The Forbidden Spark

3.

Jason’s POV

I woke up to the smell of bacon, and I frowned, wondering if my three year old daughter had suddenly grown up enough to know how to. It took me a three foggy seconds to realize someone was in my apartment.

Swinging my legs over the bed, I grabbed my baseball bat and walked, no, tip-toed all the way down to the kitchen. “Oh come on, Jason. A cooking burglar? Really?” What burglar was going to make themselves that comfortable in a house they wanted to rob?

As soon as I got down here to the living room, I saw someone’s back turned to me as the stood over at the stove, but I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me who it was.

“Hunter?” I called and he turned to look at me over his shoulder.

“Hey, good morning, sunshine.” He said with a stupid grin on his face. I should have known. The i***t was the only one capable of coming into my house like this without a key. He worked for the FBI and he was so full of himself he thought my house was Quantico, where he could breeze in and out whenever he wanted.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, dropping the baseball bat I was holding by the kitchen counter.

Turning my head slightly to the right, I saw my daughter sitting in her high chair with a plate of food in front of her. She looked up at me and smile. “Hey, Daddy. See, Uncle Hunt gave toast and juice.” She said.

“Huh, huh, honey. I can see that.” I sat down and Hunter placed a plate in front of me, before also coming to sit down in front of me.

“Hunter, what are you doing here?” I asked him.

He gave me a look. “What? Can’t I visit my best friend anymore?” He asked.

“Not out of the blue, Hunter, and definitely when you always break in here like a burglar.” I said.

“What’s a burglar Daddy?” My daughter asked.

I looked at her. “Huh, that’s… eat your food, Daisy.” I said and she shrugged.

Looking back at Hunter with the same question I’ve been asking him on my lips, I started to talk, but he held his hand up.

“I need your help, Jason.” He said, the smile on his face all wiped off, and a certain level of seriousness I had never seen on his face was there. “I really need your help, I’m pushed to the wall.”

Frowning, I grabbed the juice he had placed in front of me, and took a sip. “What is it?” I asked, wondering what this was all about.

Hunter had never really needed my help. It was always the other way around. I was the one that needed his help when Daisy’s mother brought her to me because she didn’t want that life of a mother, I was the one that needed his help keeping it quiet from everyone, including his family, and so many other times in the past.

“There’s a case I’ve been working on, I’ve been deeply undercover in it, I can’t go into much details, but a woman decided to be a witness for us, and now, her life is at stake.”

“And what does that have to do with me?” I asked.

Hunter sighed. “I wasn’t just the only agent that went undercover for the operation, the other woman with me, well, let’s just say the people looking for the witness decided to start threatening our families to make us give her up. They started with hers, with meant, it’s only a matter of time before they get to mine.” He said.

Holy s**t! “That’s messed up.” I said.

He nodded. “Yeah, it is. I already sent Mom to her sister up in Virginia, and Dad can take care of himself, but I can’t saddle him with the responsibility of taking care of Cara as well…” he trailed off, looking at me like I should have known what he meant.

I did all right, I knew where this was going, but I pretended I didn’t, just in case I got it wrong. “So what do you want me to do?” I asked.

“I need you to help me bring her to stay with you. No one would dare touch her if she’s starting with the billionaire hospitals owner and foundation’s son. You were a special forces medical sergeant yourself.” He said.

I let out a short laugh, trying to shake off the seriousness of what he was asking. “I’ve become nothing since I got a kid, Hunter. You should see me when I heard you in my kitchen, scared shitless.” I said.

Hunter rolled his eyes. “Yeah, tell that to the people who didn’t know you. I know you. We served together in Fallujah, and then in Samarra.”

Oh, those were some good old days, but years ago nonetheless. It was like a lifetime ago if you ask me. I glanced at Daisy, looking at her and thinking about what the impact would be, having a woman suddenly live with us, and not just any woman, my best friend’s sister, a woman I was attracted to, but she was forbidden.

Daisy had never really taken to having anyone around except for me, so I wasn’t sure how she was going to adjust, if I agreed to do this. Hunter was my family, as well as Daisy was too, and he was right. I knew I could keep his sister safe, but did I want her living here with me?

Heck no.

I picked up a piece of bacon and chucked it into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully. I knew they had no other family except for their mother’s sister, and she probably couldn’t put up with more than her own sister. Plus, Cara needed to be here for her residency.

“Please, Jason.” Hunter’s word slipped into my thoughts.

“I’m thinking, Hunter. Don’t try to hurry me up.” I said, buying the corner of my mouth briefly. Hunter sighed but he nodded, even though I had expected him to retort something back at me.

Rubbing my hands together, I asked. “Wait, so if I agree to do this, I’m sure I can’t tell Cara that’s why she’s living with me. What would I tell her?”

“Anything. Cook something up, Jason.” He said.

The last thing I needed was Cara in my house, but Hunter was right. I could protect her. Knowing Cara though, she would hate us both if she knew we didn’t trust her enough to keep herself safe.

“Fine,” I finally said. “But she can’t know the real reason.”

•

After dropping my daughter at Daycare, I drove to Cara’s place from the address Hunter gave me, and then I stood at the front door, knocking against it and waiting.

I knocked again, and heard some muffled words, and after that, I didn’t have to wait long before the door was pulled open.

Cara Caldwell was a five foot seven woman with legs that looked like they went on forever, with curves in the right places, and chestnut colored hair that fell around her shoulders, framing her face.

Her deep green eyes looked up at me, and she gasped involuntarily, her very pink tongue coming out of her mouth to lick her also very pink lips.

I knew she was really surprised to see me here, especially since Hunter told me she had declined it when he said he was going to ask for my help to move.

“Jason.” That was the first thing out of her, and it made my stomach bunch. After that, it went to her asking me what I was doing here, and then she lied about her boyfriend helping.

I couldn’t help myself, so I called her out. I knew she didn’t have a boyfriend because unlike her, I had been keeping tabs on her. Although she didn’t know I had a daughter, which I was going to tell her now, but I’ve been getting myself acquainted with her life.

Cara was a girl I had always liked, as a friend, then the feeling developed into wanting her more than that. The only problem was that I knew Hunter was going to kill me. I was the typical playboy, and I didn’t think anyone would trust me enough with their sisters, talk more of my best friend who knew me more.

Clearing my throat, I stood up from the couch and walked to her, staring at her and daring her to move backward, but she stood her ground.

When I told her what I had thought about last night, many ways of how I would say it, all she did was laugh, probably thinking I was joking, then I nodded and said. “I am. I want you to come live with me, and while you do your residency, you’ll help me with my daughter.”

“Daughter?” She asked me finally as if she had just found her voice. “You have a daughter?” She asked. I could hear the disbelief in her voice, and the hurt, and it made me feel like I was an ass.