by Ann, Bry
Landon: FBI Special Agent
FBI Brotherhood Book #3
Bry Ann
Copyright © 2019 by Bry Ann
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are
products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or
used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Prologue
I. Rebel
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
II. Break
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
III. Save
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
IV. Trust
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
V. Love
Chapter 32
Epilogue
If You Loved This Story…
Do You Want More?
Coming Soon…
Also by Bry Ann
Author Note
Let’s Chat!
Prologue
Essie:
“The winner of Genius Children is… Essie Taylor!”
“Whooo…. ESSIE!” my mom roars from the stands.
Carefully, I slide my pleated skirt under my legs and make my way to the winners table. I don’t care about this. Yes, I’m getting a scholarship. So what? I don’t even want to go to college. I don’t care that I'm a genius. Maybe I would have if that wasn’t all my parents cared about, but it is.
I want to be a cosmetologist or a makeup artist, or maybe both! But that’s not a “good use of your talents, Essie. You can make so much money with your brain.”
What if I don’t care about money? Did they ever think of that? No. Because they do.
“Essie! Essie! Essie!” my dad hollers at the same embarrassingly loud pitch as my mom.
“Congratulations, Essie! You must be so excited,” the host says with a wide, fake smile as he hands me my trophy.
“Thrilled,” I deadpan.
I can feel my mom’s disapproval from the stands, and so far, that’s been the best thing about this competition.
The man extends his hand, so I follow it to the side and wait as they announce the other two kids. I think they shake my hand or something, but I'm not really paying attention. I was promised I’d get to take that makeup class they are hosting at the mall for kids 13 and under if I win. I swear, if they break their promise again, I’ll run.
I’ll run somewhere so far from here. Somewhere where no one cares about my brain. Where no one cares that I'm Essie freakin’ Taylor. Where no one cares what my IQ is.
I’ll go there.
And I’ll never come back.
Part I
Rebel
Chapter One
Essie
“Essie, is it true you already have more than half your college courses done even though you’re just a high school senior?”
Jenny knocks me with her backpack. Yes, it’s true, but I'm not gonna invite more rumors about me. I don’t need more people talking about my stupid brain.
“Don’t know. You’ll have to check my transcript.”
“Come on, Essie,” she whines, following me around like a damn puppy. “Give me something. You’re, like, the school genius. You’re the person everyone will remember this school by.”
Geez, shut up.
“Essie…”
I stop in my tracks and whirl around to face her. She freezes, chewing on her lower lip as she avoids my gaze.
“Look, Jenny, I know you want to be a reporter. Honestly, good for you for going after what you want.”
Since I freakin’ can’t.
“But please don’t make me your story, okay? Just leave it alone. Focus on something else.”
She tilts her head to the side. “You’re not proud of being a genius, are you?”
“I’ve come to terms with it,” I mutter flatly.
“Oh, that’s so sad! What do you want?”
It’s my turn to freeze. “What?”
She smiles, all blonde hair and blue eyes and rainbows against my more gloomy black hair and deep green eyes.
“If you don’t want to be a genius, what do you want?”
To be accepted. To be beautiful. To make other people beautiful.
“Don’t know.”
I try to keep walking, but she just continues to follow me. God, she’s annoying!
“I don’t think that’s true. I think you know, but are too scared to—”
“Jenny! Oh my God!”
She smiles brighter, pride flickering in her pretty blue eyes. “I'm right, aren’t I?”
I can’t help but smile. Her happiness is so infectious.
“Yeah, blue, you’re right.”
“Blue?”
I shrug. “You got blue eyes. It just came out, I guess.”
Smiling a different kind of smile, one even I don’t understand, she takes my hand in hers.
“Tell me, Essie. What do you want?”
Well, shit. My cheeks flame a pinkish-red as I avert my gaze.
“I wanna be a cosmetologist,” I confess.
“Really? That’s amazing! Do you know what area you want to go into?”
“I haven’t thought too much about it. It doesn’t really matter.”
I try to walk away again, but this time she grabs my shoulder with pink-painted fingernails and turns me to face her, a gentle smile on her face.
“You’d be an amazing cosmetologist. After school, do you want to take makeup classes at Sephora? I know it’s nothing fancy, but it’s still practice.”
My heart, the one I thought had literally somehow gotten sucked up by my brain, flutters in my chest.
“Really?”
Hope. I feel hope for the first time since my parents broke their promise after that Genius Children competition all those years ago. Jenny’s smile grows.
