Mind Games (Games Thriller Series) (16 page)

Chapter 50

Tom retreated to his office to review the script again. The doorknob rattled and he looked up to see Jessica step into the room and close the door gently behind her. “Hey babe. You okay?”

Jessica nodded and walked behind the desk, turning his chair toward her. “Don’t make him into a complete monster.”

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back in the chair. His hatred for Ty Aris contradicted with the disgruntled respect the script formed in him and he sighed.

“Jess.” He reached out, pulling her onto his lap before opening his eyes. “He told me he needed to push you away when we were in that room together. I didn’t agree with how he went about it, but I knew. I watched what hearing you cry did to him. Ty may very well be the bravest son of a bitch I’ve ever met. He stood in those chains knowing what was going to happen to him and wasn’t one bit afraid of dying. I, on the other hand, was scared shitless.” Tom got quiet and stared at the shifting colors in her eyes.

“He had such faith that you would make a miracle occur. He just didn’t think he would be the one to be saved by it.” He reached over and picked up the script. “It’s all in here, Jess, so I can’t really portray him the way I want the world to see him.” He dropped the script. “The way I want you to see him.”

Jessica wrapped her arms around Tom and nuzzled her head in the crook of his neck. “This is going to be hard on us, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Tom said and squeezed her tight. He began to wonder if thirty million was worth it or not. “Think you can stick it out with me?”

“I can if you can,” Jessica replied and pulled away so she could look at him. She traced his face with her fingertips and then kissed him. “I love you Tom, I can’t imagine my life without you.”

Her words brought a smile to his face and he hugged her tight. “I need to rehearse my lines for tomorrow. Want to run lines with me?” he asked and pulled away.

“Sure, can we do it in the hot tub?”

His eyes sparkled at the prospect. “I need to run the lines
, Jess.”

“I know.” Usually the hot tub led to sex. “But we will have bathing suits on this time. Can’t go buff with the kids here.”

Tom nodded and made copies of the pages he needed to review while she went to change. He dropped the copies on the desk by the slider to the deck and glanced at his watch. It was only nine and both kids were sacked out on the couch. He stopped Jessica in the hall on the way to the bedroom. “Let the kids sleep.”

“You want wine?”

“I’ll pass. I need to get up early tomorrow.”

“Do you mind if I have some?”

“Not at all.”

They rehearsed the lines together in the hot swirling water. Jessica finished her wine and tipsiness edged in. She grinned at Tom and licked her lips.

Tom plucked the copies from her hand and tossed them on the concrete. Moving between her legs, he pulled her to him in the steamy water. “I know what that smile means.” He ran his lips along her neck.

Jessica leaned her head back. “The kids,” she whispered even as his kisses, along with the wine, pushed her heat threshold up a notch.

Tom glanced back in the living room. “Still sleeping.” He grinned back at her and reached into the water, peeling her bikini bottoms off. His swim trunks found a similar resting place on the concrete and he slid his already hard cock into her.

Tom smiled at her after they finished and reached behind her, grabbing both their swimsuits. They slipped them on in the water and settled back in the hot tub letting the euphoria linger a while longer.

“I need to get some sleep,” Tom said and climbed out of the hot tub. “I’ll get the kids after I change.”

Jessica stopped in each of the kid’s rooms to straighten up. She grabbed their dirty clothing and dropped them in the laundry baskets. She folded up the beach towels draped over the mirrors and put them on the corner of the dressers, kissing each of them goodnight and closed their doors behind her.

* * * *

A cold draft drifted over her skin and Emily shivered, reaching for covers that weren’t there. Her eyes flew open at the frigid caress between her thighs and she stared right into Frank’s black eyes.

“Hello sweetheart.” He yanked her underwear off.

“Ty!” The name came out in a shaking cry and Frank’s sly grin faltered, his eyes hardened and his hand flashed out, clamping around her throat. The other hand mercilessly slammed inside her, his entire fist burying into her pussy and pain raked through her.

“How do you know that name?”

She caught the flash in the mirror out of the corner of her eye. Chris slid into view and his growling voice overrode Frank’s. “Let her go!”

Within a blink the mirror blew to bits and Frank disappeared, leaving her gasping for breath and staring at the empty frame where the mirror had stood seconds before.

* * * *

At that same exact moment every mirror except one within a one mile radius of Tom’s house shattered in the same manner.

Tom shot to his feet, his eyes darting around the dark room falling on the shards glinting on the carpet. Jessica slid on tile and skittered to a stop on the bedroom carpet, her gaze fixed on Tom before taking in the open closets, the mirrors gone, smashed to bits all over the white rug.

“What the hell happened?”

Tom’s face went ashen and he bolted down the hall, throwing open Emily’s door.

Wide shocked eyes met his gaze and returned to where her mirror had been moments before.

“You ok
ay?” he asked. When she nodded, he tore into Eric’s room.

Relief settled into him at the sight of Eric untouched and still asleep, but he couldn’t say the same for the mirror. He navigated carefully through the shards to the side of the bed and shook Eric.

Eric blinked sleepy eyes at Tom and then his gaze traveled to the empty mirror. “Who folded the towel?” Eric asked and Tom’s head snapped to the bureau again, on the corner, folded neatly was the towel that was draped over the mirror when they went to bed.

“I did,” Jessica answered from the doorway. “All the mirrors in the house except the one in our bathroom broke but nothing else did. I don’t think it was an earthquake.” Tom nodded and their eyes met.

