Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
MARSHALL
Holy shit. The best summer ever just took a turn I don’t like.
By the time Jasper arrives at the office, I am pacing the floor, ready to put eyes on him and see that he’s okay. A few stolen subpoenas are an annoyance at best, I can find other ways to serve them.
My worry is for Jasper. He doesn’t have experience with the kind of bullshit that can happen in these kinds of cases. Suing the government, especially a small town, is not for the faint of heart.
People don’t mind being bigots, you see. What they mind is when someone dares to call them on their bigotry.
Jasper looks fine but when he walks in and his eyes meet mine, I can tell the events of the day gave him more of a shock than he wants to admit.
I go to him, a hand to the back of his neck is all I need to ground myself that he’s okay. Penny’s eyes are on me, and while Jasper and I have kept our sexual relationship out of the office, I wonder if anyone has puzzled it out. Her look is curious, though, so maybe not.
I realize that I don’t care.
“You okay, Jasper?” I ask, trying to read his face past his nod and quiet “I’m fine.”
“Seriously,” he says, stepping slightly away from me, which I hate. “No one did anything more than stare at me and take the papers. I’m fine. Well and then…”
“And then?” I prompt with a growl.
“I was followed by a local police cruiser until I got on the interstate.”
I am cut off from saying anything more or processing how the very idea that someone could have hurt him is crawling all over me. He’s mine to protect.
Mine.
“Mr. Caffrey?” Nina, my go-to for situations like this, enters. Jasper was in the firm’s car and I don’t trust that some missing paperwork is all they did.
“Can you give Nina the keys, Jasper? She will need to check the car to make sure no one put a listening device or tracker in it since we know it was messed with.”
Jasper steps closer to me, pulling out the keys with an unsteady hand.
“People do that?”
I give him a smile, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Usually more of a divorce law thing, but it’s happened in a few of my cases when the stakes were high. It’s really just a precaution.”
He hands the keys over and I nod to Nina. “Nina is the best, she is brilliant with this sort of thing.”
“I’ll take good care of it, promise,” she says to me, and Penny follows her out.
As soon as they are out of my office, I pull Jasper tight to me, his hands clutching my shirt as I cup his face to raise it for a kiss. I make it slow and tender, but Jasper shivers, responding with hungry sweeps of his tongue.
I maneuver him to my desk, finally satisfied when I stand between his thighs and his legs wrap around my waist. I grunt an affirmation. He’s exactly where he should be.
Pulling back, I knock my forehead gently against his, watching the rapid rise and fall of his chest.
“What do you need right now, beautiful?”
His eyes flutter, and I realize it’s one of the rare times he’s being completely vulnerable with me.
“You.”
I chuckle, ghosting my lips across his. “You got that. What else do you need?”
“I was scared, Marsh,” he admits, shaking his head. “I know I could have filed a police report, but what good would that do? You know it had to be someone in the system who took the subpoenas. And subpoenas—it’s not like they are essential or anything. It’s just more paperwork. More like a scare tactic,” he continues rambling, breath racing across my lips, “and why try to scare me? Or us? Do they just want us to know they are watching?” He takes a deep breath. “I could have gone to the local copy store, reprinted them and had them reissued, but I didn’t think of that until I was halfway back here. But I have the file on my tablet. It would have been easy.”
I step back just enough to be able to search his eyes. “You did the right thing, Jasper. It was a scare tactic, for sure. Just someone wanting to know they don’t appreciate us coming into their town and saying they did anything wrong. They want to throw us off our game before we even get there. You also have to factor in that we are suing the city itself, too. People don’t take that lightly.”
He nods, but his eyes still hold this sort of wariness I haven’t seen from him in weeks.
I kiss his nose and he makes a light laugh that has me feeling better.
“Do you feel like being around people right now?” I ask.
“Bear Valley people?” he asks in response, and I nod. “Then yes. You, then double yes.”
I peck his lips this time, just lingering long enough to let him know there will be more of that later, if he’s up to it.
“What about Black Diamond? I want to speak with Quinn’s husband, if he’s around, and he usually is on a Friday afternoon.”
I step back and straighten my clothes, and Jasper follows, straightening his own and reaching to fix my tie.
We’ve done this move a few times now. Those occasions where a quick kiss led to more in the library or the copy room.
“Isn’t Quinn’s husband an English professor? Is this about a case?”
“It’s about this case. He was an FBI agent before he became an English professor and I want to talk to him. I planned for us to stay in Trenton during the trial, and if we go through with those plans, I need to know everyone is safe.”
I need to know that Jasper is safe, but I don’t say that.