunting for him. I pretended not to know they’d been calling and texting because I knew he didn’t want me upset, but I wasn’t that stupid. I’m sure he knew that, too. So, when he insisted on going by himself and leaving me here to pace anxiously all day, I’d laid some ground rules, including a few he didn’t like.

He was reasonable enough about staying away from his apartment, my house, and the bar where he worked, and he had no intention of visiting any of the guys anywhere. He’d even agreed to meet his parole officer somewhere other than his office, in case that was being staked out. I’d asked him to call me when he got there and before he left so I could time his arrival. I wasn’t controlling, and normally, I wouldn’t have cared. But I was terrified they would track him down and hurt him. He’d agreed graciously, and that was a relief.

But when I insisted he take an Uber there and back rather than his motorcycle, he’d pushed back. I was adamant – I would have more likely conceded the phone calls. “Jasper, they know your bike. They’ll be looking for it. An Uber won’t hit their radar, and you won’t have to worry about being tailed back.”

That had gotten his reluctant agreement – he didn’t want anyone to find out where we were, probably including his parole officer. So, he’d thrown up his hands in exasperation and let me call one for him. “I would have let you take my car, but you’re the one who demanded I not drive it,” I muttered, a little out of sorts about all this. It was bad enough that he might as well be walking into the lion’s den. But the idea of being separated from him after three glorious days of constant presence was driving me mad, and my anxiety was through the roof.

I paced the floor, waiting for his call from the time he left. I checked the clock every few minutes, hoping more time had passed and being disappointed every time. I started to question my own intelligence. After all, this had been my idea, and I was regretting ever mentioning it now. All I wanted was for this to end, and I’d thought I had a good way to end it. Instead, it seemed I was trying to give myself a heart attack.

I stopped to send an email to an old friend of my father’s who I knew had connections to fake documentation, telling him I needed to speak with him about a ‘special project.’ Then, it was back to waiting. When my phone finally rang, it startled me, and I picked it up with a little yelp for joy when I saw Jasper’s name on the screen. “Hi!” I answered brightly, half breathing the word with my relief.

“Hi,” he said with a chuckle. “Are you alright?”

“Going out of my mind with worry, but otherwise, just fine. I guess you made it there safe and sound?”

He grunted. “Not for lack of this driver trying to kill me. Remind me that next time, I want to just rent a car.”

I laughed. “You’ll be fine. Now, take care of business so you can come back to me. I’ll be wearing something very enticing for you.”

“Oh, yeah?” His voice dropped to a growl. “Like what?”

“Like nothing at all,” I told him, my heart racing at the thought of answering the door naked.

“I’ll make it fast,” he said and hung up.

I giggled, but the anticipation only lasted a few minutes. I fell right back into that glum funk, concern giving me gray hair and wrinkles early. I just knew I was going to look ten years older if I glanced in the mirror. This really wasn’t going to work for me. I had to find another way to occupy my time.

I thought about television, but I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything. I considered a shower, but that wouldn’t last long enough, and I might miss Jasper’s call if I drew it out. Finally, I bit the bullet and settled on the one thing that was always a perfect distraction, regardless of the circumstances. I would work out. There was a beautiful gym up at the lodge, and I could take a short hike first to warm my blood. Sure, it would give me time to think, but my thoughts typically ran to happy things when I exercised rather than terrifying scenarios.

I went to the dresser where I’d finally unloaded my clothes and drew out one of the sweat suits I’d packed, dressing and pulling my hair back at the nape of my neck. I dug out my ear buds and tucked my phone in my pocket, opting for a rigorous rock playlist that would have me going so hard I’d forget everything else in the world.

I went to the kitchen, poured myself a glass of orange juice, and peeled a banana. Healthy carbs always made for a better workout. I took my time eating and drinking, not wanting to cause any cramps, and then I did a few stretches. I made sure I had the key to the cabin, and I opened the door.

And nearly ran into a very tall man.

I blinked up at him, reaching into my pocket to pause the music as he sneered down at me. I scowled up at him, his narrow, brown eyes and sandy brown hair falling across his forehead. He was thin, almost gaunt, but he also had a power to him. “Can I help you?” I asked. He had to be looking for another bungalow and gotten lost. I didn’t know this man, and there was no other reason for someone to be at the door.

His sneer turned malicious, and it sent a chill down my spine. “Sure, you can,” he said with a snarl, his voice full of venom. “You can come without a fight.” He reached for me before I could pull away, twisting me so my back was against his chest, and then he had his hand over his mouth. There was an acrid smell as my vision blurred and went dark, and I felt queasy. Then, nothing at all.