If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done. – John Lubbock

I just never imagined she could face something bigger than her. – Jase

After grabbing some clothes for Briel, the trio stopped by the burned-out shell of her apartment in the hope that Briel could retrieve something – anything – from the wreckage of her home. Jase watched her walk away; as he noted her confident stride, he wondered that anyone had succeeded in sabotaging her apartment while she lay asleep in it.

Still, beneath her anger and determination, a shadow of her despair painted her expression. Jase understood completely. How many times had he lost everything? So many that he had stopped possessing anything. Easier to let go of things he didn't care about in the first place.

The warmth washed over him before he processed the feeling of the hand on his arm.

“Jase?” came Nessa's anxious query, and he turned to face the deep coffee-brown eyes. Like Briel, Nessa seemed angry, but Jase could see just a thin film of tears that had been wiped away. So much passion for her friend, he realized.

“What is it?” he offered in a soothing tone.

“When we were in Mexico...” Nessa hesitated, as if she didn't know whether or not to continue. Then the words rushed out as if Nessa feared that Briel would overhear her. “This isn't the first time someone targeted Briel.”

“I wouldn't expect so, with all the enemies she's made over the years.”

“No.” Nessa shook her head. “I mean, right now. In Mexico City, someone kidnapped Briel.”

If not for the gravity of their current situation, Jase would have thought Nessa was joking. “That's not possible,” he asserted. “With your entire team around her?”

“It was in the middle of the night. Everyone was sleeping, and when we woke up, Briel had disappeared. We all thought that she had gone on some solo recon, because not long after that, our target showed up unharmed in a nearby church.” Though he knew that everyone had weaknesses, he couldn't imagine Briel in such a compromised position. She'd kill before she'd let someone kidnap her.

“She managed to escape,” Nessa continued, “but she has no idea who orchestrated her capture. All she knows is that she heard a woman negotiating the release of Emilia Alvares.”

“So, you think a woman did this?” Jase asked incredulously.

Almost sounding insulted, Nessa begged. “Why not?”

“Don't be offended,” Jase replied with a smirk. “I'm not a sexist. I'm thinking more of physiological differences. Most women would find it difficult to drag a full-grown woman out of a building without making a lot of noise. Heck, most men would find it difficult.”

Nessa seemed mollified, and she ran her fingers through her hair as she considered the new information. “I imagine you're right, though Briel is small, and some of the women on the team are very strong. Still, the only women in our group were Ginny and I, and Ginny is smaller than Briel. Since I didn't do it...”

For a moment, Nessa said nothing else, and Jase stared at the shell of the burnt-out garage where Briel dug through her mostly intact car. “Does she have any idea who did?” he finally asked. “Do you know what she's doing to find out?” Jase asked the second question, though he thought he could guess the answer. If something similar happened to Jase, he would begin systematically investigating the possible suspects and eliminate them one by one.

“Well, I'm not sure if she's doing anything. She seemed pretty shaken.” Nessa looked worried. “I mean, she wouldn't tell me much, so I don't really know.”

“Give me a minute,” Jase begged, turning from Nessa and making his way several feet across the yard to a tech who gathered samples from the windowsill of Briel's first-floor garage.

“Find anything interesting?” he queried as soon as the fireman could hear him. Jase then sauntered forward confidently as if he belonged there.

As Jase had expected, the tech didn't seem to wonder at the unexpected presence, and instead just answered, “Well, it’s hard to tell because the fire was so hot in this apartment, but there were a couple of shorts that seemed too convenient to be accidental. The sprinkler system and the alarm system showed evidence of fraying that doesn’t line up with fire damage.”

“Could they have shorted out because of the fire? Maybe a power surge?”

“To get that kind of surge, you have to have a pretty hot electrical fire somewhere. This looks like the fire was just conventional – no burned-out wires in the walls or floors save the alarm and sprinklers.”

“No evidence of lit candles or anything like that?”

“Nope. All the candles we found were stored neatly in a cabinet – melted by the heat, but protected from the fire because they were on the periphery of the room.”

Just as inexplicable as Briel's kidnapping. Jase studied the ground near the tech without taking in anything before him. How could someone do all of this without arousing Briel from slumber? Had she been drugged? How had she gotten out? Jase realized he didn't know near enough to decide anything.

