Chapter 9

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Amber overheard the conversation and cried out, now sitting up in the bed, staring at Jasper.

"When did it happen?" Jasper asked, wanting to calm her down, but that would not be an easy thing. She was already up and pacing around the bedroom, but he could see the pain with her every step. He pulled her into his arms and just held her, rocking her back and forth, while she sobbed silently against his chest.

"About two o'clock this morning," Markus replied. "I'm on the scene right now. Did she have any pets or anything?"

"No pets, thank God, and I brought her here just after midnight, I would say probably one-thirty a.m. or so. I'll have to check the security cameras to see what time we pulled in." He hesitated, then added, "I will tell you that we were followed too."

Markus sighed, as he digested that information. "She's definitely on somebody's shit list."

"Yeah, she definitely is," Jasper confirmed. "You may recall that my place is pretty heavily secured, so it seemed like the thing to do, once I realized she was under surveillance."

"I remember Mason saying something about Tesla's family being heavy into security."

"Yeah, especially in this business. I own my family home, and… it's pretty-well secured."

He released her, and she sank back onto the bed, still digesting the reality that her little apartment had been destroyed. Then she had to remind herself that she could have been gone with it, if it weren't for Jasper right now, who had dragged her out of bed just after midnight, telling her that he wasn't happy and wanted to move them. She didn't know whether instincts or something more had led to this, but, damn, she owed him more than ever now.

She didn't have a problem being grateful for somebody else's actions, but she still was struggling with the loss of her place, with the intrusion, with the freedom it once represented. When he'd mentioned something about pets, it reminded her how dangerous it would be to even have a pet right now. She'd thought about getting a cat again, but not now.

No sooner had Jasper gotten off the phone from Markus, than her phone rang and his right afterward. It seemed the news had gotten out, and she spent the next twenty or thirty minutes calming down several coworkers, who had just heard the news, letting them all know that she was safe and out of her apartment at the time of the fire.

Of course several of them had theories as to what was going on, but none were based on any proof, and all she could do was smile, and say that she would take care of it. By the time she finally hung up, she was shaking. Feeling his gaze, she looked over to find Jasper studying her. "I'm fine," she said. "I've just lost my apartment and everything I left behind, but I'm okay."

"Good, I'm glad you're holding up. This isn't easy for anybody."

"Maybe," she murmured, "but better that I wasn't at home when it happened."

"Exactly, so we can be very grateful we got out."

She half-smiled and nodded. "I'm grateful you saw the person sitting outside. Do you think they knew that we left?"

"I would think so," he replied, "unless he was falling asleep at his post."

"But if they did know, what was the point of destroying my apartment?" she asked in bewilderment. "It only makes sense if he was there to take me out."

"But it could also have been… another warning or maybe just more of a temper fit than anything else."

She shuddered. "Then somebody has got a piss-ass bad temper," she noted, "and I don't want to come up against it again."

"I don't want you to either. That's not the behavior any of us want to deal with, but it seems to be where we're at for the moment. And it just confirms that such an overt act must be connected with the sniper shooting of Mason."

She grimaced and nodded. "I get it.… I do, and I'm grateful that we're here." She gave him a nod. "I'm also very happy that I didn't see any of that happen. That would have been much harder to deal with.… Any chance of getting more coffee?"

"I'll leave you to get dressed, or do you want me to wait and help you down the stairs?"

She hesitated and shook her head. "I should be fine going down the stairs. At least let me change, then I'll give it a try."

He nodded, then disappeared.

Once he was gone, she got up, moving slowly, then got dressed. At the top of the stairs, she took a deep breath and slowly, planting both feet on each step, she made her way down the stairs. Halfway down she heard him heading her way and looked up and smiled. "I'm doing okay, so no need to panic."

"Good. I was prepared to let you do what you could do, and, if you didn't need a hand, then I wouldn't push it."

"I appreciate that." Her next step landed a little hard, and she stopped, waiting for the jarring pain to subside, currently skittering up and down her leg.

Gently placing a hand on her shoulder, he murmured, "That's why you still need someone nearby." With that, he swung her up into his arms and carried her down the rest of the way.

She grasped his huge shoulders. "I can't imagine ever getting used to this."

"You guys carry patients all the time, don't you?" he asked, looking at her curiously.

