Chapter 9

“He’s wearing Dad’s shirt.”

Jerking up in her bed, she clutched the sheet to her chest while glancing towards the voice.  Logan stood there, a blank expression on his face, but Amy knew that he was a little upset.  It showed in the way he crossed his arms over his chest, the way he glanced at Jaxon, who was standing on the other side of her bed.  She glanced over at the man, noticing that he was also standing in the same defensive pose as her brother.  Letting out a sigh, she plopped back onto the bed and threw the sheet over her head.  There was no way that she wanted to face the two of them at that moment.  Not when she was sure it was still dark outside, and that as soon as she got up, they’d both question her until she broke.

“Amy,” Jaxon said in a voice that reminded her too much of her brother’s.  “Why didn’t you tell me he’d be here?”  He paused for a moment, and to her surprise, started to chuckle.  “Is that why you agreed so quickly with me last night?  You didn’t want to tell me your brother would be here?”

She brought the sheet down slightly, only allowing her left eye to show.  Staring at Jaxon, she made sure the man was smiling before letting the same expression fly onto her face.  “I didn’t want you worry,” she mumbled, only telling him half the truth.  To be honest, she had thought she wouldn’t have to tell him at all.  Logan wasn’t supposed to arrive until later in the day.  By then, she could have hid Jaxon, saving them all from an extremely awkward situation. 

The sheet that had been covering her face was snatched off her body, and she let out a groan.  Turning a glare on her brother, she froze when she saw the tick in his cheek.  It was their one clue that Logan was going to snap, the only clue the man gave before he did something she was sure he would later regret.  She followed his glare, noticing it was on Jaxon, not that the man would know.  His eyes were directly on her legs.  The sheet was thrown back over her, and she quickly jerked it off.

Scrambling to the end of the bed, she barely had enough time to place a hand on her brother’s chest before he jumped towards Jaxon.  Logan stopped as he looked down at her hand.  The look in his eyes said it all.  He wanted her to move, but wouldn’t risk doing anything to hurt her.  Which meant at that exact moment, Jaxon was safe.  She turned towards him and rolled his eyes. 

“You both act as if you’ve never seen a girl’s legs before.”

“They’re your legs,” they both said, but with the way Logan glared at Jaxon, she had a feeling they meant the words in two different ways.

Fighting the flush that was rising up her neck, she tugged on the bottom of her dad’s old shirt, and Jaxon finally glanced up at her.  His eyes went from hers to where her hand was holding back her brother.  He tensed, before something flashed in his eyes.  Glancing down at his shirt, a small smile fell onto his face as Amy felt confusion fall onto hers.  “This is your dad’s shirt?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said slowly, wondering if Logan hadn’t already hit the man over the head.

Jaxon reached down and tugged on the sweat pants he wore.  “These your dad’s too?”

She shook her head at him, and when the smile began to drop, she blurted, “They’re my uncle’s.”

“Good,” he breathed before he sent her a grin that made her brother push against her hand.

Pushing Logan again, she glared at him before turning that glare on Jaxon.  “Can you get out for a little bit?  I need to talk to my brother.”

“If you think you’ll be okay,” Jaxon agreed, sizing her brother up as if he planned to fight Logan. 

Logan made a noise deep in his throat, and Amy could only guess the noise came from anger.  “If you think I’d hurt my sister, then you aren’t as smart as I thought.”  Jaxon’s eyes began drifting towards Amy.  “Eyes off,” Logan snapped, making Jaxon jump.

“Logan,” Amy snapped while rising off the bed to stand in front of her brother.  Pushing on his chest, she smiled when he began backing up.  If Logan had wanted to, he could have stood there without moving an inch, no matter how hard Amy pushed on his chest.  The fact that her brother still felt the need to humor her, even while he wanted to beat Jaxon to a bloody pulp, made Amy realize that he really was the right brother to call.  “Go stand on the other side of the bed while Jaxon leaves the room.”

Logan looked at her nightshirt before raising an eyebrow at her.  “And yes, I’ll put some clothes on,” she huffed, crossing her arms under her chest.  With a nod, Logan motioned for Jaxon to go ahead, but when Amy glanced back at him, he stood completely still.  A sigh, which let them both know she was fed up, escaped her mouth as she pointed towards the door.  “I need to talk to my brother.  If you really want help with all of this, if you really want to make sure I don’t get too involved, you’ll let me talk to him alone.”

Something flashed in his eyes, and Amy almost allowed herself to think it respect.  “You can tell him everything,” Jaxon said with a smile as he began walking towards her open bedroom door. 

“Thanks,” she mumbled as he left the room, door still open.

She rolled her eyes at the action, knowing that Jaxon had left it open in hopes of either hearing their conversation or making sure that her and her brother’s arguing didn’t go too far.  The man would quickly learn that Amy won most of her arguments, mainly because she was too spoiled for them not to give her what she wanted.  It sounded self-centered to even think it, but when it came to her brothers, none of them had the power to tell her no.  She never had to fear that her brothers would hurt her in anger, never had to worry that they would not do everything in their power to protect her.  It was how it had been since she could remember, and that was exactly why she walked towards the door and closed it. 

