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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FALIN

There’s no time for me to digest what just happened with Jasper in front of all these horrible people. Or to figure out why the hell it was so hot. I’m quite literally frozen in shock by what’s happening before my eyes. These people… Who are they and how are we going to help them all?

“We have to do something,” I say. Jasper doesn’t respond, so I tug on his arm. “What are we going to do?”

Jasper rakes a hand through his hair, forcing out a breath. “We should go, call the guys, and figure out a way to help them.”

That’s a solid plan, but what will happen to them while we’re gone? What if we get back and they’ve been moved? Too many different scenarios run through my mind… none of them giving us a positive outcome. Then there’s still the matter of Wayne in the study—like a real life game of Clue. Who killed Wayne in the study with a gun? When Fairfax finds him, I’m sure he’ll want to investigate and there’s no Colonel Mustard here to pin it on.

“And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Fairfax booms. “I trust your wallets are ready, gentlemen. As always, a portion of tonight’s proceeds will benefit the Children’s Hope Foundation.”

What a sick joke. My stomach churns as the crowd erupts in excited chatter. “We should go now, while they’re occupied,” I say, my voice hidden by the noise.

“I can’t… I need to see.”

He sounds broken and I can hardly blame him. I don’t know what we’ll do if one of them is Bailey.

I keep my eyes fixed on Jasper’s face as they remove the hoods one by one, watching hope and dread war in his expression. When the final woman is revealed, his shoulders sag. “Is she…”

He shakes his head. “No, she’s not here.”

I can’t tell if it’s relief or despair in his voice, and there’s no time to ask.

“Twenty thousand for number five!” a voice bellows from the crowd.

“Number twelve is mine, boys,” another calls out.

The room erupts in a bidding frenzy, numbers and obscene amounts of money flying through the air. I want to be sick. I thought watching Wayne die tonight would be the worst thing possible, but this… This is true horror.

I tug Jasper’s hand, getting his attention. “Come on.”

We make it upstairs unnoticed, but there’s no telling how long that’ll last. Servers bustle around the kitchen and it hits me that there’s still a normal New Year’s party going on in the ballroom. The contrast is absurd. Champagne toasts and canapes right upstairs from some poor soul’s worst nightmare. This night is a clusterfuck. Times like these I wish I’d learned more from my dad. He wanted me to go the family route… become an officer like him. It was never in me. Maybe I was meant for this life, living outside the boundaries of the law.

Jasper stops and I almost pile into his back. “Let’s find a back way out.”

There’s a server coming out of the kitchen with a motherly look about her. My heels click on the floor as I rush over to her, doing my best not to startle her as she loads a tray with more canapes. “Hi, sorry. My husband and I have an emergency at home, and well, we need to leave through a back entrance. Where did you all come in from?”

Her eyes widen as she takes in Jasper behind me. He’s either freaking her out, or she likes what she sees—either is fine with me, as long as she talks… and fast.

“Please, darling, we have to get home to the kids. The little one is sick with a fever.” Jasper sounds smooth as silk as he lays it on thick. Her face tinges pink and she smiles.

“Poor thing. Here, follow me. But please keep this to yourselves. The hosts are very particular.” Leaving her tray on the counter, she leads us down a hallway through more closed doors until we reach a back entrance. From the looks of the coats and boxes, this space is used for the help to come and go.

She squeezes Jasper’s shoulder, and turns to leave.

“There’s one problem,” I say through chattering teeth as the cold hits me like a ton of bricks. “The valet has the keys.”

And they’re all the way at the front of the house.

“Fuck.” His eyes widen as he turns to me. “Your coat. Here, take mine.”

“I’m fine.” He ignores my protests and I let him wrap his coat around me. It may not be the warmest thing, but I sigh in relief anyway.

He takes out his phone from his pocket, waving it above his head for signal. I try mine as well, and unsurprisingly, we’re still in the dead zone. “When we get in the car, we’re calling the guys.”

The pathway along the side of the estate is pitch black and covered in icy patches. My ankle rolls on a slick patch and I almost bust my ass, but Jasper’s hands catch me around the waist just in time. I’d give anything to be wearing my Doc’s right now instead of these heels. Pants too—each time the wind blows, it cuts straight through my dress, numbing my legs to the bone.

I follow Jasper around a shadowed corner when he freezes mid-step. “What’s wrong?”

“Jas? Falin?” A familiar voice rings through the open air.

Leon and Damon. They’re actually here. A wave of relief washes through me so intense I blink back tears.

They rush to meet us, and in seconds Damon has me wrapped in a hug so tight, I can barely breath. “You’re okay. We were losing our minds.”

“Is Blake alright?” My thoughts instantly go to my best friend on the floor of that restaurant. I’ll never lose that image from my mind.

“She’s fine. Just worried about you guys.” Damon turns to Jasper. “What the fuck happened in there?”

“I was about to ask the same question,” Leon adds. He takes one look at me and winces. “You must be freezing. Let’s get in the car and you can fill us in.” He takes a step forward, switching on his phone’s flashlight to illuminate the darkened path.