"We have orderlies for that, and we certainly lift patients at times," she added, rolling her eyes. "I don't know so much about carrying them like this."

"Just think of this as another method."

"It's hardly the hospital-approved method," she replied with a laugh, "but I'll let you off the hook."

"Thank you, ma'am," he replied humbly.

She laughed. "That whole humble thing doesn't work for you."

He gave her a bright grin. "It always has before."

"Sure," she muttered. "I bet you were deadly in school too."

"I don't know about deadly," he clarified, with a grin, "but that was a heck of a long time ago, and I'm sure not that person anymore."

"Are any of us?" she asked, with a smile.

"Sometimes I think we are, with little bits and pieces of us that make it forward at times. We just never know."

"That's true too," she agreed. He set her down in the kitchen, and she looked around with interest. "Wow, I presume with a kitchen like this that you must cook, or is it all for show?"

He laughed. "It's not for show. I can cook and appreciate when I get the chance, which isn't all that often."

"I can imagine," she muttered, as she surveyed the room—a large country kitchen with a big island, lots of counter space, and a huge shiny stove with pots and pans hanging from above. "I always wondered what it would be like to have a kitchen like this." She stared around in fascination.

"Now you know, and, anytime you want to cook, feel free."

She laughed. "I didn't say anything about cooking very well."

"I like home-cooked food, so it doesn't matter if it's good or not. I'm okay with variety too."

She walked the last few steps to the coffeepot, and, still carrying her cup in her hand, she turned to look at him. "Do you want a cup?"

He nodded, came over with his cup, and, once they both had refills, he led her to an adjacent sunroom, which had her exclaiming all over again. "Wow, now this is what I call a sunroom."

"My mother's favorite room," he added, with an affectionate look.

"Are they both gone?"

"They are," he said, with a nod. "It's one of the reasons why Tesla and I became close. When you lose all your family, you tend to reach out, looking for others to connect with."

Amber didn't want to ask any questions, but it seemed odd that he would lose everybody.

He answered her silent question regardless. "Both gone in one car accident."

She winced. "I see it all the time at work," she murmured. "They're just deadly and so unforgiving."

"That they are," he agreed, with a nod, "and it happened so fast, with no chance to say goodbye, just no warning. From one minute to the next, game over. They were here one moment, and the next they were gone."

"It can happen like that sometimes," she muttered, "and obviously in your case that's the way it was. Yet it's not always like that. Sometimes they linger, and people have hope. Then suddenly that hope is snuffed out, and family and friends look at us like we did something to their loved one, when they were just lingering,… well past the point in time that we thought they would. It's hard for the family because it's like losing them all over again."

"And the absence of hope…" he quoted.

She smiled. "Yes, exactly."

They sat in the sunroom, with their second cups of coffee, and she studied him for a long moment. "What made you bring me here last night?"

"Instincts," he replied, with a shrug. "I didn't like that your apartment was being watched. I didn't like anything about it."

"So, you just knew?"

"Basically, yes. Then the fact that we were followed here—or someone tried to," he noted, with an eye roll, "makes it even more suspicious." He looked down at her leg and asked, "How long are you off work?"

"At least four days, and then I have my regular four days off, so eight days total for sure. Why?"

"I just wondered how much time we have to get you healed."

"A week should be enough," she noted, looking down. "I need to start stretching and getting it a little more limber."

"Sounds painful."

"Yeah, it will be. After sleeping for a while, I hate to move, knowing everything has been stagnant for too long. However, stretching exercises are also the best way to get everything moving again."

"Only if it's healed enough."

"Only if it's healed enough," she agreed, looking down, "and maybe it has."

"Maybe it hasn't," he argued. She glared at him, and he just smiled back at her. "I know you are frustrated and in pain and aren't used to being the patient in this scenario, but you're also being stubborn."

"Yeah, and, according to you, I'm always stubborn," she murmured. Just then his phone rang again. She sighed and turned. "It'll do this all day, won't it?"

He nodded. "It will, and I suspect we'll have a lot of people over here, including the police."

"Right, and, if it was arson, they'll need to know about it too."

"They'll need to know everything, and now we'll have the fire department, the military, the local police, an insurance investigation, and God-only-knows who else in on it."