Jaxon might be a man that she was learning to trust, even like, but she knew that her brother wanted to have this conversation privately.  If there was anything that she felt Jaxon needed to know, or if there were anything that pertained to him and his brother, she would let him know.  Until then, Jaxon just wasn’t familiar enough to be brought in on her family conversations.

“He’s a good guy,” she defended as soon as the door clicked shut.

A sigh escaped Logan, and for some reason, Amy felt as if her very quiet brother was about to speak a lot. “He has a record, Amy, and not just the jaywalking kind.”  She plopped down on the end of her bed and watched as he walked towards her.  He stood in front of her, but while his demeanor had been intimidating before, nothing but worry showed in his movements now.  “I’m talking possession, enough for the intent to sell.  He’s suspected in a couple of murders too, but seeing as the victims weren’t too clean themselves, it was hard to get any evidence.  He may seem like a good guy Amy, but the man is dirty.”

She shook her head at him, knowing deep down that Jaxon wasn’t as bad as Logan thought.  “You don’t understand,” she defended and was satisfied when her brother nodded to tell her to continue.  “He’s doing this for his brother.  The man went undercover and was killed.”  Jumping to her feet, she looked up at her brother.  “Tell me you wouldn’t do the same for me.  Tell me that you wouldn’t for anyone in our family.  I would do it,” she whispered, feeling her eyes water.

“Amy,” he mumbled before pulling her into a tight hug.  “You know if anything happened to you, I’d move mountains to find out who did it, but the man went at it the wrong way.”  He leaned back, glancing down at her with an unreadable expression on his face.  “When you told me his name, it sounded familiar, and when I started doing research on him, I realized why.  Before he did all this, he was a reporter.”  Logan dropped his arms, only to raise a hand and run it through his very short hair.  “Not a neighborhood one either.  He went to Iran, Russia, all sorts of countries to hit on some high risk stories that could have got him killed.  Jaxon had connections, ones he could have used to find out what happened to his brother.”

“What if he couldn’t trust them?”  Logan shook his head at her, but didn’t outright deny her words.  It gave her hope, made her want to continue.  “What if his connections were part of what happened to his brother?  Or what if he had the suspensions that they could be?  If something happened to me, would you go to your connections?”

“No,” Logan said before smiling.  “I’d go to my brothers.”

“Which he no longer has,” she replied, watching him wince.  She knew she had hit home with that comment, knew that he was now beginning to understand exactly why Jaxon would put himself in the situations he had.  “He only had himself, Logan.  Can you honestly blame him for wanting to do anything in his power to find out what happened to the only brother he had?”

His hand reached out, mussing her already tangled hair.  With an affectionate smile, he took a step back and motioned towards the dresser.  “I’ll help, but you have to put some clothes on.  I don’t care how much you like the guy, him staring at you like that makes me want to hurt him.”

“I don’t like him,” she snapped.

“Whatever you say, Amy,” he mumbled with a smile, but soon the smile fell off his face to be replaced with something more serious.  “Don’t get too involved.  What happened to you pissed us all off, and it took you a while to get over it.  I don’t want to see you like that again.  Please,” he begged, and Amy’s eyes grew wide.  She had never heard Logan do any pleading.  The man simply said what he wanted and got it. 

That plead was the only reason why she nodded her head as he walked out the door.  If he would have forbid her to go near Jaxon, she would have protested, but with the worry in his eyes, she had no choice but to agree with his words.  With a sigh that was filled with a little bit of disappointment, she walked towards the dresser.  Opening up the second drawer, she pulled out a pair of sweat pants that had seen their better days.  With a shrug of her shoulders, she slipped them on.  Not bothering with brushing her hair, she quickly made her way towards the bathroom to brush her teeth. 

As she did, she winced at the woman in the mirror.  Amy’s hair was sticking up everywhere, dark circles were under her eyes, and the shirt that she wore had stains on it.  It didn’t matter though, she told herself as she spit out a mouthful of toothpaste.  She didn’t need to impress Jaxon, should do anything in her power to make sure the man didn’t want to be near her, because Logan was right.  As much as Amy liked the man, as much as she wanted to get to know him more, she couldn’t.

***

Jaxon settled back into the cushions of the coach, and the man across the room followed the motion with watchful eyes.  Even if Amy hadn’t said this particular brother’s name, Jaxon would have known it was Logan.  The man was obviously in some branch of the military.  With the way he stood, appearing relaxed, but alert, it was hard not to dub the man military.  The fact didn’t settle Jaxon’s nerves; it made him nervous, almost anxious.  He knew that Amy’s brother had found information on him, probably the worse he could possibly dredge up, and for some reason, Jaxon was worried how Amy would react.  Would the woman now look at him with fear?  Would she listen to his warnings and head back home safely?

