by J. E. Taylor
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.
Chapter 52
Jessica sidestepped the glass in the bedroom and passed Tom in the hall as he headed to their bedroom with the vacuum.
“You okay?” he asked grabbing her arm.
Jessica nodded and looked at him. “You?”
“He blew mirrors out for a mile, how can I compete with that?”
“It’s not a competition, Tom.”
“You know what I meant.”
“I’m not a fucking prize.”
“Jessie,” he said in exasperation and put the vacuum down. “You’re my wife and that’s my family sitting in the other room and I can’t protect any of you. I have to rely on a psycho from our past for that.” He took a deep breath. “A psycho that is still in love with you and he is more of a threat to me out here than he ever was down there.”
“Your family?” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes, my family,” he said and his eyes softened. “Jess, I’m the one who put the towels over the mirrors in their rooms.”
“And I took them down,” she gasped. “I let him in.”
Tom shook his head. “You don’t know that. You didn’t know who he was going after.”
Jessica nodded. “He went after Emily.”
“Did she tell you that?”
Jessica looked at him, opening her mouth and closing again before she finally spoke. “No. Emily didn’t tell me.”
He looked at her in confusion and when she avoided his eyes the shock and anger came raging back. “He told you? How the hell could he tell you?”
“Let it go.”
“Do you have the same connection with him that Eric has?” When she wouldn’t look at him, he knew. He picked up the vacuum and stormed into the bedroom muttering under his breath. He vacuumed up the remainder of the glass, turned out the lights and slid under the covers without saying goodnight to her.
* * * *
Jessica watched him storm off. She would deal with him later. She walked down into the living room and looked at her children sitting on the couch. Her eyes bore into Emily until she finally looked up at her mother. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her gaze swiveled to Eric. “Either of you, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why don’t you ask Tom that same question?” Emily snapped.
“What are you talking about?”
“Tom saw the ghost feeling me up on the set today,” she said. “That’s why he screwed up the party scene.”
She would definitely deal with him later. “That’s neither here nor there, missy,” she snapped. “You should have told me about the ghost.”
Emily started to cry. “He threatened to kill us all. And I didn’t know about Ty.”
Jessica closed her eyes. “I’m sorry for yelling.” She sat down on the couch, shutting the television off. “Eric, it’s time for you to go to bed. I need to talk with your sister.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I assume you’re the one who introduced Emily to Ty?”
He nodded.
“Thank you, now go to bed.”
They watched Eric until he was out of sight.
“You didn’t tell me Ty could do things,” Emily said.
“He still doesn’t know how to get rid of Frank’s ghost though.”
“Do you?” Emily challenged.
“No. All I know is to stay away from mirrors. The only one that doesn’t seem to channel Frank is the one in my bathroom. That channels Ty.” She shook her head and started to laugh. “God, this sounds like a bad horror movie.”
Emily smiled a little.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jessica looked at her daughter.
“He said he would kill you.”
“What did he do to you?” she asked and when Emily started to cry, Jessica’s heart broke. “He raped you?” she asked and Emily nodded. Jessica wrapped her arms around her daughter. “He won’t ever touch you again,” she said and fury encompassed her. “That I promise you. We will find a way.”
“You and Tom?” she whispered into her mother’s ear.
“No. Me and Ty.” She knew he was the only one that could get rid of Frank. Jessica looked in the direction of her bedroom and wasn’t sure she and Tom would make it through this.
“Do you need me to stay up with you?”
“I’m okay, Mom. Ty made sure of that.” She smiled. “I want to meet him. To say thank you.”
Jessica pulled away. “Em, I don’t know about that.” She took a deep breath. “If Tom and I make it through this, you will never meet Ty. I plan on getting as far away from him as I possibly can.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t say no to him so I can’t be near him.”
“And if you and Tom don’t make it?”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” she said. “I need to have a little chat with Tom, so if you don’t need me to stay with you...”
“I’ll be okay.” She grabbed the remote and flipped the television on.
Jessica kissed Emily on the forehead and headed back to their room.
Tom glanced at her but didn’t say a word
. He just returned his gaze to the ceiling. When she got into bed, he rolled so his back faced her.
