Jessica's Fate

Chapter 37

~A~

I had a problem.

A serious, major problem.

And his name was Dakota Lee.

Man, her brother did not like me at all.

I hadn't actually met him much, Academy wise. I mean, I'd met most of his team at one point or another and I just couldn't figure out why he didn't like me. Was it because I was in the Academy and hadn't bothered to tell his sister who I was?

Was it because I was dating his sister and he somehow knew that our team was taking on a long term out of state assignment and he didn't want me messing with her head before I took off?

Was it just that he was protective of his sister?

I mean, there were easier ways to get rid of me.

Someone could just alert my friendly (HA!) neighborhood, professional Russian. I'm sure he'd be happy to take care of me in a dark alley.

In the week since that BBQ at Jessica's with all her extended family, I'd managed to run into her brother around town at least 6 times. Randomly.

Well, as randomly as it can be when Academy teams are based in Charleston. I was always surprised that we didn't tend to run into each other more often. Pretty easy to do though if I went to the diner. I always recognized at least a half a dozen people inside the diner either working or eating that were Academy.

Or was his issue more that he somehow knew my Academy background and knew that my team and I didn't have much adversity in our past. In fact, we hardly had any Academy Angst that we'd had to be rescued from.

In our family of six, four of us were basically Academy legacy members, meaning that we were born into the Academy. Two of us had fathers that were part of the Academy and the other two had mothers that were part of the Academy. There wasn't any question that we were destined to be Academy.

Our oldest brother had watched his father die in front of him during a home invasion robbery. He'd been holed up in a closet, peering out the slats in the door and watched as his father was executed. It was hours before he'd ventured out of the closet before finding the rest of his family scattered throughout the house, having also been killed. His baby sister had been kidnapped that night and despite having Academy resources and favors to use, it had been 7 years since he had laid eyes on her and no one had ever been able to pick up her trail.

One of my brothers had almost been picked up and locked up because he was from a bad neighborhood and dressed the part. He wasn't part of a gang but older brother was and he'd unwittingly been used to transport drugs to school. It was enough to have terrified him about the experience that he had run away from home, never to return. He had made us into his family and the best part about it was, for him, that he knew he could trust and depend on his new family and we always tried to do our best and not let him down.

I felt bad because I didn't want to seem as though I was brushing Jess off but wasn't I?

Was it really because I was maybe a tad bit scared of her extended band of brothers? Or was I scared that they'd manage to spring the professional Russian on me again?

"No." I muttered and shifted my weight slightly. I was scared of my growing feelings for her that seemed to spell out that I was very serious about her and I loved her.

I blinked and ran my hand through my hair.

Love her?

My heart pounded in my chest and I smoothed my hair down and thought about it some more.