Chapter 15 #2
“The immediate threat is contained. Upton’s access has been suspended.
Cinder is in custody. Corrigan is missing but most likely dead.
Even if he’s still alive, his role in all of this has been exposed.
His name and face are all over the news.
He can’t move without someone reporting him to law enforcement.
Porter’s team will have me in federal protection while I’m in transit and until after the investigation is finished. ”
“Federal protection failed you once.”
“Shadow Point didn’t.”
“Then let me come with you.”
Her eyes closed briefly.
“Katherine.”
She opened them. “You can’t.”
He pushed off the desk. “I can find work in Virginia. I can even coordinate with Vivi remotely. Sebastian can handle security operations under my direction.”
“Jasper.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.” She looked toward the window, toward the fence line, the compound, the world he’d helped build with people who were more family than team. “I can’t let you do it.”
His chest tightened. “Let me?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t think I do.”
She gave him a look. “We barely know each other. Blackridge is your home. Shadow Point is your home. Vivi, Garrett, Mack, CB, Sebastian, Reid—all of them depend on you. This place depends on you.”
“You think I care about a building more than I care about you?”
“I think you care about the people inside it and your life here with them. If you follow me to Virginia because you’re afraid, part of you will regret it later, and I don’t want to be the person who pulls you away from the life you chose.”
“You wouldn’t be.”
“Not on purpose, but it would happen. I can’t be your submarine on land. What you have here is true and important. Bending yourself to fit into my life would only lead to resentment.”
He wanted to argue. She was wrong. He could pack a bag in ten minutes. Every server in the building could be accessed remotely. The team could operate without him standing in this exact office.
He wanted to tell her that if she got on that plane without him, he’d spend every hour imagining threats in every hallway she walked through.
But she was looking at him with the same fierce tenderness she’d shown when she wrapped his wound, and he knew she wasn’t pushing him away because she didn’t want him. She was trying not to take what she thought belonged to him.
That made him want to tear something apart. “You’re not safe there,” he said.
“I’m not safe anywhere if the wrong people want me dead.”
He plowed his fingers through his hair. “Katherine.”
Her mouth curved faintly. “You’re being overly paranoid.”
“I’m being appropriately paranoid.”
“You always think that.”
“Because I’m usually right.”
She sighed. “Jasper, please. At least give it a week or two. Think it through.”
He looked away because the softness in her voice was going to undo him. His gaze landed on the sticky note beneath his monitor. Her handwriting. One line from the cipher key, copied in her neat, cramped script.
FLAME MARK: original proves channel.
Of course it did. The original always mattered. So did the person who carried the truth.
He turned back to her. “When will you come back?”
“I don’t know.” The honesty hurt worse than a lie would have. “I’ll have hearings. Debriefings. An internal review of my own decisions.” Her lips pressed together. “I moved federal materials here without authorization and then failed to comply with a retrieval order.”
“A retrieval order delivered by the man who shot at you.”
“Yes. That helps my case. Porter thinks I’ll be fine.”
“Porter also believes ‘administrative leave’ is an acceptable substitute for ‘we caught the bastard.’”
“She’s working with what she can say.” Katherine stepped close enough to put her good hand on his chest. “But I have to go back and finish this from inside the system. If I don’t, Upton’s people will write the ending for me.”
He covered her hand with his. “I could help.”
“You already did.” Her eyes filled, though she blinked the tears back before they could fall. “You kept me alive. You protected the papers. You believed me when everything I said sounded impossible. And you only yelled a little when I disobeyed you a third time.”
“You were protecting your family. I would have done the same. But it’s not enough.”
“It has to be for now.”
For now.
The words were small. Not a promise. Not a goodbye. Not enough to build anything on, but enough to keep him from shattering completely in front of her.
He lowered his head. She leaned into him. The world narrowed to her breathing against him, the faint scent of her shampoo, the way her fingers curled ever so slightly into his shirt as if she was trying not to hold on too hard.
“I don’t want you to go,” he said.
“I know.”
“Stay, then. Stay with me. Priss will be happier here. How will this place run without her?”
Katherine lifted her face and kissed him. The kiss was soft. He cupped the back of her head with one hand and her waist with the other, careful of her wrist, careful of every bruise and still somehow not careful enough with his own heart.
When she drew back, her eyes were damp. “I’ll call when I land,” she said.
“That’s not enough either.”
“No.” She tried to smile. “But it’s what I can give you today.”
A knock sounded lightly at the door.
Agent Porter was there, averting her eyes. “Ms. Townsend. It’s time.”
Jasper wanted to tell Porter to take her time, take a lap, take the rest of the damn afternoon. Instead, he stepped back because Katherine needed him to let her walk out under her own power.