DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR ANY OF

S. MEYER'S CHARACTERS… UNFORTUNATELY.

I JUST PLAY WITH THEM.

Blood In The Snow Chapter 16

Previously:

Jasper looked up and saw me standing there, grinning at me. I motioned for him to come with me and we headed out into the woods to find our perfect tree.

JBPOV

Staring out the window, into the darkness, I watch the snow swirling down, glittering in the lights from the street below me. I can see my colleagues walking down the hallway in the reflection of the window. Sighing, I swivel my chair back around to face my desk and the door. Reaching over, I turn my desk lamp back on, sadly gazing at the stack of files lying there. So sloppy. Did the man want to be caught? He left such an easy trail to find and follow. Looking through the papers, it was easy to see that he'd been feeding information to the Volturi soldiers for a long time… at least a couple of years. I even had audio and video recordings of his calls and meetings with them.

When I asked my guy to find out all that he could, I never dreamed he'd find so much. Burying my face in my hands, I mourned the fact that I was gonna have to destroy the life of one I considered a close friend. There had to be a way to protect his family. Hmmm… if we could get his family out of the city and in a safe place…

The hallways outside my office have been almost completely deserted for several hours now. My ear hurt from being on the phone for so long, but I had managed to connect with a couple of my contacts and set up a safe house for his family. Now, I just have to convince him to go along with it. I can't believe that he has gone bad… I think he's just caught in their web. I have to believe that.

Sighing, I lean back in my chair, swiveling it around to gaze out the window at the soft glow in the east… the sun will be up soon. He'll be coming in to work. I'll catch him as soon as he gets in and start the ball rolling. Letting my eyelids drift shut, I relax and try to grab a quick nap.

The slamming of my office door jolts me awake. "What the hell?" I grumble, jerking the chair around to see who the dumb ass is who slammed my door.

Sam stands there with a goofy grin on his face, holding a tray with coffee and sweet rolls. "Jake… you sleep here last night?" He grins at me, setting the coffee on my desk, offering me a sweet roll. "Here, this will bring you back to life."

Gratefully, I take a big drink of the coffee. Oh, man. I just don't function without coffee. "Thanks, man." I motion for him to sit down and he does. "Sam, we need to talk."

"Okay… " He has a puzzled look on his face. "What's up?"

I push the stack of files across the desk to him. I watch his face as he picks them up and reads what's written there.

He goes pale and begins to shake. "Jake? What's all this?" He waves his hand at the rest of the files and the recordings. "Man, what's going on?"

"Do I really have to spell it out?" I shake my head sadly. "You want to explain it to me? How my best friend, my most trusted partner, my brother could get involved in something like this?" My voice rose and I know my face got red, I could feel the heat.

Sam just sat there and stared at me for a minute before burying his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking. "Jake…" He mumbled for a second, then got quiet as he pulled himself together. Looking up at me, I could see the abject sorrow in his eyes. "Man… I didn't go looking for them. I was drowning in medical bills. You know Leah has been really sick. The insurance just doesn't cover everything and I couldn't just let her die! She had to have those special procedures. I had to find a way to pay for them." He rubbed his face, then continued. "About eighteen months ago, I was coming out of a finance company, trying and failing to get a loan, there was this guy standing beside my car. I didn't recognize him. He knew all about my money problems. He told me he knew someone who could help. He took me to this café to meet his 'friend', who turned out to be a loan shark. I knew better, Jake, but I had no choice… I had no choice."

"Man, why didn't you come to me? I would have helped you."

"I knew you wouldn't have that kind of money, Jake. Damn." Sam looks down at everything on the desk. "What are you gonna do with all this? Do I need to call a lawyer?"

Leaning back in my chair, I just look at him while he squirms nervously. "Look… they've threatened Leah and the kids, haven't they?"

Sam's head jerked up in shock. "How… how did you know?"

"I figured that was the only way they could get you to co-operate."

