In Hiding (Final Book in the Boss's Niece Series)

Jason

*Reid's POV*

I raced to the FBI building. I stormed through the office, ignoring anyone who spoke to me, and walked into Garcia's office.

"Reid, what's wrong? You're seething." she said.

"Why didn't you know Justin had a brother?" I snapped.

"What? I-I didn't know. I've done a lot of research on Justin. Nothing about any siblings came up." she said.

"Our UnSubs name is Jason Hunter. Mel said that Jason is Justin's brother." Garcia looked at me, confused. "What?"

"Hunter isn't Justin's last name. Justin's last name is Karver."

"What? Mel told me Jason Hunter was Justin's brother. How could they have different last names?"

Garcia scoffed. "And you call yourself a genius. There's lots of ways, but let's see what the real answer is."

She turned to her computers and began typing. I sat down in one of the desk chairs next to her and watched as she searched the world for Jason Hunter.

"Here it is! Jason Hunter is Justin Karver's half brother. Justin's mom, Janelle Hunter, married one Travis Hunter shortly after Justin's father, James Karver, was killed in a car accident. Justin was only 4 years old. When he was five, Janelle had Jason. The two became close shortly after Janelle checked into hospital when they were 11 and 10 with bruises and cuts and shards of glass all over her body." Garcia paused. "Oh God. Did Travis beat her? Is that why Justin beat Mel?"

"No." I said and leaned forward. "Look at this. It says Travis was home that night with the boys. Janelle was out at a fancy cocktail party. She was on the way home when these two drunk men came up to her. Stole her purse and ran but not after beating her with a bottle and-"

"Don't say rape." Garcia said, her eyes closed in horror.

"No, not rape. They just beat her up to the point where she attempted suicide." I continued. "Attempted. Never succeeded."

"Oh no. Look at this. Jason became hysterical after Justin's death, posting threats towards Mel, indirectly, on FaceBook, saying that he'll get his revenge, Justin didn't deserve to die, blah blah blah, and he's basically fallen off the grid since then."

"Looks like we know why. Let's tell the team."

Garcia and I got up. We gathered the team in the Conference Room and began telling them what we knew. Everyone stayed silent until we finished.

"Wait, so who's Justin?" Simon asked.

"You're new. You'll learn." said Morgan. "Why didn't Mel mention the fact that Justin had a brother?"

"She probably didn't think it was important at the time. Who would've known Jason would come back for revenge?" I said.

"Actually," Garcia said. Uh oh, I didn't like that tone. "I was doing a bit more research while we were gathering the team. After Janelle's attack and her suicide attempt, it looks like Jason showed a lot of psychopath like symptoms."

"What do you mean?" asked Hotch.

"Well, he used to like to watch gory death scenes in movies. He killed a bird with his paintball gun. Travis had to keep him away from knives because he used to do that creepy hand thing from Aliens. But when he was out in public, he was completely normal."

"If he's still in town, he should be easy to find." Hotch said.

"What do you mean 'if'? I seen him this morning. Where would he go in a few hours?" I asked.

"Reid, we've delt with UnSubs who have managed to leave their area of comfort in a matter of minutes when they heard about the FBI being on the case." Morgan stated. "If he knows that Mel isn't in town, he's probably looking for her."

"We have her in hiding. It won't be that easy for him to find her, right?" Night asked.

"Depends on how smart he is." Hotch said. "If he knows anything about any of us, the first place he'll look for Melanie would be Las Vegas since that's where Reid is from. If he does go there, we'll have to find somewhere else to put her. Somewhere no one would expect. Keep a look out for either Jason or Debra. Right now, it's unclear of who's side she's on."

Everyone nodded and began to leave. I collected the files I had printed off on Jason. Hotch came up to me.

"You have to cut contact with Melanie." he told me.

"What? I can't. Haley-"

"I know she's expecting to hear from you every night, but we can't underestimate Jason. For all we know, he could bug Melanie's phone and hear your conversations." he said. "Tonight will be your last call. Tell her why you can't talk to her until we find him."

I nodded.

"I'm only doing this for Melanie's own good."

"I know." I said. "I-I understand sir. I-I'll call her after work."

"We also have to keep track of Debra. Like I said, we don't know who's side she's on. If we have her-"

"No." I cut him off. "There's a part of me that knows that she isn't going to hurt Mel. Not right now, anyways. Mel IS her only child and all. If we take Debra in, Jason will just hire someone else who won't hesitate to kill Mel. Jason told Debra that he's not giving her a time. We can stall as long as we have to if we have her on it."

Hotch considered this, then nodded.

"We need to be able to keep in contact with her. Know where she is at all times and when she meets or hears from Jason."

"I can get Garcia on that right away, sir."

"You do that. We'll put an APB out for Jason here, New York and Las Vegas. He's due to be in one of those places."

I nodded and finally managed to escape.

•

"You can't call us anymore?" asked Mel.

After work, I raced to the nearest pay phone and called her to tell her what happened.

"No. I'm sorry, babe. I wish I could, but we think he might bug your phone. We don't know how tech savy Jason is. Did you know all that stuff happened to them?"

"No, I didn't. Justin didn't talk about his past much and told me never to mention it around Jason. I feel so bad now. It's not Justin's fault he is the way he is. He went through something horrible when he was little."

"Nothing is an excuse to hit a woman." I said. "Just promise me you'll stay safe, okay sweetheart? And tell Haley I love her. I promise, this will be over soon."

"You can't promise that, Reiders. We don't know when this will be over." she said. "Hey Spencer. What if we had a new addition to the family?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled by her question.

"It's...well...never mind. It's nothing important. It can wait." she said. "I love you, Spencer. I can't wait to be back in your arms."

"I can't wait to have you in my arms. Haley, too. I never thought I'd miss you so much." I said. "I love you both. I have to go now. I'm gonna miss your voice."

"I miss yours already. Goodbye, Spencer. I love you."

I heard a click and then the dial tone. I hesitated, hanging on to her last words. I didn't want to hang up. I didn't want to say goodbye to her. But for now, I had to. So this was goodbye.