He had waited. He had bided his time. He and his cronies had kept their opinions to themselves and plotted their revenge for the slight against their leader, and as the old saying went, 'Revenge is a dish best served cold." and it was very cold. Over the years Edward and Jasper had gotten comfortable that their friendship was accepted as just that, "friendship", there had not even been any whispers against them in regards to an alleged relationship. They thought they were in the clear, and as they stood next to each other at Emmett's wedding, they casually slung arms around each other for the wedding photographer and smiled as they asked for a copy to be sent to Edwards house.
Gunny watched and slugged his whiskey, he knew the time was approaching. They had grown cocky and confident that he had let it go, but he hadn't let it go, oh no…he had plotted and planned and schemed along with his friends and he knew exactly what he was going to do, it was just a matter of the proper time.
He knew their schedules and routines, he knew when Jasper left Edwards and where he went after he left. They knew what he drove, that he tended to speed a bit as he left, and that he often stopped for a coffee on his way back to his apartment. In other words, Jasper had become a creature of habit and that was going to cost him dearly.
Who the fuck is calling me when I am trying to get my ass in the shower on a Monday morning? I know it wouldn't be Jasper, he just left here a few hours ago on his way in to the office, the sheriff is out of town for a few days at a conference, so it must be bad juju and I better drag my ass out of the shower and get it.
"Capt. Cullen? Sir, We need you at a scene ASAP. It appears that one of ours may have been grabbed by one of the cartels. Could you please get to county road 24B and Hwy 95?"
What the fuck? That was near here. I quickly began interrogating the troop that I had on the line, apparently a patrol car had been found in flames off in the ditch with signs of a struggle and blood all over the damn place. They were working on getting the fire knocked down to get the car number, but only one unit hadn't responded to an all call…Jasper.
"Issue out that all call again. Preserve the scene as best you can and limit the number of people in and out , we don't need any GodDamned looky loos running over everything. Keep the press back and set up a 100ft perimeter. Get ahold of McCarty and have him meet me there. Though I was panicking inside, I had to stay calm. His life depended on it, if he still was even alive. If he wasn't I needed to stay calm so I could make sure I got all the information I needed to hunt down the bastards who hurt him.
Things were good. Hell, they hadn't just been just good, they had been great. Emmett was married and happy. Jaspers career was on the fast track to making rank and he was well liked and popular with his squad and in the community. His and Edwards relationship had progressed to the point that they were together more than they were apart. Whenever there was a training or a conference out of town, he and Edward went together, and as a budget saving device, they always shared a room, but no one need know that they always shared a bed. They traveled together to pick up heavy equipment for the department and they had even managed to vacation together without attracting any attention,(so they thought), and they had developed a comfort level with each other that made them virtually inseparable. They had discussed the future, and what would happen when the current sheriff retired. Edward had always talked about running for sheriff, and that was his main reason for not coming out in the extremely conservative community, but they had decided that if he lost the election, they would look at relocating to a more open minded community where they would be free to live as a couple.
They had been mulling over buying the ranch next door to Edwards place as Jaspers new, "Home", or as an investment in case Edward didn't win the election and they decided to pull up stakes and relocate to the Northwest like Jasper had been trying to talk him into. They had spent the weekend looking at properties up in the Portland and Seattle area and they had even planned to take a vacation up there over the summer to see just what areas they liked the best. With progressive departments and large gay communities, they both believed that they would find a new home where they would fit, if Edward lost the election.
Jasper had tried to nudge him into just chucking it all and relocating anyway. They both had more money than they could spend, they would easily lateral into practically any department they applied for, and they were both tired of hiding who they were, but Edward stubbornly refused to give up what he saw as his hard won place in the community and what he saw was his rightful position in the department. It had been a bit of a sore point between them off and on, but it rarely created enough of a riff to result in any serious problems. Edward was agonizing over the fact he hadn't given in to Jasper and just pulled up stakes and left over a year ago when they both finally realized that what they had was a forever kind of thing, and now with Jasper missing and presumed kidnapped by people who meant him serious harm or even death, Edward was beside himself with grief and worry.
