"Bobby! Hey- get uh- what do you want? What do you drink?" Jack turned back towards me, his eyes meeting the movement of his head a second later in a drunken haze. "A bottle of champagne- we're celebrating!" He grabbed the back of the groom-to-be's head and shook it enthusiastically. "Bobby! Champagne- no don't cheap out on me man- I'll fucking pay! You see-" he glanced back to me. "This is what I have to put up with. I'll pay though, that's the kind of man I am- Bobby! Order it and I'll pay, stop being a fucking cheapskate! I'm sorry about this- sorry about him, I have to deal with these oafs, you know it's..."

"Jack, I don't mean to be rude but I really have to go," I leaned closer to him than I'd have liked to so I could raise my voice enough for him to hear.

"No! No- look-" A fluted glass passed through several hands and into Jack's, a large wine cooler topped with a bottle of champagne following immediately after and he seized it triumphantly, pressing the glass into my hand. "See- you can't leave now." He topped the glass off shakily, missing his aim and allowing the gold liquid to slosh onto the floor. "There- drink, enjoy," he implored, nudging my hand back towards my face. Droplets of the carelessly poured drink fell from my fingertips as I held the glass reluctantly, sipping politely as the rest of the group shared the bottle between them.

"Jack, I really have to-"

"Alright, alright!" He exclaimed, rolling his eyes and turning his back to me. "Next! Guys, we gotta move on, let's go to Little Club and shoot some pool- no- the cab's coming at eleven it'll take us straight to the strip joint- down your drinks- Seth!"

I left Jack's hollers in the background as I pushed open the door, filling my lungs with cool fresh air in relief. I paced quickly to the car, almost eager to face whatever fury Jase would direct at me if it meant I was back and away from the messy mistake that had been this evening.

I reached the car and fumbled in my bag for the keys, aware of the sound of advancing stumbled footsteps and drunken laughter behind me.

"You're driving?" Jack narrowed his eyes and swayed towards me away from his pride of friends.

"I've really only had one shot, only a couple of sips of other drinks and then water. I'll be fine," I reassured him confidently, feeling my fingers around for cool metal in the bag.

"I didn't see your minder, where is he?" Jack eyed me suspiciously, a glint in his gaze I didn't like. "I won't tell, don't worry," he whispered.

"Jack- come on!" His friends called, pausing halfway down the street.

"I'll meet you there!" He shouted back and waved them on. "What is it? You lost your keys? You drop them?" He stumbled back slightly as he looked around on the ground for the misplaced item.

"I must have dropped them inside," I frowned nervously, feeling incredibly out of my depth alone on the sidewalk at night.

"Well, you'll just have to hang out with me, we'll drop you at yours on our way in to the city," Jack smirked.

"I'll probably just go back inside and ask-" I pointed to the door of the bar and stepped forward as Jack grasped just above my wrist, holding me still in attention. A lurch of fear leapt up my throat. It's Jack. He can't do anything, because he'd be held responsible for it.

"You know I heard what they did to you-" he mused, his tone noticeably different; controlled in an unhinged way. "You'd never know, would you?" He assessed me slowly, eyes roaming across my face and towards my chest, then down my body with a strange expression.

"I don't know what you-" I tried to pull my wrist back, his grip only tightening in light warning.

"Apart from these," he raised my wrist so it caught the illumination of a street lamp, the tiny criss-cross scars decorating the skin.

"Jack... I-"

It happened quickly. One moment Jack was there, attached to me with his vice like hold. The next moment he wasn't. I couldn't even see his body, it was swallowed whole by a hulking outline that pushed away from the sidewalk into a brick wall. The forced release of Jack's grip had hurtled me back a little, preventing me from seeing what had even happened.

"Paige?" A voice approached behind me and I whirled round in confusion and alarm, my breathing panicked. It was Sonny, looking older with longer hair and a longer beard than when I'd last seen him. "Get in the truck," he ordered, frowning towards the shadows concealed by a huge dumpster. I didn't question him. Jase had been the force driving Jack back across the concrete, there could be no doubt about that. I was so ready to get off the sidewalk I barely gave it a second thought as I walked towards the truck, cast in the middle of the road with both front doors open. Cars sounded in frustration behind, I quickly pulled myself up into the passenger seat and buckled up, my heart racing with clouded panic. My brain hadn't registered what was going on, only that I needed to get out of there and fast.

Sonny crashed into the drivers side next to me, ignoring his seat belt and hurtling the truck forward, weaving it to a sharp right and a hurried left down a quiet residential street. We raced across a busy junction, Sonny ignored the fevered sounds of horns protesting at his evasive driving and roared across to the next block, pulling up behind Jase's large truck in a driveway.

He grabbed a set of keys from his pocket and ejected himself from the vehicle, whirling around the bonnet to my door and gesturing for me to follow. I did as I was told, ashamed I'd skipped out without Jase, concerned I'd put myself in that position, distressed it now involved Sonny too. It's not your fault Jack was a creep.

