I haven't finished this yet, but I'm super excited about it, so I thought I'd post a snippet? Set post S4 (AU, JJ lives) and preseries Off Campus (but just a little bit) -- with JJ and Dean as long-lost brothers, both born of Larissa Genrette.
JJ needs something Dean has, and Dean wants something JJ isn't to give, and Groff is going to be a problem for both of them.
“Well,” Pope said, tipping his head to the side. He took a cautious breath. “I found him.”
JJ wasn’t stupid. He knew what they’d been trying to do. Finding his long lost brother had been their only play for redeeming anything.
JJ <i>knew</i> that.
It had been his damn plan, after all.
“Shit, for real?” John B said.
“Where is he?” Sarah asked, almost at the same time.
JJ felt suddenly lightheaded as the world shifted out of focus. He was reeling, chest tight. Pain laced through his side, and he drew his hand up out of instinct to press on the scar as his stomach churned.
For a second, things went hollow, and he could hear his friends – but nothing made sense.
How could it make sense?
<i>They found him.</i>
After 21 years, they’d found the lost Genrette heir. JJ’s only flesh and blood.
Well, except Groff—
The thought made his breath catch, throat constricting as the pain ratcheted up a notch. He blinked, but his vision didn’t clear, and he realized belatedly that he wasn’t breathing.
“JJ?” Kie asked.
She was close – too close. Her hand was gentle on his arm, but it felt like fire. He blinked – eyes burning – and he tried to open his mouth to reassure her.
“He’s panicking,” Cleo said from somewhere behind him.
“Shit,” John B said. “Get him down.”
There was a rattle – a shuffle. Something moved around him.
And then <i>he</i> moved.
He was half dragged across the floor, body tense as he was manhandled. He couldn’t make sense of it until he was bent over, sat heavily down on the couch.
“Get his head down—”
“JJ—”
“Just breathe—”
The pain, the panic, the <i>everything</i>--
Someone pushed his head down, face between his knees. A steady hand on his back and fingers in his hair.
Everything went blurry, the world fading at the edges. He was too big and too small all at once, body shaking until—
His lungs remembered how to work.
A grating inhale.
The wheeze rattled back out again.
Again.
And again.
The world started to coalesce again, coming back into focus. He closed his eyes, quelling a roil of nausea.
They found him.
He inhaled again, letting that solidify.
They had found JJ’s brother.
He pushed up shakily, and the others huddled close. Kiara was next to him on the couch, her hand on his back now. John B was on the other side with the others standing in front of him. He hated it, honestly. The way he made them worry – when he didn’t deserve it. He never had, especially now.
They were in this mess because of him.
That was why he had to do this.
He made the mess.
Now, he would do whatever he had to do to clean it up.
Even if he had to chase down his long lost brother to do it.
“Where?” he said, lifting his head and taking another hard-earned breath. His vision was still white around the edges, as if reality was still frayed, but he pursed his lips and looked at his friends. “Where is he?”
Pope blinked, a little taken aback. “I mean—”
“You should relax,” Kiara said over him, her hand steady on his back. “There’s no rush.”
Except – there <i>was</i>.
Poguelandia had been returned to them thanks to Shoupe holding the bank accountable with the threat of a fraud charge. But business was slow – and the payments were coming due. Groff had continued to contest the will from Goat Island, and without an influx of cash – now, JJ would still cost his friends everything.
The lost Genrette treasure was their only play.
And JJ’s brother – was the only way of getting it.
It didn’t matter if JJ wanted to meet him. It made no difference if the idea of another long last relative made him want to claw his own heart out. It didn’t matter if he was scared.
The only thing that mattered was <i>them</i>.
He had to fix this for them.
He would do whatever it took.
And he would make sure his brother – whoever he might be – would, too.
“I’m fine,” he said, nudging her hand off. He looked at Pope again. “Where is he?”
Pope looked more uncertain now with an uneasy glance to Kiara and John B. Sarah’s expression was pained, and Cleo looked tense. But Pope finally answered, “His name is Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis.”
JJ frowned. “Relation of yours?”
“No,” Pope said. “I did check – but no.”
“That’s a lot of name,” Kiara said softly.
“That’s a lot of Kook, isn’t it?” JJ mused.
Pope swallowed, shifting on his feet uncomfortably. “The adoption records were open, so it wasn’t hard to find,” he said. “Larissa was 18 when she had Dean – still in high school. Her father helped set up the adoption with a distant relative – some cousin of a cousin, down the line.”
