Chapter Seven

Night had fallen before Tessa even realized that the afternoon had passed and when she finally looked up from the computer in front of her, she was almost surprised to see nothing but twilight past the glass windows in the lobby. Couples were coming and going, walking arm and arm with smiles on their faces, off to some romantic destination or other without a care in the world. Just for once in her life, Tessa wished she knew what it felt like to be that happy.

With a weary sigh, Tessa's attention returned to the computer screen, squinting her eyes to bring the words on the screen into better focus. She'd been staring at the monitor for the better part of the day and it was beginning to take a toil on her eyesight. But that was a worry for another time.

The folder she had pulled up on the screen now was useless and Tessa clicked out if it; it seemed that everything she had was useless. With a strained sigh, she buried her head in her hands and closed her eyes, something she hadn't allowed herself to do since Vincent had escorted her baby sister out of the hotel on the way to the airport. A part of her wanted to cry, realizing the hopelessness of the whole situation, but Tessa Lewis did not cry.

Before she could lift her head and resume her search, a gentle hand fell on her shoulder, causing Tessa to tense in surprise. She opened her eyes and looked behind her, surprised to see Jason standing, with his hand still on her shoulder. "Hey," he greeted, though he looked a little confused. "Why aren't you at the airport?"

Tessa sighed again, it seemed like that was all she was doing lately. "I'm trying to find security footage for the area outside the bungalows." She explained, though she knew that wasn't a good enough excuse for leaving her sister alone before she was going home. A part of her still believed that she'd find something, anything, to prove Ashlee's innocence.

Jason studied her for a moment. "Why?" He questioned, even though the answer was evident. "Do you really think Ashlee's telling the truth?" He wasn't sure it was the right question to ask Tessa, wanting her to defend the innocence of her closest family member but somehow it slipped out. "I mean, how do you know she didn't steal the wallet? She already stole those room keys."

Tessa looked at him, their eyes locking. "It's not always that simple, Jason." She told him simply, as though those words were the answer to all of his questions. "Just because she stole those keys doesn't mean she stole the wallet." She returned her attention to the computer screen, which had yet to yield promising results.

Jason found that he couldn't take his eyes off of her and he managed to convince himself that it was simply because he wanted to read her expressions. "How do you know?"

Tessa's eyes didn't leave the computer screen. "Because Ashlee wouldn't lie to me."

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Nicole wasn't quite sure why she was sitting at the Tiki style bar that serviced guests of her grand hotel thinking about Ashlee Lewis but somehow, she was. Her fingers tapped incessantly on the slick surface of the bar as she sat, ignoring the rum and Coke she had ordered only moments earlier, her mind elsewhere.

When MJ sat in the empty chair beside her, Nicole didn't even look up, eyes focused at some invisible sight miles away. "Tough day?" MJ questioned sympathetically, looking at the brunette.

Nicole sighed, dejected. "You could say that." She mumbled, finally looking over at the blonde waitress. "Have you ever jumped to conclusions, maybe made a mistake about something really important?"

MJ was silent for a moment, thinking about her question and all that it entailed. "Sure." She answered finally. "Everyone makes mistakes like that sometimes." Nicole didn't say anything. "Why?"

Another sigh escaped Nicole's lips as she turned so that she could face MJ without turning her head. "A guest reported his wallet missing and it turned up in Ashlee's pocket." She answered and MJ's eyes went wide. "She kept insisting that she wasn't the one that stole the wallet but..." She shrugged, helplessly.

MJ chewed on the corner of her bottom lip. "Maybe she didn't do it." She remarked and Nicole shrugged again. That was the thought that had been running circles through her mind a lot lately. "It doesn't seem like something Ashlee would do." She seemed to believe those words, even though she had only known Ashlee for two days.

"She's already stolen from the hotel though." Nicole reminded. "The room keys, remember?" She was certain that someone had relayed the story to the waitress.

MJ nodded and offered Nicole a faint smile. "Guilty until proven innocent, huh?" She questioned.

Nicole didn't say anything, thinking about MJ's words; maybe she had a point, maybe she should have let Ashlee give her the whole story. But there hadn't been any time for that, action needed to be taken right then and she had done so, even if it wasn't the right action. "Right." She mumbled. "But I don't think Ashlee's going to be able to prove herself innocent."

The women fell silent, Nicole's words hanging between them, drown out only by the surf.

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"I can give you a hand, if you'd like." Jason offered and before Tessa could even process his words, he gently nudged her out of the way and hit several buttons of the keyboard. Tessa watched silently, more then relieved to have both his help and his company. "You couldn't find the security footage because it's only accessible to the employees with access to all drives on the computer." Jason explained as he put in a password.

