Free End Game (Games Thriller Series) by J.E. Taylor Page A

brother.”
    CJ’s eyebrows rose. “You really have a brother?”
    “Yes, I did and I loved him very much, but I couldn’t protect him and he died.” Chris blinked back the sudden mist covering his eyes.
    CJ glanced toward his mother and back. “Why’d you and mommy say Ty died?”
    “Because the really bad part of me died when I met your mother,” he said and cleared his throat. “I think that’s about enough of my past right now, okay buddy?”
    “Ok ay, Daddy.” He smiled and gave his father a peck on the cheek.
    Chris put him down and watched him tear into the family room and hop on the couch next to Tommy. Sweet, oblivious Tommy —God how he wished his son could have been normal like Tommy. But no such luck. CJ carried that magical gene from Jessica and with it the power to control the world.

Chapter 13
     
    Tom woke to the bright sunshine filtering in the window and he turned to the clock. The numbers blinked and so did he. It was almost noon and he rolled out of the guest room bed and into the master bathroom shower. His head felt like someone hit him with a two by four and he undressed and stepped under the warm spray. Water cascaded over his body and he leaned his head back under the stream, running his hands over his hair and then down his face as the late night events replayed in his alcohol-soaked brain.
    His eyes shot open and his heart palpitated in his chest, constricting his lungs.
    She had been there.
    On the beach with him.
    “Christ,” he said aloud. He had a son. I need a drink.
    “Shit ,” he swore under his breath. He promised her he’d be sober for the premiere. He didn’t know if he could go three hours without a drink, never mind three days. A week and a half seemed like an impossible feat.
    He turned, facing the water and tilted his head low, letting the water pulse on the top of his head and run down his back, drumming all thoughts from his pounding head. Closing his eyes, he drifted into a standing stupor until the shower door swung open.
    Tom opened his sore eyes and glared at her without moving. “Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “I told you last night that the only way I’m touching you again is to kill you. Now get the fuck out of my bathroom.”
    “It’s my bathroom too!”
    “If you get in this shower stall with me, it will be the last thing you ever do.” Death couldn’t have been a more persuasive argument and the twinge of fear that displayed in her eyes gave him a heady buzz of adrenaline, of triumph over the crazy bitch.
    She closed the shower stall and exited the bathroom in a hurry.
    He finished cleaning up and walked into the bedroom with the towel wrapped around his waist. Sharon sulked in the bed with her arms around her knees.
    “Why do you hate me so much?”
    Tom laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He pulled on his clothes, glaring at her. “You constantly threaten the life of the woman I’m in love with.”
    “You can’t still love her.”
    “I always will. That’s something your threats will never change.”
    “She left you.”
    “That’s because I was a jackass.”
    “She cheated on you.”
    Tom considered that and nodded. “But you’re the one who ruined my life.” He turned to leave the room.
    “How so? After this movie, you’re going to be one of the most wanted actors in Hollywood,” Sharon barked at him.
    “I’m trapped in a marriage I don’t want to be in with a woman whom I hate more than anyone else on this earth and I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about my career right now. That’s how you ruined my life.” He closed the door behind him and crossed the expansive living room to the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator. His eyes kept going to the bottle of Grey Goose on the shelf. He smiled at the memory of Jessica with the hellish hangover and found himself reaching for the bottle. His fingers grazed the smooth surface and he stopped. “Damn it,” he said and slammed the refrigerator