"Come on," Sonny ushered impatiently, looking around the street. He opened the front door and switched off the alarm, leaving the lights blackened and glancing into the rooms quickly. "You wait here. Don't move from this room," Sonny ordered, switching the alarm back on and pacing out of the door, locking it behind him. I breathed shakily in the quiet house, hands trembling. I was in a world of trouble, but at this point I was partially convinced I deserved it.

*

Jase drummed his fingers on the door of Sonny's truck, willing it forward as the red of brake lights illuminated the road before them. He was fuming, and embarrassed, and vowed to himself that this would be the last night he spent running around worried about Paige. If the girl was so intent on ignoring her own safety, why should he bother? You lost your cool. You shouldn't have walked out. She got in your head. He hadn't been the same since Paige had been sick, her unhinged state stirring the most intense emotions Jase had ever felt. The conscience he tried so hard to ignore most of the time was awake with terrifying awareness.

"You gotta chill out brother," Sonny sped the truck forwards as the light switched to green. Jase seethed silently. They all had each other's backs, that had never changed. But he felt humiliated having to call Sonny so he could retrieve the person he'd let out of his sight, and subsequently lost. He was angry with himself as much as he was with Paige, and he didn't have a clue what he was going to say to her. He had to focus and work in stages, as he would do any mission. Right now it was simply retrieve and extract, the rest... well he'd have to think about that later.

"It's opposite, isn't it? Is that i-"

Jase processed the scene out of the car window with professional speed, the cogs in his mind whirring as each factor came into play within seconds. Jack, his fist clenched as he watched a swaggering figure next to Paige. Jase clamped his hand across his mouth as he swallowed down the lurch of fury, feeling his self control start to dwindle.

"Anything happens, you take her to my place, understand?" Jase commanded in a low growl. The truck turned around onto the side of the road they needed, Sonny had just straightened the wheel when Jase saw it.

"Stop!" He shouted and leapt from the truck as soon as Sonny's foot slammed against the brake.

You don't react out of anger. You're trained to remove emotion. You can confront him without getting heated. It took him less than two seconds to reach them, but in that time he saw the graphic fantasy of his thumbs driving into Jack's eye sockets, gouging in to the occipital bone just before it could cause death. He could blind him, render him unconscious and heave him into the truck. He could keep him in a shipping container for a few days and prolong the inevitable death.

Jase ignored Paige entirely as he struck his open hand against Jack's throat and hauled him back against a brick wall, conveniently obscured by a huge metal dumpster. He'd slammed hard, not enough to knock him out or cause irreparable damage but enough to draw blood from the side of his face that collided with the brick.

"Wh- th- fu-" Jack stammered, spit frothing from his lips as his face turned puce.

"Put your hands on her again, and I will kill you myself. Understand?" Jase watched Jack's eyes fill with fear, not nearly enough to satisfy his own hunger for suffering.

"You're- fu-ck-ng- dead-" Jack spluttered.

"No," Jase said simply, the return of control blanketing his mind coolly. "You are, if you so much as come within two feet of her. Tell me you understand," he ordered, gazing into Jack's eyes purposefully. "Tell me you understand," he repeated with soft resolution.

"Yes," Jack gasped, and Jase's grip around his throat released. "You just assaulted a federal agent!" He wheezed, half keeled over against the wall.

"And if you ended up dead tonight you wouldn't be the first fed I've killed," Jase's eyes glimmered dangerously. A flash of headlights appeared on the sidewalk as Sonny's truck mounted the kerb. He leapt out, pacing with his pointed hunter glare at Jack's recovering body.

"We're done Sonny," Jase walked away from the dumpster and met his friend on the slabs of concrete, pressing a hand against his chest to stop him from walking any further.

"You sure? He doesn't need a reminder?" Steam practically vented from Sonny's nostrils, incensed with a rage only their comradery could bring. If one had an issue, they all shared it.

"Let's go." Jase forced him back to the truck, not bothering to give Jack a second glance. He'd done it. He'd been merciful, he'd allowed Jack to walk away with all of his limbs attached. He had been close to a moment there; when he felt Jack's jugular judder in alarm, knowing how easy it would have been to take his life. But no, he had been tame and in control. And now you have to deal with Paige.

Sonny dropped him outside his house, eyeing him with caution, warning him to keep his cool. Jase edged his key into the lock, easing the door open and punching in the alarm code. With a quick look around the wall he could see Paige sitting despondently on the couch, gazing at nothing.

He stalked through, dropping his keys on the marble kitchen island and exhaling deeply with a sigh he must have been holding on to. He rested both palms on the cold surface and leaned his body weight in, with no idea how to start the conversation he needed to have.

"What happ-" Paige began.

"I will deal with you when I'm ready," Jase growled, burning a hole into the marble with his steely glare. You can't lock her up. You can't hold her by force. How are you going to get through to her?