Dangerous Sacrifice

Chapter 19

Jack and Sara stayed outside in each other’s arms with their lips against each others until Brenda came out. “Ooh.” She said crossing her arms.

Sara pulled away and wiped her lips. “What’s up?” she asked and hoped embarrassment couldn’t be seen across her face. Once Jack kissed her there was no way she could pull away or fight the desire she felt for him.

“Nothing.” Brenda said with a big goofy grin. “You guys make such a cute couple.”

“Shut up before you scare her away.” Jack said as he wrapped his arm around her neck. “Let’s get back inside.”

“Hey I don’t scare girls away.” Brenda protested as they all walked back inside the kitchen.

“Yes you do.” Jack said as he sat down at the table.

“How, I wanna know.” Sara said.

“Yeah me too.” Brenda said with a pout as she leaned against the counter.

Jack sighed, they were already ganging up on him, it was good to see them getting along though he wished they picked about subject to bond over. “You’re crazy,” he said to Brenda. “Most girls don’t get you and you’re a little over protective.”

“Ok so sue me for looking out for you. And I’m not crazy; I’m….a little out there.” Brenda said with a shrug.

“Yeah that’s it.” Jack sarcastically said as the phone rang, everyone wondered who could be calling this late. “Yeah? Hey Kidd.” Brenda walked out of the kitchen when she heard who it was on the other line. Jack wanted to know what that was about but he’d have to ask later. “What’s going on?”

“I found some info for you, sent it to your inbox. How’s the case going?”

“Better, we got everything we need on Burton; the arrest should be made at some point.” Jack explained.

“So having a cop on board helped?”

“Helped a lot since she made the witness talk. Brenda helped a lot too with finding so proof.” Jack said and he was right, something was going on with his friends because Kidd became very silent. “Have you talked to her lately?”

“I haven’t talked to her since I told her I was laying off the business, no more jobs. She wasn’t happy about it.” Kidd admitted.

“You wanna talk to her now?”

“No.”

“Alright fine, do it your way but you know you’re going to have to talk to her.”

“I know and I will but not now. I’ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing, I’ll talk to you later.” Kidd said before hanging up.

Sara joined him at the table. “That didn’t sound good.”

“He sent some more info I’ll go check out and it seems something is going on with Brenda she doesn’t want anyone to know about.” Jack met her eyes now. “But enough about them, what about us?”

“What about us?” Sara asked as if she had no clue what he meant.

“The kiss outside, what’s going on between us, you don’t want to admit it but something is happening.” Jack said.

Sara sighed. “Ok I’ll make you a deal. We have this conversation once we’ve both had a good eight hours of sleep and this case is over.” She proposed. She agreed they needed to talk but she couldn’t do it now, her mind was too heavy and couldn’t handle much more that night.

“Ok,” Jack softly agreed and rose from the table. “Come on.” He said grabbing her hand.

Sara followed him. “Where are we going?”

“I’m showing you to your room, you have to start working on those eight hours.” Jack placed his hands on her shoulders and led her upstairs.

“So you’re taking me to bed?”

“Yup but don’t worry I’m leaving after I show you around.” Jack promised. “Unless you don’t want me to.” He softly added as his hands moved over to her neck, softly running his fingers along the nape of her neck.

Sara turned around once they stopped in front of the room. “We agreed to talk about this at another time.”

“We don’t have to talk.”

Sara stared into his blue eyes and smiled. “No.” she said again, she couldn’t sleep with him, not that night. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She walked inside the dim lit room and shut the door behind her. She leaned against the door and sighed, she was so tired but she wasn’t sure if she could sleep at all.

There were moments through out the night she smiled and her mind drifted away from the past but never too long, her focus was on Catalina. Every thought she had, every move she made reminded her of her daughter.

She walked over to the bed and laid down on the comfortable pillows. She closed her eyes as tears started to surface. The excitement of the day was over, it was time to just relax and as she did all the pain rose to the top because there was no where to run to escape, she needed to deal with it.

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Jack cleaned up downstairs and locked up once Brenda left. He offered her a room to stay in but she explained she liked her motel room and the house was already packed. All was quite upstairs, he guessed everyone was asleep.

After all the dishes were in the sink he decided to call it a night too. After a warm shower he laid in bed; wide awake. After a few more minutes he gave up on trying to sleep and instead went to his computer so see what Kidd had sent him.

Inside the file were documents on Burton, people he worked with and had connections to in the past. Also police records, it showed Burton had been arrested a few times on back taxes and on money laundering.

What stood out to Jack was the case worker’s name on the laundering case; Agent Sharon Bristow. He sat back and looked at the screen, he knew that was Sara’s boss but she never said anything about them working on Burton before. Something about seeing her name just stuck him as odd.

He left his room and decided to see if Sara was awake to ask her about the past case on Burton. If she was asleep he didn’t want to wake her so he just slowly opened the door and peeked inside.

The light was still on and she was awake, crying he quickly realized as she sat on the bed with her back against the wall and her knees to her chest. He walked inside and shut the door behind him. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he walked closer to her.

Sara ran her ran threw her hair and left it there. “Nothing, what do you want?” she uncomfortably asked.

Jack walked closer to the bed as he spoke. “For you to answer me.”

Sara sighed and looked up into his eyes, finding a warm comfort in them. “Today was my daughter’s birthday, she would’ve been five.” As the words left her mouth so did the tears she had tried to hide from him.

Jack went and sat beside her on the bed and pulled her into a hug. There was nothing to be said because nothing would help.

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AN: Ok I like and hate this chapter, I went for a light feel in the start since it ended on a sad note and I also wanted a personal chapter before the focus went back to the case. I hope you liked it or if you didn’t still review, I’d love to know what you all think.

Isabelle A.