With the password in place, a folder that Tessa hadn't come across filled the computer screen, with links labeled with different dates and times. She stepped closer to Jason, so that their elbows and hips bumped together in order to get a better look at the screen. "Is that the security footage for the entire hotel?" She questioned. If it was, then she'd finally be able to get the truth behind Ashlee's claims.

Jason nodded. "Yep, organized by date and time." Though that much was clear.

Tessa looked up at him, a faint smile spreading across her lips. "Thanks a lot Jason." She told him, hoping that those simple words were enough to convey just how grateful she was to him.

"Don't thank me yet." Jason told her. "We still haven't found what you're looking for."

Tessa looked back at the computer; she had no idea when the man had lost his wallet, and there were mountains of footage to go through before he had reported it missing. She sighed; Ashlee didn't have time for her to go through piles of information.

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Ashlee wasn't quite sure why Vincent was being so nice to her, though it wasn't as though she considered offering to buy her a soda being the perfect charming but it was certainly a nice gesture and one that she couldn't understand. After the older man made his offer, she looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to be nice to me." She told him.

Vincent sat down on a cushioned chair in the middle of the crowded airport and looked straight ahead. He had never had any younger brothers or sisters, no children, no nieces, no nephews, no cousins and no experience with teenagers and was, therefore, unsure of just how to act around Ashlee. Even though he was tossing her out of his life and his hotel in a matter of hours, waiting for her flight to get in was making him uncomfortable. Sure, he could handle irate guests, bitchy rich women and pompous magazine editors, but Vincent couldn't even look at his former teenage employee and figure out what to say to her. "I thought you might be thirsty." He said finally. "It was just an offer."

Ashlee sighed and looked away from him. "I know." She mumbled. "But you don't have to be nice, it doesn't matter."

Vincent watched her out of the corner of his eye. "It's not my fault you're going home, Ashlee, just remember that." He snapped, his temper getting the better of him as it always seemed to do. It was one of his bad qualities, so what, it had often served him well in the past.

"I already told you, I didn't take that wallet." Ashlee said, though she had long since given up on putting any emotion behind those words. No one was going to listen to her anyway, there was no use. She looked at him again, trying to catch his eye but unable to do so. "Please don't send me home."

Vincent didn't even glance her way, unwilling to see the reason behind those words, the secret that both Ashlee and Tessa seemed so dedicated to keeping, whether there really was one or not. "I don't have a choice, Ashlee." He said finally, watching the crowds in front of him.

Ashlee sighed and slumped in her seat. In a handful of hours, she was going to be leaving Hawaii behind and any chance she had of escaping.

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"This is useless." Tessa mumbled, dropping her head so that her forehead thudding on the surface of the desk in front of her. She wished that her words weren't true, but there didn't seem to be anyway around them. She and Jason had been sitting in front of the computer for nearly an hour and had still yet to find anything on the security feed that could help Ashlee in any way. "I hate this." Tessa lifted her head and dropped it again.

Jason looked over at the brunette and caught her forehead before she knocked it against the desk again. Tessa remained for a moment with her head in his hands, before swallowing and looking up at him. Jason suddenly found himself uncomfortable, but in the way that he used to get when he was a pre-teenager, sitting in the movies with some girl he had a crush on, unsure of how to react. Tessa's eyes met his for a moment before he looked away, staring down at the floor.

Tessa felt her cheeks get rosy and she turned her attention back to the computer screen, though there was little to see other then an empty sidewalk and some sand. She could feel Jason watching her and she wasn't surprised to find that she liked his attention, enjoyed the way it felt to know that she was being watched by him. She wanted to turn around again, wanted to say something to him but no words would come out and so she remained silent.

Jason cleared his throat and tried to pay attention to the security footage. But there was little to see and his eyes were slowly drifting back toward Tessa before he pulled them away again, trying to think about something, anything, other then how beautiful she was. Tessa was his employee after all; it wouldn't do any good to get involved with someone he worked with.

"You're right." Jason said suddenly, forcing himself to speak to get his mind off Tessa. She looked at him over her shoulder. "It's useless." He gestured toward the computer screen. "It's going to take hours to go through all this."

Tessa sighed. "Ashlee doesn't have hours." She reminded. "It's probably too late anyway." It killed her to think that way, though she was slowly believing that there was no other way to think. Ashlee was counting on her and she had let her down.

Jason checked his watch. "We've still go time." He assured her and Tessa was touched by how sincere his offer to help her had been. It seemed as though he actually cared what happened to her little sister.

Tessa smiled at him and returned her attention to the computer screen. She saw Ashlee on the footage, pushing the huge maids' cart in front of her and the sight of her sister, at the moment so carefree and almost happy, made her want to cry. Jason rested his hand on her shoulder once again but she didn't turn around to see the look in his eyes.

"You and Ashlee were really close, huh?" Jason questioned and Tessa nodded. "I never had any brothers or sisters, it must have been nice."

