Page 14 of Jason's Justice
Ilsa laughed, “Jason doesn’t know how to cook. I taught him how to make the coffee earlier.”
“Why?” Kevin asked as he started emptying the bags they’d brought in.
“I work so much, and I can afford to hire a housekeeper, who also cooks for me and puts the meals in the refrigerator with a note for how long to put in the microwave. She also has the coffee pot preprogrammed.” He shrugged. “Sorry, but not sorry. I work like eighteen-hour days, seven days a week. I make thebig, and I mean big bucks, so I hire someone to help out around my house.”
“Do you actually have a house?”
“I do, I actually live in Arlington, VA.” He looked at them with a smirk. “I also have a driver. It’s easier than trying to traverse the streets of DC. The driver is door-to-door. Don’t worry, both my driver and housekeeper are well compensated for. I know you didn’t ask, but I make roughly around the mid-range of seven figures a year. I have no girlfriend, wife, or fiancée. I think it’s been seven or eight years since I was in a serious relationship, but I broke that off really quick.”
“Can we ask why?” Kevin asked as he continued to empty the bags.
“We had only been dating for a little over two months when I started seeing more and more of her things at my place. I had to go out of town on a case, and when I came home, she had completely moved in and she wasn’t home when I arrived. I never told her when I would be returning. I walked into a nightmare.”
“What?” Ilsa asked as she was putting the food away in cupboards. She put the canned goods on the counter and pointed between them and Jason, so he started putting them away.
“A construction crew was there, and as soon as I walked in, they were about to take a sledge hammer to my seventy-five thousand dollar kitchen that I had only completed six months before I met her.”
“Holy shit,” Kevin paused and stared at him in shock. “What did you do.”
“I told them that if they brought that hammer down, I would sue them for everything they owned and their great-great-grandchildren will be paying my estate. The woman in charge got all huffy and said the homeowner wanted to replace themarble countertops with granite. I told her she was lying since I was the homeowner.”
“She told me that the woman I was dating had a signed contract with her. I told her until I saw it, no work would be done in my house. The ex-girlfriend returned home in the middle of the argument and demanded to know what I was doing there. Turned out, she moved herself in, along with her boyfriend, she told everyone I had turned the property over to her. I immediately called the police. The ex, her boyfriend, and the decorator, who was her friend from college wouldn’t leave and were arrested. The construction crew cleared out before I even made the call, taking all their tools with them. I called my housekeeper and together we cleaned all their shit out of my house, I changed the locks, and upgraded to the most current state-of-the-art security system.”
“Wow,” Kevin said as he shook his head and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Did the case go to court?”
“Yes, and I represented myself. Turned out that I had tried cases before that judge before, and he knew how ruthless I could be. At their sentencing, he looked at all three of them and told them just how fucked they were, then he sentenced them each to eighteen months. That’s not all that happened either.”
“What?” Ilsa asked in shock.
“When they were released, the ex-girlfriend started a smear campaign against me on social media.. I waited until there were hundreds of comments, and how could I do something like that, and I got on there and asked only one question.”
“What was that?”
“I asked if I was so horrible, then how come I didn’t go to jail, but they did, and they lost everything, their jobs, their apartments, their business because of their lies. The only other thing I said that it was public information and gave them the case number for the nay sayers and haters to read the truth.Three months later, I had heard from the judge that they were back in jail this time for eight to ten years, because the friends that were bashing me, read the real case, and started a hate campaign against them for lying to the internet. The three assholes went after them with baseball bats. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but their charges were assault and battery, against people, and property damage, I believe, but don’t quote me on it was seven counts. The last time I ever heard from her was she called my office and asked if I would represent her. I laughed so hard I cried. That’s all I did, was laugh, then I hung up on her.”
“If you can say, where did you go?” Kevin asked as he began putting a meal together. “You guys want some spaghetti?” They agreed, but Ilsa had him stop and told Jason to go over next to him. “We will be teaching Jason to cook while we’re here. If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?”
“Fifty-two.”
“Same as me,” Kevin said, and they looked at her with a raised brow, but didn’t ask the question.
“Smart men, but I’m forty-nine. Really, this is the first year of being that age, I swear.” They exchanged laughs and Kevin taught Jason how to brown the meat while the water boiled, and Ilsa set the table for the three of them. It wasn’t until they sat down to eat the spaghetti, salad, and warm breadsticks that Jason took up his tale.
“You asked where I went. I work for the Department of Defense, I’m doing this case because I’ll be basically taking on the establishment of the FBI, not just the two, or three, or five, or so rogue agents out of the Los Angeles office. When I went to my boss about this, after Hank Patterson approached me, he said he had heard wind of others that might be dirty. Because of the caliber of this assignment, I don’t think I have to tell you how hush-hush we have to be. Coming here to Riceman Ranchis good, it’s remote, and we’ll have one of the best military teams ever developed having our back.” He looked at Kevin with a scowl. “Do you think there are any dossiers on the others working here?”
“No, there aren’t, but they are all former military. I’m sure if we have a BBQ tomorrow, they will tell you their story, briefly. That’s what Caleb told me at least. They only tell it if it’s necessary.”
“I love how you can deflect a question,” Ilsa laughed.
“Sorry, nature of the beast. I was overseas actually. There was some information that was extremely troubling, and we needed to get boots on the ground, except it couldn’t be sanctioned by the United States military. It had to be a strictly voluntary mission. It was harrowing because it took two years to complete, but at the end, the threat to world security was eliminated.” He looked at them both. “All I can say is that it was Operation Gold Rush, and the men living on this ranch were involved. At least six of them were. I don’t know about the rest.” He turned to the other two and shook his head. “Classified, way, way, way, above your pay grade.”
“Got it,” they nodded and finished the meal in silence, but it wasn’t tense, it was a pleasurable silence. Ilsa liked that the three of them cleaned up after the meal, and it wasn’t long before they decided to table any discussion of the case, and they sat at the table talking quietly for a couple of hours before calling it a night, stating they would hit the ground running the next morning.
CHAPTER 7
Jason wasthe first one in the kitchen the next morning. As he walked by Ilsa’s room, he heard the shower, and had to quickly hurry away. He liked her, and after spending time with her and Kevin the day before, and on the drive to where they were now, he realized they were friends, but not lovers. He liked that, maybe over the course of this case he could get to know her better. He had just made a pot of coffee, and turned it on when there was knocking at the door. Surprised, he went there, and only opened it a slit. He looked out and saw a beautiful redhead standing there with a basket.
“May I help you?” He was cautious, but looked up when he heard his name called and saw Ryan Carter hurrying over. He opened the door to Ryan, and smiled when the other man shook his head at the woman.
