End Game (Games Thriller Series) (7 page)

“And Tom said if she found out about Tommy, she would kill him out of spite.”

“Over my dead body,” Chris said, the anger now a flurry buzzing around his head. “He’s my son, not Tom’s and God help her if she comes after this family.” He looked at her and snapped his teeth together. “I can stop her dead in her tracks right now if you say the word.”

“If she dies, the contract is automatically put into effect.”

“Doesn’t matter, I can stop anyone dead in their tracks.”

“I know, but not unless we have to, ok
ay?”

Chris took a deep breath, calming the frenzied beast running amok inside. “Next Friday night ought to be interesting.”

“I’m tempted to give her another right hook.”

“You are much kinder than I am
, Jess. I was thinking more along the lines of seeing her explode into a million pieces.”

“Daddy?” CJ said from the stairwell.

Chris turned and wiped the grin off his face. “What’s up?” he asked as if he hadn’t just been thinking about killing someone. The fear in his son’s eyes prompted him to stand and cross the room. He smiled up at Tommy, “Why don’t you go see your mom, I need to have a chat with CJ.”

Tommy’s eyes widened at his brother and they exchanged a glance as he skirted around his dad and ran across the family room to his mother. Chris focused on CJ again. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said and led him into the living room, reminding himself that this was a four-year-old, even though he had the intellect of someone much older. He knelt in front of his son.

“Daddy, you want to kill someone, I felt it,” CJ said with wide, scared eyes.

Chris closed his eyes and hung his head a moment. “Sometimes adults get mad and want to hurt people,” he said and opened his eyes. “Especially if that person puts people you love in harm’s way.”

“Hurting someone and killing them are different and they’re both wrong.”

Chris nodded. “Yes they are, but protecting someone you love isn’t wrong.”

CJ chewed his lip.
I would protect my brother
.

Chris smiled at the simple thought. “Yes, you would protect Tommy, just like I would protect each and every one of you. Sometimes your
daddy takes that a little too far though.”

“Is that when Ty comes out?”

“I told you, Ty was my brother and he died,” Chris lied easily this time.

“Daddy, lying is wrong too.”

Chris sat back on his ankles and measured what he was going to say next. “Christopher James, you are four years old. You aren’t ready to know about Ty yet,” he said, mimicking the words that Jessica said earlier.

“But your name is Ty,” CJ replied. “Ty Aris.”

Darkness passed over Chris’s face like a sheet of ice blanketing his soul and his jaw tightened, especially when CJ recoiled into the cushions of the couch away from him. “Where did you hear that name?”

“Inside of you,” CJ answered, his eyes welling up with tears.

Chris stood and walked out of the room, shaken to the core. If CJ could pull that name out of his subconscious, what else could he see about his dark past? The years he spent collecting people for his stepbrother’s black market porn business and each and every death he witnessed haunted his nightmares. He felt unworthy of happiness because of all the horror he had been an accessory to and he was terrified that his children would find out what a monster their father really was. He walked out the back door to the rock wall overlooking the bay. The cold bit at him, but he didn’t feel it.

The snow crunched with her approaching footsteps and the warmth of her hand on his back did nothing to quell his turmoil. “He knows.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Jessica replied.

“He pulled my name out of my head. What else can he see?” Chris turned his gaze to hers.

“He can’t see anything, Chris.”

“He pulled my name out of my head
, Jess.” He turned, grabbing her arms. “I had that locked up so deep...” He shook his head and released the tight grasp he had on her. “How can I teach them right from wrong if they know where I’ve been?”

“It’s not where you’ve been
, honey. It’s how you live your life now that matters. Showing that you know the difference goes a long way. Living up to the morals and values that you are teaching them matters.”

A bark of a laugh escaped. “I should be in jail, or dead for that matter.”

“Don’t you dare say that!”

He rolled his eyes at her. “You know it’s true.”

Jessica clamped her mouth shut and looked out at the ocean, shivering.

The cold settled into his bones as well and he knew he had to talk to his son before the boy pirated more critical information locked away in his memory. “Let’s go in where it’s warm,” he said and led her back to the house.

He walked to CJ and picked up his son and carried him into the kitchen. “My name once was Ty Aris. But I had it legally changed to Chris Ryan, so that’s my name now.”

