Page 39 of Jack

Chapter Fifteen

Jack turnedas the door to the room they were using a base for the Montreal operations opened and Fitz walked inside. He’d wanted to cancel the tour, deeming it too dangerous, but the line from the Palace was that it would continue unless there were any further incidents. So here they were in another hotel. The only good thing about the day was at least he was guaranteed to see Astrid today at some point because they were sharing a room.

That hadn’t gone over particularly well with Fitz either, who’d said it compromised her place at the Queen’s side. Jack had agreed that the rooms would stay on paper as they were, with Astrid and her female security officer—Bebe—sharing adjoining rooms and Jack having his own room. Still, in reality, he and Bebe had swapped, with him taking the adjacent room and her having his room.

The team were all aware of the change, but anyone on the outside wouldn’t be.

“What do you need, Fitz?”

“I wanted to give you the details of who will be at the school tomorrow so you can check things out.”

Fitz handed him a piece of paper, and Jack scanned the names, not seeing anything that stood out. “Fine, I’ll have Lopez go over it.”

He knew he was being curt but didn’t have the energy in him to do anything else. Part of it was guilt eating away at him knowing his father was the cause. Last night he’d again offered his resignation which was flatly refused.

Fitz sighed and leaned against the desk Jack was working at, undoing his suit jacket. “Look, Jack, I know this isn’t easy for the team and especially you, but we all have a job to do. Mine is to make sure the Queen is protected. In a different way from you, sure, but I still have to see her best interests and her requests are carried out. For her, the most important thing is to be seen, to serve her people. I know that makes things difficult in light of things, but we know if anyone can keep her safe it’s you and your team.”

Jack scrubbed his hands down his face, the move making his stitches pull, reminding him of what could go wrong. “One inch either way and we’d be having a very different conversation now, Fitz.”

“I know, which is why we’ve agreed to cancel the public walkabouts and only attend the small events that can be managed.”

Jack looked up at the man he’d been working with for years now and respected, as much for his iron will as he damned it. “Even those come with risks.”

“Her Majesty is aware and understands the risks are hers to take.”

“Then we’ll do our job and make sure she stays safe.”

Fitz nodded as he stood and rebuttoned his suit. “Thank you, Jack.”

It was rare for the man at the Queen’s side to show thanks and even rarer for him to say it, so Jack took the peace offering for what it was. He looked down at the list as Waggs, Lopez, and Liam followed Kanan and Zin into the room.

Waggs placed a covered plate in front of Jack. “Brought you some food, boss man.”

“Thanks, Waggs, but I’m a big boy, you know. I’m perfectly capable of getting my own food.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t my idea. Astrid asked me to make sure you ate.”

“She did?”

Jack couldn’t hide the twitch of his lips at the thought of her worrying about him. He lifted the lid and saw chicken tikka kebabs and roasted Mediterranean veg. His mouth watered and he looked at his watch seeing it was already five o’clock. He shoved the piece of paper towards Lopez as he bit into the flavoursome meat. “This is the list for tomorrow. Have them checked out.”

“Bit late in the fucking day, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but we work with what we have.”

Lopez was working long hours trying to track down all the leads on Ravelino that might lead to Adeline as well as doing all the work for the tour. Thank God Will had taken over the search for Frederick.

He couldn’t even think of the man who had sired him without wanting to hit something. That he was somehow now in bed with Ravelino was fucked up. It was like he was going after Astrid to weaken Jack and the team and split their focus. Fuck, that was what he was doing.

“Waggs, is Astrid in her room?”

Waggs shook his head. “No, she and Bebe went out to meet a contact.”

Jack stood abruptly, the food forgotten as ice-cold fear clamped around his throat. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The men in the room paused as if sensing his mood change and that the slightest thing might tip him over the edge.

“No.”