Tessa smiled faintly. "It was." She told him. "We always got along well, we had to depend on each other."

Jason watched the back of her head, wishing that Tessa would turn around and allow him to read the emotions in her hazel eyes. But he figured that she had spent a lifetime keeping those emotions a secret from people like him. "You had a hard time growing up, didn't you?" Tessa remained silent. Jason sighed, and looked away from her for a moment. "Sorry, it's none of my business." Tessa's life before now wasn't something easily found in background checks, stuff that she had obviously been struggling to put behind her.

Tessa sighed as well. "My parents are alcoholics, they always have been and my mom's addicted to every drug you can name." She kept her back to Jason as she spoke, as though unwilling to see the look in his eyes. He liked the woman she had become and she couldn't bare to know what he would think of her now. "My dad taught Ashlee and I how to break into buildings; he raised me to be his little con artist and Ashlee to be his pick-pocket. He was such an asshole, he made us steal for him so that he and my mom could afford their little vices."

Jason's eyes never left Tessa's reflection in the computer screen, his mouth dry and silent, knowing full well that there were no words that could be said at a moment like this. If Tessa wanted to tell him her story, then he sure as hell was going to listen.

"It used to kill me, seeing him use Ashlee like that, making her steal from people who thought she was this adorable little kid." Tessa continued. "But whenever I said anything, all I got was a bruise and black eye to show for my trouble." She sighed, shaking her head. "He hit Ashlee too, still does."

Jason was silent for a moment. "That's why she came here." He said finally and Tessa didn't make any move to respond. "That's why you don't want her to go home."

"She hates me, you know, on some level she hates me." Tessa said, her shoulders dropping. "I ran away, I got out and she didn't and she hates me. And now I can't even keep her from going back."

Jason took Tessa's hand, an action that surprised her and caused her to turn and face him; he saw tears threatening to fall onto her cheeks and she quickly blinked them away, as though she didn't want him to see such a sign of weakness. He continued to hold her hand, and Tessa curled her fingers around his. "Listen to me," Jason said, finally managing to look her in the eye. "Your sister doesn't hate you, and whatever happened to her you had no control over." Tessa held his stare. "It's a good thing you left, before your father did worse. I mean, you're still an amazing, beautiful woman and-" He stopped then, silenced by Tessa's lips against his.

Tessa had never planned on kissing Jason Matthews; in fact, since she had arrived at the Grand Waimea weeks ago, she had been working hard to keep from kissing him. Work relationships -hell, any relationships- never worked out and it was best to keep those feelings hidden and so she had decided that things wouldn't go any farther then him being her employer. And so, she had never planned on kissing Jason.

But when he had said those things to her, words that she had never heard anyone say about her before, Tessa couldn't help herself; every part of her was screaming for her to kiss him, and so she did. Hell, she had never been good at keeping plans anyway.

For a moment, Jason was surprised by her actions but the surprise vanished quickly and he returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her against him. He didn't think any good to admit that all he had been thinking about the past few days was this moment, didn't want to do anything to stop the kiss and so he closed his eyes and kept his mouth shut. For the moment anyway.

Tessa kissed him unlike she had ever kissed a man in her life, because there was no con she was trying to work, no secret she was trying to keep. There was no game to play. For the first time in her life, she was kissing someone because she wanted to. And, boy, was she glad she had decided to kiss Jason.

One of Jason's hands trailed up Tessa's back and he ran his fingers through her thick curls, sending it falling in crazy angles against her cheeks and down her back. He opened her eyes to study her for a moment, a stolen moment, amazed at just how beautiful she was.

And it was in that moment that Jason's eyes traveled past Tessa's face and to the computer monitor behind her. He broke the kiss then, pulling away, though his hand was still wrapped in her curls and gave his attention to the monitor.

Tessa opened her eyes when Jason pulled away from her, confused as to way the kiss had been broken; she saw him staring past her and turned to follow his gaze, careful not to shake his hand from her waist.

The security footage on the computer screen was of the man that had made his compliant about his stolen wallet hours ago, walking down the sidewalk with a drink in one hand and his wallet in the other. As Tessa and Jason watched, the man moved to stick his wallet in his pocket, but the wallet fell short and landed on the sidewalk. He continued walking, the fallen wallet unnoticed.

Tessa's eyes went wide. "That's it." She said, breathless because of the kiss. "Ashlee didn't steal his wallet after all." She looked at Jason with a smile on her face.

Jason couldn't resist giving her a quick kiss on the forehead as he took her hand, pulling her away from the desk. "We have to catch Vincent before Ashlee's flight takes off."

Her hand still in his, Tessa followed him out of the lobby and toward the employee parking garage, her mind still on their kiss. She knew that the joy of finding out that her sister was innocent wasn't the only reason her heart was pounding.