She rolled her eyes at that. "Any chance they will all talk to each other?"

"They will, but I don't know that they'll share as much as they could or would in any other circumstance," he pointed out calmly, "but we can hope."

And that's pretty much how the day went, from quiet to multiple phone calls. Almost everybody she knew connected with her to confirm that she was alive and well. She suddenly became aware that she had far more friends than she realized. Such an odd feeling to know that everybody had heard about what had happened, and, of course, they all had multiple questions as to what she was doing and why was she here with Jasper.

She didn't have an answer beyond that she needed a place to go, and this was a good choice, particularly since he was the one who had saved her life in the first place.

When her phone rang again, she was surprised to see who it was. "Tesla," she asked, clearly alarmed, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tesla replied, "but I just heard about your apartment."

"Ah, yeah, that didn't exactly make my day, but I wasn't there, so that is some good news. I ended up coming to Jasper's house."

Silence came on the other end, and then Tesla teasingly said, "Wow, that's a surprise."

"And not what you're thinking," she replied, with an eye roll toward Jasper.

"I'm not thinking anything. Jasper's always been very smart, and he's very good at preempting danger."

"I don't know that he preempted anything outside of my seeing my apartment burn. I have to admit that wasn't happy news. I'm sure the landlord will be more than pissed off about the whole thing."

"Not your problem," she said. "You need to heal. It's bad enough that you were injured, without the bad guys attempting to take you out while you were already down."

"Doesn't say much for them, does it? When you think about it, that's an awful lot of nastiness to take out on somebody. I guess they really intended to take me out with the car."

"Exactly," Tesla agreed, "but, if Jasper took you to his house, you're in Fort Knox."

"He did mention something like that." Amber laughed. "I appreciate his listening to his instincts and caring enough to get me out of there."

"You're safe there," Tesla shared, "so please take off however much time you can from work and heal. I don't know what these assholes are after, but I can only assume that it's connected to Mason."

"Speaking of Mason, how is he?"

Tesla's words were caught on a sob. "He still hasn't woken up."

"He will when he's ready to," Amber reiterated. "He's got an awful lot of healing to do in there."

"Yeah, the doctor said that too," she murmured, "but it's very hard to see him like this. I need him awake, and I need him to know that I'm here and that I love him."

"Tesla," Amber whispered, "he already knows it in his heart. That is not something he needs to hear you say only while he's conscious. That's you feeling that you need to say it when you know he hears you. Yet I believe he does hear you, even while unconscious. He loves you, and he knows you know that too."

They talked a few more minutes, and then they ended the call. Amber found Jasper looking at her curiously. She shrugged. "Your cousin confirmed that I'm in a good place, something like Fort Knox."

He nodded. "Yeah, that would be her standard comment." Jasper added, with a smile, "She calls it that all the time."

"I won't argue the point, and obviously, if it's secure, then I'm happy to be here."

"It's secure," he declared, with a vehement nod.

"And then," she murmured, "what are the chances that it's fireproof?"

"It's built out of concrete," he shared, with a note of amusement. "So, it's got clay floor tiles, and the walls are concrete, as are the subfloors."

"Seriously?" she asked, staring at him in astonishment.

He nodded. "Seriously."

"Okay then, so I'm here for a day or two." And then she winced. "I can't stay much longer than that. I'll have to find another place to live."

"We'll worry about that later," he suggested. "In the meantime, you need to heal first."

"First?" she muttered, with a headshake. "I hear you, but it won't stop my mind from spinning around, wondering what I'm supposed to do from here on out."

"Of course not," he noted, "and we both want answers."

"Obviously. Who wouldn't? I just keep thinking about what I've been through." She turned to look at him. "Now, I know a lot is going on with Mason's case and all, but is somebody at least analyzing my video of the two men in the hospital?"

"I handed it off to the investigators, but I also gave it to Tesla just now."

"Tesla? She shouldn't be doing any investigative work right now," Amber noted.

"It's what she does. She's a programmer, one of the best in the world. Plus it takes her mind off Mason for a bit," Jasper added, "so you best let her worry about that."

"Maybe she should be living here in your Fort Knox," she suggested, staring at him, "because she's the one who's a sitting duck."

