The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  He was wearing a pair of clean jeans and a simple button-down shirt, looking put together and a bit preppy. His sense of style was something she normally didn’t go for, but it looked good on him, the button-down just a little too small. Like every guy in this house, Jasper was a specimen of male fitness. She looked down at herself and wished she’d gone for more than the black jeans with fake distressing and a tank top that made her small chest look semi-decent. He was even wearing nicer shoes than her. She’d gone for a ‘nicer’ pair of black boots and he was wearing perfectly clean trainers.

  “I’m driving,” she declared, spinning her keys on her finger when she looked back up from her outfit. She looked to her gorgeous Audi that waited for her. She hadn’t taken anyone for a ride in it; she didn’t go anywhere anymore. That one visit into town and the bad taste in her mouth from Texas left her wanting to stick close to home.

  “Are we going to get pulled over?” Jasper asked nonchalantly. “Well, are you going to get pulled over again?”

  “Let’s hope not!” Sawyer laughed and unlocked the car. She slid in and waited for him. She watched him look over the car slowly before getting in, then taking in all the interior detailing and electronics once he did slide in.

  “I’ve been staring at this car with Zander, wondering if we would ever get to ride in it,” he admitted softly, a pink blush over his cheeks. “It’s a stunning car.”

  “I’m quite taken with it myself,” Sawyer teased.

  “You didn’t let me finish,” Jasper whispered. “It matches its stunning owner.”

  “Oh, Jasper, um, you don’t need to…” she mumbled and gave up trying to find words. Oddly, her face heated up. Compliments like that weren’t ones she was familiar with. She didn’t have a plan to handle it, a way of shrugging it off.

  “Did I render you speechless?” Jasper was teasing her now. Jasper, of all people, was teasing her. “It’s okay. I’m probably very bad at this. I never really…” He trailed off, covering his face and she could relate.

  “Me neither?” Sawyer replied, turning her car on. She hit the button to open the garage door closest to her and began to pull them out. “Not like this. Dating, compliments. Never was something I did.”

  “I don’t want to be Zander,” he informed her. “I don’t want to fall into your bed and be a pain without us testing the waters, learning more about each other. Sure, we grew up together, but we’ve been apart for a long time too.”

  “Do you know how to just fall into bed with someone?” Sawyer wrinkled her brow and frowned at Jasper. He wasn’t the type.

  “No, but I think the possibility is there.” He chuckled.

  “I thought so,” Sawyer huffed. “The possibility, by the way, is not there. You’re too nice of a guy to just fuck a woman and think it makes everything okay.”

  “You screwed Zander and thought it would make everything okay,” Jasper reminded her.

  “I’m not nice,” Sawyer retorted. “I’m fairly certain I’m an idiot actually. I mean, what woman in her right mind would try to get Zander to settle down?” She was mad for thinking, for any moment, that any of this was going to work, but they told her it would, and she was going to try it out. What did she have to lose, really?

  “The one who knows he will for her,” Jasper whispered. Sawyer kept her eyes on the road. “It’s always only been you for him. He would have fucked his way into an early grave if we hadn’t stumbled onto you.”

  “That’s reassuring.” Sawyer sighed.

  It took them thirty minutes to get to the movie theatre and Jasper was extra sweet, jumping out to get her door before she even had a chance to think. More things she wasn’t used to. “I let you drive but I’m still getting your door,” he told her.

  She laughed and patted his chest, letting him feel good about it. She wasn’t going to give him a hard time. Something about all of this had her feeling young and stupid and she loved it a little. Just a moment to pretend they were two normal people on a normal date to the movies.

  “What are we seeing?” she asked.

  “No idea. I figured we could just pick at that moment.”

  “I’ve heard about some Idris Elba movie,” Sawyer offered. “It’s a disaster-romance, survival thing. Plane crash, wilderness.”

  “We’ll do that then,” Jasper agreed, nodding as a smile spread over his face.

  She grinned at him and took his arm with hers. Together, they walked to the counter, and she let Jasper buy tickets. He took her to the concession stand, got them both drinks and some popcorn. She felt out of place, in a different reality for it all.

