"I don't trust that guy."

"Will you just go back to France?"

Austin grinned at me, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall. "I wasn't in France. I was in--"

"Not the point," I continued, crossing my arms over my chest as well. "I'm getting out of the hospital in like an hour. Jesse's going to pick me up. You need to get back to Rachel, wherever she is in Europe."

"I still don't trust him," Austin continued to pout.

"You haven't talked to him since last week when you were freaking interrogating him," I reminded my older brother, as if he had somehow forgotten. "You've practically scared him away so he never comes by when you're here, which is way too much." 

"You'd rather have your boyfriend spend time with you than your own brother?"

"Kind of."

"You're so mean to me."

"Go... back... to France."

Austin rolled his eyes at me before pushing himself away from the wall and walking toward my bed. He patted the top of my head and ruffled my hair, annoying me greatly. My hair was bad enough since I was in the hospital, but now he had to make it even worse.

He bent over and kissed the side of my head, ruffling my hair once again before straightening himself back up. "I don't know about you, JoJo, but I've had a great time this week."

I stared up at my brother, fixing my hair. "You haven't called me that since we were kids."

He shrugged. "Well, I haven't almost lost you before."

In the eighteen years that I had lived, I couldn't remember a time when Austin had really tormented me like older brothers were supposed to. He had always been supportive and sweet ever since before I could even remember. He would let me play with him and his friends when we were little, no matter where they went or what they were doing. Dallas, though he was two years older than my brother, was always a part of the group as well, along with about two or three other boys that were Austin's age.

I felt like one of the boys until I entered middle school, and sometimes I kind of missed that.

Speaking of Dallas, he had visited me earlier on in the week, much to Jesse's dismay. All we did was talk, but I could tell that Dallas still felt something for me, and I couldn't have felt guiltier about it. He was there when my parents had visited as well, and they were overjoyed to see him.

"You're going to miss your plane," I told him quietly, now staring down at my lap. I felt like I had been so mean to him during the week, all because I wanted to be with Jesse. I hadn't seen my brother in person for two years, and now when I finally saw him again I was sarcastic and snarky. I just felt so bad.

"I love you, Jordan," Austin smiled, patting my head once again. "Don't you forget that, you squirt."

I smiled up at him. "I won't. I love you, too."

He smiled at me, ruffling my hair one last time before turning away and heading out the door, leaving me alone in the white room. It was the first time I had really been alone during the day in the hospital, and even though I was upset that my brother was leaving for who knows how long, I was glad to be alone for once.

I let out a breath, leaning back in my bed a little. I had gotten so used to it, and I was kind of upset with the fact that I had to leave in only an hour. Sure, it was boring as hell in the hospital, but the bed was super comfy. And I was glad that the pain in my body had subsided. I was still covered in bruises, but they didn't hurt as much as they had the week before.

"Someone looks way too happy for being in a hospital."

This familiar voice caused my eyes to snap open, and I sat up quickly to see the one person I didn't want to see staring back at me from my doorway. He stepped forward, causing me to push into my pillow even more, even though that did absolutely nothing to help me.

"G--get out," I stuttered, not knowing what else I was supposed to say to him. Usually I wasn't so afraid, but after what had happened the last time I had seen him, I was scared now. Very scared.

"Oh, come on, Jordy," Hunter grinned, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he plopped down into Alex's usual chair on my left. "You can't hate me forever."

"Yes I can," I disagreed shakily.

Hunter rolled his eyes, propping his leg up on his other knee. We sat there in silence for a few moments, both of us just staring at each other and not saying anything at all. I tried my best to keep my mouth shut and not scream, even though I knew that I should have.

"Don't look so scared," Hunter ordered, rolling his eyes at me as if I was the stupidest person on the planet. "I'm not going to do anything to you. We're in a hospital, remember."

"How am I supposed to trust anything you say after everything you've done?" I demanded, still trying my best to get the farthest I could away from him. "You're lucky I'm not screaming for someone to come and help me."

