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“You ran a credit check on him?” she said. “And a criminal background check? I mean beyond the one we do for basic applicants?”
“Absolutely,” I told her with no remorse. “I’d like to do a hell of a lot more than dig up information on him. He doesn’t have an active debit or credit card in his legal name so it’s not possible to track him with his spending. I’ve pulled up his car on some traffic cams, but it’s tedious and inefficient.”
“What neighborhood was he in?”
“He was all over the place. Not in our neighborhood, considering it’s a gated community and the guys all have his photo and license number and everything to be on the lookout for him.”
“Thanks. It’s good to know he’s not tracked me down that completely yet, but he wants me to know he can get to me at any time. He knows where I work and all.”
“Jas, he can’t get to you at all. We’re going to see to that. Did you talk to the cops?”
“Yes,” she swallowed hard. “I told them a lot of details about why and how I left him, how he was obviously watching the firm’s site and applied as soon as a job posting went up. He has no background in this field and did it to target me. The guy I spoke with was pretty nice about it, but with no outstanding warrants on him and no paper trail leading him back to me and any kind of felony, there’s really nothing they can do. I couldn’t even get an order of protection unless I could physically prove he was stalking me.”
“Those are practically worthless anyway. I mean, if they were worth the paper they’re printed on, we would probably be out of a job in a lot of cases,” I said derisively.
“I was disappointed. I felt stupid, like I wasted their time. I am the one who got involved with him and thought I was in love and literally cut my mom and sister out of my life over him. Stupid games get stupid prizes, right? So here I go. I was on borrowed time from the minute I got away. I even told myself it would be worth it. Even if I got one night of sleep on the run, one night where I didn’t have to be scared out of my mind, where I could think straight and feel like me again. But that was a lie. I wanted more. I wanted a whole life away from him, years and years of freedom. I’ve brought trouble to your doorstep, right to the business you’ve worked so long to build.”
I watched her shrink inside herself, shoulders hunched, head down, as she made herself smaller with shame. It wrenched something in my gut.
“May I?” I said, reaching for her. She leaned into my chest, her arms slipping around my back. I rested my cheek on her hair and tried to take slow, even breaths to calm her. Soon she synced up her breathing with mine and snuggled against me.
“You have nothing to apologize for. Nothing that happened to you then or that is happening now is your fault. That’s still him talking in your head. You did nothing to deserve any of this.”
“Thank you for everything, Jake. You’ve put so much time and effort into this mess. I appreciate it.”
“You’re worth it, Jas. Worth way more than this. I’d give anything to make this go away.”
I captured her lips, kissed her slow and deep. “I’ll keep you safe no matter what. He’s not going to hurt you again, baby. I swear to God.”
Then her arms were around my neck. I drew her into my lap and played with the ends of her hair as she molded her sweet curves to the hard planes of my body. I fitted her against me and gave her the kind of tender, searching kisses that I knew would feel romantic and safe, not demanding or possessive.
Right now, she needed to feel cared for, and I was going to give that to her.
16
ELI
For once, my timing was perfect.
I walked into the firm after a three-day hitch. We had just flown a client and his wife to New Brunswick, received a call to go pick them up a few hours later, and escort them to Seattle to see their new granddaughter who was at risk of being born prematurely. The client was grateful that we could get them there, to their oldest daughter’s side when she went into preterm labor. The duo insisted on putting me up in a hotel suite for a night and offered me the use of a resort they were co-owners of a ski chalet in upstate New York.
It sounded like a luxurious experience, consisting of amenities such as sauna, spa, the whole works. Even though we never really went on vacations together because of leaving the firm without one of the Burns brothers on premises, it might be time to get the hell out of town and take Jasmine with us.
The only problem would be my twin brother. Jake was the most conscientious person not only in our family but possibly on the planet Earth as well. It would take a tranquilizer dart to get him to leave the business if we were all on a trip together. I wasn’t about to leave him behind or let him sacrifice a much-needed vacation so he could be there to watch over the firm’s daily operations.
Convincing him was going to be difficult the same way that the Iron Man triathlon or boot camp are difficult. I was up to the challenge, but I would have to use every trick in the book to persuade him that he was essential, that we needed him more than the business did. Guilt was the only lever that worked on Jake, and I’d had practice moving him with that lever before. It wasn’t pretty but it was effective.
The weekend would be ideal. The only major event we had scheduled was on Saturday, and the two new hires had been trailing Drew and Ty for over a week learning the ins and outs of our procedures in the field. Jasmine had said yesterday that she was scheduling them for the coming week working in pairs with our more seasoned staff to get their feet wet. They were ready to be stationed at events as representatives of the firm.
I hadn’t been back that long before I heard Jasmine swear from the outer office. By mutual agreement, we kept our language clean at work to set a professional standard. Hearing her curse and hang up the phone was unusual. Drew and I looked out of his office where we’d been discussing a repeat client who had some special needs.
Jasmine turned to face us, hands on her hips.
“Sorry I dropped the f-bomb, guys. If there’s a swear jar, I’ll put in five bucks. Here’s the deal. The St. Bernadette Hotel is flooded. All the events are cancelled for the next ten days while the plumbing is repaired and the water damage is cleaned up and repairs made. It’ll be more like three weeks if you ask me, but for now all that matters is we won’t be working security this weekend for a high-profile award ceremony and gala reception because it’s been postponed. The program is tailored to that venue only and now we’ve got a hole in our schedule. Nobody on the waitlist would be able to throw something together on short notice.”
“I feel bad for all those people that have to clean up the water damage,” I said.
“That’s very compassionate of you,” Drew said, lifting one eyebrow skeptically. “What are you up to that you’re Mr. Empathy all of a sudden?”
