The Soldier and The Spy: Jay Halstead- Episode 6

Chapter 10

Present Day

If Jay was being honest he'd thought Tess was going to last five minutes before she started talking, and not just because she'd had so much sugar she was slightly vibrating but because that was just what she did.

That was why the first thing he did was take her hand.

He hadn't been sure she'd want him to but he had been sure she needed him to and then he'd watched the tentative way her eyes had tracked him and her sad little smile when she realized what he was doing, that he wanted to do it. She'd started crying for Christ's sake. Not right away but since she was driving, her car apparently having driven itself to the district he'd moved his hand so he wouldn't disturb her, mostly holding her thigh or cupping the back of her neck, the latter having caused the tears. He'd almost said something, the sight of that sapphire glistening was a legitimate form of torture but instead he'd pressed a soft kiss to her temple, doing his best to restrain a shiver when she turned her head to breath him in; Tess might've calmed herself but she wasn't steady yet and while it still felt a little like she was drowning he wasn't as worried.

Because now she was clinging, to him, trusting him to keep her afloat.

And he wasn't going to let her down.

So when he realized she really wasn't ready to talk he just gripped her a little tighter and turned to look out the window to give them both a bit of breathing room. He had no idea where she was taking them or who she wanted to talk to, or whether he would be a part of that conversation but to tell the truth Jay wouldn't mind if he wasn't. He knew how big a deal it was that she'd brought him at all so it was enough for him just to be here.

But fuck did it feel good to realize she did want more.

"Do you see that building?" She asked as she parked in the warehouse district, pointing to an old building about a block away.

"Is it another one of Liam's places?"

"That's where our would-be-robbers have holed up."

That... was not what he'd been expecting.

But it should have been.

Tess always gave people the chance to do the right thing. What she did afterwards if they chose not to... as far as he was concerned it was deserved. And it was on them.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Whatever you want." She answered with a small shrug, clearly excited about their team-up but nervous to be, which made his own heart start doing somersaults. "You can come in with me, or there's a rifle in the backseat if you want to go high."

Of course there was.

Jay turned back to the building, trying to analyze it quickly but strategically. Finding a roost was his natural response but the place was pretty boarded up and as for him going in with her he was tempted, if they were right and these guys were ex-military he had an angle but so did she and... he wanted to see how she handled it without him.

What he really needed was a way to get in if she needed an out.

"When you say this thing is a tank...?"

There it was.

That wicked gleam he loved so much, the one that was mischief and mercy mixed together, the very essence of her. It was smaller than he liked to see it but it was there and when they talked through the plan it grew, and so did his feeling that everything was going to be okay; Tess might not believe she deserved this second chance but intellectually she knew it and that was a good place to start. They would figure the rest out later.