"They never actually said they'd hurt them, but they would make little comments about how much better Leah was looking and that the kids sure went to a nice school. They know where to get to them, Jake." His eyes pleaded with me to understand. "Jake, I can't risk them."

"I know, Sam." I reached over to the folder lying next to the phone. Opening it, I pull out the information I had gotten last night from my contacts. I shove the papers over to Sam and watch while he reads them, hope beginning to creep across his face. "I've made arrangements to get Leah and the kids out of the city and to a safe place. Are you willing to feed false information to Aro and his men?"

"You're sure this will be a safe place?"

"Yes."

"Just so you know, Jake, I never told them where Jasper was. I didn't know for sure, just that he was near Seattle. They've got connections in the Seattle office, too."

"What? Who?" I jumped up out of y chair, leaning over the desk at him.

He pulled back in his chair, hands up in surrender. "I don't know. I never heard a name. The only thing I know is that it's not Swan, but it's someone in his office."

I slowly sat back down, rubbing my hand over my face. Oh crap, it's worse than I thought. Okay. Think. I look up at Sam. "All right. First things first. Call Leah, tell her to bring the kids and meet you for lunch."

"But the kids are in school."

"Tell her there's a special ceremony or something that you want to share with them… I don't care how you get them here, just do it. But, don't tell her anything else. Your phones are probably bugged." He nods and pulls out his cell phone, dialing. I get up and walk over to the window, watching the world go by. I can hear Sam convincing his wife to come down. I hear him close his phone and turn to look at him.

"They'll be here at eleven." He slumps in his chair, looking defeated. "What am I gonna tell her?"

"As little as possible. You will have ten minutes to say your good byes and then they will be taken to the safe house by the feds. You will NOT know where they are until this mess is cleaned up."

"What!" He jumps up.

"Sit down", I bark at him and he collapses back in the chair, "You can not know where they are… for their safety. If Aro finds out that you're working against him, you DO NOT want to be able to tell him or anyone else where your family is."

"Oh god… you're right, you're right." He cradles his head in his hands, slowly rocking back and forth.

Getting Leah and the kids out of town went off without a hitch. Sam managed to hold it together until they were safely away, then he fell apart. I got him back to my office and let him have some time to get himself together while I figured out a way to find out who, in Seattle, is giving Aro his information. Damn. I wish I had a way to contact Jasper. Hopefully, He'll call again soon. I need to get him some protection in place. I also need to talk to Charlie Swan. Does he know about his mole? I need to figure out a way to talk to him away from the station.

I stop by the break room and grab a couple of coffees to take back to my office. Sam looks to be calmer now. I set his coffee on the desk and sit down behind my desk. "All right. Your family is safe. We need to get busy and get Aro behind bars where he belongs."

Sam took a drink of his coffee, looking up at me over the rim of his cup. "Thank you, Jake. I'll do anything you ask."

We spent the next few hours discussing strategy. Finally, we decide that Sam will start feeding them incorrect information about Jasper's whereabouts. Then we'll watch them closely and monitor their calls to see if we can bring them down. I'm going to fly out to Seattle to talk to Swan. There's just no way to be sure I can get a secure phone line without coming out and saying there's a problem where anyone who might be listening can hear. Sam will report to me on one of those 'throw away' cell phones that you can buy at any department store. That way, we'll know it's clean. I'll keep my regular phone, in case Jasper calls, but for the calls from Sam, I'll have one of those 'throw away phones', too.

I get lucky and get a window seat, with no one beside me, on the flight to Seattle. I didn't tell Swan I'm coming out. I plan to just show up at his office and invite him out for lunch, with the cover story that I'm taking some vacation time and need him to tell me the best fishing holes in the area. Once we're clear, I'll tell him the whole story. Maybe together, we can ferret them out and get justice for Jasper and his family.

AN: Aha… we have one mole… now we need the one in Seattle. Wasn't planning on getting this chapter up so soon, but, hey, it all fell into place, so I figured… why not. Thank you so much for all your encouraging comments! Ya'll don't know just how much they mean to me… they put a great big, silly grin on my face!