Authors Note: Thank you so much for reading and leaving your reviews, I appreciate the feedback. I hope you like this next chapter, and I wonder who IS that girl in the picture
-Jess-
Jess had no idea at that moment what had spooked her, but something in her very soul told her she and Connor had to get the hell out of there.
"Connor we have to go…now." She hissed grabbing him by the collar of his shirt - she all but dragged him out the door and down Becker's front steps, Connor had squirmed out of her grasp was now following closely right next to her.
When they finally got to the car and got in Jess still didn't feel all that safe, she started fiddling with the dials on the radio trying to calm her beating heart.
"Uh Jess, duck." Connor squeaked.
"What…why?" She started to ask but Connor grabbed her by the back of her neck and practically shoved her down into the gearshift, placing himself over her. His breath on the back of her neck was ragged and it ticked.
Jess was so shocked by Connors unusually forceful gesture that she stayed where she was silently, Connor kept them like that for a good minute or so, before looking up himself then letting her up, when he did she adjusted her neck feeling it pop.
"Ow Connor…why?" Jess questioned still in considerable pain.
"Becker just walked past." He explained his eyes scrutinizing the now empty road ahead of them.
"Oh…" Jess responded under her breath, well at least she knew her feelings were right, something had been wrong. She thought on that for a moment, how often do people get those bad feelings and just ignore them… thank god she didn't this time. As she pondered over the uneasiness of the close call she remembered something she read…
'Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.'
Remembering that calmed her worries. She watched as Connor worked with amazing speed on this laptop, putting back up all of Becker's security systems no doubt. Another passage from the book came into mind.
'After crossing a river, one should get far away from it.'
"Come on Connor, we should get away from here before we get caught." Jess reasoned starting up the car, soon they were far enough away from Becker's flat that Jess had started to calm down enough to start thinking about ways to figure out who the girl in the picture was.
[The Next Day]
-Becker-
Something strange was going on with Jessica – and it wasn't just her 'nightmares' as she calmed.
If he was going to be thoroughly honest with himself, Becker had never really paid that close attention to Jess. Sure he had paid attention to how much she paid attention to him, but for most of the time he was focused on work, and there just didn't seem to be time to get to closer to her.
But this had gone beyond a bad day or two, something…around her had changed, something that had him thinking about her more than he had in the past, mostly because it was a 180 degree shift from her normal behavior.
Speaking of the devil, and almost on cue Becker looked up from the computer he was working at - where he was going over various security protocols as Jess walked into the room, looking stunning.
She walked with her normal confidence but didn't acknowledge him or even glance in his direction as she settled herself into her chair at the ADD, she had a thoughtful expression on her face – like she had some important inner world to deal with at the moment.
Becker looked her over, his feelings of frustration growing a little, it was maddening. 'Seriously, what was going on with her?' He again wondered to himself.
Authors Second Note: All quotes are from the book, The Art Of War by Sun Tzu. Thank you again for reading.