Mind Games (Games Thriller Series) (10 page)

Chapter 30

Jessica blinked back the tears, wiping her eyes with the hem of her sleeve and driving to the store to grab a couple items she forgot yesterday. Tossing the items in her cart, she checked out. Moments later, she turned on the ignition of her car and her cell phone rang.

“Hello?” she answered, pulling out of the parking space.

“Where are you?” Tom asked.

“At the store,” she answered and heard him suck his breath in. “I took a drive into Kittery and looked for a couple outfits before I stopped at the grocery store.”

“Find anything?”

“Nothing I wanted,” she replied.
Liar!
The guilt encompassed her. This time she didn’t have any excuse, she had given in to her feelings today without the aid of alcohol.

“Uhu,” Tom grunted. “Sure about that, Jess?”

Jessica glanced in her rearview mirror and her eyes went wide. His truck was on her tail, following her out of the parking lot and he flipped his phone closed, glaring at her frazzled gaze in the rearview mirror.

“Shit.” Her mouth went dry and her blood hammered in her chest. Excuses whirled in her mind, all of them tossed out as callously as she had tossed the phone into the passenger seat.

When she pulled into the garage, she grabbed the bags, trying to get into the house as quickly as possible, to the safety of the kids and the opportunity to avoid this fight until her heart settled down and she could think clearly.

“Hello,” she yelled.

No answer.

Tom came in and slammed the door behind him. “I called Dan and asked him to come get the kids because we had some things to discuss and it would be better if the kids weren’t here to witness it,” he growled and threw his keys on the table.

Jessica had never seen him this angry and she shrank against the wall.

“I assume that house is his?”

“You followed me?”

“You bet your ass I did.” He pushed her against the wall. “What were you doing
, Jess?” The anger seethed from him.

“Telling him he needed to let go. I was saying goodbye,” she said and met his fury filled baby blues.

“You sure took your sweet time.”

“He didn’t like it when I told him I was staying in Los Angeles with you.”

Tom’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed.

“So help me, if he laid a hand on you...”

Swallowing, she shook her head. “He’s worried about Frank’s ghost.” Jessica sidestepped the accusation with partial truth.

Tom inhaled and blinked taking a step back. “You told him you were staying in L.A.?”

She nodded and the anger in his eyes diffused.

“You seriously want to stay in L.A.?”

No.
The thought leaped into her brain but she had the presence of mind not to let it escape. “Yes. It’s your home.”

“This is my home,” Tom said looking down at her. “Wherever you are is my home. Why did you lie to me?”

“Would you have let me go see him alone?”

Tom laughed. “Not on your life.”

She raised her eyebrows and shrugged. “That’s why and it was something I had to do. I already hurt you enough this morning and I didn’t want to make you angry.”

“I’m still pissed
, Jess.” He walked into the living room.

She didn’t like lying to Tom. She didn’t like it at all. “I’m sorry,” she said and sat next to him on the couch.

Tom took her hand in his. “Sometimes loving you is hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jess, I knew when I married you. I knew you loved him and I never really understood why, not with everything he did.” Tom shifted, keeping eye contact. “I completely understood why Ty fell in love with you, because it happened to me as well.” He took a deep breath. “But until last week, I believed he was dead. That’s the only way I could deal with knowing you loved him. And now that I know he’s not...” He drifted off. “It’s just hard Jess.”

“Does it change the way you feel about me?”

“No. But I’m afraid I’m going to lose this time.”

“It’s not a competition.”

He cocked his head and pressed his lips together. “Look, he’d kill for you in an instant, and he was willing to lay his life on the line for you five years ago. I have no doubt that he’d do the same today if that’s what it took to keep you safe.”

Jessica picked at her nail trying to read between the words into his heart. “You think I’d choose him over you?”

He shrugged and looked away.

“I married you.” She poked his chest. “And I love you.”

“I know you do. But you love him too.” He uttered a slight laugh. “Hell, you protected him for five years.”

Tears brimmed and she couldn’t deny what he said, instead she wiped her face. “I’m not as gentle and sweet as you think I am. I killed
Marian.” Her eyes wandered out the window. “And I helped kill Frank.”

“Ty killed Frank. He just used you as the vessel.”

“I’m not so sure.”

Tom pulled her chin so she was looking at him. “Jessica, I was there, remember?”

Jessica nodded. “But I wanted him dead,” she whispered. “I set Ty free. I made sure you didn’t die in that electric chair. I blew the doors off the hinges, every last one of them in that place and I killed Marian.”

“I could have gotten out of that chair if I really wanted to, but I wanted him to suffer and die just as much as Ty did,” she whispered, shaking her head. She looked into his eyes.

“We all wanted him dead Jess. I saw the tapes; I saw what he did to you.” He shuddered. “He got what he deserved.”

“But now he’s back and looking for revenge and neither of us can stop him this time.”

Tom sat back and looked at her. “You can’t?”

She shook her head. “I no longer have that power. Ty has it now.”

Tom raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“I guess when he transferred the healing power to me the other day I transferred the other side to him.” She paused. “So, I can heal every time he stabs me but I can’t stop him.”

“So until Frank is gone, Ty is in our lives?” Tom leaned back in the chair and looked at the ceiling.

“I’m hoping that moving to Los Angeles does the trick.” Jessica leaned into the nook of his shoulder.

He put his arm around her and kissed her hair. “I hope you’re right.”

