hands and came with sort of free liquor.
Pulling out a glass, he popped two ice cubes out of the tray and poured himself three deep fingers of Jim Beam. Before sitting down, he un-holstered his Glock 17, set down his glass and retrieved his book. He had read all of her books, but liked to reread them when the opportunity arose. They took him back to a sweeter, lighter time. A time without war and nightmares. The smell of her flooded his senses as if she had just walked by as he traced his finger along the words she had written. Words that played out their very own escapades from that eventful summer when she was finally his, even if fleetingly.
Three glasses of whiskey later, Tommy stood to pour another when his phone vibrated indicating an email. He sat his glass down on the bar and pulled his phone out of his front pocket.
From: Anonymous
Oh, Tommy!
JASON HENDERSON SPOTTED WITH LATEST GIRL TOY! MYSTERY WOMAN RENDEZVOUSED WITH JASON AT AWARDS CEREMONY AND MORNING AFTER JOG IN THE PARK!! WILL IT LAST?
JASON AND NEW GIRLFRIEND LEAVE CENTRAL PARK TOGETHER IN LIMO, HEADED TO HER APARTMENT NIGHT AFTER BEING PHOTOGRAPHED AT AWARDS CEREMONY IN INTIMATE CONVERSATION!
IS OUR MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR FINALLY OFF THE MARKET? THINGS SEEM AWFULLY COZY WITH NEW MYSTERY GIRLFRIEND.
He grunted and closed out the article when he saw a picture of her, his angel, looking stunning in a gown, sitting between two men in penguin outfits. The sight of her made his heart swell and his cock do some push-ups. Those headlines and the sight of the guys near her just pissed him off though. Had it been a paper in front of him, it probably would have been shredded to bits, lying on the floor at his feet by now.
He wanted Tay to be happy but not with anyone that wasn’t him. Granted, it had been five years and she had to live her life sometime. It was stupid of him to think she would just come back home to him one day. And fuck whoever wrote those stories and sent that email. Taylor was no toy and she sure as hell wasn’t just some mystery woman. Well, maybe she was, but not the way they meant. She had probably made more than him with her first book alone and now there were movie offers. He wanted to share her success with the world, but it was just that, her success. With his luck, that douche in the article would end up playing in one of her movie adaptions.
Tommy needed another drink and was well on his way to getting it before his phone rang this time.
“Tommy.” He answered, all business.
* * *
“Jesus Christ.” Matt cursed hurrying into my room and going straight through it to the master bathroom where I had my head laid on the tile floor.
“Are you okay honey?”
I made a grunting noise to indicate I was alive but talking was out of the question.
He sat me up and hugged me close for several minutes. I hadn’t stopped him because he needed to comfort me as much as I wouldn’t admit, I needed to be comforted.
I heard the officers in my bedroom, taking notes and talking amongst themselves and over the radio.
When I tried to stand, I felt Matt grab my hands and lift me easily. Seriously, those upper arms are a force to be reckon with.
Walking back into my bedroom, I saw the most disturbing scene I ever could have imagined, and I did write some mystery so that was saying something. Maybe it was a shit ton scarier because it was actually happening to me, in real world, real life and not in one of my books, but holy bazooka, I was absolutely frightened. If scared out of my wits was what they were going for, they hit the nail on the head, knocked it out of the park, got bull’s-eye ten times and received perfect marks. On all of my walls but one, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pictures of me doing various things in various places, at different ages. The most terrifying of which, were pictures of me sleeping. On the wall without pictures was a message that looked as though it