by Unknown
“TJ.” She looked back to him and put her hand on his chest, pushing lightly. “I am fine, so far. Better than fine, actually. How are you?” She asked warmly.
“I am good. Missing your beautiful face, though. When will you be coming back to New York?”
“Oh, um. Jason, there’s something you should know.” She moved to put her hand on his maybe hoping to soften the blow but she must have figured better not to and pulled away. Smart move.
“Okay.” He flashed his Hollywood smile and Tommy showed his teeth in return.
“You remember all those times I told you I wasn’t interested and wouldn’t pursue a relationship?” She hedged.
“Yes.” He laughed a little laugh, nodding.
“See, Jason,” She was tiptoeing around him like she was afraid to hurt his feelings and Tommy couldn’t say he suffered from the same emotion.
He slid his hand over Taylor’s shoulder and nearly announced, enthusiastically, “My wife isn’t interested because she’s already taken Jeremy.”
Hard emphasis on the wife, dickwad.
“It’s Jason and the last time I checked, Taylor was a willing and able woman who can speak for herself.” He corrected with a bemused expression.
“Yeah, well, she’s happily married and has been for nearly six years. So thanks, but no thanks.” Tommy ignored everything Jason had to say because he just wanted this dick wrinkle out of his house.
Jason looked from Taylor to Tommy and back to Taylor, skeptical.
“Is this true Taylor?”
“Why would he lie about that?” She scoffed and Tommy could tell she was not only thankful for the save but relieved. In fact, she was beginning to get pissed which made him smile even wider.
“Here’s the thing, Taylor… I can’t accept your marriage as the end all be all of what we could have. Why, you ask? Because, if you were ‘happily married’ as your husband seems to say, you would have told me from the get go instead of beating around the bush. It’s okay though, I am gonna go now. When you figure it out, I’ll be waiting.” He beamed at her and she nearly choked on air, disbelieving.
Tommy stepped closer and if he wasn’t careful, he would punt this shiny little douche canoe through his very well built walls, clear into the tree out front. It sounded even better with every passing second. To his credit, Jason did not back down but seemed to smile brighter. Lopez grabbed Tommy’s shoulder with little to no force as a warning not to lose control. Too bad one of his brother’s wasn’t here because they would have nearly beat him to it. Jason’s eyes glistened with a disgusting pride that only the devil could wear.
“A ring is just an object; if there is one single doubt in your marriage, it will all unravel in time.”
Taylor’s jaw dropped and she seemed to be standing in quicksand at the moment.
He stood to leave but Taylor put her hand on his arm and asked, “How did you know I was here?”
He pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to her.
“This was delivered to my door a few days ago. I guess I just assumed it was from you. Regardless of who sent it, I am thankful. I’ll be seeing you, Tay.” He waved confidently and walked out of the door, Lopez clinging like his shadow, closing it behind them.
Tommy took the paper from Taylor and scrawled on it were the words:
Looking forward to seeing you again,
at my parents if you can visit.
xoxo Taylor
“Holy.shit.” Taylor spat unbelieving.
“What? Are you as bewildered as I am that that fuck stick just walked out of here on his own two, unbroken legs?”
“That’s… it can’t be. But I’m pretty sure.”
“Taylor, what is it?” He noticed the change in her voice and energy and moved closer, still.
“That’s Jamie’s handwriting. My roommate. She’s the only other friend I really have in New York aside from Matt. But surely she wouldn’t have done this. She doesn’t even know where we are.”
Before Taylor could get all of her frantic words out, Tommy was calling someone and grabbing her arm to pull her behind him into the library.
Matt sat behind the bar mixing a rather heavy concoction and reading something. Without looking up, he waved and greeted them.
“What are you looking at?” Taylor asked him, breaking free from Tommy who she likely hoped was overreacting.
“Just some stuff about the case. Nothing to worry you over,” He reached for Taylor and kissed her head before continuing, “but Tommy, if you have a minute I’d like to go over some info with you.”
Tommy checked out Matt’s demeanor and then nodded silently. Matt looked to have found something and clearly Taylor understood a modicum of the seriousness in his disposition because she pulled away, obviously angry and walked back across the room to a smaller couch near the door.
“I’ll just be over here in your plain sight so you can talk about me and the shit surrounding my so called life. Don’t mind me at all.”
Matt, for once since Tommy had ever seen, didn’t give a second look or word to Taylor’s outburst and just looked back to the stack of papers and file folder laid out in front of him. He murmured something into his phone and then hung up, giving Matt his full attention.
“What do you have?” Tommy asked, brow raised in interest.
“Listen, I know you served some time in Afghanistan.” He began, but upon seeing Tommy’s expression, he explained in hushed tones, “I did my own following after you reached out to me. I didn’t need some loon following Taylor. So much for that.”
A knot formed in Tommy’s chest as he felt for Matt; Taylor’s well-being was in jeopardy and he couldn’t see why but knew he had to do anything he could to keep her alive and safe.
“Go on.” Tommy motioned with his hand.