I knew that there would be no use in doing so. I knew Hunter had come here knowing that I could have screamed. There was no point in getting him caught then, because he'd just be free in the next week after one of his minions killed me and confessed to killing Alexandria. Hunter was pretty much--

"Untouchable," Hunter began, as if reading my mind. "You know I'm untouchable, Jordan."

I glared at him. "Why do you think I'm not screaming?"

Before Hunter could respond to my question, even though it was rhetorical, the hospital room door began to open. My eyes lit up, because I knew I was saved. This had to be Jesse, since he was coming to pick me up. But what would he do if he saw Hunter in my room?

"Jordan--"

"Jesse--!" I began with a grateful smile, but that quickly went away when I saw who was in the doorway. It wasn't my boyfriend like I was hoping it would be, but my brother instead. What was he still doing here? He had left five minutes before!

What was I going to do about Hunter? He couldn't know about anyone I was close to! He would kill him if he knew that Austin was my brother... What was I supposed to do?

And how was I supposed to explain Hunter to Austin? I couldn't just tell him that he was the psycho that had killed our grandmother and put me in the hospital. How was I supposed to tell Austin about who this freak was?

"Hunter!" Austin grinned, causing my jaw to practically drop into my lap as my brother turned to the maniac sitting beside me. "What a surprise it is to see you here! I thought you were still in California!"

Hunter grinned, leaning back in his chair. "Nope, I'm here in Maine now."

I knew that that wasn't the whole truth. He was in Maine and California, which was even scarier than I thought it could have been. I wasn't safe anywhere.

Austin walked over to Hunter, and Hunter stood up from the chair. They did one of those guy hug things that I had never really understood before, but all I could do was stare at them in complete shock. Austin knew Hunter... and Austin knew Hunter?

"I see you remember my sister," Austin laughed, clapping Hunter down on the back. "I wonder if Jordan remembers you."

What? What was going on? What would I remember about Hunter other than the fact that he was a complete and total crazy psychopath that was completely obsessed with me?

Hunter looked pretty surprised along with me, so I knew he was confused over whatever my brother was saying as well. Was Austin the crazy one or something? I didn't remember anything that had to do with Hunter...

"Don't you remember, Jordan?" Austin asked, grinning like a freaking creeper as he continued to stare at me. "Hunter was one of my best friends ever since preschool and all the way through to senior year. Don't you remember when you'd always come out to play with us when we were little?"

Oh, my God.

Oh, no. No, no, no... There was no way that was possible! I had met Hunter before? He was my brother's best friend? Did Austin even know about the whole gang thing or was he completely clueless about the fact that his old best friend was a gangbanger?

"Doesn't seem like she remembers, Aus," Hunter chuckled, and I cringed slightly at the nickname he was giving my brother. Hunter, now reminded, obviously knew what Austin was talking about. Since they were both two years older than me, I knew they'd remember more than I did.

"Aw, Jord. You have to remember, right?" Austin continued to grin, and I couldn't believe he didn't notice the horror that was evident on my face. Maybe he didn't even notice... That was like Austin. He started laughing as he continued, "When you were six, you said that he was almost cuter than Dallas."

Oh, my God! I remembered that! Oh, no... I remembered that so well that it felt like it had just happened yesterday! That meant that it was all true... I had played with Hunter when I was a child. I had called Hunter cute when I was a child. I had known Hunter when I was a child!

"Oh, look," Hunter smirked, and I wanted to smack it off his face so badly. "She's so embarrassed. She's blushing."

Austin laughed. "And remember the time when we were playing hide n' seek?" he reminisced, and I wanted to just scream my heart out and tell him to stop. I didn't want to remember the time when I had innocently played with my grandmother's murderer. "You were hiding and Hunter was seeking--"

Wow, what a perfect scenario for what was going on in the present.

"--and you had tripped and scraped your knee. You were the last one to be found, and you were crying. When he finally found you, he carried you all the way back to our house and you called him your knight in shining armor. I remember Dallas looking all jealous," Austin finished, but this only caused my cheeks to heat up even more. I remembered playing with him and his friends almost every day when we were little... Was Hunter there every day? Which boy was Hunter?

