28. Jasper
TWENTY-EIGHT
JASPER
"This one's extra crispy. The flames have almost destroyed everything, and the water won't help preserve anything either," Dr. Stephens groans, as his techs secure the charred remains in the morgue's body bag, and the fire department packs up their hoses.
I nod in agreement, my mind haunted by an image of Scarlett's small, delicate form all snuggled under the covers in her bed.
A surge of protectiveness and guilt gnaws at me as I recall quietly leaving her side, when she was still feeling vulnerable and unwell.
The truth is, if it weren't for Director Shaw blowing up my phone to chew my ass out, and threaten my job security, I would have just ignored the world outside of her room, and continued holding her as she peacefully slept.
Unfortunately, justice waits for no man, and I still have a job to do.
I was busy researching a certain asshole, whose jaw I’m going to break, when the call came in that Ashmaker had dropped another body.
I knew I should have gone back to get Scarlett, it was the right thing to do.
This case is as much hers as it is mine, but she was so exhausted, and everything in me wanted to protect her from Shaw and his ruthless threats.
I know when she discovers I left her out of the scene, she's going to be furious, and I'll be lucky if she doesn't punch me in my junk.
"Yeah, um, too bad. Did we manage to recover anything of use?
" I rub at my tired eyes as I meet Stephens' equally fatigued gaze.
This case is going to take us all down if we don't catch this lunatic soon.
How the fuck is he getting away with dropping so many bodies, and who the hell is his accomplice?
"Hey! You can't do this! I'm a journalist. I have a right to be here!" A loud shout breaks through the crowd, instantly commanding mine and Stephens' attention.
"Damn reporters, they're like bloodthirsty ticks," Stephens grimaces as he turns away to direct the removal of the body back to his lab.
A mixture of rage and satisfaction fills me, as I watch the two uniformed officers escorting a furious Xavier Poine away from the yellow police tape.
He meets my stoic glance, and gives me the finger like an immature prick, as one of the officers grabs his arm and forcefully pulls him away, none too gently.
That smug cocky fucker thought he could just show up at one of our crime scenes, and there'd be no reprisal for what he did to Scarlett.
Think again. I have a lot of friends in the bureau, and on the local force, so he's going to find that all crime scenes are now closed to him indefinitely.
He'll be lucky if any legitimate paper worth its salt allows him even to write a horoscope.
Yet, I know that's not enough. He needs to pay for so thoroughly soiling what's mine.
If I had it my way, he'd be paying with his life, but I refuse to be like the criminals that I hunt, and take murder into my hands.
Although I now have a new appreciation for their obsessions, thanks to my spiralling one with my little vixen.
Did I ever imagine that I would fall so quickly and completely for her, even after working all these months at her side to catch this sicko?
Absolutely not. Will I do anything now to protect her, even if it's from herself?
Nothing else matters. She's become not only an addiction, but so deeply rooted inside of me that I can't take a breath, or have a thought, without her being somehow entwined in it.
Somewhere deep in my consciousness, and despite my tough exterior, a part of me fears how deeply and quickly I'm falling, and that it's too soon to have these types of feelings for her, but I can't deny that they exist, and they're tying me up in visceral knots.
I follow Xavier at a distance once the officers release him, careful to ensure that none of my colleagues are watching, and that the other gawkers on the scene are busy trying to get a photo of the body being loaded up into Stephens' van.
I look around for the possibility of cameras on the buildings that surround us, but for once Ashmaker has done me a solid, and selected an area lacking in anything but rundown buildings.
The memory of the marks all over Scarlett's body, but specifically the one on her pussy, cause my blood to heat and boil over.
He made sure she'd have to see it every time she pulled her panties down.
A fucking disgusting brand of his teeth, as if he had any right to claim what belongs to me.
Xavier's heading towards a dark, gunmetal gray crossover SUV, rage radiating off his form, as I silently slip in behind him and slam my clenched fist into the back of his head, forcing him to stumble, and crash into the nearest concrete wall.