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Ashlee was staring down at her feet, swinging her legs so that her toes bumping against the tiles beneath her. Vincent's gaze was still focused on the crowds ahead, watching people carrying luggage move from place to place, two security guards gossiping close to the Starbucks and a janitor mopping the floor in front of them.

A silence had settled between them and had been that way for nearly an hour and half and Vincent wished that the plane would arrive. He didn't think he'd ever been this quiet in his life and hoped that he never would be again. It was just unsettling.

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Tessa had leapt out of the car even before Jason had hit the brake when he pulled up in front of the air port entranced marked departing flights. Jason followed after her, snatching the keys out of the ignition and ignoring the sign that marked the area a no parking zone.

Jason just barely managed to catch up with Tessa when they hit the security check-point, where one of the security guards was asking Tessa if she had a ticket or permission to be in the airport beyond this point.

"I don't have a god-damn ticket." Tessa snapped. "But I really need to get to someone, it's an emergency." She attempted to push past the man but he grabbed her arms and forced her back again.

Jason attempted to talk the man into letting at least one of them through but the guard couldn't be swayed. Behind them, people waiting to have their luggage screened started to complain, which only made the security guard more adamant about getting Tessa and Jason out the way.

Tessa cursed under her breath, looking for a way around the man, feeling utterly helpless for the moment. If she missed catching Ashlee and Vincent because of this jack-ass then there was going to be some serious Hell to pay.

"Ma'am, sir, please step away." The guard was saying, attempting to nudge Tessa away from him. "You're holding out the line."

Tessa looked up at him. "Screw this." She snapped and ducked away from him, hopping onto the slow traveling belt that moved the luggage through the scanner and crawled through the hooded metal screener.

Jason was surprised by her actions for a moment, but his shock was slowly replaced by amusement. Tessa appeared on the other side, stumbling off the belt and shaking her head, as though trying to clear her thoughts, before she took off running again. The security guard turned and hurried after her, shouting commands that fell on deaf ears.

After a moment's pause, Jason ran after them, aware that several other security guards were preparing to join in on the chase. Tessa was running without bothering to glance over her shoulder, ignoring the man as he threatened to arrest her if she didn't stop that instant.

Tessa's eyes fell on Ashlee, who was preparing to board her flight and Vincent, who was making sure that she did. Thank God, she wasn't too late. "Ashlee!" She shouted, though in the noise of the airport her sister didn't hear her. "Ashlee!"

Jason started shouting as well, though from several yards behind her, calling his boss' name; Tessa called out for her sister again, this time getting a response. Ashlee and Vincent looked over at her, surprised to see her.

Tessa was about to shout out for them to wait when she slipped on the newly mopped tile floor and crashed to the ground, knocking the janitor's bucket over with her and soaking herself with muddy water. The security guard that had been chasing her tried to stop and yank Tessa to her feet and make an arrest -something he had been dying to do ever since he had decided to become a cop in the fourth grade- but his shoes had no traction on the soapy floor and he fell as well.

Ashlee stepped out of line and headed over to where her sister lay on the ground, Vincent following after her. Jason arrived moments later, carefully kneeling beside Tessa, who looked both dazed and confused, still laying with her cheek against the wet tile.

"What is going on here?" Vincent questioned, his gaze settling on Jason. "Would you care to tell me what this is all about, Jason?"

Jason helped Tessa into a sitting position, smiling slightly when she rested her head against his chest and looked at his boss. "Ashlee didn't steal that guest's wallet." He explained.

"We have security footage." Tessa mumbled, gently prodding the side of her head which had taken the brunt of the fall. The headache she was going to have in the morning was going to be a hell of a lot worse then a hangover.

Ashlee smiled and looked over at Vincent for a moment before returning her attention to Jason and Tessa, figuring 'I told you so' wasn't the smartest thing to say at the moment. Vincent remained silent until Jason had helped Tessa stand and the security guard had gotten to his feet as well. Tessa figured if the man's ass and pride hadn't been so hurt, he would have insisted on making an arrest instead of limping back toward the front of the airport.

"What's this about security footage?" Vincent questioned, looking at Jason, as though he were the only reliable source.

Jason explained that he and Tessa had come across footage of the man losing his wallet on the sidewalk, just as Ashlee had said hours earlier. After a moment, Vincent agreed to go back to the Grand Waimea and watch the security tapes, giving Ashlee the benefit of the doubt just because the man that had become like a son to him insisted that was the only thing to do.

Ashlee smiled at Tessa as they started walking toward the entrance of the airport once more. The fact that Jason had his arm wrapped around her sister's waist didn't escape her attention but she decided to keep silent about that for now, since there were more important things to speak of. "Thanks Tess." She said. "For believing me."

Tessa returned the smile, taking her sister's hand and giving it a squeeze. "No problem kiddo." She smiled. They locked eyes and, for that moment, nothing more needed to be said.