“That would track,” John B said.
“He knows he’s adopted?” Sarah asked.
Pope shrugged. “Open adoptions imply that, yeah,” he said. He shrugged. “And everything I found on this guy says he’s pretty normal.”
“Normal,” JJ repeated. He wasn’t sure why the comparison would grate him now, of all times. He knew who he was. He understood his place in the world.
Pope softened a little, as he seemed to understand. “He grew up rich, okay?” he said. “But his family seems like good people. Rich lawyers – sure. But active in the community.”
“Not all rich people are bad,” Sarah said softly.
JJ felt his cheeks burn anyway. Kiara didn’t put her hand on him again, but she moved closer.
Cleo cleared her throat a little. “Where?”
“He spent his childhood in the Northeast. His family has properties all over the place,” he said. He pulled up something on his phone, hesitating a little. “Currently a student at Briar U.”
He turned the phone toward JJ.
JJ reluctantly looked at it.
There he was.
JJ wasn’t sure what he expected. Honestly, even after finding the information in the attic at Goat Island, he hadn’t really thought about it in a real way. The idea of having a brother had been a lot.
Actually having a brother – though.
A real, living, <i>brother</i>.
He hadn’t even considered it.
This real person. His actual flesh and blood.
But there he was.
The picture on the screen was expanded, blown up to show detail. He was older than JJ – broader and more filled out. His shoulders were wide and toned, clearly defined under the t-shirt he was wearing. He had blonde hair, not as sun-bleached as JJ’s but <i>blonde</i>. Parted in the middle and more controlled, falling neatly over the sides of his face.
And his face—
A wider chin than JJ’s, fuller cheeks. His lips were thin, but the smile highlighted a familiar dimple.
And the eyes.
Bright and blue, crystal and deep.
Just like JJ’s.
“Shit,” John B breathed.
“That’s uncanny,” Sarah added.
“He looks just like you,” Kiara said.
“Those Genrette genes,” Cleo quipped. “Must be strong.”
Pope pulled the phone back with an uncomfortable wince. “That’s Larissa’s firstborn,” he said. “The first Genrette heir.”
“My brother,” JJ said, letting the idea settle over him. Not the abstract; but the reality.
The room spun for a second as his heart fluttered. Feelings he couldn’t explain. Thoughts he could pin down. A reality he wasn’t ready to accept.
But needed to chase down anyway.
He drew himself up, blinking away the doubt. “Briar U?” he said. “Where’s that?”
Pope looked at the others again, still plainly uncomfortable. “Massachusetts.”
JJ blinked. He shrugged before getting to his feet. “Then, pack up,” he said, simple and matter of fact.
When no one moved to join him, he shrugged back at them. “JJ—” Kiara started.
He didn’t want to hear it. Screw that, he <i>couldn’t</i>.
Not if he was going to fix this.
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “I’m fine—”
“JJ, this is a lot of shit being thrown at you,” John B started.
“We can think about it,” Sarah said.
“Think about what?” JJ said, he gestured around. “We barely have our home back, and we all know that’s not going to last. If we can’t pay the bills, we lose it. We lose everything.”
“But if the will for Goat Island—” Pope started.
“Groff will tie that up for as long as he can, unless Shoupe can actually get a charge that will stick against him,” JJ said with a bitter laugh. Groff had evaded every charge so far, tying up the legal system in so many knots that Hollis’ death was now officially a cold case. And not even the scar on JJ’s side had been evidence enough. “And screw that. I don’t want that anyway.”
“But it’s your family,” Cleo said.
“No,” JJ said, a little sharper now. “You’re my family. This is my home. All the rest – Goat Island, Genrettes, <i>Dean Heyward-whatever-his-name-is</i> -- that’s bullshit. A means to an end. Nothing more.”
They were quiet, shifting uncomfortably.
They didn’t agree; they didn’t have to agree. They didn’t have to understand.
How could they? It was his father who had swooped into his life – just to take it. He was the one who carried that scar, from a father who hated him so much that he’d tried to kill him out of spite. It was JJ’s family legacy that almost destroyed them.
Now, he had the chance to use that legacy to fix <i>everything</i>.
That was what mattered.
“So, pack up,” JJ said, plain and simple. “And let’s find this son of a bitch.”
It deeply saddens me that Infold has decided to cancel Valko's debut. They have already deleted his stuff off many platforms, so I've download them all and put them on a drive folder so that other fans can access it.
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