DEAN:
"Come on kid, you can do better than that!" Travis shouts from his own heavy bag next to me. Both of us retreated to the hotel gym after Jessie made her decision, and Thomas and Liis stayed to prep her on their super secret FBI planning. Load of bullshit…
"There you go, throw more than one punch at a time. Burn off the anger." He wails on his bag to the point that I think the sand will start pouring out. I throw a few more punches then grip the bag to keep it from swinging wildly, attempting to catch my breath.
"You done already?" he asks as I unwrap my hands.
"Yeah, I'm done. Shit's not helping. I still want to kill somebody."
He steps back from the bag and rips at the wrap on his hand with his teeth. "I hear ya, son. If you think that because I didn't throw any punches up there that it means I'm okay with this, you're dead wrong."
I straddle the bench next to us and toss the hand wraps that I've balled up into the nearby trash can. Gripping the wood with my hands, I crack my neck waiting for Travis to continue. He sits at the other end of the bench, elbows on his knees. He turns his head so that he can meet my eyes.
"She's my little girl. The only one I have. It tore me up something fierce when I found out what that piece of shit did to her. Haven't been the same since. Pidge tried to get me to go see some shrink with her, to 'deal with our emotions'. I'm dealing with it, it in my own god damn way. Don't need some professional tool to tell me how to think. Now all this? This I don't know if I can handle."
His shoulders sag, I'm terrified that he might cry. And what the hell am I gonna do with that?
"Hey, why do you call Mrs. Maddox 'Pidge' anyway? I don't think Jessie's ever mentioned it." Please, for the love of god, change the subject.
His head bobs with a small laugh. "Guess you're not the first one to wonder about that one. It's short for Pigeon." When I raise a brow he goes on. "You ever hear someone call the one card they needed to make their hand a winner in poker a Pigeon?" I nod. "Well, Abby is my Pigeon. My life would've been a pile of shit without her… Then again, if you ask her she'll tell you it's from this old Disney movie about a couple of dogs."
I laugh because I know exactly what movie he's referring to. "So that makes you the Tramp, huh?"
"Oh yeah, I've been called that and then some," he chuckles. "But when I met Abby, everything changed. Took me a while to get my shit together, and I definitely screwed up a few more times before we worked it out. That girl wanted nothing to do with me when we first met, but from the moment I saw her covered in some assholes blood in this prim pink sweater, I was a goner." My face must betray my confusion. "She was at one of my fights, standing too close. Even when she hated me and everything I stood for, she still couldn't stay away." The grin on his face couldn't get much wider.
My curiosity outweighs my simmering anger. "How'd you get her to change her mind about you?"
He meets my eyes again, the look in his deadly serious. "I fought. Fought for that girl like my life depended on it. My mother told me on her death bed that if you fight and all else fails, you gotta fight harder. That's what I did. I spent the better part of a year fighting for Abby. And my ma was so right. I came out of it with the best life I could ask for, three amazing kids, and twenty four years and counting with the love of my life. What idiot do you know would complain about that?"
"No one I want to know," I answer.
He grips my shoulder as he stands. "I like you, kid. You're good to my daughter, the family seems to love you. In the grand scheme of things, I guess Jessie could do much worse."
"Ha, thanks for that. I'm glad you don't hate my guts. It would make it awkward as hell when I propose to her."
He winces, as if he's just remembered our conversation from that cold January morning which seems like a million years ago. "Still planning on that, huh? Don't suppose I could persuade you to wait a year or ten?"
"You know how you just described your feelings for Mrs. Maddox? Well, that's how I feel about Jessie. If I had to, I'd fight to the death for her. The way things have been going, that might be more of a possibility than I ever thought." Weary, I stand and walk through the gym to the elevators with Travis. Once the doors close, he turns to me. "There's no one else I'd trust to protect her in a situation like this. Except maybe me, and any of my brothers. We're gonna keep her safe. And we're gonna get that prick behind bars. You have my word on that."
"Good," I say.
JESSIE:
"What exactly do I have to do?" Now that everyone's emotions are a little more leveled out, I want to get the details of exactly how I'm supposed to act as bait for Will.