As I went through my memories of those fun childhood days, I tried to remember the faces of any boy that I had ever played with. Austin and Dallas were easy to remember, and I knew that they weren't Hunter. But as I continued to go face to face in my mind, I finally fell upon the cute little boy that had once been Hunter Drax.

And I realized that he had been there every single day, every single time I had ever played with my brother and his friends.

I never felt so disgusted.

Obviously noticing that I was pretty much lost in my thoughts, Austin turned toward Hunter. "I'm getting married soon," he told him with a wide grin. "It'd be awesome if you could come."

"Wait!" I cried out, a little louder than I had intended to. "You told me you didn't propose to Rachel yet!"

Austin shrugged. "I lied. I wanted it to be a surprise."

Well, that was one hell of a surprise. But it obviously wasn't the biggest one that I had learned that day.

"Of course I'll go," Hunter smiled, looking nothing like he usually did. The last time I had seen him, he was fuming and his face was red. He looked like he was ready to kill. Now, he was smiling and grinning and laughing with an old friend like he was just a normal person.

Hunter Drax was way too good of an actor.

"You know what?" Austin continued to grin. "You should be my best man!"

I began to choke on my own spit, not even being able to fathom Hunter being at Austin's wedding, let alone be a part of it. Rachel had said that she had wanted me to be the maid of honor if she married Austin, and if I was correct...

"You'd get to walk Jordan down the aisle!"

God help me.

"That sounds great," Hunter grinned, turning to look at me. Austin didn't seem to see how evil and sly Hunter's grin really was. "As long as Jordan's okay with it, of course."

What? This had to be some kind of trick question. There's no way Hunter would do something I was okay with. He must have known that I couldn't say no; that had to be why he was asking...

"Sounds like a great idea," I lied through clenched teeth, wanting ever so much to just pull my hair out.

Austin continued to smile. "That's great! We're actually planning on having it in California, and it's going to be a small thing so we were actually planning on doing it in about the next week or so."

"Week or so?" I screeched, my eyes going wide. "That's way too soon for a wedding, Austin!"

"We've been together for two years," Austin reminded me, in case I had somehow forgotten. "And it'll only be family and close friends."

"Can I bring a guest?" I asked almost desperately now. If I had to walk down the aisle with Hunter, I wanted Jesse to be there with me. I'd only feel safe around Hunter if Jesse was there with me. "Please, Austin?"

Austin looked at me flatly, and I knew what he was going to say before he even said it. "You want to bring that boyfriend of yours, don't you?"

I glanced at Hunter quickly before looking back at my brother. "Um, yeah. He's my boyfriend for a reason."

"I thought it was just because you shove your hand down his pants."

"You're never going to let that go, will you?"

Finally, Austin smiled. I didn't dare look at Hunter, because I didn't want to see his reaction from hearing that I shoved my hand down Jesse's pants. I knew Austin didn't want to, but he said anyway, "Fine, I guess you can bring him. I'm not going to be happy about it though."

"Thanks," was all I could say, forcing a smile onto my face.

"You know, you should go out with a guy like Hunter," Austin informed me, clapping down on his old friend's shoulder once again. I choked on my spit once again, but Austin either didn't notice or just chose to ignore it. "Actually, you two should just go out with each other. You two look like a couple."

Hunter laughed. "Hah, really?"

Austin nodded. "Yeah, totally. So what if there's a slight age difference? You went out with that Erica chick and she was two years older than you, right? It's no big deal."

"I'm going out with Jesse," I snapped, not looking over at Hunter when I noticed that he had gone rigid from the mention of Erica. I made sure not to say that I was in love with Jesse in front of Hunter, since what he had done after I had said it in front of him last time landed me in the hospital...

"That guy's all trouble," Austin waved away, rolling his eyes. "Hunter's a good guy."

Oh, how wrong he was.

If only he knew that it was the other way around.

"Agreed," Hunter grinned, and I felt like smacking it off so badly that my hand almost hurt. "I remember that Jesse guy from high school. But he went to Cambridge, didn't he?"

Austin nodded. "Yeah, he did."