  Movies with a boy. She didn’t even do this as a teenager. She damn sure didn’t do this sort of thing with Axel. They had partied in expensive clothing. He’d danced her around the world, shown her things she never would have seen otherwise. He had wooed her with money, power, and adventure.

  But Jasper was normal, and she loved it. She was going to fall for her amputee childhood friend because he was going to woo her with real life.

  They settled into their seats, and he leaned over to her. “We are the only people in the theatre,” he whispered.

  She sat up and looked around. Sure enough, there wasn’t another soul in sight. “What does that mean for us?” Sawyer asked seriously.

  Jasper didn’t answer, just wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. Sawyer’s eyebrows went up, but she decided to hell with it. She relaxed and deepened the kiss, letting her tongue explore his mouth, taste him. This was what Zander had interrupted earlier. She moaned into him and heard a groan in return. When it ended, she enjoyed how dark and turbulent Jasper’s stormy blue eyes were. There was a heat there she didn’t normally see in him. It was enticing and beautiful, her golden boy looking at her like she was the only thing he’d ever wanted. He nearly looked like he would take her there in the dark theatre, as the lights dimmed for the trailers to start.

  As the movie started, he pulled up the arm rest between them and pulled her into him a little more. She shifted, getting comfortable, his arm casually over her shoulder.

  Halfway through the movie, she wasn’t paying attention to it. Jasper was thoughtlessly creating trails of goosebumps on her arm and that was driving her mad, in a good way. She turned to him during the movie’s sex scene and kissed him again.

  The movie forgotten, she grabbed onto his shirt and nearly climbed on top of him. He pressed a hand to her lower back and held her as they made out. His other hand rubbed her thigh slowly, long strokes up and down the outside.

  “We should watch the movie,” he whispered huskily. “We’ll get thrown out if we keep this up.”

  “Fuck the movie.” She went back to kissing him, nibbling on his bottom lip as he groaned. She could feel how hard he was and rubbed him through his jeans, which prompted him to grab her wrist.

  “We definitely can’t do that here.” His voice was gruff, undone, and heated. It sent a shiver down her spine, realizing there was a passionate man underneath her golden boy.

  “You’re right,” she agreed softly. “I just…”

  “Sawyer,” Jasper moaned and kissed her again. She noted that he kept her wrist tight in his hand, refusing to let go. “We still have to go get lunch after the movie.”

  “You are committed to this date thing,” she teased.

  “I really am.” He chuckled. “Does it bother you?”

  “No, I find myself quite liking it,” she admitted, whispering the words against his lips.

  They kept their hands to themselves for the rest of the movie. Not their mouths, though. Jasper kissed her temple and nibbled on her ear at one point, making her nearly whimper. Something about a hot breath over her sensitive ear sent her wild. She didn’t tell him that, though. It was a weakness she didn’t want him to exploit. Zander already knew and used it to his advantage every time he had the chance.

  “There’s a Mexican place I think you might really enjoy,” Jasper told her as the credit
s started to roll. “Want to try it out?”

  “Would love to,” she answered, untangling herself from his arms. Even their legs had gotten wrapped up in each other. She stood up and he followed. She was feeling a little hot and bothered by the dark encounter of going to the movies. She had realized why other people her age would do it. That was a place where anything could go, it seemed.

  At the Mexican restaurant, they were seated in a booth and ordered before any conversation got restarted.

  “Congrats on testing out of the GED,” Jasper began. “I’m proud of you.”

  “I knew most of it,” Sawyer replied, shrugging. “It wasn’t hard for me. Sure, I missed a couple years of school back in the day, but none of it was overly complicated.”

  “Thinking about college?”

  “What would I go into?” She frowned, taking a sip of her water.

  “Criminal justice?” he offered. “Our job. There’s a few colleges in the country that offer programs specifically for IMPO hopefuls.”

  “How popular are those programs?” Sawyer was disbelieving. Not many Magi wanted to be an imp. She’d never planned for it, that was for sure, even before she’d become a thief, then assassin.

