Page 1 of Jasper

“Are you sure about this?”

Jasper Watkins nodded and looked away from his boss’s assessing eyes. Kade Kincaid had a habit of being able to look right through a person’s bullshit and find the heart of the matter within a few minutes. Jasper put it down to the man’s FBI training with the behavioral analysis unit. He wanted to avoid a Q&A session with Kade at all costs.

“I just need some time to get my head straight.”

“I get that, I do, but I think something’s going on that you’re not telling me.” Kade shifted in his office chair and leaned forward. “I know I’ve been a shit recently, but you’re family, Jasper. Angel would beat my ass if I let you walk out of here without figuring out why you’re leaving.”

“I’m not leaving, just taking a leave of absence.”

“Same difference.”

But it wasn’t. Kade’s wife, Angel, was specifically why he needed to get out of here and get his head on straight. Twice, he’d been in charge of her security, and twice, he’d failed. He and Angel were friends, and that made what happened to her that much worse. He needed to understand why he was slipping if he was going to be able to work security for anyone else. He’d handled a few jobs since his last screwup, but they weren’t major ones. He used to be the best of the best when it came to bodyguards, but Kade had been giving him assignments a kindergartener could handle.

“It’s not. I need some time, that’s all. I know we’re busy, but…”

Kade’s eyes widened, and he sat back. “Is this about your assignment roster?”

Jasper stayed silent, and Kade frowned.

“We haven’t been getting a lot of bodyguard jobs, that’s all.”

Jasper nodded, keeping his mouth firmly shut. Kade had given all the major guard cases that had come across their desk to Cole Daniels, the new hire. Jasper didn’t resent Daniels because of it, but he felt useless. He was a Marine, dammit. Marines weren’t useless. It pissed him off, and he needed to get out of here before that anger bubbled out and right at his boss—something he’d regret later.

While Kade hadn’t been the one to hire him, he still respected the man and wanted to earn back Kade’s respect. Jasper had spoken to Viktor, the man who had offered him the job in the first place, and explained he needed some time. Viktor understood. He was a Marine. Kade wasn’t.

“Kade, can I have the time or not?”

“How long do you need off?”

“Six months.”

Kade’s nostrils flared. “How about three months?”

“I wouldn’t have asked for six if I didn’t need six.”

“Fuck.” Kade ran a hand through his hair, a habit he shared with his brother Viktor, co-owner of Kincaid Security & Investigations.

Jasper remained silent, understanding Kade’s irritation. They were getting more business than they could handle, and him asking to be gone for six months was going to handicap them even more.

“Viktor already approved it?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. You can have your six months, but Iwillcall you if there’s an emergency, and I expect you to get your ass back in the office and to work.”

Good luck with that. He planned on turning his cell off and using a burner for the next six months. He wanted to go to ground and fall off the grid for a while. He’d get a new laptop as well so the team couldn’t track him.

He stood and shook Kade’s hand before getting the hell out of Dodge. He didn’t even go back to his apartment. He’d already packed and made all the necessary arrangements. His rent was paid up for the next seven months and the utilities turned off. He swung by his bank long enough to get what he needed out of the safety deposit box—his new identity and some cash. Once he got where he was going, he’d open a new bank account. He took the battery out of his phone and tucked it all away in the bag he was carrying. No more KSI for the foreseeable future.

And he already felt a little freer, like a weight had lifted from his shoulders. Which said a lot about the stress he’d been feeling recently regarding his job.

He went to the train station and boarded his train. He’d had one of his snitches buy the ticket for him last week so it couldn’t be traced back to him. It was in the name of one of his new aliases, one Viktor didn’t know about.

The train ride south was spent reading a book he picked up yesterday. It wasn’t very good, but it passed the time. When they arrived at their destination, he took a taxi to the Charlotte Douglas airport and purchased a ticket to Bismarck, North Dakota. The small town he was going to was about two hours north of Bismarck.

Jarrod McDaniels lived there. He served alongside Jasper in the Marines and had offered him a place to come and hide out. Jarod was still in the service, and his farm was pretty much empty. There were animals there, but Jarrod hired someone to come take care of them when he deployed a few months ago. Jasper told him he’d be happy to take care of the animals while he was there, and Jarrod hadn’t turned him down. Pay in the military wasn’t that great, and the guy hadn’t made sergeant yet, so paying out the kind of money it would take to feed and care for farm animals had to put a hurting on the old bank account.

The peace and quiet of the farm would be a welcome reprieve from New York City. Not that he didn’t love the city, but sometimes, late at night when all he heard were sirens, it brought back old memories of combat that he worked desperately to forget.

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