“Look at these messages.” Matt pointed to some pictures of the messages left for Taylor; the one’s that really stood out from the hum-drum crazed fan.
“Okay…” Tommy didn’t catch it yet, but was waiting for it to hit him in the face.
“If I am right, these messages are from two different people.”
Matt pointed to the message on the bedroom wall and from the whiskey bottles, then he pulled out a sheet with letters, a voicemail message and an odd message all pieced together through the cliché newspaper clippings of a crazy kidnapper or psycho.
“While both of these are equally worrisome and seem to pose a threat to Taylor, they are totally different styles. I think we are dealing with two different nutcases. These pictures and messages here, they all have a very distinct and hard to miss message – in Arabic.”
Tommy grabbed the papers and got a better look, nodding and shaking his head. Well he’ll be damned if this little Hollywood agent wasn’t on to something.
“I don’t know how the team missed this.”
“It could happen to anyone. Maybe they didn’t miss it, though. The only reason I really got it is because I set all of them down on the bar, side by side. I mean, sometimes it helps to see it all at once instead of individually.”
“How did you even know how to catch this?” Tommy looked up with a newfound… something. It wasn’t quite yet respect. Matt looked hesitant to answer the question but gave a quick remark before changing the subject.
“That’s a different story, for another lifetime. How’s Taylor doing since having to deal with Jason?”
“Let’s just say that guy is lucky he ain’t lying dead on my sitting room floor.”
“That good?”
“Even better.” Tommy ground his teeth together and chanced a peek at Taylor who was fuming in the corner, eyes closed and draped over the arm of the love seat.
“Wanna talk about it?” Matt asked, approaching with caution.
“Well, besides the fact that the golden boy traveled from New York City to see Taylor, he informed us both that the game was on.”
“You don’t mean….”
“Oh, I do. He was pretty confident i
n himself that she is not happy and that he will very easily break us apart, taking her for his own.”
“I’ll shove my size eleven Gucci’s up his ass. Who the fuck does he think he’s fucking with? Damn man, I feel like this is all my fault. I didn’t even know.”
“Who do any of these freaks think they’re fucking with? They’re all about to get a real big surprise. At least with this shitbag we know who he is and what he wants. Guys like him just can’t stop when they hear no. While I don’t see him being a physical threat in itself, I definitely think that he can screw shit up if we don’t watch him closely.”
Matt nodded his head at Tommy’s statement and that made Tommy take another step closer to that respect for him. The guy seemed alright and if he wanted to hurt someone for thinking they could take Taylor from Tommy, he just might be on the right side of the fence.
Taylor had begun to snooze lightly on the couch and all he wanted to do was get her into their bed for a good, full night’s sleep, without interruption. She deserved that much.
Once Tommy had Taylor tucked into the bed and checked and rechecked the doors and windows to the room, he went back downstairs in search of Matt. He found him still in the library, reading over the contents in the folder.
“Listen, I need to go have a pow-wow with the knuckle heads that be. I wouldn’t ask anyone normally but I know you’ll look after her. Would you mind?”
“No, man. Of course not.”
Matt stood and shuffled all of his papers back into one pile, closed the folder and left Tommy in the library, listening to his echoing footsteps, climbing the staircase.
Tension formed in his chest as he did a perimeter check of the inside and outside of his house before he headed over to his brother’s command center; they named it Betty.
While he could have pounded pavement to relieve some of his stress, he felt too antsy leaving Taylor alone regardless of who she was with so he hopped in his truck and hauled ass to the building only a few minutes away. To Betty. The fuck was wrong with his brothers?
The command center was on what looked like its own compound, what with the large lights surrounding the building and twelve foot high electric fence, barbed wire on top like a cherry. The door to the command center was exactly what you would expect; large, metal, bulletproof and security measured up the wahoo. In order to get inside “Betty”, you had to have an I.D. badge, pass a vascular biometric scan of the back of your hand and just to be safe, a periodically changed password.
Tommy grabbed out his badge and held it up to the camera so whoever was working the gate to the compound could let him through the first barrier. Having earned admittance, he ambled over to the door of the command center that he couldn’t help but think belonged in the Wizard of Oz. A small peep hole slid open where an eye peered through bulletproof glass and requested the password wordlessly.
“Castle.”
The peep hole slid closed and a small panel slid up, beside the door, to reveal a scanner where Tommy placed his hand to get a read.
A beep from the machine indicated a pass and the panel slid shut before the locks on the door slid open and granted him access.
Chapter 14
Stepping into the command center was like nothing anyone would expect. While it was all hard and military like on the outside, the inside was as warm and cozy as their mother’s home. The intent, he supposed, was to make any visitors and or clients, potential or otherwise, feel safe from first glance and comfortable once inside. Seeing as how Taylor was the only female in the family besides their mothers, he guessed that they had something to do with the interior design. There were four doors on the far wall and four more on the opposite. To the right was two doors for a kitchen area and sitting room with the intent of providing some sort of privacy and comfort to the people who came in to discuss their situations or reunite with loved ones rescued. The opposite wall to the left was a heavily armored door that led to their armory. Bank vault doors had nothing on this bad boy. With intricate locks and puzzles all over it, there was no simple entry about the door. Only the brothers had access to it and it would stay that way, likely forever. The building was quite expansive with much more that wasn’t shown above ground, but that was the brothers’ secret. It was easy to keep so much hidden when they were the ones who built it from the ground up, literally, with no outside help.