Though my family was rich, Austin had chosen to go to the public school that Dallas had gone to for high school. I assume that this was where Hunter had gone as well, but I didn't really want to think about it. I had almost gone to that school because Austin had wanted me to, and I couldn't have been happier that we had money that was able to send me to Adeline.

Austin must have been too happy to see his old best friend, because he didn't question how Hunter had known Jesse even though they didn't go to the same high school. I wondered what Hunter would have said if Austin did ask him... Unless Austin knew about the gang?

My eyes widened at my next thought. What if Austin was in the gang?

There was no way that was possible, right? Would he have been able to leave the country if he was a part of the gang? Or did he have the BB sign on the back of his neck like Alex did? Dallas had been friends with them... so did that mean that he was a part of the gang? So many questions were burning through my mind at that moment that I thought my head was going to explode...

"Whoa, I've got to go," Austin suddenly said when he finally looked down at his phone to check the time. "I'm going to miss my flight. I guess I'll see you later then, Hunt. I'll email you the info about the wedding. You have the same email, right?"

Hunter grinned. "'Course."

Austin clapped down on his shoulder one last time. "It was great seeing you again." He then turned toward me. "And you better rest up for the wedding. I don't want Hunter to drag you down the aisle."

Wouldn't be the first time Hunter dragged me.

I let out a small chuckle, knowing he was trying to be funny. I waved at him one last time and he did the same before he left me alone with Hunter once again.

Hunter walked back over to Alex's normal chair, stretching out once he sat back down. "That was definitely unexpected. I never would have thought that you were my best friend's younger sister. I hardly remember playing with you at all."

"Does he know about the gang?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing at him.

Hunter smirked. "Nah, that was kept a secret from all my childhood friends. So don't worry, your brother was never a part of my gang."

"Please don't hurt him," I found myself saying next, not even realizing what I was doing. "He's your old best friend. I know you're trying to hurt people to get to me, but I'm begging you not to do anything to Austin. He was your old best friend, Hunter."

He smirked. "Well, I don't know..."

"Please," I now begged, sitting up in my bed now and turning more toward him. "Please don't do anything to my brother. He was so happy to see you, and he's going to get married. Please don't do anything to ruin his happiness. Just don't hurt him."

Hunter continued on smirking. "Under one condition."

Though I didn't want to say it, I did anyway.

"Anything," I blurted, biting my tongue afterward.

Hunter rubbed his chin, a sly smirk on his face. "Well, after you say something like that, I want to change my condition..."

"What is it?" I demanded, wanting ever so much to just kick him out the window. If only I had enough strength to do that. Even if I wasn't bruised and sore, there was no way I'd ever be able to do that to Hunter Drax.

"Kiss me."

"What?" I gasped, my eyebrows furrowing at him. "I'm not going to kiss you!"

"Then I guess it's bye-bye to your brother..." Hunter whistled, and my eyes widened. Was he really that heartless that he would kill his old best friend? Was he that crazy and that obsessed with me that he would do something like that? How evil...

"Fine," I snapped, swinging my legs over the side of the bed so I was now fully facing him. He smirked even more at me when he saw that my legs were now in between his, and I just wanted to slap him. With all my might, I just wanted to slap him as hard as I could.

"You have to kiss me for as long as I want," Hunter ordered, and I felt my eyes widened even more as my eyebrows furrowed in anger. I was about to protest until Hunter cut me off with another order, "And you actually have to kiss me back."

There was no way this was happening...

"This is unfair," I protested, glaring at him. "Don't be so evil."

Hunter's head cocked to the side. "Evil's my middle name," he informed me with that twisted smirk of his.

I was sure he was just kidding, but I didn't say anything about it. I really didn't have a choice anymore. If I didn't kiss him, he was going to kill my brother. I couldn't let someone else that I loved get hurt again because of me. I was going to have to do this... no matter how much I didn't want to.

"Just get this over with," I snapped, grabbing onto his collar and pulling him closer to me. He smirked at this, but I ignored it. "Hurry up. Jesse's going to be here soon to pick me up."

"That's okay. I like an audience."

"Just kiss me!"