“Why did you change your name?” CJ asked.

“That’s a really complicated story that I’ll tell you about one day but in the meantime, you shouldn’t repeat to anyone that your father’s real name is Ty Aris.”

“Why?”

He inhaled through his nose, trading a glance with Jessica before going on. “Because Ty Aris did some really bad things, things that if they catch up to me, could take me away from you and your brother for a very long time.”

CJ’s jaw tightened and his eyes darkened. “I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Chris allowed a strained smile to surface. “If the police ever come looking for me, you are not to interfere. Understand?”

CJ pressed his lips together for a moment then he nodded.

“Do you know where the name Chris, Christopher James comes from?”

CJ shook his head.

“Chris was my brother.” Chris smiled at CJ. “You’re named after my 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 door.

Instead of plying his body with alcohol, he decided to do something he hadn’t done in months. He changed into his running gear and grabbed his
iPod, heading onto the beach and slipping the buds into his ear, picking the playlist he and Jessica used to run to regularly when they were married.

He ran, lost in the music and the memory of his ex-wife until he dropped in the sand. Glancing at his watch, he let out a shaky laugh. The hangover exaggerated his exhaustion and the meager forty-five minute run only
proved just how out of shape he was. With Jessica, forty-five minutes was just the warm up.

What the hell happened to me?

He looked out at the cool Pacific and received no words of wisdom.

Getting to his feet, he shuffled back to the house, stumbling in and ignoring
Sharon’s raised eyebrow. He breezed past her to the master bathroom and just made it to the toilet before the evening’s indulgence came up. The stench of alcohol seeped from his pores and he gagged again, vomiting the remaining acid churning in his stomach.

The second shower of the day renewed his energy and for the first time in years, he felt a ray of hope as the water washed the sweat from his body.

Chapter 14

The rest of the week flew by and Saturday morning, Jessica got out of bed early, kissed Chris on the cheek as he slept, grabbed her MP3 player and on a whim grabbed the cell phone before heading out of the house. She hopped into the car and drove the few miles to Long Sands Beach for an early morning run.

She pulled up to the curb and looked at the clear empty stretch of beach with a smile. Arctic wind rattled off the ocean, enough to drive off most of the morning joggers, but she looked forward to the tingling cold ripping at her cheeks and the hard packed sand under her feet. She deposited the keys into the pocket of her sweats and opened the car door. The phone rang before she got her feet on the pavement and she switched up her
iPod for the cell phone, slipping the earpiece in and flipping it on.

“Hello?” She slammed the car door, and crossed the sidewalk to the staircase leading to the sand.

“Hi.” Tom looked out at the Pacific Ocean.

“Hi,” Jessica replied
, her voice muffled by the wind.

“Where are you?” he asked, his voice slurring a little.

“Just started my run.”

“And you brought your phone?”

Jessica laughed. It was unusual for her to carry her cell phone on the run; she much preferred getting lost in the music on her iPod. “I had a feeling.”

It was Tom’s turn to laugh. He looked at the empty bottle sitting next to him on the beach and shook his head.

“You’re drunk again, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I made it most of the week but I just couldn’t stand being with her another second without killing her or blowing my fucking brains out.”

“Jesus, Tom,” Jessica said and stopped running. She looked out over the Atlantic as the cold February breeze whipped off the water and into her face. The other line buzzed. “Hang on.” She clicked over to the other line.

“Tell him to stop calling you,” Chris whispered into the phone.

“I will, babe. Go back to sleep.”

“Ok
ay.”

Jessica flipped back to Tom and started running again. “Are you still there?”

“Yes, I am.” He looked up at the stars.

“Chris wants you to stop calling me.”

“What do you want, Jess?”

“I want you to stop protecting me.”

Tom laughed. “I can’t do that. It ain’t in my nature to put you in harm’s way.”

“You need to let go.”

“Why?”

“Because I am not available
, Tom.”

“That didn’t stop
him
five years ago.”

Jessica let the silence fill the space as she ran. “There is a difference,” she finally said.

“And what is that difference, Jess?”

“Chris and I were meant to be together.”

Tom snorted into the phone. “Yeah, right. You’re meant to be with him about as much as I’m meant to be with Sharon.”

“I’m going to hang up now,” she said, her tone as cold as the wind whipping through her hair.

