Freeing Jasper

by Riley Edwards

  It didn’t take all but ten minutes before the guys were all shirtless as they continued to make trips back and forth to the front of the house.

  “Holy shit,” I mumbled.

  “You got that right,” she said. I laughed, and she cocked her eyebrow. “I might be married, but I’m not dead. The first time Adam and Anthony met the guys, Anthony called them the badass brigade. I think he should’ve called them the sexy brigade.”

  Lily had mentioned her friends Adam and Anthony before. She'd met them while living in South Carolina – they were house flippers. She had shown me some of the designs she had worked up for them. She was excellent.

  “There’s nothing like a well-trained, well-toned military man. I have to admit, as much as I swore I would never be with a soldier again, I think I’m ruined. I don’t know how I could ever date a civilian.”

  “You’re such a snob.” Lily giggled.

  “That’s better than being called a depend-a-potamous. Which is what I’d be called if I ever dated another soldier again.”

  “Who cares what anyone else thinks. Fuck ‘em.”

  “Dating is so far off my radar it doesn’t even matter. But I can sit back and enjoy all the yummy sexy goodness walking around your yard, that’s for damn sure.”

  It had been a long time since I’d been with a man. Damn near rounding on six years. My friend Connor had been trying to get me to date again, but I didn’t know if that was a good idea. Unless Jasper asked me on a date. A girl could dream. Jasper did not look like the type of man that dated women, he looked more like a super-yummy one-night stand. Which I wouldn’t be opposed to either.

  The guys finished unloading the wood and sat on the deck with us. The new guy Clark was kind of quiet and watchful. When the rest joked and laughed, he joined in but in a more somber type of way. Jasper was an insatiable flirt. He did it in a way that was fun rather than lewd. The more relaxed he became around me, the less he guarded his stare. There was definitely something behind his playful banter, something painful he covered up with jokes. I actually felt kind of bad thinking that he was a dog. I bet that the women he was with didn’t even bother to see him. All they saw were the sexy eyes and a lazy smile.

  ***

  Jasper

  After we’d finished eating on the deck, we moved to the living room to play poker. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed so hard with a woman that wasn’t Lily. Emily was a firecracker. She had a comeback for everything I had to say. Through most of dinner her attention was on me. There was something about her that was refreshing. I had been gulping down pond water, and she was the purest of springs. I wanted a sip of her so badly. I was still puzzling out how I was going to ask her to dinner without sounding like a complete dumb-ass. It was getting late, and I was running out of money. Lily and Emily were killing it tonight. They had damn near broke me.

  “How’s Jason?” Lenox asked Emily after he finished dealing the cards.

  Shit, I hadn’t thought that she might have a man. I’d never poached another man’s woman; however, I would make an exception for Emily.

  “He’s good. He’s at my mom’s house for the rest of the week. She’s spoiling him rotten and enjoying some time with him before school starts,” Emily answered.

  What? Her man is spending time with her mom?

  “Who’s Jason?” I asked.

  “My son,” Emily answered, and her face lit up.

  My vision blurred and the world tilted. Fuck, she had a kid. I took a long swallow of my beer. I felt Lenox’s stare burning fire into my chest, but I refused to look at him.

  “That’s cool,” I said praying my voice didn’t crack.

  Carter’s cry cut through the room. It was time for me to go.

  Chapter One

  Emily

  “Emily?”

  “Yes?” I looked up from the coins I was counting and straight into a set of familiar piercing blue eyes. They were almost identical in color to my own.

  Jasper.

  I hadn’t seen him since a barbeque at Lily’s house six-months prior. He looked even better than I remembered him, more like a rugged cowboy than the soldier I knew him to be. Jasper worked at the 707 research battalion with Lily’s husband, Lenox.

  I wasn’t sure exactly what they did at the 707, and Lily said very little about where her husband went when he left on assignment. One time she told me the team was out of town auditing another base. My best guess was they inspected equipment records and made sure the supply personnel was keeping an accurate accounting of the gear when it was returned after deployment. He looked damn good for someone who sat behind a desk all day.