  “Not very,” Jasper admitted. “I think last count there were only fifty Magi in the US who graduated with the major.”

  “No shit,” Sawyer snorted. “The WMC isn’t exactly popular.”

  “No, they aren’t,” Jasper conceded. “They are our ruling body, though. We do vote for them.”

  “From a few very specific pools of Magi deemed worthy to hold a seat on the Council,” Sawyer reminded him. It was a corrupted system. Over time, the fifteen seats of the WMC were a revolving door for maybe twenty or thirty Magi families, all the richest and most powerful of the Magi community. Families who could trace their roots back to Rome, to Alexandria, and further. A normal Magi didn’t grow up thinking they were going to become a Council member. They were born and bred for it, the next line of the dynasty for that family.

  “True,” Jasper agreed. “You aren’t wrong. There’s problems with the system, certainly, but it’s been our system for millennia, since before the Roman Empire, though that’s when it really gained most of its power.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong.” She chuckled. “There used to be several councils, all over the world. Not one singular world council but regional.”

  “You are correct.”

  “Why don’t we still do that?”

  “Because those councils used to go to war with each other constantly.” He took a deep breath. “And install themselves in regions as gods.”

  “Ah, you’re talking about the Greeks,” Sawyer realized. “I know we have a hefty amount of evidence that the Greek Pantheon was either based on Magi or founded by Magi, but what if they were already around and Magi just pretended to be them?”

  “Sawyer the scholar?” Jasper laughed. “Really?”

  “Look, I just had to write a paper on this for my damn GED,” she huffed. “It’s been on my brain.”

  “You should go to college. You’re intelligent enough and you have a thirst to know more,” he pressed.

  “After all of this, then,” she negotiated. “If I can get through the next five years, get my pardon and have a clean slate, I’ll go to college and do it right. Third time’s the charm?”

  “Third time?” Jasper frowned at her and she grinned.

  “Yeah, third time trying to be a functioning adult and member of society. The first was…him. The second was with Charlie in New York, the third time is this.”

  “Well, damn. Eventually you’ll get it right, I hope,” he teased.

  Their food arrived, and they tasted what each other got. Sawyer was in love with her fajitas, but she had to admit that Jasper had chosen well with the shrimp tacos.

  “Anything you want to talk about?” he inquired when they were finishing up with their food. “I’ll admit I’m not ready to go back to the house yet.”

  Sawyer opened her mouth and closed it again, thinking about what she could possibly ask Jasper about. His life after they left her at the orphanage? She’d gotten the gist of that. They didn’t like the IMAS; Vincent recruited them to the IMPO for his team. They chased down serial killers, crime lords, and presumed dead assassins, though the last one had been an accident they had stumbled on. It was a mistake she’d made that she didn’t get pissed off thinking about anymore. He would party with the guys when they finished a case, have some fun with a random person.

  “You guys seem very…solitary,” she mentioned carefully. “It’s just you five. You don’t really talk about other friends. Sure, James, your…our handler is brought up, but he hasn’t visited to hang out since I’ve been here. Estella, the cleaning lady I haven’t met yet. No one else.”

  “We are,” Jasper admitted. “We are. It’s the curse of the job, really. You were right on the plane to Texas. We show up in an area, we cause hell, turn everything upside down, then disappear - and that’s important. Imagine if we had a bunch of friends in our community. Imagine then that someone like Axel found out. Or god forbid we didn’t catch a killer before the case went cold or we became targets. Teams like ours, we’re expected to lay low and keep our shit under wraps when we’re off the job.” Jasper sighed, shaking his head. “It gets lonely, but you end up best friends with your teammates, or it all falls apart and the team is dissolved by the IMPO. We live in a bubble and we’re let out when they need us, basically.”

  “How are other teams?” Sawyer continued casually.