Frustrated, he tensed to rise, but his subconscious arrested the motion before he recognized the reason. Three feet in front of him, he noticed the odd projection that peeked through a cluster of grass merely inches behind the tech. Rather than point it out, Jase rose and walked toward the tech.

““Thanks,” Jase offered as if he held some position of interest. “We’ll let you know if we find anything.” He watched as the tech peered up with a distracted smile before returning to his work. As Jase turned, he nudged the little object from its hiding place and stooped unceremoniously to grab it up from the ground. He dared not look at it yet lest some official investigator rein him in.

“Jase!” Nessa's voice rescued him from indecision. Smiling up at her, Jase thanked the tech and strolled to where the two women now awaited him. He led them to his car and opened their door. After seating himself in the driver's seat, he turned to confront Briel. “What's going on?” he demanded. He needed more details.

“What do you mean?” She spoke evenly, as if unwilling to betray her irritation. No weakness, Jase explained to himself. In her position, she could not afford to seem out of control.

“Someone shorted out your sprinkler and alarm systems,” he informed her as he turned the car onto the access road. “Very professionally done. It looked like something we might do if we had a reason.” We meaning the team. Professionals, not a disgruntled ex-con. Jase had moved beyond that theory.

Briel, though, seemed unwilling to give him anything. “You said it yourself.” She threw his words from an earlier conversation back at him. “Someone is out to get me. I'm responsible for the imprisonment of several dozen highly-trained criminals. Any one of them could have done this. There are lots of people who have reasons to hate me.”

On the last sentence, Briel had leveled a look at him that communicated her suspicion of him. Not that he could blame her after Banff and Italy. Then he shows up at her doorstep? Well, he would help her where she would let him, but nothing he could say would convince her – she thought he was some amoral superspy, and there was just enough truth in the reputation that he couldn’t exactly prove otherwise. Just not where she was concerned.

He didn't know why he cared at all what she did, but it bothered him to think that Briel would just brush her troubles under the rug. Troubles that would no doubt get her killed if she ignored them.

As he returned his gaze to the rear-view mirror, a sudden movement drew his eye to the road behind his Astin Martin. A dark colored SUV had careened rapidly behind the trio and seemed to have latched onto their tail.

“Fasten your seatbelts,” he commanded flatly and increased his speed as much as he dared on the dark four-lane road they had entered.

For several minutes, the truck pushed toward them, and just as Jase spotted the exit he sought, the pursuer closed the distance, swiping the sports car on the back left bumper. Jase swore.

“What's going on?” Nessa demanded.

“Seems to me someone is upset that the fire didn't finish Briel,” Jase offered. “Watch for Bandera. Our pursuer will have more trouble maneuvering there.”

Jase heard a huff from the backseat. “How can you be sure he's after me?” Briel retorted.

“Are you purposely being dense, Briel? Or are you just unwilling to admit that you're in trouble?” He was losing patience with her stubbornness.

“Maybe it’s someone trying to rescue me…” Her words were cut off by Jase’s sudden lurch to evade the pursuer. Fighting the swerve, he managed to pull off the highway and back onto the access road.

He suddenly remembered his tackle box. He pointed to the floor under Nessa’s feet. “Grab the disruptor just in case he's got a tracker.”

Nessa reached down for the box, and Jase riveted his eyes back to the road. “Done,” she announced a moment later. “But from his range, he doesn't need electronic means to track us.”

The chase continued for a couple of miles until Nessa suddenly leaned her arm expressively over the open window. “Over there!” she commanded.

Jase jerked the car immediately onto the road that intersected the highway, continuing several feet until he could whip around the wide median and head back the other direction. Though the SUV mounted the median, it slowed significantly to accomplish the move, and Jase gained the other side of the highway before the truck could traverse the curb and readjust.

Immediately, Jase hooked a right down a fairly straight, tree-shaded road and continued on it for half a mile before turning off onto several side-streets. After ten minutes, he pulled the car to a stop and silenced the engine. Everyone in the car seemed to hold his breath for several seconds, but after a while, their breathing returned, and Jase insisted that they move any assessment of their situation to Jase's more secure apartment.