Jasper had never even seen the truck that had broadsided his patrol car, coming at him from the Cedar grove on the side of the road. The initial impact of the cow catcher into his drivers side door, knocked him unconscious and forced the car into the ditch. His seat belt saved his life, but he was seriously injured with broken ribs and a concussion as well as multiple lacerations. The men who jumped out of the 4 door truck didn't care about that at all. They quickly reached in across the passenger seat and cut his seat belt and then dragged him out onto the road where they kicked him a few times for good measure before they stripped him of his uniform, and then cuffing and hog-tying him with his own equipment, they threw his gun and badge and id in the car and set it ablaze, leaving the rest of his clothes laying in the road as a message to those who responded to the scene. They threw him into the floorboard of the truck and then speeding quickly away out into the desert, they left chaos in their wake.
The fire department had the car out by the time I got there, but in doing so they had washed away any potential evidence in the cab of the car along with contaminating the scene all around it with their foot prints and truck prints. I rolled up as parked back a ways so I could survey the entire scene from a distance. The car was shoved to the right with significant intrusion, so it was pretty clear it had been struck on the left at a pretty high rate of speed. The grove of trees was the most likely staging point for any attackers, so I grabbed my, 'War' bag and started walking up to the nearest officer to get a status report and to check in with whomever was the recorder for the scene.
'Capt'n! Glad you are here sir. The fire department just cleared the vehicle, there is no one in the cab or the trunk, though they did recover a gun and a badge along with the remains of a duty belt. It looks like they were thrown in after Whitlock was stripped outside of the vehicle, which is really strange for a cartel hit. Usually they keep the gun and badge as a trophy, and they keep the uniforms for trying to rip other cartels off, so this one has weird shit written all over it."
I didn't let the pain of everything I was hearing show on my face, I couldn't. I just got out a cigarette and lit it, trying to not let him see how my hands were shaking as I glared through my Ray Bans at him. "I want complete and total silence on this for right now. You keep those media rats away from here and if you see anyone taking any cell phone pictures of anything, I want that phone."
Walking up to the scene and seeing Jaspers clothes laying there in the road, along with his boots, tore my heart to pieces. The tech told me that they had finished photographing it in place and they were getting ready to collect it for evidence, "Ill take his wallet, its got his personal numbers in there and I will need them to contact his family." They didn't argue with me, as I put on a pair of gloves and pulled his wallet out and secured it in my chest pocket.
"You don't need to be told that this case takes the highest priority, am I right?" The tech nodded at me solemnly as he finished bagging Jaspers clothes. 'Sir, we managed to get some photographs of some boot tracks that were in an odd location, we have already eliminated the firefighters boots and are in the process of eliminating the other officers."
That gave me some hope that they were at least taking things to heart and wanting to work quickly. I knew that if there was even a remote chance of getting Jasper back alive, we would have to move fast and be able to respond at a moments notice.
You need to get another helper and follow me. I have a feeling that whatever hit him came from that grove over there, so I am going to walk over there and see if there is anything we can use. I used a tone that left no room for argument, and the techie hurried off to grab one of his buddies.
I was already most of the way to the grove, shooting pictures of the tire tracks that led out of the grove and towards the point in the road where they had intersected with Jaspers car. I had been dead on with my guess, they had been waiting on him. They knew him. They most likely knew us. I walked into the grove and found a small pile of cigarette butts and the pool of likely suspects got dramatically narrowed down, but I wasn't going to share that information with anyone. This was personal, and I was going to make the revenge just as personal.
Pain. His entire body was wracked with pain. He could taste blood in his mouth, and he sensed that his jaw was most likely fractured. He kept his eyes closed, he knew he was not with friends so feigning unconsciousness was his best bet to prevent further abuse. He knew he was in the floorboard of an older truck, he was naked, hog tied, cuffed and blindfolded. He could hear the voices of multiple American men, so he knew he hadn't been snatched by one of the cartels, which was a little less worrisome, but he had no idea who had managed to sneak attack him or what their intentions were other than to do him as much harm as seemingly possible.
We got him. We got the little faggot and he is going to regret the day he ever set foot in my department. He has no right to be wearing the uniform of my beloved department and he damn sure shouldn't outrank me, and if he wasn't fucking Cullen, he wouldn't. Well, lets see how much Cullen wants him when we get done with him.