“No way,” Jessica said and flipped the light on. “You don’t have the right to be pissed at me.”
Tom rolled and looked at her. “What’s your problem?”
“You didn’t tell me about Frank,” she said and watched his expression change. “That was a mistake.”
“But Jess…” he began and sat up.
“Uh-uh. She is my daughter. I had a right to know.”
“I wasn’t even sure if what I saw was real.”
“Bullshit,” she snapped. “You had the presence of mind to hang those towels. You should have told me.”
“What would you have done?”
“I don’t know. But you still should have told me.”
“Who’s bullshitting who? You would have run right to him. That’s why I didn’t say anything.” He lay back down, turning onto his stomach with his face away from her, hugging his pillow.
“Tom, if you can’t get past the fact that we need his help to get rid of Frank, we are never going to make it.”
Tom turned his head toward her.
“I’ll do whatever it takes so that bastard doesn’t get another chance to rape Emily. Even if it means losing you.”
Tom closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll do my best.” He turned his head away again. “But if he touches you, I’ll kill him.”
Jessica rolled on her side and ran her hand gently over his back. She leaned over and kissed his shoulder, afraid of what he would do if he ever found out what happened in Maine. “I love you.”
Tom looked back at her. “I know you do.” He leaned over and kissed her. “I love you too.” He rolled over and wrapped his arms around her and she shifted within his grasp so they were spooning each other. “Very much,” he whispered and kissed the back of her head. “Good night.”
Jessica lay in his arms with her eyes closed and listened to his breathing turn to light snoring, her mind rolling around what she may have to do to get rid of Frank. Her last thought before she slid into a restless sleep was of Ty’s haunted gaze.
Chapter 53
Tom slipped out of bed and turned the alarm off so Jessica wouldn’t wake up and got ready for work. Before he left, he sat on the side of the bed and looked down at her sleeping. He brushed the hair away from her face and leaned down, gently kissing her. “I love you.” She didn’t stir, but a small smile appeared on her face. She rolled away from him and whispered, “Ty.”
Tom closed his eyes and suppressed the urge to scream. He got up and left without another word, anger alternated with a hollow despair pulsing in his chest. He tore out of the garage in his BMW Roadster blaring the radio and squealing the tires. He drove fast, trying to outrun the feelings assaulting him. Above all the turmoil was the certainty that his time with Jessica was coming to an end and, like the situation with Frank, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
He peeled into the lot and slammed the brakes, sliding into his parking spot.
“Jesus, Tom!” Stacy gasped and he got out and slammed his car door.
Tom sent a glare her way. “Bad morning.”
“I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I’ve never felt like this,” he grumbled as they walked in.
“Trouble at home?”
Tom nodded. “You could say that.” He didn’t offer any other explanation and began to walk away.
“Tom?”
He turned to look at her.
“You know if you need to talk, I’m here.”
“Thanks. But I’ve got to figure this one out on my own.”
“It was nice to finally meet Jessica’s kids,” Stacey said with a smile.
“They are great, aren’t they?”
“They both have potential. Eric is the cutest kid, and Emily is as beautiful as your wife.”
“Jessica will never let them actually go into acting. She wants them to go to college and I can’t say I disagree.”
“Mark wants her daughter in the show he’s producing.”
“It won’t happen,” Tom said, stepping into his dressing room and closing the door on the conversation. He glanced into the mirror and shook his head. “Jess, what are you doing to me?” He went about pushing her out of his mind and getting himself into character for the show.
It was another long and grueling day on the set and as Tom slipped into his car, he closed his eyes and turned the key in the ignition. The radio blared, making him jump a mile and laugh at himself. He turned the music down and headed home, expecting an equally grueling evening.
Chapter 54
Jessica woke to the noise of the television in the living room and Emily chattering on the phone in her room. She stretched and slid out of bed putting on her work out clothes and headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair.
In the mirror, her reflection stared back and she let a huff out, half expecting him to appear. She leaned over and spit. When she stood, his blue eyes returned her gaze.
“I was wondering when you’d get your lazy ass out of bed.”
