Pearce Hudson: #1 My Italian Devil

30.Her

(Jake's P.O.V)

I let her go.

I watched her go.

I didn't stop her from going.

Not that I could.

Her head disappeared down the stairs. I sucked in as much oxygen as I could. My chest swelled up. I rubbed my temple. I wasn't an agent. I was an analyst all I do was search names, addressees, hack into other computers and encrypt files. I wasn't badass. I could barely protect myself. Pearce and I were complete opposite. Whatever she saw in me, in us, it wasn't going to last long. Once she realizes how boring and lame I was she was going to run for the hills.

I returned to my apartment. Max was standing at the window barking. I went over to see. Pearce was getting into a SUV across the street. I sighed then took a seat on the couch, placing the laptop on my lap. Max barked for a few more moments before joining me on the couch.

I could always be her dog sitter.

Sigh. My fingers moved over the keyboard typing away. Pearce had given me the duplicated version of Dante's phone and I still haven't found anything incriminating. He had tons of phone numbers, presumably contacts, but they were all businessmen or bodyguards and of course Pearce's number. He had no texts. Considering the fact he was a criminal mastermind I doubted he'd have any texts that said 'Don't tell the cops but I killed a guy'. What did strike me odd was how much Angry Birds he liked to play.

Knock, knock.

Startled I nearly dropped the laptop. My mind went to Dante. Maybe he found out about Pearce and I and was going to murder me, now.

Murderers don't knock.

Maybe it's Pearce.

Highly unlikely.

Max hadn't started barking yet, so whoever it was, wasn't coming to harm me. I opened the door. A man about my age was standing outside. He tall and broad shouldered. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes, the same color as Pearce's. His posture brought a sort of dominance. A silver chain hung around his neck, no they were dog tags. He was in the army.

"Can, can I help you?"

"Um yeah, Jake right?"

"Yes."

"I'm Peter. Pearce's brother. We met-"

"Oh yeah I remember from the birthday party." I moved aside. "Come in."

"Thanks man."

He took a seat on the couch and Max came over whining at him.

"Uh Pearce isn't here-"

"I know, she went to Dante's place to have dinner."

Silently I took a seat beside him and again placed the laptop on my lap.

"Sometimes I don't get what's going on inside her mind," Peter petted Max.

"I'm sure she has the welfare of the case on her mind."

"But that's not important. Her life is. The people she loves is."

"I-I...she feels guilty for not finding out about Dante earlier."

"I know. I wish she'd never met the guy in the first place."

Silence.

"It's her type," Peter went on.

"What's her type?"

"Her type of guy. She's always been into trouble making boys, bikers and all. In a way, I guess Dante would be the ultimate bad boy."

Well there goes my chances.

More knocking made me jump. I placed the laptop on the coffee table and went to answer the door.

"Newman open the door!" Ross's voice commanded. There was some pounding on the door.

"I have beer and pizza," he thrust a pizza box in my hand as he stepped into the living room. "Pearce's brother right? Peter? I'm her partner Jared Ross. Also I went to law school with her."

Ross stuck out his hand and Peter gave it a shook, "It's good to meet you dude."

"Likewise."

"Not that I don't mind the company but why are you guys here exactly?"

"Too catch the game with you," Ross nodded in my direction while biting into a pizza slice.

"I came to see Max," Peter added quickly.

None of them wanted to admit it, but I knew the underlying reason. They wanted to make sure Pearce was coming home.

"So Harvard huh?" Peter changed the subject.

"Only Law school but yeah. Pearce was the reason why I joined the FBI. We joined together. What about you what school?"

"Did my Bachelor's degree at MIT in Poly sci before enlisting."

One of them turned the TV on and noise filled the apartment. The two men switched subjects and began talking about sports.

A red alert popped up on my laptop screen. After coming to Boston, I had set up an alert on my laptop for all murders in Boston. I pressed on the link, the alert lead me to. It was the news. Headlines flashed under the anchor: Dead body found floating in the Charles River.

"Guys turn on the news," I said.

"What? No!" Ross said.

I snatched the remote from his hand and switched channels to the news and turned up the volume.

"Authorities yet have to determine the cause of death but so far it's been speculated as drowning. Police are still trying to determine if there had been any foul. However the only thing released to the press was the name of the victim, James Gomez. The body had-"

Ross snatched the remote from me and pressed the mute button. We exchanged looks.

"What the fuck is going on? Both of you look like you've seen a ghost," Peter got up from the couch.

"James Gomez," Ross explained. "Was supposed to testify. He's the one that got away like 10 hours ago. We suspected he went back to Dante and told him about the case."

"Pearce," Peter and I breathed out.

"James told Dante for sure," Ross shook his head.

"But he's dead," I pointed out. "Why would Dante kill him?"

"Either way," Ross pulled out his car keys. "I'm not taking any chances. Where is Pearce's car? Mine's at the office."

I pulled on a jacket, "It's at the back."

"Whoa, whoa," Ross stopped me. "Where do you think you're going?"

"With you."

"Pearce will kill me if I let anything happen to her boyfriend."

"Boyfriend!" Peter bellowed.

"Look everyone else is in hiding," I reminded him. "You may need back up. Now let's go."

"If he's going then I'm going," Peter announced.

"You're probably better back-up than Jake but you're not a FBI agent. If something happened to you'd a civilian casualty," Ross shot me an apologetic look. "Plus I need you to call this number and tell her what we're doing. Her name's Jessica Osbourne. I'm leaving the number here."

Peter too the number, sighed, then said, "Fine."

"Do you...do you-you think," I stammered as we pulled into traffic.

"Don't go there," Ross warned.

"I-I just wanna protect her. From him. I know that I can't but..."

"You and me both. Pearce is one of the best people and agents I know. She'll be fine."

There was an uncertainty in his voice. I didn't question it. Pearce was a very complicated woman but she was a good person. And someone I wanted to be with. She'd given me plenty of reasons to run away and not enough to stay yet, I kept going back to her. I wanted to be with her.