"What the..." He doesn't get another word out as I wrap my forearm around his neck, and squeeze, as he tries to fight my grip.
His fingers dig into my flesh to break my hold, before he attempts to headbutt me.
I use the fact that my frame is taller and wider, and that I carry more muscle mass than he does, to my advantage, forcing his body flat against the side of the building with a loud thump.
He stomps on my foot and tries to sweep my legs, and I'm forced to release my hold, but I shove my other forearm into the back of his neck, causing the side of his pale face to smack against the building in front of him.
My hands are itching to reach for my weapon, put a bullet in his temple, and rid Scarlett of his presence forever, but I know a part of that is my jealousy speaking.
"You thought it wise to play games with her? "
"Fuck you, Garnier. That's... none of your... business," he wheezes, as he continues to fight my hold.
I kick at the back of his knee, forcing him to slump and slam his head. "You're mistaken. Everything to do with Scarlett Lyssa is my business. You lying to her, and abusing her, is for sure my fucking business!" I growl in his ear, cognizant that we're only about forty feet away from an audience.
Instead of fighting me back, his body goes slack, and then a rancorous laugh escapes him, making his body shake, and spurring my fury to new heights.
"Is that what she told you? Naughty little Spitfire.
I assure you, Garnier, I didn't do anything to her that she didn't scream out in ecstasy from.
The slut enjoys pain, and to be used like a beautiful whore. "
His nickname for her instantly repulses me, as does the confidence in his words.
"You hurt her. I've seen all the marks." I grab a fistful of his hair and force his face sideways, so I can read his expression.
The laughter ceases, and the smug look is wiped off his face, as his blue-gray eyes narrow to meet mine.
There's a trickle of blood sliding down his cheek from where he must have cut it, when I first slammed him into the wall.
I watch as it trickles to the corner of his mouth and he licks it away, his eyes closing in satisfaction.
"Did she say I hurt her?" He questions. His body goes still, as if he's holding his breath and awaiting my answer.
I think back to everything Scarlett said to me about what happened between them.
She never said he hurt her, per se, in fact, she was clear there was consent and that she was stupid for sleeping with him.
He must see the truth on my features 'cause he releases a pent-up breath.
"That's what I thought." He pushes against my hold, but I don't relent.
"I get it, you're infatuated with your partner, Agent Garnier, but what happened between us was between two consenting adults, with specific tastes in kinks. "
"You lied to her, misled her into believing that you were going to give her something to help us catch Ashmaker," I growl.
His hand moves beneath him, and I can't get a good glance at what he's doing.
Just as I go to slam him into the wall again, his arm tilts backward, and something presses firmly into my lower abdomen.
Without removing my gaze from his, I know it's a knife.
This fucker dares to pull a weapon on me, a federal fucking agent? He really does have a death wish.
"Perhaps, or perhaps she gave herself to me for a night under the guise of the possibility of information that she knew she couldn't verify I had.
I didn't force her to have dinner with me, or to return to my home.
She stripped off her clothes for me most seductively, and took every depraved thing I did to her and wanted more.
I had to kick her out of my bed, otherwise, she might still be there, Jasper. "
He presses the blade harder, and I feel the point tear through my dress shirt into my skin.
"Release me. This is tedious and highly inappropriate.
We both know that, besides giving me a beating, which I do not recommend if you'd like to keep your career.
The reality, Agent Garnier is there is nothing you can do to me over sleeping with Scarlett.
You're just butt-hurt I got there first."
This smug cunt thinks he's got it all figured out.
Thinks he has me figured out, but he doesn't. I'll give him more than a beating, consequences be damned, if it keeps him away from Scarlett.
I lean forward, forcing him to either impale the blade deeper into my skin, or retract it.
"See, that's where you're wrong. She's mine. She was mine before you had her."