“I’m doing this for Amy,” Logan said in a low voice, making all of Jaxon’s thoughts flow from his mind.

With a nod of understanding, Jaxon leaned forward.  “I understand, and I want you to know that if I could have done it different, I would.  The last thing I want is for her to get involved.  She’s,” he glanced toward the bathroom that she had disappeared into moments earlier, “a good woman.”

“Funny,” Logan drawled, not sounding too amused.  “She said the same about you.”

“That I’m a good woman?” he said with a smile, but Logan’s lips didn’t even twitch.  With a sigh, he closed his eyes for a second before opening them.  “I know you don’t like me, and if I had a little sister, I’m sure I wouldn’t like the strange man she allowed into her house either, but I promise you that I have no plans to hurt her.”

Logan shrugged as if he hadn’t even thought of the possibility.  “None of us would let you.”  A smile formed on the man’s lips, and Jaxon knew it was genuine.  “Plus, it seems as if Amy knows how to protect herself.”

His hand came up, touching the still slightly red of his face, and he winced before smiling back.  “You have to remind me to thank Carson for that one.”

“Don’t worry; I’ll thank him for you.”

Before Jaxon could reply, Amy bounded into the living room with slightly wide eyes.  She glanced between him and the small amount of disappointment on her face made him laugh.  “Did you expect one of us to be dead?”

“I expected something more than this,” she admitted with a smile and a shrug.

Jaxon smiled back, not being able to help himself.  She looked adorable.  Her hair was unruly, looking as if she had been in a battle with her bed and the bed one.  The shirt she wore had a large hole in the side of it, something he didn’t think she even realized, but it was the light in her eyes that made him feel things he shouldn’t.  He had never met a woman who looked at everything the way she seemed to, never met a woman who cared for a complete stranger.

“Enough,” Logan snapped.  Amy turned a glare in his direction, which just made the bigger man smile.  “If I’m going to help, I need information.”

Taking it as his cue, Jaxon jumped from the couch.  Going towards the fireplace, he picked up the pair of pants he had sat there earlier.  He dug through the pocket and pulled out the flash drive.  As soon as he turned towards Logan, a slight spark of interest flashed in the man’s green eyes, eyes that looked remarkably like Amy’s.  He looked back at the woman on his mind.  Did they get those eyes from their mother or their father?

“Father,” Amy said, making him freeze.

“What?”

She frowned at him, and the same expression she gave him earlier when he had asked about his clothing, formed on her face.  “You asked if we got our eyes from our mother or father.  Logan, Asher, and I got them from our father.  Carson and Spencer have blue like our mother.”

“Oh,” he mumbled stupidly.  He hadn’t realized he had asked the question aloud, and that scared him.  He was already allowing his control to slip, and he had Amy to blame for that.  The woman was a distraction, one that he couldn’t afford at the moment.  He looked back towards her.  Too bad he wanted to afford this particular distraction, especially after he learned that she had no boyfriend.  No, she was just a clothes stealer. 

“The flash drive,” Logan snapped in an annoyed tone. 

Jaxon sent Amy a grin before walking towards her brother.  Slapping it into the man’s palm, he motioned towards it.  “When I was trying to get away from the men following me, it was damaged.”

Logan either didn’t hear him, or didn’t care what he said, because the man just grabbed the bag near his feet and walked towards the bar.  He eased his bag onto the bar while pulling out a stool for him to sit on.  As he began taking things from his bag, a laptop, various other objects that Jaxon couldn’t even name, Amy began speaking.

“Logan’s a little bit of a technology freak,” she explained.  “He can recover the information on your flash drive.”

“Even the things that were once deleted,” Logan said, glancing over his shoulder to smile at Jaxon.  “In a little while, we’ll know every single thing you’ve ever put on here.”

Jaxon nodded as unease began forming in the pit of his stomach.  In only minutes, they would learn everything.  He just hoped that they would still want to help them when they found out exactly what he did, exactly how many crimes he had committed to get that information.  His eyes strayed towards Amy.  He didn’t want her to see this, but with the stubborn tilt of her chin, he knew that he had no chance in making her leave.  She was about to learn the man he was for the past year, but would she be able to realize that it wasn’t really him?  That he did those things to find out what happened to his brother?  He hoped so, because as much as he hated the fact, he cared what she thought.  He didn’t want her to think badly of him.

She must have noticed something on his face, because she sent him a caring look and a small smile.  “It’s going to be okay, Jaxon.”

He nodded while sending her a small smile back.  He hoped that she was right, because if she wasn’t, the last year of his life had been a waste, everything that he had done to get that information, pointless.  It was a thought he couldn’t bear to think.  They had to help him; they had to see how important this was to him, because without them, he had no chance.  His brother’s murders would get away, and Jaxon would go down in the process. 

***Thanks to Platypus1987 for the amazing banner on the side!***