  “Hey. I didn’t know you worked here,” Jasper said, trying his best not to show how uncomfortable he was.

  The flirty, playful tone he had at the barbeque was painfully absent. The day I met Jasper, he spent the afternoon talking and joking with me. It had been nice to speak to someone who knew nothing about my past and didn’t treat me like I was a broken widow. For a few short hours, I felt normal. That was until Lenox asked me about Jason. The mere mention of my son had silenced Jasper. Minutes later, Lily’s infant son had woken up and Jasper all but ran out the door making an excuse it was late and not wanting to intrude on family time.

  “Yeah, about five years now. We are short a teller today, so I came up front to help out. I’m actually a loan officer,” I explained. “Payday. You know how the first and fifteenth are around an Army base. If Uncle Sam doesn’t direct deposit, the boys wanna cash their checks.” Now I was babbling. God, why was I so awkward?

  “Guess that’s why I’ve never seen you.”

  “I’m actually closing out my drawer. But Beverly can help you.” I pointed to the teller station next to mine.

  “Yeah, okay. Sorry. It was nice seeing you again.” Jasper picked up his deposit slip off the counter and started to move to Beverly’s station.

  “You, too.”

  Wow, that was…uncomfortable. I thought back to the day I met Jasper and sighed. When I had walked into Lily’s kitchen, I thought I had died and gone to sexy heaven. The heaven where only super-hot guys got to go. The first thing I had noticed about Jasper was his smile. It came fast and easy, but if you paid attention, you could see it was put on. There was no doubt he used his good looks to his advantage. He could charm a nun out of her habit with his slick wink and baby blues. Damn, he had gorgeous eyes and dark lashes that were long enough to make any woman jealous.

  Lily had tried to warn me off Jasper in her own sweet, nice way. She didn’t have it in her to come right out and tell me he was a manwhore, so I let her off the hook and told her I knew he was a dog. It wasn’t like I was looking for a man anyway. And if I was, Jasper was so far out of my league it wasn’t even funny. I was still playing Tee-ball, and he was in the majors.

  I was a single mom with a dead husband and more responsibilities than I cared to think about. He was single, hot, and out for fun. My fun ended six years ago when I got pregnant, and all the responsibility fell squarely on my shoulders eighteen months ago when my husband died.

  No, I needed training wheels, not a man like Jasper. But he was oh so nice to look at.

  The loud voices and commotion by the bank’s front door made me roll my eyes. I hated when the first of the month fell on a Friday. It seemed like every young Army Private came in after they were done with their work day to cash their checks and hit the bars. They were loud and obnoxious and were always in a hurry. Maybe I was being overly dramatic because part of me was jealous of their carefree life. I did not regret having my son so young. Hell in many ways he saved my life. Or at least made me grow up and stop making bad choices. But, I did miss the days when I didn’t stress out over everything. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to have fun. Until I spent a few hours in Jasper’s presence and his over-the-top flirting made me smile.

  I looked up when two hands smacked the counter in front of me.

  “Did you hear me, honey?” a man yel
led.

  “Huh?”

  I turned from the bill counting machine to find a man in a black ski mask leaning over the counter.

  Holy fuck!

  “I said to keep your hands above the counter and put all your cash into the bag,” the man repeated, tossing a duffle in front of me.

  “Seriously? How am I supposed to get the cash out of my drawer that’s under the counter if you want me to keep my hands above the counter?”

  Was he for real? A duffle bag? This idiot had seen too many Hollywood bank heist movies. I wouldn’t need to hit the panic button. We were on post. The guard gate would have record and video of everyone who entered the base. Post 9/11, all bases tightened security. He could take all the money and never be able to leave the base with it.

  “Listen, bitch, just put the money in the bag. If you think about trying to call for help, everyone in this building dies.”