  “There’s a general consensus that we don’t really see each other unless something big is happening or we run into each other at different IMPO headquarters around the world on accident. There aren’t many of us, though, so it’s rare. You’re most likely to see other Special Agents in New York. There’s always a few teams moving through the main headquarters for some reason or another.” Jasper frowned, looking thoughtful. “You aren’t the only reformed criminal in the organization. There’s a few others. You are the most infamous. You should know that while you aren’t outed publicly, every single Special Agent definitely knows your name, who you are, and who you have been. They also know you’re on this team. So, if we run into another team and they’re rude, stand-offish or anything, that’s why.”

  “That didn’t answer the question,” she pointed out. She did tuck all the information away, though. It was good stuff to know, and she should have asked earlier. “Do they settle down and have kids? Do they live just like we do here in Georgia? Like, what is the ‘normal?’”

  “We’re normal, for the most part,” he explained. “Our formation wasn’t. The members of the team aren’t, but our lifestyle is. Special Agents normally retire or step down to a lower position if they want to settle and have kids. Normally.”

  “Any other women in the community?” Sawyer used a fork to poke around her food.

  “A few. A lot of cases like you, one tough-ass woman who works on an otherwise all-male team. Some teams are more even, but there’s just less women in the IMPO and even the IMAS.”

  “Obviously,” she mumbled. “Not many women like me.”

  “There are no women like you Sawyer, only close,” Jasper retorted. “I’ve run into other agents with the IMPO. Sure, we have tough people, but I’ve never met someone who has lived as much as you.”

  “Most people don’t want to live as much as I have,” she reminded him. “Hell, I don’t want to have lived as much as I have.” Before he could respond, she changed the subject. “What were you and Zander bickering about this morning? Before the run?”

  “He wanted me to talk to him about your nightmares,” Jasper explained. “I told him that if you weren’t, then I wasn’t going to. He didn’t appreciate that.”

  She had been hoping it was nearly anything else. “I’m going to stab him,” she blandly commented.

  “Please don’t. There’s no hospital close by.”

  “He can heal himself,” S
awyer reminded him. “It wouldn’t be fatal. It might become fatal, if I have to repeatedly stab him.”

  “You two are the worst,” Jasper said while chuckling. “Is this how it’s always going to be? I won’t be surprised, honestly, since it’s how you’ve always been, but I thought age and time would calm you both down.”

  “No, I think it’s gotten worse. I’m pretty sure it’s worse, really,” she said, nodding. She was pretty aggravated by it. “He’s pushy, and if he keeps pushing, it’s going to land him in an early grave, I swear.”

  “And you?”

  “He’ll aggravate me to death. Mutually assured destruction, this relationship.”

  “Vincent’s easier, I’m assuming?” Jasper smiled, leaning back in his seat.

  “No, Vincent’s not easier, he’s different. You, you’re easy. Ignore my old occupations and your rigid sense of rightness and we’re fine.”

  “We don’t need to ignore them. I meant what I said in Texas,” Jasper whispered. “How is Vincent different?”

  “He just is,” Sawyer sighed. She wasn’t sure how to explain what was going on with her and Vincent. “Why do all of you keep asking about the others?”

  “Because we’re all friends and we’re with you?” Jasper answered, shrugging. “It’s natural for us to want everything to go smoothly with this? To be concerned about how you are and each other. Zander and I used to talk about you, when we were teens. When a boy was mean to you, we would talk about it and promise not to do or say what he did. When you argued with Zander and cried on my shoulder over it, I would tell him to stop doing it later. When you ignored my…attempts at flirting, I asked him for advice.”

  Sawyer blinked several times. That was much more than she’d been expecting. For her, it had been ignored, all of it. Her awkward, conflicted teenage feelings and their…well, there had been something going on with them, but that hadn’t been what she’d expected.

  “We planned all those years ago to both date you,” Jasper murmured. “This is just…what we always wanted. I’ll admit, though, that seeing you again in New York, it was the last thing I wanted to think about. Then there were the nightmares and I didn’t know what the fuck to do about those. I didn’t know what they meant at the time.” Jasper pushed his plate away. “So yeah, I worry about you and Zander. I worry about you and Vincent, because if one of them hurts you, I’ll probably lose you too. If Zander had broken our friendship with his antics as a teenager, we would have lost you in a different way than we did.”