“We should be safe for a few minutes,” Jase asserted. “He might have figured out the first road, but we made too many subsequent turns for him to ferret out our location. We need to regroup.”

“Do you want to head back to my place?” Nessa offered. “I doubt we're in any imminent danger that would require us to stay on the road.”

“Just in case, no, I don't want to go to your place. I don't want anyone following us there and turning you into a target. Since Briel no longer has a 'place,' we can just go to my apartment. I have decent security for an apartment complex, plus I have added some measures of my own to ensure total privacy.”

Briel seemed just about done with the excitement. “Let's make it sooner rather than later. Only a few roads lead east from the loop in this part of town. If he decided to peruse them, he might happen upon this one.”

“Surely, he wouldn't do that,” Nessa soothed. “This attack definitely relied on surprise, and that is pretty much destroyed.”

“You're right, Nessa,” Jase allowed. “But I agree with Briel, too. I don't want to stick around. Even though this seems like the work of a lone agent, we would be better served in a more protected environment, just in case.”

“Do you have ideas beyond heading back to your place?” Briel wondered. rt.

“A few.” he said calmly. “But there's no rush. Nessa, reach into the glovebox and grab Briel my burner phone. We will be better served to stay calm and think rationally.” He checked over his shoulder and eased back onto the road, heading north to circle around to his apartment.

Once they reached his place, Jase seated himself on the couch, prepared to interrogate Briel about the day's events. When Nessa began to remove the contents of his refrigerator, however, he lost his train of thought. It seemed presumptuous for her to entertain out of his kitchen, but she seemed completely at home there. Too, she seemed intent on making everyone feel comfortable, and Jase stopped to smile at her as she offered a drink to not only Briel, but also to him.

“Scotch?” she queried, somehow remembering Jase's choice of drink from her one other time in his apartment. She was…impressive.

“Just some iced tea, please. It's in the fridge,” he responded. Nothing as strong as scotch since he would need a clear head. He felt a bit like a caveman when he realized how pleasing it felt to watch her serve him. Unfortunately, the sensation in his rational mind more closely approached irritation than pleasure.

Jase said nothing for several seconds, just taking in the sight of Nessa as she prepared the three drinks. When he became aware of his gawking, he decided to reign himself in before Briel began to suspect him of some real interest in Nessa.

“Briel,” he refocused his eyes on the petite blond. “You have to have some idea who is doing this. Think about what you've done lately; have you made any new enemies?”

The last question caused an irrational tightening of Briel's jaw, and Jase could see that she did not want to discuss her suspicions with him.

“Based on what happened in Mexico, I’m going with ProtoComm,,” she hedged.

“What about your Team?” he pressed. “They had means and opportunity.”

“Opportunity, but not motive,” Briel insisted. “Most of the people I recruited for the mission have little knowledge of me outside of a few meetings. Only Nessa and Liam know me on more than a surface level.”

“Well, obviously not Nessa. So, what about Liam? How the hell did you end up at his place? Did you go there last night?”

“I didn’t spend the night there, if that’s what you’re asking. He took me there after he pulled me out of the fire.”

That seemed suspicious. “Maybe after setting it. He seemed pretty upset that you broke off your relationship.”

“Why bother saving me after he set my place on fire?”

Jase shrugged. “To force you to move in with him. To get you into his clutches.”

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“Clutches?” Briel mocked, and Jase laughed at himself.

It had been a rather dramatic choice of words, still he thought it likely that she was in some form of denial. “He looked much more possessive than protective when we showed up,” he explained.

“I’m keeping all options open.”

Narrowing his eyes, Jase tried to read her expression. “But you don't think it’s him...”

She just lifted her chin in answer.

“Who knew you were going to Mexico? Or even, who knew you were going on a mission at all?”

“That's about it: the Team recruits, you, Sara, whoever hired us...obviously someone connected to ProtoComm.”

For several minutes, Jase wracked his brain before remembering the possibility. “What about that guy who contacted you on the computer. Did you tell him anything?”

“Nothing,” came the immediate response. Jase couldn't tell if her quick answer grew from its truth or from a desire to disguise the truth. Either way, he forgot his concerns when Briel next spoke. “I haven't been totally honest with you,” she offered hesitantly, and Jase glanced up from his thoughts. “I’m not sure who helped kidnap me in Mexico, but I can guess who might have set the fire at my apartment. The two events may not be directly related.”