“Totally. As you can tell, I could use the help, too.”
She waves a hand over her face. We both giggle. Even barefaced, Jenny is stunning. I can’t imagine what she’d look like with makeup.
“I don’t have a car,” I murmur, cheeks red. My parents won’t let me. They don’t want me getting into trouble when I should be studying.
“No problem. Me either. My brother, Zaid, can drive us.”
“He won’t mind driving two teenage girls to makeup class?”
I cock an eyebrow. Jenny’s eyes darken the slightest bit.
“Don’t worry about it. He owes me.”
* * *
“I had to tell my parents I'm tutoring you to grow my resume.” I wince. “Sorry, that’s degrading, but it was the only way my parents would let me spend time with you after school.”
“Degrade me all you want, b
abe. I don’t give a shit.”
I can’t help it. I waggle my eyebrows. She busts out laughing.
“I like you like this. Besides, bitch, I'm a straight A student. I may not have a 4.13 GPA or whatever, but I'm fuckin’ smart, okay? And I know it.”
My eyes dance as I smile at her. “Not as smart as me.”
“You little…” She swats at me. “Who knew behind all the ugly plaid lies a little devil.”
“With horns, baby.”
Jenny laughs. “Wow. I think we’re gonna get along really well.”
I really hope so. Damn, I’ve never felt this happy. Jenny cuts through my thoughts with a loud whistle and waving arms.
“Zaid! Zaid!”
A surprisingly sleek Mercedes Benz pulls up to the curb. That is a fancy ass car. My eyebrows shoot up to my forehead.
“Here’s the thing.” Jenny grabs both of my arms and faces me with anxious eyes. “I promise to always defend you when people give you shit for your IQ, if you promise not to judge me.”
“For what?”
She nibbles on her lower lip. “My family is sorta kinda… rich. Like, obscenely wealthy.”
I glance down at her clothes.
“I shop cheap,” she mutters, reading my thoughts. “I want to be self-made, so I try to be frugal. I want to be able to pay my parents back one day.”
“They ask you to do that?!”
“No,” Jenny says firmly. “It actually pisses them off. That’s all me.”
Okay, I really like this chick. I give her a little smile and squeeze her shoulder.
“I don’t judge, blue.”
She exhales a deep breath. “Thanks. It’s important to me that—”
“Jenny!” a deep voice booms from behind us. “You have one minute to get in this car before I leave your ass here.”
I cock an eyebrow.
“Meet my brother, Zaid,” she mutters. “Come on.”
I glance over her shoulder to see a man with thick, bulging muscles, olive skin, and honey brown eyes staring out the window at us. Before the man can really look back at me, Jenny has my hand and is tugging me into the back of the car.
I don’t know why, but alarm bells are going off all over the place.
* * *
“You didn’t tell me I’d be driving someone else,” Zaid glowers.
“My name is Essie.”
“I know who you are,” he states flatly. “You’re the genius kid.”
Flames build in my chest. “I—”
“She’s my friend, Zaid, and a brilliant cosmetologist who happens to be smart. That’s all, dickhead.”
“Watch it, Jenny.”
The tone of his voice has an awkward silence ensuing. Jenny throws me a nervous look but doesn’t say anything after that, so I stay quiet, too. Twenty-three and a half minutes later, we pull up to Sephora. Jenny crawls out on her side, throwing me a small smile on her way. I reach for my door when it flies open. Standing in front of the door is Zaid, all muscles and tan skin. I swallow, trying to ignore my heart pounding in my chest.
“Is this you rebelling or some shit?”
“I'm just going to makeup class.”’
“IQ bitches don’t—”
“Zaid!” comes Jenny’s shrill voice. “Let Essie out right now!”
Zaid smirks at me. “Sure, sis. I’ll let Ms. IQ—”
“Zaid, please,” Jenny whispers. “Leave her alone.”
I scramble out of the car and move to stand by Jenny.
“We won’t need a ride home.”
“Oh, your parents let you have a car, IQ?”
I glare at him. “Nope, I have cash. No thanks for the ride.”
Jenny gasps, but I'm already grabbing her hand and pulling her inside Sephora.
God, her brother’s a dick.
* * *
“You can come over for dinner if you want.”
I fix her last bit of silver eyeshadow with my thumb while she doles out the invitation.
