Jackson
J ackson was startled awake by his cell phone buzzing on the nightstand. After they made love, they crawled into bed and fell to sleep, tangled up together. Now, his offensive phone was going off and he was afraid that it was going to wake up Travis and Em. He grabbed his phone and slid free from underneath Travis’s big body and went into the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He started sifting through his text messages and found a few from his Captain telling him to call in as soon as he got the text. He knew something had to be up for his boss to blow up his phone at that time of night.
He decided that whatever it was couldn’t wait until morning. His Captain picked up on the third ring. “Damnit Saint, where the hell have you been? I was about to send a uniform out to check on you.” could feel the hair on his arms stand on end, all the red flags and warning signals were buzzing in his head.
“What’s up, Captain?” He decided to just cut to the chase. There was no way that he was about to tell his boss that he was in bed with both his boyfriend and his girlfriend. It wasn’t anyone’s business what he did with his free time.
“We still can’t get a location on Cross, but we caught up with his new partner, Williams. He hasn’t seen or heard from Cross since the day before your friend’s apartment was trashed. Williams said that Cross seemed to be obsessed with bringing you down. He went through Cross’s locker which is off the record information, and he found pictures of you and your friend, Sharp, going into a bar a few towns over. They’ve been turned over to evidence but it’s looking like your ex-partner is the lead suspect so far.” sighed and ran his fingers through his unruly hair.
“So now what? We just sit here and wait for Cross to make his next move. My friends, as you like to call them, have lives to get back to. Emily is a doctor with patience and babies that aren’t going to wait to be born. Travis has a ranch to help run. We’re all going a little stir-crazy here,” Jack growled.
“I get it, Saint. I do but you need to understand that if he doesn’t resurface and you and your friends decide to get on with your lives, I can’t guarantee your protection.” softly cursed knowing that he couldn’t take chances with either Jack or Em. He wouldn’t risk losing them; he just found them.
“I understand. I will be in first thing in the morning, and we can discuss this further,” Jack whispered. He was tired and ready to crawl back into bed with Travis and Em. They would need to come up with a plan to keep everyone safe and he was afraid that plan would involve him walking away from them both.
He ended the call and snuck back into the bedroom to find Travis and Em curled up together and he didn’t have the heart to wake them. Jack decided that he needed to gain some much-needed perspective and the only way to do that would be to spend some time alone. When he was with the two of them he found it hard to think clearly. They both clouded his judgment, in a good way. He wanted to keep them both safe and he couldn’t do that while he was with them. His ex-partner wanted to hurt him, and he was doing a bang-up job of it. He needed to find Logan Cross and put an end to this game. wanted a future with Travis and Em and the only way he would have that was to face his past.
Jack found his clothes on the floor and quietly dressed. The plan that was forming in his head was a crazy one for sure. But it just might be crazy enough to work—it had to. If not, he was going to have to walk away from the two people that he was falling in love with to give them both back their lives and keep them safe, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.