“How is that possible?” Nessa queried, carrying the drinks in and setting them on the coffee table.

“Well, remember how I didn't tell you everything about what happened in Mexico?” she offered.

“Yes,” Nessa allowed.

“I heard some information in Mexico that would make me a much bigger target now than I was when I arrived there. One of Jack's thugs mentioned calling Henry, and then I heard Jack talking to a 'Mr. Henry' while on the phone. So, they know I heard that Henry is still running ProtoComm.”

“What?” Jase couldn't fully contain his shocked expression. The juxtaposition of events suddenly made much more sense, though he should have seen the connection before. What had Perry said? Someone of your acquaintance...a coworker.

Certainly, the technical savvy necessary to target Briel seemed in line with ProtoComm's abilities. Beyond that, the kidnapping, like the fire, required more than just criminal wiliness.

The person who Jack wanted to eradicate, the one who knew that Bill still lived, now sat before Jase in his living room. Briel Cortes.

“Of course, when I escaped, so did that information, and if Henry wants to stay below the radar, he won't want me out here spreading the news. He may not have instigated my capture, but I bet Bill Henry is involved with trying to burn down my apartment, and maybe even with sending someone to run me off the road. If that's the case, all he needs is someone competent and greedy. Since I don't really know the personal character of most of my teammates, that description may describe any of them.”

Interesting that the ProtoComm decision-makers had questioned Jase's loyalty concerning Briel. Maybe because he had left with her when the team left Bill’s cabin? It seemed like they hadn’t bought his story quite as much as Perry had intimated.

Still, Jase had always fostered a darker reputation than he deserved. There were stories about his clever criminal escapades – some stories he had perpetuated through Amélie. Conversely, he always carefully avoided the darker side of business, instead contenting himself with taking money for knowledge or skill on specific assignments.

If he had a mantra, it was, “That’s not my business. Just tell me what I need to know.” Still, though, maybe his readiness to cut off discourse was an attempt at willful ignorance.

A twinge of guilt stirred in Jase's gut as he realized that he had provided the schematic for Briel's security system, and his contribution likely resulted in the fire.

If he had paid any attention, he would have recognized the system he had hacked, and he would have realized that it protected not only Briel's apartment, but also Nessa's and every other operative's on the Team.

The possibility made his head pound.

He had to get away from the team. By his intention, he did not owe loyalties – to anyone. Jase could not let himself worry about someone else’s safety or determine his success by protecting other people. Once before, he had tried it. When Jase's father had knocked Meg down the stairs, Jase had tried to catch her and failed. After that, he had written tragedy off as unavoidable, and he would only interfere with it if it fell into his path.

Since his father had been able to maintain his reputation despite his vileness, Jase judged the world, believing it consisted of pretend honest people who pretended at honesty to serve their pretend world of respectability.

Jase's father had played the game better than most, keeping his public persona as pristine and respectable as any church pastor. A good thing, Jase knew, because during his tenure in Jase's life, Paul Peterson had dabbled in the religious profession for several years. Jase's family, as a result, had learned to wear the face that most appealed to the “congregation.”

Behind the scenes, however, Paul had run the house by intimidation and fear. To hear a man quote a verse from the Bible had always sent shivers down Jase's spine. Still, most other men he had observed at least tried to match their lives with their preaching, but Paul Peterson could never manage to leave behind his anger in favor of the mercy he preached to others.

Maybe the Millers, Jase now realized, had so attracted him because they seemed in genuine possession of what he had wanted to believe as a child. Sure, Felicity had the same doubts as so many other women in her situation, and Jase knew better than most how to exploit that weakness.

Felicity, though, had resisted him. Selfless to the end, she had chosen her children over her own personal fulfillment, and even though it cost Jase more than he could have imagined, he only admired her more for the choice she had made.

Jase couldn't process the reality.

His own mother would have made excuses for Paul – did make excuses after Meg's death. Of course, Paul hadn't intended to kill Meg, and no one could have predicted how violently she would have reacted when Paul reached out to grab her by the shoulders.

