20. Jasper
Chapter twenty
J ust as I’m finishing my tenth mile on the treadmill, the power suddenly cuts out.
“What the hell?” Max asks, from his spot at the punching bag.
“Is it a security breach?” Gideon asks as we all pull out our phones and turn on the flashlights. It’s still daytime, but our home gym is in the basement, with no windows. With no power, it’s pitch black down here.
I use my light to guide me to the door, and the others follow behind me. As I jog up the stairs, the whole house is dark. And when I look out the living room window, I can see why. There is a torrential downpour going on out there. Thunder cracks above us, making the whole house shake.
“I’m going to check on Mina,” I tell the others, wanting to make sure she’s okay in the dark. The sound of the storm probably woke her from where she’s been sleeping in her window nook for the past few hours.
I didn’t blame her for running and needing time away from us. It never even occurred to me that we had done something wrong by getting to know her at the same time we were trying to figure out if she had info for the case. But ever since I saw her heartbroken face, asking if any of it was real, I’ve realized how stupid we were .
Of course, that would hurt her feelings. How would I feel if she got close to me to get info on another person? I’d be crushed.
I just wasn’t sure how to fix it. When she asked Max and me if it was part of our job to get to know her, it was on the tip of my tongue to lie, but I couldn’t. I love my little Angel, I couldn’t lie to her, not anymore.
When I get to her room, her door is already open. The storm casts the rooms in shadows, but I can still see. Quickly, notice she’s not at the window anymore. The blanket Atlas placed over her is lying on the floor like she got up quickly. I double check the chairs and bed before looking in the bathroom and closet, but there’s no sign of her.
Jogging out into the hall, I stop at the landing at the top of the stairs. “Hey, guys?” I yell loudly down to where I overlook the second floor.
“What is it, is she okay?” Max asks as they all move closer, standing underneath me.
“She’s not in her room, I can’t find her.” Everyone is silent for three seconds before they all start moving for the stairs.
“Wait!” Atlas yells. “Let’s check the cameras, it’ll be faster.” We all follow him as he jogs down the hall to his office. Luckily, the security systems have a backup generator, so the cameras and his setup still work. He has four large tvs on the wall, each showing a different feed. On one tv he brings up an image of her bedroom, on another, the hallway outside it, and on the third, a shot of the inside of the front door.
We watch as he moves the footage back to start playing when we all went downstairs to the gym to let off some steam. I can see Mina curled up against the window with the blanket on her, sleeping. He fast forwards the footage until she starts moving.
I watch as she takes some Tylenol and water and quickly pulls her stuffed cow under the blanket with her, making me give Tucker a small smile. That must make him feel good to know she still wants to hold her gift from him. She stays seated but doesn’t seem to do much, so Atlas slightly speeds up the video.
We watch as she jumps up, as if startled, and runs from the room.
“What scared her?” Max asks.
“It could have been the lightning, but I didn’t know she was afraid of storms,” Ben says as we see her appear on the hallway footage. But she stops moving in the middle of the hall.
“Did you pause it?” I ask Atlas.
He shakes his head. “No, she’s just… standing there.”
She looks around her and even through the grainy footage, I can see she’s scared. She looks over her shoulder then glances back at her room, before turning and running back in.
When she appears on the other screen again, we watch as she crawls under the bed. “I didn’t check there!” I hiss as I turn to run.
“She might have moved after that,” Gideon yells as I run down the hall.
“You guys keep watching, I’m gonna to go look!” I yell right before I reach the stairs, taking two at a time. I hear several heavy sets of feet following me, so I know I’m not alone in my hope of finding her.
As soon as I reach her room, I throw myself on the floor and relief fills me when I see her. “She’s here!”
“I’ll text Dom,” Tucker says, as I start crawling towards her.
“Hey, Angel, it’s just me, I’m gonna get you out of here, okay?” She doesn’t respond and I start to worry. When I place my hand on her leg, I can feel her whole body shaking. Deciding that pulling her out by her legs would be a bad idea, I move myself around her, spooning her from behind as I wrap my upper arm around her waist .
“It’s alright, sweetie, I’m just going to get you somewhere more comfortable, okay?” She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t even jump from my touch. It’s too dark to see her face, making me more anxious to get her out from under this bed as quickly as I can.
I do a weird sort of side shuffle, moving our bodies together until my feet are near the edge.
“Max?”
“Yeah?” he asks, dropping down to peer at us.
“I’ve got her, can you pull me out by my feet? Otherwise, it’s going to take me forever.”
“You got it, hold on to her,” he says as I feel a set of hands grip each of my ankles. I’m slowly dragged out from under the bed with Mina in my arms. I see Max and Tucker first, as they drop my feet, just before the rest of the guys barge into the room, staring at us with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong with her?” Atlas asks.
I shuffle her in my arms so I can scoop her up, and that’s when I see her face. Her eyes are open but they look blank, which terrifies me. Her whole body is shaking as she clutches her stuffed cow to her chest.
Another crack of thunder booms through the house and she whimpers, turning into me for protection and breaking my heart all over again.
“I think the storm is giving her a panic attack, let’s get her down to the basement, we couldn’t hear it from the gym,” I tell them as I stand, holding her tight to me. Max and Tucker lead the way with their lights and I start to hum a melody as we walk.
I think I hear some of the others mention something about getting something, but I am too distracted by the state of my girl. We all saw that footage. She was terrified. I think she was trying to run to one of us, but then it was like she thought she couldn’t or remembering what happened, so she froze.
I hate that she thinks she can’t come to us for help. We’ll always be here for her, no matter what she thinks. I’m just glad when she ran from us, and ran from the storm, that she didn’t try to leave the house. She has many enemies out there, including one we may not even know. She isn’t safe without us. And she’s ours to protect.
When we get to the workout room, I move to the mats we use for stretching and sit down, holding her to me. My humming turns into singing as I rock her back and forth, stroking the back of my finger down her cheek softly.
A bright light has me looking up as Dom, Gideon and Ben place some battery powered lanterns around the space to give us some light.
Atlas sits in front of me and lays his black fuzzy blanket over her, trying to tuck her in as I hold her and continue singing.
The sounds of the storm don’t penetrate the walls here, so my voice is the only sound that can be heard. That is until I hear the sweetest voice whisper my name. “Jasper?”