Doing as he was told, Hunter leaned forward and crashed his lips to mine. Regretting this immediately, I let my lips move with Hunter's as I kissed him back. I felt horrible, since I was technically cheating on Jesse, but if he knew that it was to save a life... He'd understand, right?

I sure hoped so. But I wasn't planning on telling him, because I knew he would have flipped out.

Hunter's hands traveled to my hips, and I wanted ever so much to be able to push him away. But I had to kiss him until he wanted to stop... But who knew how long that would be?

The kiss was fiery and passionate, something that I should have been sharing with Jesse. Even though my feelings for Hunter were not changing as we were sharing this kiss, I couldn't help but notice how good of a kisser he was. It was different when I was actually kissing him back and it wasn't against my will.

When his tongue brushed against my bottom lip, I wasn't about to open my mouth to let him slip his tongue inside. Realizing that I wasn't about to let him inside, Hunter nipped at my bottom lip with his teeth, causing me to let out a gasp.

Taking this to his advantage, he slipped his tongue inside my mouth. I wanted ever so much to clamp my mouth shut, teeth and all, but part of me was afraid that I'd cut off his tongue, and I didn't want that in my mouth mixed with a bunch of blood. That would be even more disgusting than kissing Hunter itself.

Our tongues continued to fight for dominance, but his quickly won. He searched my entire mouth, as if he was looking for gold or something. I swear there wasn't one inch of my mouth that Hunter's tongue didn't touch. It disgusted me, and I tried to push his tongue out of my mouth with my own, but he only took that as another war for dominance.

Right before I thought I was going to die from lack of oxygen, I could hear the door open. I began to freak out in my mind, but Hunter didn't stop.

"What the fuck?"

I knew that voice too well. This voice belonged to the boy who was supposed to pick me up, the boy I was in love with, the boy who had saved me from the boy I was kissing right at that moment.

The voice belonged to my boyfriend, Jesse Jacobsen.

And I knew I was a terrible person.

"Ah, well," Hunter started when he finally pulled away from me, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "She tastes a lot better when she kisses back."

I didn't dare look up at Jesse, because I knew I'd see a look of betrayal and anger on his face. He advanced toward Hunter, but suddenly stopped and I heard a voice say, "Calm down, Jess, we're in a hospital!"

Alex was there with him? Oh, man... I felt even worse. Why did I have to be such a horrible person? Why didn't I just scream and get Hunter arrested? I would have been the one who died then... Not Austin. I would have been the one to get hurt... Not Jesse.

"I guess we can finish this sometime later then, Jordan," Hunter winked, standing up from the chair and grinning at me.

I stayed silent, still not looking up from the sheets that my body was tangled in. I knew that Alex was holding Jesse back, because I knew he would have attacked him by now if he wasn't.

"And oh, by the way..." Hunter began, and I didn't even have to look up at him to know that he was smirking. "I'm not that coldhearted enough to kill my old best friend."

My eyes widened as I continued to keep my head down. That bastard! He tricked me! He wasn't even going to kill Austin in the first place! He knew that I would have done anything to keep my brother safe... He knew I would have kissed him if he had said that that would save Austin's life!

As Hunter walked out of the room, I could hear Jesse's heavy breathing. It was much different from Alex's, who I could tell was nervous. The second the hospital room door shut behind Hunter, Jesse practically exploded.

"What the fuck was that?" he demanded, ripping his arm from Alex's grasp as he came up to the side of my bed. "What the hell were you doing?"

Tears blurred my vision, and I sniffed as I wiped at my eyes, making sure to hide my face with my hair as I continued to stare down at the bed I was sitting on.

"Jesse, I don't think you should yell at her," Alex put in from by the door, but Jesse only turned toward him and scowled.

"Get out," Jesse practically snarled, scaring me. He was so angry...

I knew Alex shot me a concerned glance before he backed out of the room. I knew that he was probably listening outside the door as well, just in case something might have happened.

"Jordan, look at me."

I didn't do as I was told. I didn't want him to yell or shout at me. By this time I was crying, silently sobbing, and I didn't want him to see that. For the first time, I was scared of Jesse.