“I’m sorry. Just talk with me for a while, okay?”

Jessica took a deep breath. “Tom, this isn’t a good idea.”

“Please. It’ll keep me sane for a little longer.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Jessica sighed, giving in to him.

“Tell me about my son.”

Jessica smiled. “Tommy is the sweetest boy.” She turned on the beach and headed back toward her car. “He looks a lot like you, with black hair and your eyes.”

“Is there any of you in him?”

“Chris tells me he has my face. He says Tommy and Eric look a lot alike.” She laughed softly. “But all I can see in him is you.”

Tom lay on the beach, the tears slowly streaming out of his eyes. “Does he have any special abilities like Eric?”

“No. He doesn’t. But CJ is a completely different story. He’s the spitting image of Chris and my
God; he has powers that put ours in the dust already. I can’t control him at all, but Chris, Chris keeps him in line.” She smiled. “He is amazing with them, Tom.”

Tom snorted again.

“Will you please stop that? You don’t know him at all, so keep your comments to yourself.”

“Jessie, he killed people for fun.”

Jessica took a deep breath. “Tom, don’t go there.”

“You are going to marry a murderer
; how does it feel?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“It sucks.”

“I’m in love with Chris. He’s the one I’ve been searching for my whole life.”

“Bullshit. That’s just crap, Jessie, and you know it.”

Jessica climbed the stairs to her car, the anger seeping into her. “I am hanging up.”

“Don’t!” Tom yelled and listened to a dial tone. He pressed the send button immediately. “I’m sorry.”

Jessica didn’t say anything while she unlocked her car. She slid inside listening to him breath
e.

“Maybe I would be better off dead.”

“Now that’s a load of crap.”

“At least you’d be safe,” he mumbled and stood on unsteady legs, heading toward the water. “I hear drowning isn’t a bad way to go.”

Jessica transitioned and put her hand on his chest to stop him from getting any closer to his destination. The anger in her eyes made him take a step back. “You don’t call me after five years and talk to me about suicide,” she growled and took a step toward him. “You don’t fucking do that!” she seethed, her hand balled into a fist and she threw a punch at him. It caught his jaw and he fell back on his ass in the sand.

Tom looked up at his ex-wife with his mouth hanging open.

Jessica squatted in front of him. “I can forgive a lot of things, but suicide isn’t one of them. Capisce?”

Tom nodded. He reached out, grabbed her by the shoulders, and pulled her to his lips, feeling the softness of them on his and then she was gone. “Shit,” he said and opened his eyes again. “Come back.”

“No,” Jessica said and started her car. “I’m going home and you are not to call me again.”

“Will you still be at the premiere?” he asked before she hung up the phone.

“I told you I’d be there. Bye, Tom,” she said and disconnected the call. She dialed her house and Chris answered. “I told him but I don’t know if it’ll keep him from trying though.”

“Are you all right?” Chris asked.

“He mentioned suicide.”

“Jesus. What did you do?”

“I punched him,” she said and turned down the familiar road.

Chris started to laugh.

“It’s not funny.” Jessica pulled up to the gate and punched the code in.

Chris stopped laughing. “Sorry babe.”

He opened the garage door just as she cut the engine.

Jessica took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, meeting his gaze. “We have to do something.”

“All you have to do is say the word and she’s gone.” He snapped his fingers, silently willing her to allow him to let loose on Sharon Young Whitman.

“No, that isn’t the way to do this. Killing isn’t the answer.”

“Sometimes it’s the only answer.”

“Not in my world.” Jessica walked past him.

“Do you still love him?” Chris changed the subject, making Jessica stop in her tracks.

She turned toward him, seeing that hesitation again, that insecurity that burned her. “Yes and I always will, just like I still love Danny.” She walked back to him. “Just like I loved Mike. They all played a big role in my life. But here’s the thing you need to remember
,” she paused, searching his eyes, “I’m yours Chris, heart and soul, and there is nothing on this earth that could take me away from you. This time, ‘till death do us part’ is for real. I’m not leaving and neither are you.”

Chris wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “We will figure something out. I promise.”

“Thank you. Are the kids up?”

“Not yet.” His eyes sparkled as they scanned her and he slowly smiled.

“Come on, I’m all sweaty.”

