Page 47 of Jasper
Glancing over at his locked jaw, I tell him, “What went on tonight scared the bejesus out of me. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Jasper. Maybe now’s a good time to tell me what’s going on. How did these people know you were at my house?”
“Well, it wasn’t just a lucky guess,” he says. “They followed us, maybe all the way from the clubhouse.”
“So, they know we’re together and where I live.” The words taste wrong coming out of my mouth.
“Yeah,” he replies. “That’s the general gist of it. That’s exactly the message they wanted to send tonight.”
And Jasper’s going to send one back, I just know it. I shove that thought into a little box and throw it in the back of my mind for now.
“Who are these people that use drones to spy on us, commit arson, and slip away into the night before we even realize what happened?”
He glances at me and then back to the road. A long silence spins out between us—so long, in fact, that I think he’s not going to answer. Finally, he does. “They’re another MC, a one percent club that’s likely involved in everything from trafficking women to running drugs and guns. We recently verified they have cartel connections, which makes them exceptionally dangerous.”
“My God, Jasper! We need to call the cops!”
He shoots me a dark look. “Cedar Falls has a population of around twenty-two thousand people. The police employ three full-time officers, six part-timers, and a police chief. Do you honestly think they’re capable of fighting off a vicious MC with cartel connections?”
I glance away, looking out the window at his club brothers who have come to escort us safely to the clubhouse. It doesn’t take me long to realize he’s right. “Do you think they intentionally picked Cedar Falls because we’re a small town they can overrun with very little effort?”
His chin comes up with a swift jerk. “They miscalculated the pushback they’re gonna get from my club. They’re targeting mebecause I’m VP, and we’re the only thing standin’ between them turning our town into a dystopian nightmare.”
Listening to Jasper talk, I know he’s not just laying down a bunch of bragging. I can tell by the tone of his voice that he’s serious about facing off with them.
“If you don’t mind me saying so, this doesn’t sound like your first rodeo.”
“The Hyenas MC aren’t the first assholes who thought they could roll up into our territory and do as they liked. None of them were quite stupid enough to put our town name on their bottom rocker, though. But to answer your question, we’re well experienced in dealing with the kind of violence these assholes plan to deal out.”
“This sounds like some kind of gang war brewing. Are you sure you can’t alert the feds? Maybe they could set up some kind of sting operation.”
Jasper just shakes his head as he changes gears. “I wish it were that fuckin’ easy. But life ain’t like the movies, these filthy bastards will wreck half the town before the feds have a chance to mount a proper response.”
I finally say what’s been preying on the back of my mind this whole time. “It’s just that I don’t want anything to happen to you. We’re having a baby together, and I just started really liking you.”
He flashes me a smile. “Glad to hear it, darlin’. But if you want to be with me, you have to accept me for who I am and trust that I’ll do everything I can to come home to you and our kid every night.”
“You sound determined,” I say grimly.
“You got that right. My club will fight to keep our town free of the kind of shit these fuckers thrive on. It’ll be a cold day in hell when we cede territory to the fuckin’ Hyenas without a fight.”
I fall silent as I struggle with what I just learned. Jasper makes it sound like his club is self-appointed militia protecting Cedar Falls. Men willing to cross lines that law enforcement can’t or won’t.
I can’t help thinking about women in this town potentially being trafficked. I think of my soon-to-be-ex coworkers at the diner. They’re struggling single moms, students, and teens trying to figure out what to do with their lives. They’d be easy pickings for these assholes to grab.
Then I think about the drugs and guns they want to bring into our small town and I can’t help but wonder if it will result in more gun violence, school shootings, or convenience stores being robbed. An image of drugs being sold in schools and on playgrounds flits through my mind. If these Hyenas are allowed to set up shop, at least some of that is going to happen. It’s not even a matter of if—it’s a matter of when.
I glance over at Jasper, who is deep in thought too. He’s almost a textbook example of a big badass biker with a heart of gold. I’m almost sure of it. If I had to choose his strongest virtue, I would have to say it’s being a protector. As scared as I am of something bad happening to him, it seems wrong to interfere with him doing what he sees as the right thing.
He’s the father of my child. The best thing I can do for my child, him, and everyone else in this town is get behind him on this issue. I wouldn’t be much use to him if a fight broke out, but I can give him emotional support and maybe help keep Silver off his back and focus on growing a strong, healthy child for him.
Suddenly, a random thought pops into my head. “I was going to start looking for a new job tomorrow. Will I be safe? I don’t want to be a danger to the people around me.”
Jasper’s firm voice replies, “You’re not going to work anymore. It’s too dangerous.”
My mouth falls open. “Jasper, be realistic. How am I going to survive? I have bills to pay. I’ve been getting fewer shifts at the diner and my boss has told me he’s going to have to let me go.”
“You don’t need to work. You’ve got me for that now. You just need to get settled into my suite and focus on spending time with my ma and growing our kid.”
“I really like your mother, but I don’t know, Jasper, I’ve always paid my way.”