Meg's own reaction caused her demise, but if Paul hadn't always made her so afraid, Meg wouldn't have flailed so wildly. Jase could still picture the horror on the faces of his mother and father as Meg tumbled in slow motion down the stairs. Too, Jase could feel her in his own arms as he dashed to the bottom step and caught her head before it crashed to the tile floor. Too late, of course. Some strange twist in her fall had fractured her fourth vertebra and rendered her unable to draw a breath.

According to Jase's mother, Paul had done nothing wrong. Though only fifteen at the time, Jase had instinctively recognized her denial, and he had, from that moment on, hated her for her weakness. As Paul justified his own actions, she had nodded in agreement, sympathy washing over her, not for her daughter, but for her daughter's killer. Jase knew the truth. His mother had defended her husband from selfishness and fear, not forgiveness. She wouldn't live without her “man” regardless of how he deserved abandonment.

Felicity was the complete opposite of his own mother. She had seen Brendon for who he was, and when his actions would hurt his children, she protected the innocent. When her own preferences would have hurt her children, she protected the innocent.

For a moment, his thumb stroked absentmindedly along the smooth wood grain of the object in his pocket. With the car chase, he had almost forgotten the little article he had removed from Briel's yard. He pulled it from his pocket and studied it for a second, shielding it from the eyes of the women who still spoke a few feet from him. His initial instinct had attributed the craftsmanship to somewhere in the far east.

“...only if I can put something together to beef up your security,” the words pulled him from his reverie, and he shoved the sliver back into his pocket. He glanced over at the wing-backed chair across from him just in time to take in the intense look that Briel had leveled at Nessa. Briel, at least, intended to keep Jase out with everyone else. Whatever kept Nessa safe, he realized with a measure of shock.

“I can do that,” he insisted to Nessa. “If Briel is going to move in with you, even for a few days, I need to do some serious work on your system.” To undo what I did before...

“Of course, I have no objection,” Nessa allowed. “I just...”

“I have to go,” the words burst from Jase's mouth before he thought about them, and Nessa seemed more shocked than bothered by the interruption.

“What do you mean?” she protested.

“I’ll be back to work on the system before dark, but there are some people who need to know that Henry is still in play, some acquaintances who need to improve their security.” There are people I need to grill for information, and I’m the only one who can do it, he admitted silently. “Bill Henry made lots of enemies over the years, and he can't afford to leave loose ends. That would certainly explain why someone is trying to kill you, Briel. Henry can't afford more exposure, and he knows what you're capable of.”

“You have to stay at my place,” Nessa declared, immediately pulling her eyes from Jase's face to Briel's. “Don't look for an apartment just yet. You need someone around to help you.”

At Briel's look of shock, Jase almost laughed aloud. Apparently, Briel didn't expect anyone to feel protective of her – Jase certainly wouldn't have expected it. Yet, whether or not she knew it, she had two people who would protect her. “Nessa's right, Briel. I don't doubt that you could handle a lone assailant, but you're talking about the power of ProtoComm here. Even worse, you're talking about Bill Henry and his well-oiled machine.”

Briel stared at him, fire in her eyes. “And I'm not talking about handling anyone. Now that I know what is going on, I can be on my guard. Besides, if I can't handle Henry, what makes you think you can.”

“I told you,” Jase diverted her attention from her own pride. “I still retain some connections from my ProtoComm days. I'll search them out and see if I can find any information.”

As the trio headed toward Jase's car, anxiety crept over the back of his neck. He would leave Briel to her own devices – she could take care of herself – but what if Nessa might inadvertently end up in the crosshairs that Bill had aimed at Briel? Despite Nessa's confidence, the agent seemed to lack the killer instinct that could protect herself, much less herself and Briel.

Of course, she had made it onto the team, so she apparently possessed some sort of resources. When he stared across the room at her - at the curve of her hips, the softness of her form, the humility in her stature – Jase could not believe Nessa capable of any real fight. If she ran into trouble, how much could she really do?

The thought tagged along on the ride to Nessa's apartment, and when he had seen them to the doorstep, Jase couldn't tear himself away. Instead, he took up post across the street on the other side of a well-treed lot.

For the next few hours, he kept vigil while he planned his subsequent move. With Bill after Briel, Jase had to make a choice. How much did he feel his debt to Briel?