Chapter 31

Chris sat on the couch with his head in his hands for a while after Jessica left, feeling empty and hollow without her. His mood darkened and a flash of power escaped. The empty bottle shattered.

Frustrated, he walked to the rock wall, scanning the marina.

“I can’t believe I let her go again. I can’t fucking believe it!”

He turned back and looked at the house he had bought to be near her, his pathetic attempt to woo her, to capture the dream and his fury stepped up a notch. Chris slammed his cast on the rock wall, pain reverberating all the way up his arm and he glanced in the direction of her house.

“Goddamnit!”
he swore and headed back inside. He grabbed his car keys and left the house, locking it up behind him.

Chris drove to the lighthouse and got out of his car, walking down the street toward her house. He stood on the corner, watching the house, just waiting.
Tom has to leave the house sometime,
he thought and as if on cue, Tom walked out the front door and got into his truck.

The truck pulled out of sight and he trotted to the front door. “Open,” he commanded and the door swung open. He walked in and saw her on the back porch leaning on the railing with her back to him.

“Did you forget something?” The smile on her face froze when her eyes landed on him. “What are you doing here?”

Without answering her, he took her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers.

She pushed him away. “No.”

“Yes.” He went to kiss her a second time.

“You can’t just come in here and do this.”

“I can’t let you go.”

“You have no choice. We aren’t in that cell anymore. This is the real world and I made my choice a long time ago.”

“You love me.”

“Doesn’t matter. I chose Tom. I married him knowing you were out there somewhere.”

“Jessie, I can’t do this without you.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been fine for five years without me. You have to leave. Now. Before he gets back.”

“No.”

“He followed me today and if he finds you here, he will kill you. He doesn’t know, but if he sees you here, sees the way you are looking at me, he will. Please go.”

“He can’t touch me.”
Not with what you gave me.
“Besides, my car isn’t here,” he added to calm the panic he felt radiating off her.

“Do you want to hurt me more than you already have?”

Chris felt the mental slap and stepped away from her. “I want the dream.”

“You can’t have it. You changed everything when you came and I’m so thankful. You gave me Emily back,” Jessica said. “But I don’t want to leave Tom. I love him too. He’s the one who has my heart.”

“But I have your soul,” Chris whispered.

Jessica nodded. “Yes you do and you know what it would do to me if I lost Tom.”

Chris took a deep breath. It would destroy everything he loved about her. “So I lose again.”

Jessica closed her eyes and dropped her head. “Yes.”

He hated losing, it just wasn’t natural and losing her was worse than losing his life. Pain gripped him, spreading from the center of his heart outward until it throbbed in his fingertips. He turned, quickly descending the staircase to the back lawn taking one last look over his shoulder before he disappeared around the corner.

Regardless of her words, what he saw in her eyes was the same pain rushing through him, like a piece of their souls were melded together and one without the other left an incomplete person and imbalance that fate did not take kindly to.

Chapter 32

“Emmy, don’t be too long, we have to leave in a little while,” her mother called through the closed door.

Emily stared at the door from the center of her room, fear keeping her still and trembling in his vile grasp. The ice-cold hand clamped over her mouth and she felt his breath on her neck. His other hand was already buried in the front of her pants.

“Going on a little trip?” Frank said and licked the side of her face. “Remember, you scream, they all die.” He chuckled and his hand moved from over her mouth to her chest.

She shook, her gaze glued to the mirror, glued to his sadistic laughing eyes. “Not again,” she whimpered.

“There is nothing like virgin pussy,” he whispered in her ear, moving her toward the bed. He pushed her over on her stomach and parted her cheeks. “Except maybe for a virgin ass.”

His laughter echoed in her ears and pain rippled through her, paralyzing her in place until his vile assault concluded and he leaned close to her ear. “I’ll be waiting for you in California.”

Emily lay on her stomach sobbing into the bed. She reached down and pulled her jeans up slowly wondering what she had done to deserve this. She finally got a hold of herself and dragged her suitcase out, throwing all her things in without thought.

He knew where they were going. He was going to be there too.

Both thoughts brought another wave of tears and she snatched the phone off the floor.

“Hey Sara,” she said, her voice shaking.

“You okay?”

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Emily zipped up the suitcase.

Her question was met with silence.

“You okay Emily?” Sara asked again.

Emily cried quietly. “Do you believe in ghosts?”

“I don’t know,” Sara said. “Why?”

“I think I’ve got one.”

“How do you know?”
Sara asked.

Emily let out a hysterical laugh.

“What is it, Em?” Sara asked, her voice carrying her nervousness with it.

“He...” She let out a little sob. “He raped me.”

“What? Who?”

“The ghost.” Emily wiped the tears off her face. “I have to go. We’re flying to California tonight.” Another sob escaped her. “He said he’d be there waiting.”

“Shit, Em. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. But he threatened to kill my family if I told them.”

“You sure he can?”

Emily thought about his violation of her, how painful it had been and how his hand around her throat the other day felt. “Yes,” she finally whispered. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” She hung up the phone and walked quickly to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Emily splashed cold water on her face and wiped it with a towel just as Eric knocked on the door.

“Em, I gotta go.”

“Use the one near the kitchen
,” she snapped and heard him shuffle away. This was going to be a long trip. Maybe he wouldn’t find her there, she hoped, but deep down, she knew he would show up and do more unspeakable things to her.