“I really appreciate it. Honestly. But I don’t think your brother—”
“Ignore Zaid. He’s rarely home. I mean, he’s 23. He probably won’t even be there for dinner. I know he’s…”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Look, you’re the first friend I thought could maybe, well, handle my family.”
She fidgets.
“That’s sad, but I get it. My family’s not a real joy to be around either. If you can’t do quadratic equations, in their eyes, you shouldn’t be around me.”
“I can do a quadratic equation.”
I can’t help it. I throw my head back and laugh.
“You’re popular, blue. Why the hell do you wanna be my friend so bad?”
“I—”
“That’s a good question, sis.”
I freeze, as does Jenny.
“I told you we didn’t need a ride!” I round on Zaid.
His eyes remain dead as he takes two steps closer to me. So close we’re toe to toe. I try not to let my anxiety show. I'm not used to having my space invaded, especially by a man.
“Why waste your cash, IQ?” He flicks the collar of my white button-down. “Seems like you’ll need it.”
This fuckin’... My hand flies up. I don’t even hear Jenny gasp before Zaid has my wrist in a bruising grip.
“Hit me and you’ll live to regret it, IQ.”
I stare wide-eyed at Jenny. Her eyes are just as wide.
“December 12th, 2017,” she blurts.
Zaid turns and narrows his eyes at her. God, my wrist. I'm trying not to let my eyes tear up, but it hurts.
“I'm calling it in.”
His eyes darken.
“You called it in this afternoon when I took you to Sephora.”
“No, that was for, you know what, Zaid. Don’t make me say it.”
With a furious sigh, Zaid releases my wrist, roughly throwing it back down to my side. Jenny runs over to me, touching me all over, which only makes the anxiety I'm feeling worse.
“I'm so sorry! This is why I don’t have friends. We’ll take you home. I swear he’ll leave you alone. You did my makeup so well, I—”
“What happened on December 12th?”
Jenny’s eyes widen. “Oh, it’s kinda personal.”
“Is he hurting you?” I mouth.
Jenny hardens. “Zaid doesn’t hurt me, Essie. Come on.”
“It’s alright. You go on. I'm gonna grab some makeup before I go.”
Zaid snickers. Jenny’s eyes are sad, but I can’t ignore the blaring red sirens ringing inside my mind.
“You really are a genius, Essie Taylor,” Jenny murmurs.
The last thing I see before Jenny drags herself to her brother’s side is his dark eyes flickering over to my green ones for the briefest of moments.
Then they’re gone, and I'm left feeling strange.
Chapter Two
Essie
Summer After Graduation
“Harvard, Yale, and Stanford all gave you full scholarships and you went behind our backs and accepted an offer from Illinois State University!” my mom screeches. “So don’t tell me you know what’s best for you! You don’t know shit!”
“Good to know. Can I go now?”
“No, you know what, you can’t go,” she spits. “I'm so pissed at you. The closer we get to shipping you off, the more pissed I get.”
“Cool.”
“Essie!” she shrills. “You’ve been given this beautiful mind and you’re gonna, you’re gonna fuck it up! Your father and I are not driving you up there.”
“Mom, you haven’t given me a car or time to save for that kind of Uber trip.”
“Better work it out, Essie Taylor.”
“You can’t do this! I’ve done everything for you. All those stupid competitions to help you and Dad pay the bills!”
She (fake) gasps. “Those were to help you grow!”
“Yeah, my ass! The cash I never saw sure was beneficial to me, wasn’t it?”
>
“You ungrateful little—”
“Save the melodrama for Dad when he gets home.”
Before I have to hear another word out of her mouth, I run out of the house and down the street.
Shit. She really won’t drive me. This is the final straw. I already didn’t graduate early like she wanted. I'm fucked.
I run until I can’t anymore and plop down on the side of the curb. At least I had a friend for 1.5 seconds with Jenny. She stopped speaking to me after that day with her brother. Not ‘cause she’s a bitch. I don’t know why, to be honest. She’s just been all guilty and weird around me. Can’t even look me in the eye.
Whatever. It is what it is.
“Look at that. Not so tough after all.”
Chills run up my spine. Zaid.
I need this like a hole in the head.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“Watch your tongue.”
“I'm terrified.”
Zaid shifts the car into park and crosses the space between us. I'm already on my feet by the time he goes toe to toe with me. My heart races, but I don’t show him I'm scared.
“What did you do to Jenny on December 12th, 2017?”
“You do have a good memory.” I see the way his eyes flicker.
“The best, they say.”