How much was he willing to sacrifice for her sake? In all honesty, he didn't think much. Maybe he had not quite lost the romanticism that had made him victim to Felicity's allure. Maybe he had started to believe that someone like Bill shouldn't hold as much power as he did, but would he put his reputation – and maybe even his life – on the line for some noble aspirations to justice? He did not know.

A moonless night had settled over the gentle swells of the Texas hills, and Jase could see nothing. Fortunately for him, though, Briel did not realize his handicap because a few minutes after two in the morning he saw Briel's shadow silhouette blacker against the inky darkness.

“What are you doing, Briel?” Jase threw out into the night.

He watched Briel turn, crouched as if ready for a fight. The flash of a gun reflected against the lamplight, and Jase raised his hands. “Can we take this battle somewhere else?” Briel demanded.

Surprised, Jase realized how fully she had grown to mistrust him. Can I blame her? “I hope there’s not going to be a battle…but if there has to be, it will be here, because I’m not abandoning Nessa to whatever demons are haunting you right now.”

Because she had moved into a swath of lamplight, he could see her stance soften. “So, if I just run away, you’ll let me go?”

Would respond even to the name? “Lili, I don’t want to let you go, but there aren’t a lot of choices here.”

“It would hardly be ‘letting me go.’” The defiance was back.

“Because you have that gun pointed at me? You and I both know it would take a lot for you to shoot me…” At least, he prayed she hadn’t lost all hope for his redemption. Even if she had, though, he might have tried. “…and if I thought stopping you was the right thing to do, bullets wouldn’t keep me from trying. But I’m going to let you go, even if I shouldn’t. I’m letting you walk out into an unknown situation with a target on your back, but until you have been gone a while, at least a shadow of that target will rest on Nessa. I know your capability for taking care of yourself, though we all need help sometimes…”

“What about the message?” she queried, and Jase’s mind began to filter through possible meanings.

“Message?”

“On the phone you gave me. Some weird app, and I got a message.”

So many inexplicable occurrences happening around Briel, and Jase could only imagine they stemmed from ProtoComm. If not the government, who else besides ProtoComm held the kind of knowledge and resources to wreak so much havoc on her? He began to doubt his resolution to let her go. “Will you let me see it?” he wondered.

“And give you my only current means of communication? No, thanks.”

“Then I can’t really help you figure out what it is. Maybe the message was meant for me, though I didn’t have any alternative messaging apps on my burner phone.” He understood her reluctance, and her attitude decided him. He didn’t have the heart to fight her and risk leaving Nessa alone, though he didn’t let himself ask why.

“Guess I’ll just have to take my chances that whoever sent it can’t track me. I won’t have this phone long anyway, so it won’t do my tracker much good.”

Jase smiled. She was all suspicion. “I’ll just pray you make it to the airport or bus station without hitting a problem, then.”

“Because…you care? Do you actually expect me to believe that?”

Despite the pang of guilt her words caused, he glanced up at her with hope, lowering his hands to his sides as a sign that he was done with the battle – that he trusted her. Maybe she was still a little open to trusting him – if he played his cards right. “Lili, you don’t trust me, and I know I’ve earned that, but I don’t want anything to happen to you. If I hadn’t…” Here goes. “I hate to bring up ancient history, but I haven’t missed all of your pointed comments the last couple of weeks. I’ve known since Quantico that you didn’t trust me for a long time, and that was a good thing – no one should trust me. Even after Quantico, you trusted me way too much until Italy.”

“I don’t think there’s much to say about Italy.”

Was she kidding? “But I need to apologize! I mean, I could apologize for when we first met, but I kind of think you understand that a little better now. But Italy can’t be explained away.”

“You don’t owe me an explanation.” He knew she didn’t mean it.

“Of course, I do, more than I have owed anyone anything, outside my family. I…that was one of the worst days of my life, watching what they did to you. You were my friend – my sister, in a way, and I just stood there.” The memory stabbed him with guilt. “I was in so deep, and had I interfered, I not only would have exposed a weeks-long mission; I would have gotten both of us killed. I came for you as soon as I felt certain I could get you out, and I was afraid I had waited too long to save you. But there you were, still raging like a little badger.” He could still see the tiny monster that launched itself at him when he opened the door, and a smile brushed across his lips at the vision.