“It’s only a little after nine here.”
“Don’t you usually get up early?”
“Have you been waiting in your bathroom all morning for me?”
Chris laughed. “No. I knew when you woke up.”
“You knew when I woke up?”
He shrugged. “Yep.”
“Okay, if you say so.” She ran the brush through her hair and put it up in a ponytail.
“I know, it’s strange. But then again, everything about this relationship is strange.”
“It’s a relationship now?” She toyed with him and the next thing she knew, he had her in his arms again. “Ty, let go of me.”
“Not until you start calling me Chris.”
“You will always be Ty to me.”
“Ty was a mean son of a bitch,” Chris said. His smile faded. “I’m not anymore.” A small smile spread across his lips again as he thought about last night. “Not really.”
“You still need to let go.” She squirmed in his arms.
“Do you really want me to? Because I’m not getting that vibe from you.”
Jessica stopped squirming and looked up at him. “Yes, that is what I want.”
“You sure?” He leaned forward and kissed her.
She closed her eyes and his lips touched hers, the kiss as intoxicating as a fifth of vodka and she had to blink her eyes open when he pulled away. “I need you. I need you to help me kill Frank again.”
Chris slowly let her go. “I’m not sure I can do that.”
“He raped my little girl. I can’t let that happen again.”
Chris shook his head slowly. “I’m not sure, Jess,” he said, his eyes filling with fear and doubt. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”
“Strong enough?”
Chris nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know if I can.”
“We need to try.” She debated on telling him that she would be in New York at the beginning of the week and saw his eyes widen a little.
“You’re coming to the city?”
“Stop doing that.”
“Sorry.”
“Yes, I’ll be in New York from Sunday through Tuesday.”
“Will you have any free time?”
Jessica smiled a little. She had two days worth of free time. “Yes. Tom’s busy during the day and I have no desire to go with him on this one. He’ll be back for dinner, so that leaves me some time.”
“Shopping?”
“No, I’m not that big on shopping. I thought I’d go to the Met.”
“Museum?” His eyebrows rose.
“Yes. Don’t look so surprised.”
“I just thought, a woman in New York with free time. Shopping was the obvious answer.”
“I’m not an obvious woman.”
His dimples made a brief appearance. “Can we meet for lunch on Monday?” he asked, blushing and transitioning b
ack to his apartment in New York.
“Are you asking me on a date?”
He cocked his head and shrugged. “I can explain what I think we have to do then.”
“Okay. Where?”
“Where are you staying?”
“Uh-uh. I’m not meeting you at a hotel.”
The smile that graced his face made her weak in the knees. “Why not?”
Jessica blushed. “Public place.”
Chris laughed. “How about the Four Seasons?”
Jessica nodded. She had only been there once with Daniel, but the food was superb.
“I’ll meet you at the bar at noon?”
“You know they have a dress code?” she asked. She had never seen him in anything other than jeans.
“Don’t worry, Jess, I clean up real nice,” he said smoothly with a slight southern accent to bring his point home. “Go for your morning run.” He faded away.
Jessica chuckled a little and turned to leave her bathroom, stopping abruptly.
Emily stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and her jaw slack.
“How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to know you’re meeting him for lunch.”
“Emily, you shouldn’t ease drop.”
“I want to talk to him, now.”
Jessica’s mouth dropped. “Don’t you use that tone with me.”
“Please,” Emily pleaded.
With a heavy sigh, Jessica nodded. Against her better judgment she glanced at the mirror. “Ty?”
“Forget something?” Chris’s amused expression turned sour when he saw Emily in the room with Jessica. “Oh. Hi.”
Emily looked at her mom and then back at Chris. “I wanted to say thank you.” She looked down at the floor.
Within a blink, Chris appeared in the bathroom next to Jessica.
Emily stepped back, her eyes wide and frightened.
“Don’t be scared,” Jessica said.
“But, but...” She reached out and poked his chest. “He’s in the room with us.”
Chris started to laugh. “I’m sorry, but the look on your face is priceless.”
Jessica smacked his arm with the back of her hand and he looked over at her.