Page 48 of Twisted

“Hope whatever this is for is worth the fuckin’ hassle,” Jaeger said, smirking at his boss. Hades, who never smiled, whose eyes glinted with malice and murder, gave Jaeger the faintest tilt of his lips.

“Oh yes,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as he turned to peer out into the night. “Yes, she’s worth more than even that ugly rock.”

15

Jaeger

Present Day

They sat in the living room, the coffee table cleared of knick-knacks and peanut shells to accommodate a few pieces of legal pad papers taped together. On top of the striped yellow sheets were an assortment of pens, ranging from ballpoint to felt tip to a lone Crayola marker. Jaeger’s eyes kept flicking to Maisie’s, wondering if she found his cobbled together way of life too jumbled and messy for her.

She sat across from him, another mug of coffee in her hands, crisscrossed on the floor, her cheeks flushed and her icy blue eyes conveying her intense thoughts. Pushing his fears away, he straightened, matching her posture but leaning his forearms on the short table. After a filling breakfast that had been served at a time more appropriate for dinner, they’d decided to set to work on how to get the hard drive. Again, Jaeger was being forced to bottle his emotions in regards to everything Maisie had been through; each time she spewed her truth, he consumed it like a hungry bear, but instead of being able to let his rage run free, he could only consume more, and more, andmore.

He could see in the steady tremble of his fingers that it was beginning to take a toll on him, and thoughts of Lindsay and the hit on Maisie swirled in his mind like a vortex. He knew, in his heart, who’d put that hit out. It could only be one person, and each time he tried to force himself to see it from another angle, he was always brought straight back to the only possibility: Lindsay.

Their father knew Jaeger ran with dangerous men, but Jaeger had been careful in what he chose to divulge about his life and his boss. With Linds, though…it was more difficult, and he could see with precision the one chink in his armor.

Years ago, she’d contacted him, an inconsolable mess. Jaeger had been indisposed in London on a job with Rancho, and the problem had been minor to a man such as Jaeger. Linds had been driving drunk, nothing unusual, albeit annoying as fuck. She’d totaled her car but had somehow walked away unscathed. Randy had cut Linds off before that wreck, saying if she did it again, he’d divorce her.

So Jaeger, always the dutiful brother, had his team clear the mess and find the exact year, make, and model of her Porsche to replace the mangled one, and his men settled with all the insurance bullshit. Looking back, he remembered how annoyed he’d been, how he’d chastised Linds as though she were a child and he the parent, and he remembered thinking if he was Randy, he’d have divorced her psychotic ass long ago.

But blood was thicker than water, and so he’d bailed her out again. She must have schmoozed one of the men and found out more than Jaeger had been willing to let on about his job and life. It grated on him how Lindsay had always been able to get everyone around her to comply to her demands, to bow at her stories, to rankle when she was upset. She painted herself the victim, and while Jaeger ignored her childish tendencies, he now began to see them in a new light; she was manipulative, and she was good at it. He’d been blind all these years simply because she was his sister.

Maisie shifted, pulling his long shirt down to better cover her knees, a slight blush rising in her cheeks, though her rugged scar remained the same shade of dark pink. She was the real victim, and it hit Jaeger in the chest like a semi truck. Not Lindsay, not anyone else. His Maisie Jane had survived it all, and now Jaeger saw his role in her abuse. It gutted him, that knowledge, knowing he could have seen it sooner, knowing he could have just taken her that night and not looked back.

A small, nervous smile hinted at her lips, and she looked so utterly bashful he could only wonder at what she was thinking. It sent his heart thumping hard for a few beats. He made herbashful. It was somehow even better than lustful, for it meant she cared about him beyond the bedroom. She wanted his approval, his affection, but she was guarded and nervous still.

In the distance, the thunder rolled across the mountains, drawing ever closer. They’d lose power, of that he was sure, but he prided himself in being quite the handyman. He doubted Carter had ever been able to fix things; he was more adept at breaking them.

Clapping his hands together before rubbing his palms, he pushed his dark thoughts away and grinned at Maisie.

“Ready, babe?”

She flushed a darker shade and rolled her eyes.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?” he teased, knowing she was surly because she was scared. He’d once thought of her as a rattlesnake, giving a warning before striking, and that was clearly true for the three she’d pinpointed for her revenge. But to Jaeger, she was more akin to a porcupine, or a cute little hedgehog; spiky, fierce when attacked, but warm and sweet when handled with love and care.

“Stop…bein’ so cocky,” she grumbled. He simmered, drawing in his grin.

“Callin’ ya babe ain’t cocky,babe,” he said. She huffed and rolled her eyes again.

“Yeah but ya do it with this little smirk like ya think my panties are gonna get all soaked,” she ground out, reddening even more in her anger. He was surprised; he didn’t think she had it in herself to talk slightly dirty, but hearing it made his cock surge with anticipation. He couldn’t wait until the power went out and there was nothing left to do but fuck all night.

“Ya ain’t wearing panties,” he drawled, casually reminding her. Those wide blue eyes went even wider, and she piped down as he chuckled, rolling a pink marker her way.

“Draw it out, Maisie Jane. Give me the good stuff.”

With a resigned sigh, she set aside her coffee and went to work, explaining a lot with her hands, taking her time. She paused often, seeking out his help on small things, and he began to see she struggled with words and labeling. She often transposed letters or scrapped a piece of paper in anger before starting anew.

It was plain to see she had a learning disability, likely dyslexia. The notion warmed him even more, but not for pity. It made her endearing because even though she struggled, she never gave up.

“And the secretary is the key, then?” Jaeger said, fingers playing at his lips as he mused. He’d done this so many times before that it was nothing new to him, but with Maisie it was somehow fun, and it made him feel like he was back in high school planning an elaborate senior prank instead of a heist that had the capacity to either send Maisie to jail or get them both seriously fucked.

She nodded, capping her pen and staring over her jumbled map of walls and names and labels.

“Yeah, she knows me, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”

---