The Bodyguard

16.

Jasper's Pov

If there was a God, they must be trying to punish me extra hard today.

It was rare that I find myself surrounded my people I hate, but alas, whatever sins I'd racked up over the course of my life were coming back to bite me. Bad karma, if you will.

It was a Friday evening, and since my Mom butchered the scheduling, she'd sent all of our drivers on a break to see their families a few days before they were supposed to.

If at least one driver were here, I suppose I could've sat in silence and wallowed on the three hour drive from New York to D.C.

Maybe even driven Ace to the brink of insanity. It was fun to mess with him.

But since my mom was so insistent on us carpooling for "safety" reasons, I found myself stuck in a car with my siblings, Ace and none other than Bria Levingston.

How my brother managed to sneak his fuck buddy onto a road trip with us in the first place? I couldn't answer that. All I know is his little trysts were going to catch up with him in the end.

I had no desire to expose their affair to my Mom, I'd stopped caring about their relationship a while ago.

I suppose I only backed off because Lucas was smart enough to have thought of some kind of plan.

It may have been slightly more bearable if I wasn't stuck in this god awful suit, but seeing as we had to arrive straight to the fundraiser, we had no other choice to get ready beforehand.

Still, not only was it extremely awkward because of the last interaction I had with poor Bria, with Lucas driving and his escapade in the front, I was quite literally sandwiched in between my sister, who couldn't stop her incessant phone calls to save her life, and Ace, who was falling in and out of sleep so much he may as well not be here.

"I just think there's a better way to go about it, you know?" said Bria from the passenger seat.

When she first got in the car, she'd only shot me a sideways glance before focusing her attention back on Prince Charming. I'd given Lucas the most incredulous look at first, which he matched with a warning.

It was more amusing than anything, watching her pine after my brother.

Ace hadn't mentioned it, so he probably didn't know who she was other than anything besides Lucas's girlfriend, and Leslie was so self-absorbed that she probably hadn't even made the connection yet.

That, or she did and just figured Lucas could handle his own problems.

Leslie was never that invested in our lives, especially when it came to relationships.

She was a lot like our mom, ambitious, smart and power-hungry. When it came to our family, she was overzealous, but not in the same way I was.

Leslie was calculating but sly when doing so, she talked to her friends more than she did us. Maybe in another life, the two of them would've been friends. I suspected that Leslie saw straight through Bria but wouldn't say anything.

I would.

Because her manicured hands were latched to my brother's arm possessively, and I'd never seen him so enamored.

What a fucking joke.

"I just don't know if burning down buildings and smashing windows is the way to get your point across."

I'd involuntarily tuned back into their conversation, and immediately regretted doing so.

How insufferable.