Day Seven:

Friday, July 14th

Laguna Beach, California

Edward

Bean had been stolen from us two days prior. How come it seemed longer? It was absolutely insane to consider living without her for a whole year. Without her, how would we survive? It seemed utterly hopeless. Jasper quit smoking pot because he was having trouble sleeping. He didn't eat much, and the only reason he took a shower was to remove the blood. The man had a hideous appearance and was hardly acting like a human being. How about I? I guess I was getting a little better. I had to focus all of my energy on causing devastation in order to survive. I had a single goal in mind for this mission, as if it were any other: Bean. I also wanted to bring her home before the weekend was out. When I assured Dennis that I would stop at nothing to get our girl back, I wasn't lying. I reminded Jasper that we hadn't even scraped the surface of what a desperate guy must do, which wasn't only restricted to stealing or killing.

The heist went off without a hitch, netted three million, and resulted in the deaths of a few of Elena's guys, but Jasper's meeting with Alex, Jaime, and a fuck-twaddle named Lado today suggests that pulling off another one wouldn't be doable. I was the one Lado suspected, and I didn't blame him. IEDs and RPGS would serve as my calling card if such a thing existed for an asshole like me. Elena having a lot of adversaries was good news for Jasper and me.

Dennis gave one the name El Azul.

We still needed to cast doubt on ourselves rather than El Azul, though. Before Jasper left for the conference, we had a quick discussion about it and thought it would be best to sow a seed of doubt somewhere else, so Jasper told them: "Maybe you should look at your own men."

All we had to do was choose the hapless idiot. Dennis provided a wealth of facts in his intelligence. For Alex, Jaime, and Lado, it included addresses, phone numbers, information about their families, financial details, etc. I made an effort to identify the most plausible and likely candidate for blame. Lado came in first with Jaime being a close second. I believed they were too shady to refrain from robbing their boss, but Jasper overruled me. He became silent as I arched an eyebrow at him, but eventually, he sat up straight in his chair and gestured to Alex.

"Him," he responded.

I questioned, "Why him?"

"He is the least likely, which increases its plausibility. It wouldn't take much to frame Lado, so Elena would think we were targeting him. We might as well attempt to frame El Azul if we do that. Lado will support us when I bring it up to him because he is likely stealing from Elena. He'll seize the opportunity to divert attention from himself."

You see, while I may be the bulk of this outfit, Jasper was really the brains behind all of the evil.

"How will you go to Lado?" I queried.

He made a shrug.

"Dennis' intel." I chuckled. "The gift that just keeps on giving."

"I gave him a call. Tomorrow morning, we have a meeting in Tijuana."

"And if you already have a meeting, that means you've called Spin."

"In a few hours, we are expected to go pick up the documents."

"Would you like me to accompany you to Tijuana?"

"No, you see, I want the drive. To quiet myself and organize my thoughts. That kind of shit."

"Well, damn," I murmured. "What in the fuck do you need me for?"

Jasper didn't get the joke because he was under a lot of stress.

His sigh was loud. "I am aware that everything is really a means to an end."

The unnecessary guilt Jasper forced upon himself was only a little annoyance. I interrupted his doom and gloom with, "Listen to me. We are only defending ourselves because we have been attacked. These fuckers turned down our kind offer and then abducted our girl to put us in a precarious predicament. How we respond is on them. Man, you have to quit letting it consume you."

"Yeah." Jasper grinned flimsily before chuckling. "Don't you fucking think I know that? I'm making an effort to focus on the goal, however..." His eyes swell up and turn red and watery.

"But then what?"

"But what if she doesn't recognize me when we bring her back?" Jasper placed the heel of his palms to his eyes as he flushed with shame. "Fuck! I need to grow a pair."

He was attempting to laugh it off at this point, but I simply grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and hugged him. He didn't sob; instead, he just clung to me as if his life depended on it. Each of us has a breaking point, so I refrained from passing judgment on Jasper. His convictions had been put to the test by the events' warp pace, and now he was barely holding on. I had many years to get jaded by this world, and I had protected him for an equal amount of time.

I shouldn't have believed that he would adjust in a couple of hours or days.

Additionally, the man was worn out and depleted, which made it inevitable that emotions would be strong.

As he moved away from the hug, I held his face and kissed him. I didn't want him to think he was alone, but I kept it short because I'm not the sort to linger.

He said, "Man, I love you."

"Yeah, me too." I wrinkled my brow at the shadows beneath his eyes. "You gotta get some rest, Jazz," I said.

His coffee machine started to brew as though on cue.

"I will." He got up to go make his 111th cup by himself. "As soon as Bean is home."

Later that evening, we were back at Ocean Ranch, and Spin looked fucking pleased with himself. The kid was a bit of a genius; some of his antics amazed me. My driving records and all of my bank accounts were false. You see, it kept my ass in the clear and respectable in the eyes of the law. It was not an easy thing to do what Jasper requested him to do. Clean as a whistle was Alex Reyes. In fact, he was arguably the most devoted to Elena of all her men. He was married and had three children. He was a renowned prosecutor's attorney in Mexico. I found it strange that this man would get involved in the drug trade because some of the persons he assisted in locking up were dangerous characters. He might have been drawn in because he had been close friends with Elena's late spouse, or it could have been his brother, Jaime.

Overall, Jasper could not have chosen a finer victim.

"What do you got for us?" I queried and hung back against the wall.

Jasper hovered over the computer station.

"Listen to this. You're going to love it." Spin jumped up from his spot and paced around as he described his creation, becoming extremely enthusiastic. "I gave your boy Alex a new bank account in Saint Kitts. Separate deposits of 120, 260, and 90. I spin it around the planet twice, and voila. Alex Reyes now owns a building in Cabo and sells it to a resident of Palau, who doesn't exist. By the end of the day, he's definitely been one bad little puddy cat."

"Phone records?" Jasper asked.

"Oh, yeah. Plenty of backup. This account is so confusing, it'll take a forensic a month just to find his own dick." Spin halted and became grave. "So, what did this guy do to you?"

Besides taking our fucking girl, what else? But for us, that was enough to sign your death warrant. My mouth remained shut. We aimed to provide Spin with believable denial. He was clever enough to cover up every sign of his presence, so no one realized he worked for us- not even Dennis. Which was fortunate considering that fucking rat apparently collaborated with Elena.

Jasper answered with a monotone voice. "When do you ask questions like that?"

The guilt was evident. "Come on, man," Spin said. "This is the Baja Cartel. They're probably going to crucify this guy for this."

Spin didn't need to inform Jasper that he was killing a guy; he was already aware of it. I wanted to intervene and tell the kid to do his job and shut the fuck up, but I didn't get the chance.

"So, you don't mind losing your commission on the deal?" Jasper enquired, and the response was icy, masculine.

Spin got the message as he held up his hands. "It's your ballgame."

AN: This scene with Spin didn't go quite like this in the movie, and I added an Edward POV. I missed him, so I wrote this, we'll ge back to Bean next chapter and the movie.

Thanks for reading.