I wasn't afraid that he was going to hit me or anything, nothing something Hunter would do, but I was afraid that he was going to yell. I could take a hit, but not shouts. I always hated it whenever anyone ever yelled at me.

"Jordan," Jesse repeated, sounding angrier now. "Look at me."

When I didn't do as I was told once again, I felt his hand under my chin as he forced me to now look up at him. I averted my eyes, not wanting to see his face. He had already seen that I was crying, but now he was going to yell at me as well.

"Are you going to explain?"

Closing my eyes, I let out a deep and shaky breath. I didn't want to explain, but that would have made everything look even worse. He would have understood. He was Jesse. He loved me more than anything; he was willing to do anything for me. He'd understand that I had kissed Hunter to save my brother's life, even though I learned that I didn't have to do it after the deed had been done.

"I'm so sorry," I whimpered, my eyes opened now as I looked away from him. "I'm so sorry... Pl--please don't yell at me."

"Jordan, look at me," Jesse repeated once again, but this time it was a lot softer than before. Both of his hands traveled to the sides of my face, forcing me to look straight at him now.

My eyes widened and my mouth gaped open when I saw something I thought I'd never get to see in my life, something that I definitely wasn't expecting to see when I finally looked at him.

Jesse Jacobsen had tears in his eyes. Legitimate tears that were so obviously not fake. I never thought I would ever see Jesse Jacobsen cry, or at least come close to it. Though I had felt those droplets hitting my face back at the warehouse before I had passed out, I hadn't see them...

"J--Jesse," I stuttered, not even knowing what to say anymore. I heard what I was supposed to say in my head, but my mouth wouldn't let me say them. I was way too shocked from seeing tears in Jesse's eyes.

"Why did you do that, Jordan?" he asked, his hands never leaving the side of his face. "Why did you do that even though you knew I was on my way over here?"

"I--I--" Why did my mouth decide not to cooperate with me now? I had to tell Jesse the reason why I had kissed Hunter! "I... I just--"

"There's no way you've fallen for Hunter or anything, right?" Jesse now asked, a worried expression evident on his face. "Please tell me that that isn't what happened. You can't fall for him after what he's done to you! You can't fall for him after... after everything we've been through."

When he squeezed his eyes shut to stop any tears from falling, my barrier broke down. Finally being in control of my mouth and actions again, I reached over and placed my hands on the side of his face, much like he was doing to me as well. I wiped away the stray tear from his cheek, shushing him almost silently.

I pulled him forward, letting him bury his face into my neck. He wasn't crying anymore, since my shoulder was dry and all, but that didn't stop me from sobbing into his hair.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized. "Hunter came in here, a--and then Austin came back and I found out that they used to be best friends ever since they were little. I used to play with Hunter every day when I was a kid. My brother invited him to his wedding and told me a bunch of stories about when we were kids..."

"But what does that have to do with you kissing Hunter?" Jesse questioned pushing away from me just enough so he could see my face. There were no tears in his eyes, none streaming down his face. If you had walked in right then, you would have thought that I was the only one that had been crying.

"I didn't want him hurting Austin," I admitted, staring down at my lap in shame. "He said that if I kissed him for as long as he wanted, he wouldn't hurt him. It turns out he was just tricking me so I'd kiss him. He wasn't ever going to hurt or kill Austin."

"I'm going to kill that bastard," Jesse swore, pushing away from me and back up to his feet. "Even if it's the last thing I'll do, I'm going to be the one to put Hunter Drax in the ground."

I didn't say it out loud, but Jesse reminded me of Hunter as he said this. It was probably because Hunter had said those same words before, except they were about Jesse. And now that Jesse knew that Hunter wasn't going to stop harassing me until Jesse was dead, I didn't know what he was going to do. I was afraid that he was going to do something stupid, but I could only hope for the best.

I had to hope for the best, but expect for the worst.

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I kind of absolutely love this chapter. I just like how it's written.

I know I said Jordan was going to get out of the hospital in this chapter, but... yeah. Next chapter for sure! :)

Watty Awards 2011!

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