Chapter 21 Jagger
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
JAGGER
Itake another sip of my coffee, watching Wren do cartwheels around the yard.
The weather is growing cooler, and if we stay in this part of the country, she won’t be able to do this much longer.
I have a feeling she’ll be just as happy to jump into a pile of leaves as she is rolling around in the grass.
Leaning against a pillar that supports the roof of the back porch, I try to take in as much of her happy energy as I can.
Any minute now, we’re going to be leaving to stake out where Robert is staying, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be as simple as sitting in the car and watching.
We’re going to have to get closer, and Wren is going to have to stay back.
She won’t like that, but she won’t have a choice, not in this.
She stops twirling when she notices me and waves. I give her a small wave back, then she blows me a kiss. Like a love-struck fool, I actually reach out and catch it, before pretending to shove it in my pocket, to keep for later.
I never would have imagined myself acting this way with a woman, but Wren has a way of breaking down my walls.
The door behind me opens and closes, then Elias is standing beside me with his own cup of coffee in hand, his eyes glued to Wren, who’s now lying in the grass, staring up at the sky.
“She’s something else, isn’t she?”
I give a small nod in answer.
“I don’t know any other woman who would see four convicts and think them… sweet. Anyone else would be terrified.”
He’s right. I’m not sure how she’s so undisturbed by everything we’ve done in the past. Any normal person would run screaming. They’d be smart to. But Wren… she sees beneath our darkness, our burdens, and our pasts. She seems to see right into our souls. It makes me want to be a better man for her.
“Wren is the most understanding person I’ve ever met.” He seems to expect a reply, because when I just continue to watch her, he turns to face me. “She wouldn’t hold anything against you.” I narrow my eyes at him.
What does he know?
“If there’s something you haven’t told her yet, something about your past, you should consider telling her before she finds out another way.”
Setting my coffee down, I sign, “What are you trying to say?” Anger makes my movements sharper and harder just to make my point.
He sighs, almost looking disappointed. “I know about your father, Jagger.” My blood turns to ice as my mind flashes to that day, twenty-six years ago, when my parents were murdered in front of me.
My hands clench as I watch Elias and try to read his expression. Is he threatening me? Is he going to use this information against me? I narrow my eyes, and he throws up his free hand, palm toward me as he takes a step back and shakes his head.
“I won’t say anything. I just want you to know that I understand.”
“How could you possibly understand?” I sign angrily.
“What I mean is that I get it, why you haven’t told her.” He lowers his hand as he turns to watch Wren, who’s back to doing cartwheels in the grass. “You’re worried about how she’ll take it, that she’ll see you in a different light, one you don’t want shone on you.”
Frowning at him, I bend down to pick my coffee back up. Was there something he was hiding from her, too?
Based on everything I know about Wren, I’m ninety-five percent sure she won’t be upset when I tell her the truth about my father. But it’s that last five percent that has me holding back. There is that small chance that it changes the way she sees me, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to fix that.
The door opens behind us, and a moment later, Pete steps up between us. His smile turns wide when he sees Wren playing in the grass.
“I was coming to let you know we’re ready to go, but I hate to pull her away when she’s having so much fun.”
Elias takes a sip of his coffee before he responds. “Today is going to be hard. Let’s give her five more minutes.”
“Deal,” Pete says before immediately sprinting toward Wren and scooping her up in his arms. A surprised giggle explodes from her as he twirls her around. My lips twitch in amusement. Seeing her happy is all I can hope for. I just pray that at the end of today, she’s still smiling.
“What is this place?” Dex asks from my side as we crouch in the bushes.
I sigh, wishing it were Sly who’d been partnered up with me; at least he knows how to keep quiet.
But we both knew we had to separate Dex and Pete; those two were both wild cards we couldn’t risk putting together.
They need Sly and me to keep them from doing something impulsive and stupid.
I don’t reply because I don’t know either.
We had thought it was just a large house, similar to what Wren grew up in. But as we circle the fenced lot, we found the property went much further back than we realized. There are many small buildings scattered around that look like they could be storage buildings.