“So, why not tell me this at the time? Why claim it was for money?”

Because I was an egotistical, insecure bastard. “You know me, Briel. Everything is for money – or at least, it was back then. I was still young. I had a reputation, and I didn’t want anyone thinking I was playing the hero.”

“Not even me?”

The question explained so much. Apparently, she had considered him a true friend, or the betrayal wouldn’t have rung so deep. She had been a friend to him, though the reverse had not proved particularly true at the time. “Especially not you. People respected you, and you are as honest as someone in our business can be. I knew what you believed about me would spread to the community, and I needed to feed a reputation as mercenary. It was an opportunity to put some distance between us, too, and I thought I would just take advantage of the situation to nail that coffin closed.”

“You certainly did that,” she leveled. “So, you’re going to claim you’re not a mercenary…?”

“I am, I guess. Or was. More cynical and less mercenary, to be honest, because I had zero faith in mankind. But you know my story…I met Felicity.” Even the admission brought him pain, partially at the memory and partially at what it meant. How weak had he become?

“And your faith in mankind was restored?” Briel mocked.

Jase barely restrained a laugh. He deserved that, too. “You laugh, but it’s pretty much true. There were things that had happened to me in life, and I had let them crush my idealism. Felicity kind of brought that back.”

“And Nessa?”

“Nessa is…” He blew out a breath, not sure himself why he was doing what he was doing. “…something I have not encountered before. And I will admit, I find her interesting.”

“I don’t think your being interested is good for her.”

“It would be bad if I intended to do anything about it, but all I’ll use my interest to do is to keep me around long enough for your demons to go scattering.”

“Assuming I believe you…” Briel clicked her tongue. “…maybe it’s okay for you to keep up the interest for a while, but I recommend you not be reckless about it. If you screw with her, you will have me to deal with.”

“While I would like to laugh at the thought, I know how resourceful you are. I might wake up one morning to find that if I move, all my fingernails will rip off.”

Though Briel scoffed, she knew it was true, and she would certainly take him on if she needed to.

“But I don’t…” he continued. “I don’t intend to have any effect on Nessa whatsoever. I just intend to make sure she’s safe, which also involves minimizing her vulnerability to me – like I did for you. That’s a mistake I won’t repeat.”

“That I get. It’s exactly why I’m leaving. I'm not dragging Nessa into my death-trap.”

So, he would let Briel go, for Nessa’s sake. Some friend. “I don't particularly want her involved either, but… do you have any idea where you’ll go? You don’t have family – at least not that you’re close to. And your friends?” Or lack thereof.

“I have resources outside the team. You haven’t been around the past few years. I’m not isolated.”

“I’m not trying to stop you; I just figured if you were going out on your own, I could offer some direction.” He raised his hands again, in concession.

“So, you want me to leave? At least, you know I'm doing the right thing…that this is what you would do?”

“I would,” he smiled coolly, the urgent appearance of concern finally easing. “Though it's wrong of me to let you go.” Jase laughed internally – he could almost smell Briel’s defiance at the words “let you.”

“I'll let you know if I need your help.” She paused, considering some unspoken idea. “Just…you know who the real target here is, and it’s not Nessa. I’m not planning to check on her or contact her in any way once I’m gone, so it would be pointless for someone who knew that to target her to get to me.”

“I know, Liliane – but I’m going to make sure/” It bothered Jase that he cared, that his conscience compelled him to keep tabs on Nessa – she was just another Meg, weaker and more innocent and unwilling to take care of herself. Briel’s sigh brought him back to the real world.

“Can’t you let me give you a ride?” he offered, though he knew Briel would refuse.

Briel smiled. “Not a chance. Whoever is after me is monitoring me pretty closely, and if that's the case, they'll come looking for me here. You need to watch out for Nessa.”

“Done.”

With an approving nod, Briel ended the conversation, turning away from Jase and disappearing into the darkness. He felt a slight twinge of concern as he watched her. Still, he couldn't bring himself to regret letting her go, not when Briel's absence contributed to Nessa's safety.

Conflicted, Jase turned from his last view of Briel to pin his eyes onto Nessa's shrouded home, ready in an instant to interfere, not on behalf of the woman pursued, but on the woman he suddenly didn't want to leave on her own. He wondered what Felicity would think.