Chapter 16 Jasmine
JASMINE
My life was in upheaval.
Again.
I hated it when I wasn’t in control. I hated it when I convinced myself to splurge on things that I didn’t feel I deserved.
It took me so long to convince myself that I was worth that refurbished PlayStation.
It took me forever to convince myself that games were a one-time purchase, so therefore, they wouldn’t be a money sink.
It took me forever to find an affordable apartment in that god-forsaken city where I felt both safe as well as at home.
And it was all gone.
Again.
I felt myself moving, but at this point, I didn’t care.
If they wanted to kill me, then they’d kill me.
At this point, it would be a release. I was so tired of fighting.
So tired of crawling out of holes that I didn’t even make.
I was so tired of dealing with this darkness that seemed to follow me wherever I went, like a succubus preying on its new feast. But when I felt myself being sat down, I wiped my eyes and realized I was sitting at a table.
With two other women looking at me.
Redheads who sort of looked alike.
“Sorry,” I sniffled as I wiped at my face.
“No sorries necessary,” the redhead with the plump cheeks said.
“Hi!” the other redhead chirped. Her voice sounded a bit familiar. “I’m Ariel. Reid is mine.”
I nodded slowly. The woman who yelled at me from the window.
“And I’m Amanda,” the other one said as she waved. “You haven’t met Wrecker yet, but he’s mine.”
I just gave another slow nod as my eyes darted between the two of them.
“We’re sisters,” Ariel said with a proud smile.
Amanda looked over and gave her an equally proud smile before her attention returned back to me. “Are you hungry? We’ve always got food in this place.”
“Reid made jambalaya last night. We could heat you up some?” Ariel asked.
I furrowed my brow. “Have I met Reid?”
“Cap,” Amanda said.
“What about him?” I asked.
Amanda just nodded. “That’s Reid.”
“Ah.”
Ariel stood. “I’ll get you some warmed up, just in case. You want a soda?”
Caffeine. Oh, thank fuck. “Please.”
“Coming right up!” the redhead chimed out.
Her sister pulled her chair around the table and sat a bit closer to me. “You okay?”
“I… don’t know,” I said honestly.
“That’s fair,” she said as she reached out and patted my upper arm. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I just shook my head softly as a microwave behind me started up.
“Dr. Pepper or Coke?” Ariel said from behind me.
“Either’s fine,” I said breathlessly.
“I’ll get you both, just in case.”
Amanda giggled as she shook her head. “Well, we figured you might want a break from men in general. So while the guys have their little pow-wow downstairs, we figured we’d keep you company.”
“And get you fed,” Ariel said as she placed a tall glass of ice and two cans of soda in front of me.
I immediately reached for the Dr. Pepper and cracked it open, which made Amanda smile.
“A woman after my own heart,” she said.
“You want some, Mandi?” Ariel asked.
“Sure, why not? And get me one of those Dr. Peppers, too, while you’re at it.”
“Only if you say ‘please’.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’d rather die.”
“Then you’ll die without Dr. Pepper. What will the world think then?”
I had to admit, they were pretty entertaining. It made me giggle softly. “I’m an only child.”
“Oh, I bet it’s heaven,” Ariel said.
“Hey!” Amanda exclaimed. “I came after your ass when you were kidnapped, ho.”
“Like you’d ever let me forget it.”
I turned my attention to Ariel. “You were kidnapped, too?”
God, how did I already so quickly forget about that?
Everything moved so fast…
Ariel nodded. “Right off the street. They slammed into my car and pulled me from it.”
“Jesus,” I whispered as I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes.
“You know,” Amanda said as she nudged the bowl of jambalaya closer to me, “Ghost didn’t put those cameras in your place for anything creepy.”
Ariel dropped back into her seat with her own bowl and drink. “Yeah. He’s intense, but he’s not that guy.”
I arched a brow. “He put cameras in my apartment.”
Amanda winced. “In the common areas,” she corrected quickly. “Entryway. Living room. Kitchen. Hallway. He was following Cap’s directive. They needed someone close to the firm. Someone who might see things the higher-ups don’t.”
Ariel nodded. “You were already on their radar because of your position.”
“My position?” I repeated.
Amanda sighed and rested her elbows on the table. “Some of the guys think you’re a target because you’re close enough to the top floor to see something you shouldn’t. The others think it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?” I asked cautiously.