Aunt Liis sits beside me on the couch in the space Dean vacated shortly after I agreed to all this. "It would appear that Will knows your routine. He followed you to class, after all. It's possible that he, at the very least, has gotten ahold of your class schedule."
"But I only have one midterm tomorrow and then classes are done until after spring break," I interrupt.
"Right, but there is a chance that he'll follow you tomorrow, so we want to be prepared. There will be three agents in plain clothes sitting in on your midterm, with two more stationed in the hallway posing as students." I swallow and massage my temples. There's so much to take in.
Uncle Tommy resumes where Aunt Liis left off. "We're also going to have you wired. You'll have an earpiece with a direct line to Liis and I. We'll be with you the whole time you're on campus."
"Okay. So I go, take the test, and come back here. Then what?"
Aunt Liis and Uncle Tommy exchange a glance.
"What? What did I miss?" I ask, confused.
"The chances of Will following you are fair to good at best. On the off chance that he doesn't risk going on campus again, there is only one other place that you would normally go."
"You want me to stay at the apartment. Alone?" I exhale a shaky breath.
"Not happening. I'll be with you, whether they like it or not," Dean promises as he steps off the elevator with my father.
"Dean, I understand your need to protect Jessie. But Will is more likely to approach if—"
He cuts Aunt Liis off with a glare. "This isn't up for debate. She's not staying in that apartment alone."
"Agreed," Dad chimes in.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Aunt Liis looks to Uncle Tommy for a solution.
"Alright. It would look more normal for Dean to be with Jessie at the apartment. We can't deny that. The chances of him trying to gain access to the apartment are slim if he knows other people are around, but he'll likely still be keeping an eye on the place. If you leave, he'll follow. You go nowhere without consulting with us first Jessie, got it? We can't protect you if you try to go rogue. Call me or Liis and we'll arrange a detail to follow you to wherever you need to go."
"Where the hell am I going to go?" The thought of heading out to get a pedicure isn't really high on my priorities list given the circumstances.
"You have to act normal, Jessie. You can't stay holed up in the apartment, not if you want this to work," Uncle Tommy points out.
"So when this scumbag does make his move, what happens then? Because if your guys aren't in place and ready to take him down, there's no one to stop me from taking him out myself," Dean growls.
"They'll be ready, Dean. Follow the plan, keep us in the loop, and we'll get him." Uncle Tommy stands and reaches for Aunt Liis' hand. "You're fine to stay here tonight if that's what you want to do. A car will follow you to campus in the morning and the other agents will be in place by the time you arrive."
Dad follows them to the elevator and they have a private discussion that I can't, and frankly don't really want to, hear.
"Where are your mom and the guys?" Dean questions as he kisses my temple and pulls me in closer to his side.
"Up on the roof. Jamie needed air and mom wanted to know more about his accident." I lean into him and rest my head on the curve of his shoulder, closing my eyes in an attempt to soothe my overworked mind.
"They can stay here, you know. When we go back to the apartment? Your family is more than welcome to stay. And once they take this piece of shit into custody, we'll come back and join them."
"Are you sure? That's really way too generous." I chew on the corner of my lip, thinking about just how much this place must cost per night.
"Relax. Mom insisted on renting the suite through the end of break. She'd probably like people to actually, you know, use it." Dean stands up and walks over to the sliding glass doors, then paces back to the couch, and over to the kitchen island.
I make my way over to him and run my hand up and down his rigid back. "Dean…"
He lifts his arm so I can step underneath and he can hold me to his chest, lips pressed firmly to the top of my head. "Yeah, baby?"
I lift my eyes to his. "I'm scared, too."
He exhales through his nose and rests his forehead against mine. "I'm sorry, I know I should be strong for you right now, but it's harder than I thought. Knowing that you're going to be out there, vulnerable, dangling in front of this scum bag like some kind of worm on a hook. It's driving me insane."
"Hey," I place my hands on his cheeks and make sure his eyes are on mine, "let's make a deal."
"Okay?" His eyebrow raises inquisitively.
"We get through tomorrow, let the FBI do their job, and then once he's behind bars we spend our entire break bumming around the beach and hanging out with my family. We don't let him take this from us. Deal?"
His lips capture mine briefly until we hear the sound of a throat clearing from the doorway. "Deal," he whispers.