Page 3 of Shattered

Henley and Jade had been on their way home from work when they were kidnapped and held hostage by a crazed serial killer, who—in a strange twist of fate—turned out to be someone we’d known for years. Keaton nearly lost the love of his life, and I lost every single reason for holding myself back from claiming what was mine.

Jade.

I was well and truly fucked.

To make matters worse, a few months prior, Henley had been expelled from Marshall University for plagiarism after someone hacked into the school’s system and replaced her final paper with a different one. That hacker was fifteen-year-old Jett. When he confessed, it shocked the shit out of all of us.

At the time, he thought he was helping out a guy who’d mistakenly turned in the wrong assignment, while also making a good bit of cash to ease the burden on his sister. He was a naïve teenager, but he was no criminal. In reality, he was a damn genius, which was how we convinced Waverly to battle with the prosecution for leniency. The little community of Huntington would be better served by allowing Nelson to take Jett under his wing and teach him how to put his gift to good use. At least, that’s the way I’d presented it to her, along with the rest of my team. And it worked. The kid wouldn’t even have a black mark on his record, as long as he kept his nose clean. I only prayed he was keeping up with his end of the bargain.

While Henley—who was now Keaton’s fianceé—was recovering from the ordeal fairly well, all things considered, I couldn’t get a read on my Angel. She was closing herself off from our group, and while I understood her feelings of guilt, there was no way Henley or Lanie would let her get away with it for much longer. Especially considering how close they’d all become. Word around the office was, the girls were already circling the wagons to drag her little ass back into the fold.

“You’re not gonna hang out to see how it went at Marshall?” Noah called out as I began to gather my things. He was referencing how Lanie and Keaton had taken the evidence we’d gathered to the university in an attempt to get Henley’s expulsion reversed.

“That was my plan until Jett decided to pull a no-show at home.”

“Damn.” He shook his head. “We should’ve put a tracker on the kid.”

“Or you could use the Find My Friend app,” Nelson interjected from where he sat huddled next to his wife.

“He shared his location with you?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Technically, no, but Waverly suggested I work around his consent.” He shrugged. “She figured he might pull this shit at some point.”

“Of course she did,” Noah chuckled. “Our RAC is always ten steps ahead of everyone else. Us included.”

“Bring it up, Nelson.”

Grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair, I slid my arms through the sleeves and stalked across the room. Tracking down a troubled teen may not have been on my agenda for the evening, and even though it would keep me in his sister's good graces, it was about much more than my desire to win her over. Jett opened up to me about his involvement in the scandal first, not someone else.Me. The walls may have been closing in on him, but still, I didn’t take his trust lightly. If he needed me, I’d be there. For both of them.

“It seems our young protégé has returned to the scene of the crime.” Nelson stared at the screen of his cell phone.

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled up outside of Lola’s Internet Café in downtown Huntington to see Jett sitting by himself at a table along the front glass wall. Putting my car in park, I shot off a quick text to Jade, then climbed out and made my way toward the set of glass doors boasting the café’s name.

This particular place had been where he’d met with the person who hired him for the hack job. He’d been smart though; recording their interactions on his webcam. Hunched over his laptop, fingers flying over thekeyboard, he was completely unaware of his surroundings, which gave me a moment to study him.

Jett was tall for his age—nearing six feet. It was a trait he didn’t share with his vertically challenged sister, who was more than a foot shorter than my six-four frame. His dark-brown hair was shaved almost to the scalp on the sides; however, the top was kept long enough to spike straight in the air.

He clocked my approach the instant I was through the door, his shoulders tensing as I made my way through the crowded store. Easing into the booth opposite him, I didn’t speak, simply waited until he was ready to explain. Thankfully, he didn’t make me wait too long.

Sighing, he dropped his head to his chest. “How’d you find me?”

“I’m an FBI agent, kid. It’s kinda my thing.”

“Nelson,” he mumbled under his breath.

There was something working behind his deep-brown eyes; the color almost a perfect match to the ones which played a starring role in my every waking thought recently. I wouldn’t rush him though, even when every cell in my body urged me to shake the shit out of him for scaring his sister. He needed someone he could trust rather than a swift kick in the ass, and I was determined to be that somebody.

“I fucked it all up, Koen.”

Rather than placating him with falsehoods, I remained silent. He had fucked up…big-time, but when push came to shove, he’d come clean. It took a great deal of courage for him to admit what he’d done and even more to agree to testify against the asshole who paid him. His tenacity had earned the respect of my team, as well as their gratitude.

“The money was supposed to help her, not force her towork even harder than she was,” he continued. “She barely sleeps and it’s all my fault.”

I recognized the guilt he voiced, misplaced as it was, because I’d lived through the same with Willow. After my father was killed, we were lost to our grief; struggling to find a foothold in a world where he no longer existed. Mom did the best she could, however, it was Willow who slid seamlessly into the role of protector. She and Jade had quite a bit in common.

Jett continued to talk, only my brain was stuck on something he’d said moments earlier.

“Hold up.” I raised my hand in the air. “What do you mean she’s working harder?”

---