Before anything more could be said, a car pulled up at the curb and Apollo got out.
He jogged up through the middle of the yard but slowed when he got to the icy sidewalk.
He pushed past us all and dragged Max inside with him when he passed.
Only when everyone was inside did he kick the door closed and then pull out a thin black recorder-type thing and set it down on the table.
The little red light blinked, and then he announced, “All righty then. Let’s talk about why you’re being tracked by the government, and who Adler Wilson is. Oh, and why he has a hard-on for Jasper. He’s not in the military anymore, and he’s not breaking any laws.”
Max looked like she was about to throw up.
“That box jams signals. They won’t hear anything.”
Max looked relieved. “Fuck.”
“Start talking,” Jasper said.
Apollo sidled over to the boxes of cookies and opened the lid of the snickerdoodles.
He took one and shoved half of it in his mouth before groaning.
I felt my lips curve up at the edges as I saw him, but he didn’t interrupt or say anything more while Jasper pushed Max.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jasper said for a third time. “What are you caught up in?”
Max seemed to wilt in front of us before she scrubbed her face up and down for a long second before saying, “I’m in a bit of a situation.”
Jasper crossed his arms over his bare chest—still in only a pair of gray sweatpants and nothing else—and waited.
“Adler Wilson is the father of my son.”
“Huh,” Apollo said. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“It was an affair,” she admitted. “He wanted nothing to do with the kid. And neither did I, really. It was a weird thing. But I knew that Bernie wanted a baby, and she hadn’t had one yet, and I thought…well, why not? Bernie can have him.”
“Jesus Christ,” Jasper said.
“What I didn’t know was that Adler had this complicated relationship with his wife. Nor that they’d found out that they’d never be able to have kids of their own.” She started to wring her hands. “I like my kid. But Bernie loves him. She’s had him since the day that he was born. Legally, she adopted him. But a few months ago, Adler’s wife found out that they would never be able to have kids, and I guess he wanted to give her one. He thought it would be best to give her ours.”
“That’s fucked up,” Apollo said around a bite of cookie.
“It is,” Max grumbled. “I met him during the academy. And when I went to branch out on my own when I couldn’t make it into the FBI, Adler helped me set it up. He helped fund my PI business. I thought it was because he was just a good guy…but now he’s threatening to take my business back and my son if I don’t help him.”
“Help him with what?” Apollo urged her on.
Max crossed her arms tightly over her chest and looked at Jasper. “Adler hates you.”
Jasper sighed, long and loud. “That man needs to get a life.”
“He has one,” Max snapped. “And he’s making it his life mission to fuck with me and Bernie. He’s using me to get to you.”
“That finally makes sense,” Apollo said. “What does Adler want out of all this?”
“Something he can use to take Jasper down,” she answered. “Anything. I’m doing everything I can to make him think I’m cooperating. But seriously, he’s ruining my life. And he’s about to take Bernie to court if I don’t help him—he’s using it as incentive to hurry me along. I don’t think he actually wants my son. I think he’s just being an ass, and he’s making the moves that he knows will really fuck me up. And Bernie’s happy, Jasper. For the first time in years, she’s happy.”
Nothing needed to be said as to why Bernie hadn’t been happy over the last couple of years. It was obvious what Max was implying.
Jasper was the reason that Bernie was hurting.