“I don’t really care.” He pulled her close again, his hands wandering. “Do you?”

Her resolve went out the window with the trail of his lips on her neck. “I guess not.”

He swept her off her feet, carrying her up the stairs to their bedroom. Chris set her down and locked the door behind him in case the kids did wake up before he had a chance to make love to his fiancé
e. He stripped his robe and discarded it on the floor, licking his lips and savoring her lithe form.

Jessica undressed and chuckled. “Smoldering.”

Chris smiled and pulled her naked body to him. He ran his tongue up her neck. “Mmmm, salty,” he said and bit her earlobe.

She gasped at the sharp pain and then it was forgotten as his lips covered hers.

“And so sweet,” he whispered and pushed her down on the bed. “Heart, soul and body.”

“Yes,” she whispered, getting lost in the graze of his touch, in the taste of his mouth, in the musky scent of his skin and in the rhythm of his body. Pure ecstasy enveloped her and she cried out his name, panting with each glorious thrust of his hips until he finally collapsed on her, spent.

“There is nothing like morning sex with you.” He slid off her, pulling her to him, nuzzling in her hair, spooning her.

“I need to clean up,” Jessica whispered after a few minutes of cuddling.

“Not yet,” his voice laced with the sleep trying to take him over.

“The boys are going to be up any minute
,” Jessica insisted and tried to pull away.

Chris grinned as he yanked her back. “You’re so nice and warm,” he purred and buried his face in her hair, wrapping his arms tight around her waist.

Jessica laughed. “Just think of how good a hot shower would feel.” She broke his grip and headed into the bathroom.

“That was just mean,” Chris said and rolled on his back, looking after her.

“Get your lazy ass out of bed.” Jessica grinned over her shoulder.

Chris smiled and stretched. “This lazy ass is going back to sleep.” He pulled the covers around him and rolled onto his side
moments before he let sleep take over.

Jessica came out a little while later to find Chris snoring softly in bed. After picking up the trail of clothing and throwing it into the hamper, she sat on the edge of the bed, sighing at the small smile on his lips and the easy rhythm of his breathing. “I would be lost without you.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek gently. “Completely lost.” She walked out of the room and closed the bedroom door behind her.

* * * *

Chris opened his eyes and looked at the bedroom door. “You and me both,” he whispered and rolled onto his side, closing his eyes again.
Less than a week
. He told himself.
Less than a week.
Darkness descended.

He opened his eyes to her chained to a wall wearing the white dress, the gunshot re
sounding so loud that he jumped but Jessica didn’t flinch. The bullet passed through her body, leaving only a small circle of red on the immaculate white dress.

“Fuck you
,” Jessica spit in anger.

Sharon pulled the trigger again, this time, the bullet ripped through her bare shoulder, leaving an oozing bullet hole. Jessica still didn’t flinch. Sharon stormed across the room and put the gun to her forehead.

“Jessie!” Chris screamed, shooting up in their bed, his entire body drenched in sweat and his breath coming in short bursts.

Jessica flew into the room, her eyes snapping to the mirror like Pavlov’s dog, half-expecting to see the sadistic ghost of his stepbrother again.

“I’m okay. It was just a nightmare,” he said and the panic on her face eased. He tried to smile, but the vividness of the dream gnawed at him, reminding him of the dreams leading up to the horror that happened with Frank’s ghost. “Jesus.” He ran his hands over his face and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Are you really ok
ay?” she asked, sensing the turmoil within him. He was blocking her from getting in again.

Chris nodded. “Yeah.” He headed into the bathroom without looking back at her.

Jessica followed him. “What was the nightmare about?”

Chris looked over his shoulder at her with the shower stall open. “Losing you.” He slipped into the shower.

He closed his eyes as the water cascaded over his body, wiping any traces of tension from his muscles. He lathered his hair with shampoo and rinsed and just stood under the stream of water. Chris let his mind wander back to the dream, analyzing it.

The room she had been in looked like a mechanical room
; the walls were brick with exposed metal studs. Plumbing and electrical wires were visible in the walls. The chains that Jessica had been tied with were looped on the plumbing pipes and secured together with what looked like padlocks, not actually built in the wall like at the complex. Handcuffs held her wrists to the end of the chains. The flooring looked like double plywood planking.