“That they’re keeping you just far enough out of the loop so that if something blows up, they can hang it around your neck,” Ariel said bluntly. “Paper trail. Access. Signature authority. You’d make a convenient fall girl.”
I choked on the Dr. Pepper I’d just taken a sip of. “I’m sorry—what?”
“You’re going too fast,” Ariel muttered, elbowing Amanda.
“What? She deserves to know what the theories are,” Amanda shot back.
“Theories?” I repeated weakly.
Amanda’s expression softened a little. “Nothing’s confirmed. They’re still gathering information. But those are the possibilities they’re working with.”
The word fall girl echoed uncomfortably in my head.
“It’s also why you’re safe here,” Ariel added. “These guys might look like they eat nails for breakfast, but they’re all vets. They protect their own. And right now, you’re under that umbrella whether you like it or not.”
Whether I like it or not.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“If you help them sort through what you’ve seen at work,” Amanda continued, “they’ll make sure you’re not the one left holding the bag.”
If I help.
I still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant in practice.
“Do you have any questions?” Amanda asked gently.
I took a bite of the jambalaya mostly to buy myself a second, and my eyes widened almost immediately.
Ariel grinned. “He’s a good cook, right?”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. That’s… annoyingly good.”
She beamed with pride like she’d personally raised him in a culinary boot camp.
Maybe I’d been too quick to lump them all together.
Maybe Ghost really had been trying to help.
“He still put cameras in my apartment,” I muttered.
Amanda scrunched her nose. “Yeah, that part wasn’t his smoothest move.”
Ariel snorted. “He’s many things. Subtle isn’t one of them.”
Despite myself, a laugh slipped out.
Amanda followed. Then Ariel.
And suddenly the tension cracked wide open, the three of us laughing like this wasn’t some nightmare involving secret cameras and criminal conspiracies and masked men with unsettlingly green eyes.
For a few seconds, it almost felt normal.
Which was probably the strangest part of all.
I had to wipe the tears from my eyes before I spoke. “I have to check up on my father. I have to make sure he’s safe from all this.”
Ariel looked at Amanda. “You think they’re done yet?”
Amanda grinned. “Only one way to find you. You doing it, or should I?”
Ariel giggled. “I’ll do it.”
“Do what?” I asked.
“RIED!” Ariel exclaimed.
A thunderous set of boots slammed against the floor as the sound barreled toward us. Cap emerged into the kitchen, his eyes darting around before he quickly made his way to her.
He even got down onto one fucking knee just so he could be eye level with her.
“What is it, princess? You all right?”
Ariel winked at me before she placed a kiss on the grizzled man’s forehead. “Jasmine here wants to get in touch with her father. You know, make sure he’s safe from all this.”
“He can’t fend for himself much,” I explained, “and I’m over there sometimes during the months. What if they went to his place, too? He’s in the beginning stages of dementia. He doesn’t know how to defend himself like that. What if he’s—?”
“Hey.”
Ghost’s voice came from out of nowhere and I immediately whipped my gaze to him. I watched him come over to me before he got down onto one knee in the same fashion that Cap had with Ariel.
My eyes danced in between his before his hand settled on my knee.
“Electronic communication is a bit risky right now, considering all of the plates spinning in the air that still don’t have answers.
But me and Scout are going to personally go check on your father for you and make sure he’s okay. Do you have an address we can use?”
My lower lip wobbled. “Wait, really?”
Ghost nodded, his hand squeezing my knee softly. “I figured we could also stop by your place. Get you some clothes they didn’t ruin. Bring back whatever isn’t broken. Would that be something you’d like?”
I let out a wobbled whimper and nodded my head. “Mhm.”
“Good,” Ghost said as he reached up and smoothed a tear off my cheek. “Then why don’t you get me your father’s address so Scout and I can head out. You can stay here with your food and your drinks, and you and the girls can hang out.”
“But—but what if—”
He gripped my chin, and it fine tuned my senses to him. “If your father is in danger, we will make sure that he is safe and taken care of before we leave. We just need his address and a few hours of your time, all right?”
“All right,” I said breathlessly.
And when he held out a pad of paper with a pen, I jotted down my father’s address.
I watched the masked man stand and move out of the kitchen with confidence in his stride.
I still didn’t like that he had a camera in my apartment, though.