When Archie and Braith had opened the PI agency, they’d done so to give people a place to go when the human authorities couldn’t help—or as it was often the case,wouldn’thelp.That was still their goal.No one cared about the kids used in the fights beyond Jasper and the people with him in the other room.No one elsehadto care, though.It would be nice if they had more help, but they didn’t need it.They’d get all the kids back, and they’d take down the operation and Johnson.
Archie found himself smiling.He couldn’t wait to take the hunters down a peg.It should have been done a long time ago, but it hadn’t, and now, they felt like they were all-powerful.Maybe in some ways, they were, but Archie would show them that wasn’t always the case.He would show them that some people were willing and ready to stand up to them.He might not be able to work miracles, but maybe by the end of this, the hunters would finally go back to what they’d initially been supposed to be.
An organization that helped people—humans and monsters alike.
Chapter Thirteen
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“IDON’T LIKE THIS,”Archie grumbled.
Jasper was aware of that because Archie hadn’t shut up about how little he liked their plan since Jasper had come up with it a few days ago.In fact, he’d been actively trying to convince Jasper to change his mind.Jasper wished there was another way because he wasn’t looking forward to playing bait, but he was sure that some of the hunters who wanted him dead worked with Johnson.He was their kind of man—full of himself, arrogant, and more than willing to use violence.
Those things went hand-in-hand, didn’t they?Johnson wanted power and to be rich, so people who wanted the same flocked to him.Johnson had used his hatred of monsters—or at least he acted like he hated monsters, but Jasper wasn’t convinced it wasn’t all just a trick to get more hunters to trust him—to manipulate people into trusting him so much they’d made him a leader in the hunters.They didn’t know that Johnson was willing to work with monsters to get rich, or maybe they just didn’t care.Jasper certainly didn’t.He just wanted Johnson and his hunters to be stopped, and he was willing to sacrifice himself to make sure they were, which was what Archie had a problem with.
“You won’t be far,” Jasper reminded his boyfriend.
“It still might not be close enough.What if we can’t get to you in time?”
“You will.Besides, I know a little bit about fighting.I can keep a few hunters away until you reach me.”
“I still don’t like this.These people hate you.What if they realize what you’re up to?”
“They might, but I think that their hatred of me is going to help us.They won’t see further than that and wanting to hurt me because of what I am and the betrayal they feel I’m responsible for.”
“See, it’s the wanting to hurt you part that I don’t like.”
Jasper reached out to take his boyfriend’s hand.“It’s the only way,” he murmured.
They needed the names of all the hunters involved and as many details and proof as they could get.It wasn’t going to be easy, and frankly, even though Jasper had volunteered to be bait, he still wasn’t quite sure how they were going to do this.He only had a vague idea, and he knew that Archie wasn’t pleased with that.
To be fair, he wasn’t, either.He wished he knew how to do this, but he also felt like they were running out of time.There were still kids out there, being forced to fight each other to survive.There might even be kids still being kidnapped.Jasper hadn’t heard about any, but it was possible.After all, only Finn’s parents had come to Archie and Braith.The others had been too scared or hadn’t had the means.
“We don’t even know if this is going to work,” Archie argued.“Why would hunters who hate you have information about what Johnson is up to?And why would they tell you even if they did?”
“They might not have any information, but I’m convinced that this is all linked.Johnson is taking advantage of the hatred growing within the hunters.He’s using the hunters to get rich, and most of them can’t even see it.I’m sure that once we expose him, a lot of them will move to the right side.Martinez is just waiting for an excuse to take over.”
“Maybe he shouldn’t be waiting,” Archie said, crossing his arms over his chest.“Maybe he should be doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because he’s forced to.”
Jasper raked a hand through his hair.“I agree, but this might be the only way to get most of the hunters to see the truth.I’m sure that a lot of them just want to use their job to hurt monsters, but not all of them.Most are good people who want to protect others, and when they see that’s not what the people in charge want, it’ll change things.It has to.”
Jasper had to believe that.He knew that Archie didn’t and that he was going to freak out no matter what happened, but Jasper needed to cling to the knowledge that not every hunter was a bad person.Not every hunter was a hunter to hurt people.
Not every hunter hated him for something he had no say in and couldn’t change.
But Jasper knew Archie.No matter how worried he was, he wouldn’t tell Jasper not to do this.It was Jasper’s decision, and Archie would support him, even though he didn’t like it.
Sure enough, Archie nodded curtly, still looking angry, but knowing he didn’t have a choice.“I don’t like this, but fine.”
Someone snorted.Jasper didn’t know who it was, but he could take a good guess, and clearly Archie could, too, because he squinted at Cullen.Cullen paled a little bit and acted as if it hadn’t been him, but they both knew it had been.
Archie looked around at the people gathered around them.“Does anyone else have anything to say?”Maybe he hoped that Corey or Kerry saying something would stop Jasper.Jasper wasn’t sure why his boyfriend would believe that.If Archie himself couldn’t stop him, how could anyone else?
“I didn’t say anything,” Cullen pointed out.
“You didn’t have to.”Archie sounded annoyed.It was more at Jasper than Cullen, though.
“It’s sweet that you’re trying to protect Jasper, but I’ve seen him fight.He’s good,” Cullen said.
