Page 70 of Fallout

“Ever? In the whole world?” He chuckled like he had leverage and not just a need to get that flash drive from them. “Not in my power, I’m afraid.”

“April is dead.” Peter’s voice had an even tone. “Not something I want to happen to one of my people.” He paused. “Let me guess. She took this, so you killed her?” On the monitor, he waved the flash drive.

“Revenge? That’s not how I operate.”

Peter said, “So, your boss or whoever hired you took care of her?”

Jasper tracked with that well enough. A little tit for tat, like using the kingpin’s murder house to get Vanguard to trade the flash drive? Made sense. A contract killer who worked all over wouldn’t necessarily have local resources.

The killer shrugged. “She double-crossed me.”

So he needed the flash drive because what was on it was sensitive, and he didn’t want it getting out. Jasper would go hard at a guy like this in an interrogation room. But this wasn’t his case.

Destiny shifted in her chair. Jasper felt like he was hyper attuned to her. Since he wasn’t out of the van on this case, he didn’t have much to focus on except her—and the lingering traces of that drug. He touched her shoulder and a strand of her jet-black hair. How long would it take to get to know all the ways she styled her hair, like the style from the Rammington-Harper event? And how she got it like this.

She glanced over, a curious look on her face.

Simon cleared his throat.

Jasper didn’t much care. Except that he needed time to tell Destiny what he wanted. The situation with his mother shouldn’t rob him of the ability to have a family. Maybe it would—but itshouldn’t. Then again, life wasn’t always fair to good people.

Guys like this contract killer got what they wanted.

The kingpin continued to operate.

Folks like Gage and Clare might run into medical bills or long-term lifechanging diagnoses rather than a healthy baby girl.

There weren’t any guarantees unless the guarantee was that things would inevitably suck.

Destiny shifted again. Jasper forgot about Peter talking and watched her move her hand close to him. He touched her fingers. Held her hand. Maybe she needed support right now, or maybe she just wanted to hold his hand. Or she thought he needed that anchor—which would always be true. There might never be a time when she didn’t want someone to hold her up.

He was all for a person standing on their own two feet, but everyone needed acceptance and support.

“Whoa, what’s this?” Simon leaned forward in his chair.

“FBI!”

“Hands up! Federal agents!”

The view on the monitor filled with feds, people swarmed around Peter and the contract killer.

One said, “Hands up. You’re under arrest.”

Jasper opened the back of the van. Destiny came with him. She grabbed his hand, and they ran to the clearing where Peter had met the contract killer.

He spotted Stella Davis, one of the FBI agents from the Benson satellite office. A tiny detachment that worked in conjunction with a field office an hour away. “What’s going on?”

Stella turned, her brows raised. She was married to Eric Hummet, a Benson detective, and she looked at him like he should already know the answer to that question. “I’m in the process of arresting the subject of an ongoing investigation, a man with multiple federal warrants. And you?” She waved a hand like this was a casual chat.

His mind scrambled for a split second, but he was holding hands with a beautiful woman, so maybe it was a no-brainer. “Just out walking with my girl.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Right.” She glanced around. “Surveillance van?”

Two agents cuffed the contract killer. Stella walked over to Peter, took the flash drive out of his hand, and tucked it into her pocket. Then she tugged his arms behind his back. “You’re under arrest also. I’m sure you have many interesting things to tell me about your operation and how you know this guy.”

Destiny started to object.

Jasper squeezed her hand, and she closed her mouth.

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