  I looked over the man’s shoulder and belatedly noticed two more men, all holding assault rifles and what looked to be standard issue reflex sights on the top rails of their weapons. I wondered if they stole those guns from the Army’s armory. Maybe Lenox’s team should do an audit of their own base.

  The reality of the situation hit, and I froze. The bank was being robbed by three armed masked gunmen, and all I was thinking about was if they stole their guns. What the hell was wrong with me? Screw the money and if they could get off base. I didn’t want to die. My son had already lost one parent. With shaky hands, I started to pull the bills off the counting machine, half of them falling on the floor.

  “Careful, bitch,” the man scolded.

  A loud crash at Beverly’s station caught my attention. Jasper had jumped over the counter and was now on the employee’s side of the partition.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” one of the guys holding a rifle yelled and pointed his gun at Jasper.

  “Helping you assholes get your money. You’ve scared the hell out of these ladies.”

  Thank God there were no customers in the bank. Two other tellers and the branch manager were all the employees left. And Jasper! Jasper was here, too. Too bad one of the guys from the Ranger battalion wasn’t in here cashing his check. Not that I didn’t think Jasper could take care of himself in a fight, but Rangers were trained for this type of stuff.

  “Em, I want you to stay calm and put the money in the bag.” Jasper was standing behind me talking softly into my ear. “When one of them asks to be taken to the vault, I want you to tell both of the other tellers to take him. I want you to stay out front with me.”

  I shoved the money from the machine into the bag and passed it back to the man standing in front of me. He handed me an empty bag. “Now the money from the drawer,” he demanded. "You go back to the vault.” He pointed at Beverly.

  “You need two tellers to go open the vault. This late in the day it will take two employee codes to unlock,” I lied.

  Jasper squeezed my calf, scaring the shit out of me. When did he kneel down?

  “Both of you go.” The man waved to both Beverly and Ashline. “Mr. One, go with them. Mr. Two, how are we on time?” he asked.

  “Fine. We still have like six minutes,” a man I presumed was Mr. Two answered.

  Real original code names. Not!

  “Hurry up and get the next drawer. Hey, tough guy, make sure you get all the cash off the floor.”

  Jasper stood up and put the money he had collected off the floor into the new bag I was holding. The man in front of me walked to Beverly’s station and leaned over the counter looking toward the vault.

  Jasper took advantage of the masked man being distracted and spoke softly. “When I call out red, I want you to drop and lie flat on the ground. Do not move from that position. Copy that?” he instructed.

  “Okay,” I whispered, my hands still shaking as I stuffed all the bills into the bag. All three open teller drawers had been handed over.

  What now?

  I didn’t understand what Jasper was doing, but if all I had to do was lie on the ground, I was good with it. I wanted to tell him not to do anything crazy, I didn’t want to see him hurt over money but he moved away from me too fast. All the fine hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle. I looked around the lobby and Mr. Two, the timekeeper, was staring at me. There was something in the way he looked at me that scared the shit out of me, the fact he had a gun basically pointed at me notwithstanding. His glare was fixated on me. His mask obscured his features, and he was too far away for me to make out the color of his eyes.

  “Red,” Jasper yelled. I dropped to the ground, and my world exploded in gunfire and the sound of shattering glass.

  Gunfire in a small space was not like what you saw on the TV. It was ear-piercingly loud. I couldn’t cover my ears enough to drown out the deafening pops. I scooted farther under the counter trying to gain as much protection as I could, and I hoped that Beverly and Ashline were safe. Beverly was a single mom like me; she had a cute three-year-old daughter who needed her. And Chuck, the lazy bank manager, I bet he didn’t even know we were being robbed. He spent most of the day locked in his office doing God knows what. It wasn’t work, that was for sure.

