Page 37 of Shadow Burn

“What?”

“That you’ll listen to me when I warn you about danger and follow my instructions. I know this world. I know what I’m doing. This isn’t the Archive.”

His hand was warm and calloused. She should let go, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She licked her lips and sucked in her bottom one. “I promise.”

The corner of his mouth moved in a slight smile. “Good. Come on.”

Still holding her hand, he continued the tour. The common area had a couch, a television mounted above a cold fireplace, and a stack of board games on the shelf. There was a gaming system and an assortment of comfy-looking chairs and beanbags. “Do you play?” she asked, gesturing to it.

“When one of the others goads me into a game. Do you?”

“Just board games with my nieces. Candyland and Mermaid Island are favorites. But I’m a mean ping-pong player.” Memories of her and Emma playing for hours as young girls flashed through her head. “It’s been a while, though.”

“Ping-pong?”

“Yeah, you know, table tennis?”

“I know what it is. I happen to have been quite the champ when I was seven.”

She grinned. “Is that so? Too bad you don’t have a table here or I’d challenge you to a match.”

“Be careful what you wish for.” He winked. “I might have to requisition one from Vivi.”

“She would purchase a table just because you want to play me?”

He shrugged. “If I tell her it’s for my mental health, she’ll have one delivered before sundown tomorrow.”

They walked on. The residential wing stretched ahead, doors closed, the corridor dim. The wire in her chest was loosening. “I know about your mom and your dad,” she said. “But I don’t know how you got from Washington State to here.”

He walked a few steps before answering. “I went into the Navy at eighteen. I had my eye on submarine school. There’s something about that environment that always appealed to me. The quiet, the contained world, the precision of slicing through the water.”

“I sense a but coming.”

He was quiet long enough that she thought he might not answer. “My best friend, Deacon, and I were going to go to subs together after high school. We’d been planning it for years. We had a pact.”

She heard the past tense and braced herself. “It didn’t work out?”

His face went tight. He released he hand. “No. Complicated story.”

She didn’t reach for him. She’d learned that lesson. “What did you do instead?”

“I still joined the Navy, and eventually, I ended up going through BUD/S and becoming a SEAL.”

She blinked. “You were a SEAL?”

“Gave it six years.”

“And now you’re here.”

“Vivi offered me a tech room and a quiet life. I thought it was the closest thing to a submarine I was going to find on dry land.”

They’d reached the far end of the residential corridor. She could see the turn that led back toward her room.

Jasper slowed as if stretching out their arrival. “I keep the compound secure. I run comms for the others when they’re on protective details. I’m their eyes on the camera feeds. I research targets, and I have, on occasion, gone with one of them on a detail when they needed an extra body, but I’m not the one going first through doors anymore. I did enough of that in the teams.”

“You went through mine tonight.”

He glanced at her. “That was different.”