“I don’t believe my eyes. Tommy without Taylor? Did she finally kick your sorry ass out of your own home?”
Tommy looked up to see Charlie’s semi-amused face.
“It’s her home, too. But you know that.”
“I know a lot more than you think I do.” And with that, Charlie scooped up his papers from the table in the center of the main room and walked off to his own office. Despite the fact that Charlie was the Sheriff of Devine and had an office in the station, he was family and this was a family owned and operated company so he also had his own office here.
Every brother and even though she didn’t know it, Taylor, had an equal share in this company (and profited quite nicely from it). Business was booming because someone would always need our services and now with it being easier than ever to become famous – what with the internet sensations and reality competition shows – people couldn’t find a better way to spend their money than on security. While we ran a slew of bodyguard-esque services, we also did hostage negotiations, various retrieval situations and handled kidnappings – most favoring women and children, because that shit was never okay. The kidnapping cases were something that we never turned down if there was a plausible case, whether the families had the money or not. There were a few cases where women/children were taken for the sole purpose of selling them into slavery and sex rings; my brothers handled those as well as their teams.
Team A was led by Mike, Team B by Noah and each consisted of five guys – 2 snipers, 1 explosives expert and 2 for muscle. Peyton was a floater between the two but was looking to get his own team put together soon and with Tommy home he was hoping they could go in together on Team C. Charlie was their tie to law enforcement, in the event there was something going down here at home but touched like Peyton did, between teams in his spare time. Luke was the brains of the operation and very rarely went out, though he was an all-around bad ass who really could do it all; professionally, aside from KJ Inc., Luke was freelancing for the CIA and the FBI after having worked for both. Being one of the greatest computer geniuses alive who could hack into anything was apparently something they took a lot of interest in so it was pretty lucrative for him; financially and professionally as far as favors went. It opened a lot of doors for him and got him a whole shit ton of IOU’s. Funny that the computer genius could be born from a humble country boy background.
Looking around, Tommy spotted Mike in the center office which they called the war room. Inside, he found Mike, Noah, Peyton, Luke and Candace, all talking around the room about some tips they received. Luke was sitting at his own command station with what looked like a dozen different screens holding a very large coffee cup that looked like it was one of those big gulp, travel mugs from the corner store. He was sitting in a computer chair on wheels, stabilizing himself on the wheels as he used his legs to turn himself side to side; this was his thinking chair and that was how he worked out his best ideas. Just seeing Luke move like that Tommy’s stomach upset and he had to look away over at Mike and Candace who were hashing something out over a tall table in the corner.
“This doesn’t make sense – if they wanted to kill…” Candace was midsentence when Mike lightly touched her shoulder to stop her when he noticed his brother watching from across the room.
They all stopped what they were doing and stared at Tommy, trying to get a feel for his sudden appearance.
“Hey Kane.” Candace greeted lightly.
“Where are we?” Tommy asked in return.
Mike stood up straight and set his pen down on the table before answering.
“Honestly?”
“Seriously?�
� Tommy retorted.
“We’ve got a few leads but keep hitting a wall. Whoever this is, is pretty damn good at bad.”
“If you’re gonna do wrong, do it right.” Peyton quipped.
“Well, they are and it’s not helping us in keeping Taylor safe.” Candace piped in.
Tommy looked at her and noticed how close she stood to Mike.
He was making a mental note to deal with that later.
“How on God’s green earth, did Hollywood figure out that this fucker is two stalkers and not one?” He yelled to his older brother.
“Care to repeat that?” Peyton asked, taken aback. He walked around the table and reached out for the folder Tommy held in his hands.
“Yeah, you heard me. He showed me what he had been looking on; the guy who went to business school and only wears designer shoes, has gotten farther on this case in a few nights’ time than anyone. Isn’t this our job? Quit the damn kissy kissy and computer games and fucking do work.”
“Is that what you’re doing over there?” Mike shot back, pointing in the general direction of the house.
“As a matter of fact, my job is to keep her safe and no one has hurt her yet.”
“That’s debatable.” Charlie hollered from his office.
“If you’ve got something to say…” Tommy turned and yelled back to him.
“Enough!” Mike commanded.
Everyone looked to him as he took the folder from Peyton.
“The events have two distinct characteristics, vibes if you will. This is definitely not one person.” Tommy said.
Noah sighed loudly from his space and scrubbed a hand down his face.
“Only Taylor could manage to wrangle two stalkers at the exact same time.”
“She didn’t ask for this.”
Now Tommy was really starting to get pissed. His brothers had never made him so angry in all their lives. How could a handful of people that were professionally, strategically and comprehensively trained, not catch on to all of this. His mind was in a tailspin and he gripped tight to his control to help him finish this little visit and get back to Taylor.