It was as I was crouched down there that the door to the office opened, and a man slinked out wearing nothing but black. His shirt. His pants. His boots. His baclava. Even his gloves were black.
He was tall, but not as tall as Jasper. And skinny as a rail.
Maybe a teenager.
I didn’t know, but what I did know was that I was staying put and hoping that the man didn’t notice me.
He walked down the length of the building, stopped before he could get to the corner, and then took an immediate right that took him diagonally across the parking lot.
He stopped halfway across the parking lot and then walked straight down the middle of the drive until he got to the street.
It was then I realized that the man was avoiding the cameras that I knew Webber had up.
What the fuck?
Jasper’s bike sounded, and I blew out a silent sigh of relief as the rumble got closer and closer.
How I knew it was Jasper’s bike, you ask?
Because it had a very distinctive, throaty purr.
It was less loud than all the other bikes that I was around, and I decided it was due to the deepness of the rumble.
I clenched my hands into fists but stayed exactly where I was until Jasper got to the parking spot he’d been in earlier. He had my small red gas can in his hand, and he was swinging his leg off his bike as I stood.
I blinked with how fast he moved.
One second, he was holding a gas can, and the next I had the barrel of a big black gun pointed at me.
“Shit,” he hissed as I stepped into the lights. “What the fuck are you doing out here? Jesus, can’t you follow directions?”
As he dropped the gun, my temper began to rise.
“I don’t know,” I snapped. “I usually can. At least now. But when I’m faced with a man sneaking around Webber’s shop wearing all black that was trying to be quiet, I don’t tend to listen to someone telling me to stay.”
He frowned as he started to catalog the area with a keener eye. “What man?”
“I don’t know,” I grumbled. “I didn’t stop to ask him his name or introduce myself. I just left.”
He cursed and called up Apollo again. “Apollo.”
“Dude,” Apollo groaned. “I’m trying, but do you know how many fuckin’ cameras that UPS facility has? A lot. And seeing as the one she’s working at is in the damn airport, it’s even harder to get in here without people tracing it. Give me some…”
“Forget that for a second. I left to get gas and just got back. Left Calli behind and she said there was a man in Webber’s shop wearing all black.”
Apollo started typing away, which I could hear since I’d gravitated closer to Jasper on instinct.
He may piss me the fuck off, but I still knew he was safer than standing in the shadows away from him.
“There’s nothing…” Apollo grumbled. “Is she sure?”
Jasper’s eyes came to me where I was standing next to him, arms tucked around my body, and said, “She’s very sure.”
I rubbed at my face, then told him what I witnessed as the man left.
That had both men pausing.
Jasper stiffened.