  The gunfire stopped, and I debated whether or not to stay down like Jasper had told me. What if he was injured and needed help? I had no way of knowing if I stayed cowering under my station. I slowly crawled out looking left, then right. I couldn’t see anything, and I had to move farther out, and just as I looked left again a pair of black boots stopped right in front of my face. Damn, how did I not hear someone walking up? My eyes traveled up the khaki cargo pants and stopped at the gun pointing at my head. I didn’t bother looking up any farther. This was it. I was going to die on my hands and knees on the bank floor leaving my son without a mother. I closed my eyes and prayed my son knew how much I loved him. My mom would make sure Jason was okay.

  A gunshot rang out, and I waited for the pain to register. Nothing. There was no pain, only a lingering ringing in my ears. I opened my eyes to find a crumpled body on the ground in front of me, blood pouring out of the black mask. I couldn’t move, and no sound left my mouth as relief washed over me. I was alive.

  “Em, up you go,” Jasper said from beside me. I couldn’t pull my gaze from the dead man in front of me. “Close your eyes,” he commanded.

  I couldn’t. I was captivated by the dark red liquid pooling around his head. That could’ve been me. That would’ve been, if…

  “Emily!” Jasper yelled, finally breaking the spell. I scrambled to stand up, Jasper reaching down to pull me up and into his arms. “I want you to listen to me very carefully. I want you to keep your eyes closed while I get you out of here. You’re going to the manager’s office until the MPs and local police get here.”

  “Ashline and Beverly?” I asked.

  “They’re already in there,” he answered.

  I was relieved he reached them in time and got them to safety. If I was so relieved then why did I feel a pang of hurt that he had saved the others before me? In reality, I was no one to him. Just because I had thought about him hundreds of times over the last six months didn’t mean anything.

  “Thank God,” I whispered.

  Jasper picked me up, and I closed my eyes as he walked us through the bank to the worthless branch manager’s office.

  “No one questions Emily until I get back. The Commander is on his way down now. I’ll be back when I’m done talking to him.”

  My eyes shot open to see who Jasper was talking to.

  “Levi?”

  “Hi, darlin’, let’s get you inside.” Levi opened the door allowing Jasper to enter.

  Beverly and Ashline were huddled together in the corner crying. There was a suit jacket draped over the top half of a slumped over body at Chuck’s desk.

  “Is that?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Is he?” I continued.

  “Yes. Sorry, we cannot move him until the police come,” Jasper
explained.

  What the hell was going on?

  Chapter Two

  Jasper

  What a clusterfuck. The Commander was going to flip his shit when he showed up.

  “How’s Emily?” Lenox asked.

  “Uninjured,” I answered knowing damn well he was asking about her emotional state not whether or not she’d been hit.

  The truth was, I hadn’t asked her. I was still trying to get myself under control, and not from the danger of the situation. I’d been in much tighter spots than three amateurs with guns playing at robbing a bank. Hell, I had traveled the world going up against every known terrorist group and many that NATO kept under wraps. The 707 was the government’s secret weapon. We were the team that was sent in when there needed to be complete deniability. Our missions were off the books – black ops. On paper, the 707 was a research and development group, paper pushers that audited supply clerks and tested new equipment.

  What I wasn’t used to was the fear I felt when Emily came out from under the counter before I gave the all clear. My blood ran cold when the douchebag pointed his gun at her head. There was something unexplainably different seeing Emily shaking in fear while a gun was trained on her than when it was one of the guys. Not that they shook in fear, ever. But I had seen each of them in the crosshairs before and never felt the terror that rushed my body when it was her. Maybe it was simply because she was a woman.

  “Do you know that amount of paperwork you’ve created with this little stunt?” the Commander’s voice boomed. “You just couldn’t let these little fuckbags take the cash and go. No, you had to cause a shit storm that is going to take a hell of a lot of creative bullshitting to get you out of this mess.”

  I didn’t bother answering the Commander, I knew he wasn’t done with his dressing down yet.

  “And if it wasn’t bad enough, you had to call your team into this cluster. Please tell me you pulled the tapes.”