Jasper and I stay where we are.

“We can’t leave yet,” I say.

Damon and Leon look at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“She’s right,” Jasper adds. “They have men and women in there, drugged and being sold off to the highest bidder.”

“You’re serious?” Damon says. “We actually found them?”

Jasper paces the path in front of us. “Bailey’s not in there, but it’s a start. They know about Orlov. It’s a long story and we’ll fill you in, but we can’t just leave them here.”

As the guys talk all at once, bickering and brainstorming, a plan starts to take root in my mind. It’s going to be crazy and requires a lot of moving parts, but if everything goes well, we can get those people out without anyone else getting hurt tonight.

“No, you can’t just go in and start shooting,” Leon chides.

“You’re not Rambo, brother,” Damon adds.

“You didn’t see them… I need this. I gotta crush some fucking skulls.” And there’s the Jasper I know.

“Hey,” I interrupt.

Damon puts his hands on Jasper’s shoulders, halting his movement. “You can’t.”

“Just one skull?” Jasper says, pinching his fingers together to show an inch.

“Hey!” I repeat louder. This time all three guys turn to face me. “I think I figured out a plan. Damon, please tell me you still have those smoke bombs?”

Damon’s face lights up, his dimples even pop.

Jasper scratches his chin. “Trouble, I like how this is sounding.”

* * *

The next thirty minutes are a whirlwind of chaos. Within that chaos, I manage to keep a semblance of control, guiding the guys through my plan. We make it far enough away from the estate to get our devices working again, and while I work on unjamming the frequency blocker, Jasper calls someone named Ray for back up.

With precious time ticking down, my pulse feels like a pounding drum. It could already be too late to help any of those victims, but I haven’t seen many cars on the road, so I’m holding onto hope.

“We need this to go perfectly,” I say to Jasper, harsher than I mean to. We’re about to reach the back door. Walking in there again feels all kinds of wrong. It’s only my own sheer will and stubbornness that keep my feet moving forward.

“What makes you think I don’t know that?” His tone tells me we’re right back to our favorite game. Instead of being annoyed, it calms me. I know this—our push and pull.

I exaggerate scratching my head and tapping my chin. “Hmm, I don’t know… past impulse control issues, I guess.”

He smirks at me. “If I have impulse control issues, then you have control issues.”

“I do not.”

“Okay…” He chuckles and checks the entrance for anyone we’d need to watch out for.

“I don’t like your tone.”

He turns quickly just as I’m about to enter the doorway, catching me off guard. His body presses against mine while his hand reaches above my head, resting on the door frame. Heat flows through my previously chilled limbs, settling in my core. “Well, I like yours. Go on, keep being a control freak. It turns me the hell on.”

A server hurries nearby and I shove him away. I’m sure my face is red from how flushed I feel, but we don’t have time for this. “Keep it in your pants.”

“You’ll be saying differently soon enough.” God, he’s so arrogant I wish I could smack the shit out of him.

With things looking exactly how we left them, we head to the ballroom, where the sound of drunk party goers and lively music is even louder than before. “Ready?” I ask.

His eyes are alight with a fire I haven’t seen before. This must be the Jasper I’d been missing out on. He pulls a smoke bomb out of the larger bag on my shoulder, a wide grin on his face. “Fuck yeah.”

All at once, chaos breaks out and we’re the masterminds behind it. We set off smoke bombs in the ballroom while Leon triggers the security and smoke alarms. In the confusion, Jasper and I run downstairs into the auction chamber. It’s empty… Not even a flickering candle is left.

“Fuck!” Jasper picks up a candelabra and throws it against the stone wall.

This was the one part of the plan we were unsure of. In the time it took us to figure everything out, they must have moved the victims. We don’t have time to sit here and throw a tantrum; we have to act. “Come on. Let’s go check down there. That’s where they brought them in.”

I don’t wait for him to catch up. I’m running before I can think, the blaring of alarms making my head spin. My feet pound against the stone floor and I collide with a large figure as soon as I turn the corner into the corridor.

The masked figure faces me, and I recognize him as one of Fairfax’s guys. Jasper falls in behind me, but I barely feel his presence. I’m too busy taking in the huge gun in the masked man’s hands.

“You can’t be down here.” He looks us over, Jasper in his tuxedo and me in my dress, looking like party guests who have taken a wrong turn. He clearly doesn’t remember us from earlier. Which, weird… I don’t think I could forget two people I watched essentially fuck in front of me that quickly. If it were me, I’d never forget.

“Our bad.” Jasper wraps his arms around my shoulders, pulling me against his chest. He sounds like he’s chatting with a buddy as he asks, “What’s going on with the alarms?”

“The party’s upstairs,” he says. His dark eyes dismiss us as his cell phone rings.

Leon’s voice is in my ear at the same time. “I found the blueprints of the house. There’s another exit down there.”

Jasper flashes me a look. It’s quick and I know exactly what he’s thinking.

But I beat him to it.