Is that where he’s keeping all the guns? We knew he didn’t have them at his registered home in Arizona; otherwise the feds would have been able to track them to him.
Speaking of the FBI, where were they? We hadn’t seen them since our first run-in with them.
We only knew Robert was here because Elias had hacked into their communications.
Shouldn’t they be here, staking the place out?
That was a question for Elias. I didn’t like leaving him on his own with Wren in the SUV, but this way, nobody is left alone, which was the safest plan we could agree on.
I don’t trust his motives. It’s clear he wants her for himself. I just pray my gut instincts are right and he won’t betray us to get us out of the picture.
Dex nudges my knee with the back of his hand and points off to his right. It takes me a minute to figure out what he’s pointing at. Three men are walking through the property toward one of the outbuildings. It looks like they just came from the back of the house.
We watch in silence as they approach the building and open the door.
No lock. If I could get inside the fence, I could take a look. But Elias had already warned us not to do that since they had surveillance everywhere inside the perimeter.
About five minutes go by before they come back out. They stop just outside talking. One of them turns toward us, and I recognize him immediately from his pictures. Robert.
I clench my fists and see Dex tense, so I grab the sleeve of his shirt before he can do something stupid, like try to storm in there and take him out.
“Anyone in our group a marksman?” Dex asks, and I can’t help but wish the same thing. Elias and my professional training probably make us the best candidates, but I know I can’t make the shot from here. He has to be almost four hundred feet away.
Robert pulls something from his pocket and holds it up to his ear. Must be his phone. His head jerks up as he looks around the property before saying something and hanging up.
We watch, unable to do anything, as Robert and the other two men walk quickly back inside the main house.
I pull out my phone and text the others with the info about seeing Robert. We’ve only been out here an hour, so I’m not surprised when Elias texts back to hold our positions for now and keep collecting data.
While the four of us are out here, he’s in the SUV parked nearby, trying to hack into their surveillance cameras.
If he can see inside, it will hopefully give us more intel on what Robert’s doing here, and if we’re lucky, he’ll also get access to audio.
If we know when he’s going to leave, we’ll have a chance to take him out.
“We have weapons, we should just go in there, guns blazing,” Dex says after a minute.
“Good way to get killed,” I sign back.
Over the next two hours, we watch quietly as a few men walk around the compound, but mostly, everything is quiet. Nobody sends any texts, and I find myself becoming more and more anxious the longer I’m away from Wren.
When Elias finally texts us to come back, it takes everything in me not to run back to the SUV; only self-preservation keeps me quietly moving through the trees. When I finally spot the vehicle, I sprint the last ten feet and yank open the back door.
Elias is sitting closest to the door, but a startled Wren peeks out from behind him, her eyes wide in surprise.
When she sees it’s me, a full smile covers her face.
“Jagger!” I reach around Elias for her at the same time she leaps toward me.
I eagerly pull her into my arms, holding her tight as she wraps herself around me.
“Don’t mind me,” Elias mumbles in frustration as he closes his laptop and moves to the back row. I ignore him, lifting Wren into my arms and pressing my face to the crook of her neck, inhaling her sweet scent as I settle into the middle row of seats with her straddling my lap.
I squeeze her tight to me, and when I finally release my grip, she pulls back and smiles at me, signing, “I missed you, too.”
That, right there, is one of the reasons I love her. She knows what I’m thinking without me ever having to say a word.
I cup her cheek before pulling her lips to mine in a quick kiss. I was only apart from her for a few hours, but it feels like way too long. She turns sideways as the others greet her, and eventually she settles in my lap as I pull the seatbelt around us both.
Her head rests on my chest, and I kiss the top of it, closing my eyes as I hold her tightly in my arms. It’s only in moments like this, when I get to hold her close, that my mind finally settles.
The rumble of the engine, the slight swaying of the vehicle, and the warm angel in my lap soon have me drifting off to sleep.