A vicious smile crosses my lips, and I allow him to see his death in my eyes if he keeps baiting me.
"In fact, I already had her earlier that day, and after you fucked her, she returned to my arms. We were together in bed just a few short hours ago.
You meant nothing to her. You were just a strategy to catch Ashmaker, nothing more. "
All the color drains from his already pale face, and his eyes become hooded, and darken with wrath at my words.
He retracts the blade, but in the next instant, with a force and speed I didn't anticipate, he pushes me back, and slams his fist into my face so hard I have to grab onto the wall to stop myself from falling.
"You lie," he grits through clenched teeth as he advances on me, and goes to strike me again, but this time I'm prepared and dodge him, landing one of my own to his stomach, causing him to double over as he gasps for breath.
"Now who's butt-hurt, asshole?" I slam my elbow into his back and raise my knee into his stomach.
"She wouldn't..." He gasps with pain as he crumples to his knees.
"She's my Spitfire. Mine!" He forces himself back to his feet and charges at me, both of us crashing into the nearest wall as we exchange blow after bloody blow.
I can hear shouts heading our way, and then arms grab at us both, separating us forcefully.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER, NOT THE REAL HER!" Xavier shouts, his light eyes wild. Blood trails from his lip, and his eye is already beginning to swell shut as he keeps trying to reach me, despite being held back by two large officers.
"Keep your mouth shut, asshole, or I'll put you in a patrol car and take you down to the station," one of the officers threatens, as he restrains Xavier's hands behind his back.
My glance lands on the blade Xavier dropped, and when I look up, I realize he's staring directly at me, daring me to call him out for threatening me with a weapon.
He won't get off that easy. I mean to take my time with him, and I won't allow him to hide behind bars from me.
What he just said about me not knowing the real Scarlett is buzzing in my head with unease.
I step forward and stand on the blade, covering it with my large, booted foot as he watches me, his gaze searing into mine, and his head nodding in understanding that this is not over.
"Do you know her secrets, because I do. I know the deepest, darkest parts of her, the ones she hides in the chasm of her locked heart, so deep they never see the light, and I won't ever run from them or her.
" He raises a dark eyebrow, taunting me to hit him again.
"Ask her about her childhood, Jasper. All the foster homes she was in, see what she tells you. "
My stomach plunges, and my chest tightens with the possibility that he knows more about Scarlett than I do.
The intimacy he's implying couldn't have been earned in just one night.
It feels as if my world is crashing around me, up is down and down is up, and I no longer know which way to turn.
How could this guy know intimate details about Scarlett's childhood, when I searched her records, and there wasn't much to find?
"I make her strong, and keep her safe, while you just make her hide who she is. She's not safe with you, Jasper! She never will be. You're not like us."
"That's fucking enough, let's go, asshole. A trip down to the station it is," the officer grunts as he starts to drag Xavier away, his partner already pulling out his cuffs.
"See if she's willing to tell you the truth, and if you can still look at her the same way. I won't ever leave her, Jasper Garnier, and I won't allow you to stand in my way, either."
I stand there, my body feeling like a block of ice, and numb, despite the pain from the hits Xavier managed to land.
He seems too sure of what he's saying, and I'm positive now that there's some truth in it.
I just don't know how much. One thing is for certain: Scarlett Lyssa has been hiding more than I thought from me, and Xavier Poine seems to know her secrets.
Maybe he didn't just bait her for information on Ashmaker.
Maybe he knows something she doesn't want to reach the light of day.
That makes him very dangerous to my little vixen. A danger that I have to eradicate.
Anger rises inside of me like a roaring five-alarm blaze, ready to consume everything in its path, at the thought that she didn't trust me enough to tell me the whole truth.
Did she think I would judge her, or wouldn't have her back?
How could she think I wouldn't protect her?
I've told her over and over again that she's mine.
It's time I got some answers directly from the source. God help her if she lies to me. I don't know what I'll do to her.