Page 9 of Constantly Cotton
“Jackson Rivers, I presume?” he said, extending a hand.
Rivers gave him a blinding grin and took the hand in a hard shake. “Colonel Constance,” he replied. “It’s a pleasure. I’ve been sending my thanks to you through Burton for far too long.”
Jackson and his boyfriend, Ellery Cramer, had helped Burton and Jason through a lot of shit—and then apparently repaid the help in spades.
Jason managed a one-shouldered shrug. “Thanks are good,” he said, and then, remembering, he felt a grin taking over his expression. “Staying out of the fucking trees would have been better. And oh my God, I cannottellyou how happy you would have made me if you’d managed to keep your mother-in-law in one place that week.”
Rivers threw back his head and laughed. “Oh my God! I’d almost forgotten about that!” he said in delight. “Here I was remembering when you and Burton saved my brother’s life, and I’d forgotten that week Lucy Satan visited and you two had to track us over half of creation so you could try to stop a hit!”
“There was a hit on Ellery’s mother’s life?” Henry asked, and Jason heard the horror in his voice. Well, Henry had gotten to meet the old girl in person, then. She’d had a big enough force of personality through the end of a scope when Jason and Burton had been trying to protect her.
“Longest century of mylife,” Jackson confirmed, shaking his head. “About a month before you and I met. God. But yeah, Colonel Constance here—”
“Jason,” he said, feeling like his rank was overkill in this little room.
“Jason,” Jackson said with a nod. “He’s kept Ellery and me alive on more than one occasion. If I’m not mistaken, the entire reason Ellery didn’t die when we got tangled up with that thing in the desert was thanks to Jason’s help with transpo and running interference with the authorities.” He met Jason’s eyes again, grave and grateful. “There really aren’t enough thanks in the world.” Those green eyes gave a twinkle. “But I can’t promise you about staying out of trees. My brother’s adopting the kid I chased up there. I have the feeling shitty grades aren’t going to be the only reason he climbs trees.”
Jason groaned and felt a warmth in his stomach. He’d followed this man and his family often enough that he felt… attached to them. He’d told himself it was a stupid, pointless attachment. It wasn’t like they knew who he was or cared.
But apparently Jackson and Ellery didn’t take their safety for granted.
Jason didn’t get a lot of thanks in his job—it was nice, right now, to know he’d helped a good man.
“Well,” he said, trying not to get too sentimental, “let me know if you’re going to be doing it when I’m on guard duty. I’ll be sure to send Burton instead.”
Rivers laughed and then sat on the bed across from him. “By the way, I’m not sure if your nurse told you when you woke up, but Burton isn’t here because he’s staking you out. Did you know that?”
Jason nodded. “Smart man,” he rasped. “Tell me what went down the day I got here, and I’ll tell you who we have to worry about.”
Jackson gave a snort of laughter. “Okay, so what you need to know is this. The kids in that bus were abducted by a guy named Ziggy—”
“Seriously?” Jason interrupted. He wasn’t usually chatty, but… Ziggy?
“Right?” Rivers said, and Henry exclaimed almost at the same time. “Fuckin’ Ziggy!”
“Anyway, Ziggy was bad news,” Jackson continued. “And part of being bad news was starting a gang war between Alexei Kovacs and Dima Siderov. And the shit Ziggy did to make that happen would”—his voice dropped a little—“break your heart.”
By his side, Henry nodded soberly, and Jackson continued. “Ziggy had a partner in mayhem—two, in fact. Dietrich and Karina Schroeder, both of whom wanted the gang war to happen so they could take over Dima’s branch here in Sacramento. The shipment of kids that you helped to intercept was meant as a payment to Alexei for sending his guys up here to help take over Dima’s operation. You all with me here?”
Everybody in the room nodded their heads, except Henry, who said, “Now tell him about the monkey wrenches.”
“Monkey wrenches?” Lance asked, full of suspicion.
“Somany monkey wrenches,” Rivers confirmed. “The first monkey wrench was that Ziggy killed off Dima’s nephew to cover his tracks. That put Ellery and me on his ass because he tried to pin it on an innocent kid, and stopping that shit is what we do.”
Jasonhmmd, knowing that was true. It was one of the reasons he and Lee Burton kept an eye on Jackson Rivers and Ellery Cramer—good men were hard to find.
“The other monkey wrench you know about,” Rivers said. “That was the shipment of kids getting intercepted and lost in the desert. Or, you know, returned to their homes, as it were.”
“Were they?” Jason asked hungrily. God—please. Please let that terrible drive through the desert not have been in vain.
“Yeah,” Rivers told him, voice dropping like he knew why this was important. “They were returned to their families. You did good. What you may not know is that after Jai and Ace left you in the desert to transport the kids, they went and met Burton.”
Jason closed his eyes, remembering. “They were supposed to get rid of the RV the kids came in,” he said.
Rivers nodded. “They did. They blew it up. They blew it up right as it crashed into Alexei Kovacs’s mansion, killing Kovacs and his second-in-command. So remember that power takeover that was brewing up here?”
Jason stared at him. “Oh my God.”