"Don't you worry. She and Mason are under guard at all times," he shared. "I won't let anything happen to my cousin. She and her father and her son, Sebastian, are the last blood relatives I've got," he noted, with a smile. "And she's pretty special."

Amber didn't know the woman but from what Amber had seen at the hospital and what she had read from her computer search on the couple. She would certainly not argue with Jasper's assessment. And, if Jasper was half as loving and caring toward Tesla as he has been to Amber, then Tesla had a nice deal going, as far as her family went. Hell, Amber wanted some of that for herself.

Almost as if he had read her mind, he asked her, "Do you have any family?"

"None that I'm close to. I've got aunts and uncles, but I haven't seen them since I was young," she replied. "Like you, I don't have much for close family anymore."

"I'm sorry. That's not easy."

"No, it's not, but, after a certain amount of time, it becomes normal for you. You learn to do everything by yourself. When you don't have family, you don't miss what you don't have," she explained. "Maybe if I needed help, I could reach out and get it from my aunts and uncles, or maybe not. They are growing older, and I've never tested it," she admitted. "I've always been independent, and I prefer to keep it that way."

He smiled, then nodded. "Yeah, I hear you. I've got the same hang-ups. Once you're independent, you want to stay independent. You don't want to end up asking for help if you don't need to. However, sometimes I think that may be more of a negative than a positive."

"Maybe," she acknowledged, with a shrug. "It's not exactly something I can do anything about right now. I'm not about to reach out and ask for help in this situation. I'm sure I can find a place to live. The determining factor will be its availability. Otherwise, it's not that involved. I don't have any furniture to move now anyway," she muttered, frowning.

"Do you carry renter's insurance?"

Her eyebrows popped up, as she nodded. "I do, so that is a good thing."

"It is," he agreed, "so we can deal with that in a couple days too. "You'll need to start the process for a claim, but, other than that, you should be good to go."

She looked around the sunroom carefully, then her face relaxed into a smile, and he knew that she would let the thought go for now. "Any chance of food?"

He hopped up. "Absolutely."

"I can cook if you want," she offered, shifting to stand up. He turned and glared at her. She raised both hands and said, "Hey, I don't want to be useless."

"Not useless," he corrected. "You're hurt and healing. Temporarily you need a hand, so accept the help and don't be stubborn. Just sit here and enjoy the sun for a bit." And, with that, he turned away and entered the kitchen, heading to the stove and the fridge. Stunned, she watched, as he very efficiently prepared eggs, toast, and even bacon for an extra treat.

When he sat down again with her, bringing their breakfast into the sunroom to eat, she smiled and asked, "Are you always this perfect? A man who can look after a woman, cook, and be protective?" she pointed out, as she rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the perfect recipe for a romance novel hero."

He burst out with that now-familiar booming laugh. "If that were the case," he replied, giving her a smirk, "I would have found somebody who would take me on a long time ago."

"I've been meaning to ask what's wrong with you that you haven't got a partner."

"I'll turn that question around and ask you the same thing."

She nodded. "Touché. I work too much."

"So do I," he stated, with a laugh. "So, it sounds to me that we have a lot more in common than you thought. We both work a lot."

She smiled. "Tesla told me something about how you tend to go after what you want and rarely take no for an answer."

He shrugged. "Only if what I want also wants me back," he clarified. "If I have to pressure or force someone to want me, the allure would be gone. I would never do that."

"I know you wouldn't. I didn't mean it like that." Smiling, she added, "If this is Fort Knox, does that mean you can leave me alone here?"

He nodded. "I have to admit that was part of my thinking, yes," he confirmed, with a smile. "Not that I get out of keeping an eye on you myself and only depending on the security system," he pointed out, with a big grin, "but—"

"No, no buts," she interrupted. "It's important that you solve this. Maybe other people will be a help, but I hesitate to trust anyone else or to depend on them too much. They are just these nameless faces, and I have no way to know who can be trusted. At least I feel like I know you, so please do what you need to do. If you feel I'm safe here, go off and do whatever you can to solve this."

"I will. As soon as we're done with breakfast, I'll take off for a bit, and I'll make sure you have phone numbers in case you need anything," he added, with a quick glance at her. "I can also phone in to the system here and talk to you through that."

"Without a phone here?" she asked in fascination.

He grinned. "Exactly, without a phone."