Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“You should take it,” Jess said, taking a long chug of her soda. “But credit me, or I’ll sue the absolute crap out of you.”
I chuckled, nodding. “You’ll be the only citation in the entire book. A tiny footnote after ‘hotter than a blacksmith’s ballsack’ credited to Jessica Martinez.”
“That’s all I ask for.” She winked and started to laugh while fanning herself with a folded-up map. The sun beat down with relentless force on the crowded park. Families lined up to take a walk under the misters; others gathered underneath palm trees and awnings just outside of the shops and restaurants, where random drafts of AC-blasted air would sometimes flow. A little girl dressed like Elsa twirled her way past us in her blue dress, completely oblivious to the heat that was slowly draining the life out of her parents.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, making my heart buzz against my ribs with the same vibration. Every message I got lately kicked off a flight-or-fight response in me, ever since I’d attracted the attention of some creep on Tinder. It started off innocently enough, and the guy seemed like boyfriend potential. After a years-long dry spell, this die-hard romantic was thirsty for any kind of relationship—fling, boyfriend, shotgun husband, whatever kind of dick came along, I was looking to ride it.
Well, as one can imagine, that life motto led to a lowering of standards, which then led to connecting with a man who did not take no for an answer. I’d never even met the guy in person, deciding to cancel our first date after I got some sketchy vibes from a phone call we’d had. It wasn’t anything major, just my gut telling me to call things off. And yes, I was as thirsty as a bass in the desert, but I wasn’t ready to throw it all away because of that.
So I canceled our date, only to receive a string of threatening messages telling me I’d regret it if I didn’t show up. They were unsettling enough for me to block and report the guy, figuring that would be enough.
It wasn’t. He found me on each of my social media profiles and continued to message me, telling me how quickly he had fallen for me and how badly he wanted to meet me. He promised me a life full of yacht parties and champagne showers and wild, hot sex lasting all through the night.
Little did he know I hated all of that. Well, not the last part. I loved sex, but I couldn’t give a piss about someone’s money. Of course, I wouldn’t expect this guy to know that about me after a couple of days’ worth of texts between us. And vice versa. All I knew about him was that he collected clown fish and lived in Atlanta, and that’s really all I wanted to know.
And yet I continued to get messages. He’d make new accounts after I blocked the old ones, and the messages started getting darker. I wasn’t easily spooked, but this guy was making me look over my shoulder every now and then.
Thankfully, the number on my phone wasn’t my obsessed admirer. It was the detective agency that I’d hired to stop him.
“Sorry, Jess, I gotta take this call.”
“Go for it,” she said, sitting back and scrolling through her phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Tristan. This is Zane with Stonewall Investigations. How are you?”
I took a bite of the vanilla chocolate Popsicle, the cold ice cream giving me momentary relief now that I was out from underneath the umbrella. “I’m doing well. Just celebrating a friends’ engagement here at Disney.”
“Congrats to them. My family actually has a trip booked to Disney next month. My daughter’s more excited about that than she was for Christmas.” I heard some papers being shuffled in the background, along with the sound of a dog barking in the distance. “I don’t want to spoil your trip by any means, but I do think it’s urgent we talk about your case.”
“That’s okay. Today’s our last day, so any bad news won’t be all that bad.”
“Okay, because unfortunately, I do have some bad news. But first, I want to assure you that I’m putting all of Stonewall’s resources behind you. In fact, I’m assigning you someone from our Elite division. They handle our more involved cases.”