“Which means...” he trailed off and looked beyond Jessica at Emily.

“Ty,” Eric said aloud and they all looked at him.

“We need to clean up the glass,” Tom said. “So,” he scooped Eric up and carried him to the hall, “you and your sister should go into the living room and wait till I give the all clear signal.” He put Eric on his feet in the hallway and turned back toward the mess.

“Where’s the vacuum?” Jessica asked.

“I’ll get it,” he said and headed through the house to the utility closet.

* * * *

Eric and Emily watched from the couch as he came back through with the vacuum hose. When he disappeared back down the hallway, Eric turned back to Emily.

“What happened?”

“Frank came and I called him.” Her eyes were still wide with awe. “He blew the mirror up and Frank disappeared.” She flipped on the television. “He blew all the mirrors in the house up.” She shook her head and looked over at Eric. “Did you know he could do that?”

Eric smiled at her. “He can do a lot of things now that he couldn’t before.”

“What do you mean?”

“When he gave Mom back the healing power, she transferred her other power to him,” Eric said. “I felt it when I met him on the beach.”

“What other power?”

“The one Mom used to release Ty and kill
Marian.”

Emily just looked at him. “Why didn’t I get any powers?”
she finally asked.

Eric shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re more like Dad and I’m more like Mom. Besides, I don’t have any powers now.”

“Yes you do, you can read people’s minds,” Emily replied. “Just like Mom.”

“That’s not a power though.”

“Yes it is.”

Eric shrugged. He didn’t think it was a power, more like a side show trick that he wished he didn’t have sometimes. He picked up the remote and flipped on the television as the first siren flew by outside.

* * * *

Jessica walked into the living room and saw the red and blue lights pass by the house. “What the...”
she trailed off and looked down at the kids as the second pair of black and whites flew by the house. She walked over and flipped the television channel to a local news station, taking a seat as the breaking story banner appeared.

“Police and scientists are investigating a seismic anomaly in the Malibu
Beach area. Several residents have called the emergency response number reporting shattered glass. Scientists at this time cannot confirm whether a small earthquake occurred or not, but the anomaly seems to be localized within a one mile radius. We will keep you apprised of the situation as more information comes in. In the meantime, please make sure that items are secured properly in case of subsequent activity.”

Jessica stood up and walked down the hall and into her bathroom, to the only mirror left within a mile. “Ty?”

He was leaning on the sink in his bathroom in New York with his head hung low. “Everything okay?” he asked without looking up and blocked her from getting into his mind.

“You shattered all the mirrors within a one mile radius from this house,” she whispered in awe. “Except this one.”

He looked up and she actually stepped back.

“He was there.”

Jessica blinked. She had been in the bathroom and Tom was asleep in the bed. “I didn’t call you though.”

“I’ve been keeping watch,” he said, the fury still burning in his eyes. “We need to send him back to hell
, Jess.”

“Where was he?”

Chris looked at her without saying a word.

“Where?” Jessica demanded.

“He went after Emily.” The words rumbled from his throat.

Jessica felt the room start to spin. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she began to fall in a dead faint.

Chris caught her and looked around the bathroom in surprise. Jessica’s eyes blinked open to his arms around her. She looked into his eyes registering the same look of surprise he had on his face.

“Jess?” Tom called.

Chris gently set her on the floor. “Bye,” he said and disappeared

Chapter 51

Chris stood back in his bathroom, blinking and looking around. His reflection stared back at him, his mouth still hanging open. When she fainted, on instinct
he stepped to catch her, and he did— in California.

He thought about what Eric had done the other night as well and his eyes went wide. Eric physically pulled him through their house.

He slowly sat down on the bathroom floor and ran his hand through his hair. The ramifications of this were huge.

“What the hell did they do to me?” He gazed up at the mirror. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

“Ty?” He heard her calling again and he stood up slowly with his back to the far wall.

“What did you do to me?” He stared at the mirror as if it were the portal to hell. It rippled into the view of her.

“I don’t know, but you caught me when I fainted.”

Chris nodded and he stepped toward her consciously willing himself there and he felt the transition and within a blink he stood in front of her in her bathroom on the other side of the country. Shock and confusion clouded his brain as he looked around and then back at her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

“This is real,” he gasped. “Oh, God, this is real.” The shakes started, racking his body. “What did you do to me?”

Jessica just shook her head and touched his face. “How?” She whispered,
and his heart raced, pounding on the inside of his ribcage, tempered by the soft flesh of her hand placed on his chest.

“I have no idea.” He pulled away. Eric’s words on the beach resounded in his head. “Maybe I really do have your soul,” he said closing his eyes and the transition took hold. When he opened his lids, he was back in his bathroom in New York, staring at her through the mirror. Neither of them said a word.

“What did you do to me?” Chris asked again after he found his voice.

Jessica shrugged. “I, uh, I’m not sure.”

Chris leaned against the wall and dragged a shaky hand through his hair. He thought the ability to vaporize those bastards was unsettling, but astral projection across the country was in a whole other league of weird.

“I’m sorry.”

He laughed a pitch higher than normal because of his jumbled nerves. “I guess I owe you a huge debt of thanks for not knowing what to do with this power when I had you down in the complex. If you had an inkling of what kind of damage you could do, I would be dead.”

Jessica offered a hint of a smile. “Thank you for protecting my little girl.”

He gave a nod and walked away from the mirror, still reeling from the experience.