The 'First' Girlfriend

After: 8

A/N I'M SO SORRY the chapter was late. I'm not completely happy with it and I rewrote it three times AND it's shorter than the recent chapters (at ~4,550) BUT I couldn't keep you guys waiting anymore!!!

Don't forget, I have a twitter and a facebook page if you wanna follow :)

AFTER: Melody

Seeing Piink just a few feet away angered me in a way I couldn't explain.

    And knowing she shared a secret with Jasper filled me up with something else too. Jealous? Maybe.

Dread? Hurt? Fear?

My Jasper conspiring with someone so evil... it turned my stomach. I hadn't kept Jasper from returning to Reyna's as I hoped months ago and I hadn't kept him away from this life, the life he had nothing to do with.

And to remind me of my failure was the fact that Jasper kept a secret so big from me.

He had an assassin on speed dial.

And not just any, but Piink. A ghost in the criminal underworld, and in law enforcement, Piink was responsible for about 200 assassinations. This, of course, were only the ones the government knew about. The ones she wanted them to know about. She was a master criminal at escaping capture, escaping identification but not escaping credit. After her killings, she left her calling card: her signature on something: a wall, a door, a body. Piink with two Is.

It gave me goosebumps. It took everything in me not to jump at her and try to rip that Halloween mask off her face.

I didn't know who the others on the plane were. The agent in me's interest was peaked though. It was to everyone's knowledge that Piink was the sole killer in her assassinations, a lone wolf. But looking at how her team worked, the information had been wrong. Since waking up in the oval office, my head had been in a haze. I don't feel like myself and standing in front of a mystery so big was anything but helpful. But despite that, another part of me wanted to interrogate her about my previous stalker - the recruiter for the underground fight club. Riley and I, mostly Riley, almost had a whole other problem to deal with. And if that wasn't surprising enough, a stranger, someone Piink was looking for, had saved Riley.

The slight change in his demeanor told me all I needed to know. Riley barely spoke about his Black Ops days, only when he wanted to lecture me about choosing this life. But he had seen things and done things that haunted him and the fact that a criminal underground had known and targeted him because of it sent chills down my skin. I couldn't imagine what was going through his head. How close was I to losing him? Too close.

But I forced myself to stay on task. Piink was only going to allow us to know so much. And right now, her connection to Jasper was the only she was giving up willingly and I will have to take it.

"Actually, before I start," Piink said, crossing her arms. "I want to make something clear. Jasper had very little choice in the events of this story so I don't want you to-"

"I don't need you to defend me before you even start, Piink," Jasper said, sending her a small smile. It was a tensed, small smile. I don't know why but the way she was so protected of him... was different. Not romantically, but like an older sister.

Either way, I didn't like it.

She held her hands in defense.

"Fine. Another rule," she said, and I groaned. "No questions. Your new clearance level only gets you so much."

"Fine. Whatever."

Piink was silence for a moment.

"I assume you guys are aware of Jasper's mother's background," she started, "before President Cross took office, while he was campaigning, Mrs. Cross was always getting death threats. She was a federal prosecutor. She put a well-known mobster behind bars and people started following them, attacking their house, her office, on the street. The secret service kept telling her it was handled, that her and her family would be safe and that there was nothing to be worried about."