Chapter 15 - Jasper
Sitting in the large meeting room, Jasper stared down at the pages, still not seeing any of it. He tried again. And again. It was no use.
Donovan’s words reverberated in his ears, the way they had countless times over the past couple of weeks.
A stab of guilt, familiar now, pierced his stomach.
He still hadn’t told Nikki that he’d known there were people in town loyal to Lucas and hadn’t warned her immediately.
If he had, there was every chance she wouldn’t have gone with Vincent.
He had been trying to protect her, but he’d inadvertently done the exact opposite by keeping it secret.
In a way, the Vincent incident was his fault.
He wanted to tell her; he legitimately did. But there had never been a good time to bring it up—not with everything going on. He had searched for an opening several times over the last couple of weeks, but it had never emerged.
Or maybe you just don’t want to tell her because you’re worried about how she’ll react, an obnoxiously rational voice whispered in his head.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. That guilt continued to simmer. He needed to tell her. He needed to stop being such a coward and admit his mistake. She deserved to know, and he was being an asshole by not telling her.
“You all right?” Franco asked, pulling Jasper out of his thoughts. He hadn’t even heard Franco come into the room. Behind him stood Camden. Cillian was currently keeping an eye on Nikki.
“As all right as I can be,” Jasper grunted. He sighed and swept the papers out of the way. “Find anything?”
Franco seesawed his hand. “We’ve been hunting in the area Vincent had taken Nikki, assuming Vincent would have taken her near his hideout, but we haven’t been able to come up with anything.
Which makes me think that Lucas is nowhere near it, and Vincent planned on abducting her there in order to throw us off the scent. ”
“Would make sense,” Jasper said. “Only problem is it doesn’t help us figure out where he might be holed up.”
“It also means that he’s smarter than we gave him credit for,” Camden muttered.
The others nodded. Snarling, Jasper paced back and forth, running his fingers through his hair.
“There’s got to be something we can do,” he said.
Just as Camden opened his mouth to respond, there was a commotion outside. Everyone turned toward the door. Before any of them could move, James, one of Cillian’s best scouts, came bursting into the room, breathless, eyes wild with excitement.
“We found it,” James said.
Everyone’s attention locked on James immediately.
“You found where Lucas is hiding?” Camden asked.
James nodded, still panting. He’d clearly been running at breakneck speed. “In the woods east of here,” he said. “It took some time because he hid his scent well, and he set up camp far enough away that we missed it in our original search. It was outside the perimeter.”
Jasper inhaled, taking his first easy breath in what felt like years. There was hope. They knew where Lucas was. They could go after him and end this once and for all. Nikki would be safe, and the town wouldn’t fall into Lucas’s hands.
“Brilliant,” he said, cracking a grin.
Camden nodded. “We’ll come up with a game plan and strike in a few days,” he said. At Jasper’s impatient expression, he added, “I know what you’re thinking, but we need to go about this systematically. If we go in without a plan, there’s every chance Lucas will be able to get away.”
The rest of the afternoon, the three of them began plotting their plan, learning the routes to and from Lucas’s supposed hangout.
As they plotted, Jasper’s mind strayed toward Nikki, another nugget of guilt rippling through him.
She deserved better. And if he wanted her to forgive him for everything, he needed to be honest with her.
As these thoughts permeated everything and continued to swell, he made a promise. He would tell Nikki once he got home. He’d confess to everything, no matter the consequences.
He just had to hope that Nikki would forgive him.