Part 47 (2/2)
He turned to look at her, and she sat down in her seat. She folded her hands, and he could see her pressing her fingernails into them. He reached over to place his hand on hers.
She kept looking down as she spoke. ”In the emergency room...I was pretty messed up. Did you know they announce it? They say 'code blue.' I didn't know what it meant. A nurse told me. I sorta pushed into the room and...I saw you. Kiku took me away. She wanted me to know what your last words were.”
”She told you?”
”She thought you were dead. We all did.” Replacement turned to look at him. Her eyes searched his. ”Forget every stupid thing I said. I've loved you since I first saw you, and I don't want another second to go by without letting you know that.”
Jack smiled.
Replacement looked down for a few moments and looked up again. ”This is the part where you're supposed to say something back, Jack.”
He chuckled nervously, but as he gazed at her emerald green eyes, he knew.
”I love you, too, Alice.”
Epilogue.
The s.h.i.+ny, two-seater sports car pulled into the parking lot of the Boar's b.u.t.t. Kiku opened her door. The four guys who had just exited the restaurant stopped dead in their tracks. With three-inch heels, a clingy black dress, and long hair streaming down her back, she was every drunk's fantasy come to life.
They watched as she crossed the parking lot and sauntered up the steps. After exchanging a look, they silently agreed they had left a little too early. They jostled one another as they scrambled back to the bar.
Kiku opened the door, and all the guys' mouths dropped and the women's eyes narrowed. Dressed to kill would be an understatement, but so would drop-dead gorgeous. A faint smile played on her lips as she crossed the floor to the bar.
”Whiskey-neat.” Her voice was low, and the two men on either side of her leaned in, drawn like metal to a magnet.
She sipped the drink and waited. Man after man tried to summon the courage to approach her. But like knights trying to draw Excalibur from the stone, each was met with failure.
Some she cut down with a look, others with a shake of her head, but each left dejected, and one by one, the smiles from the men in the room grew fewer. Finally, the man she'd been waiting for approached.
Ralph Waller was a beefy man in his late twenties. Divorced and recently fired from his job at the car wash for theft, he had a lot of time on his hands, and most of it he now spent doing one of two things: drinking or hunting. Ralph was a bow hunter but not a very good one. Drunks usually aren't. Ralph had been deer hunting recently, but there were two things wrong with that. One, it wasn't in season. Two, he'd shot a deer and only wounded it. Ralph, being Ralph, had been too lazy and heartless to chase the deer down, so he'd left it to suffer and die in the woods.
Kiku turned to smile at him.
Ralph practically drooled as he offered to buy her another drink, which she gratefully accepted.
It had only taken Kiku a trip to the local sports store to get the name of the man who hunted around Woodlawn Drive with the bright red, razor-tipped arrows no regular hunter would use. Ralph's reputation and big mouth had made it easy for her to find him.
Kiku would take her time talking to him tonight. Slowly, she worked the conversation around to hunting and let Ralph brag. She'd let him ramble and boast until he confessed his sin.
She raised her gla.s.s and drained the shot. Her smile broadened until her red lips revealed her pearly white canines. She bit her bottom lip and leaned closer to him; her foot ran up his leg. ”How would you like to go hunting?” she asked in a voice loud enough a man two seats over fell off his stool.
Ralph's chest rose and fell rapidly. He licked his lips, swallowed, and nodded spastically.
Kiku left a twenty on the bar and sauntered toward the door.
Ralph excitedly hopped off the bar stool and pounded two men next to him on the back. ”I'm going hunting, boys. I've gone and bagged me a hot one.”
Kiku held the door open for the eager man, and her eyes gleamed as he raced past her and into the night.
Ralph was right about going hunting, but he was wrong about one thing. He wasn't the hunter; he was the prey.
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Here's a preview of the next book in the Jack Stratton Collection:.
Jack and the Giant Killer.
”You said people were safe, so he wanted to let them know they're not. He wants people to be afraid. He wants them to be scared. If you want to catch this killer, let him know he accomplished his goal. You need to let people know he's right-they should be scared, because they're not safe.”
Jack Stratton is back in another action-packed, thrilling adventure. While recovering from a gunshot wound and the loss of his job on the police force, Jack's romance with feisty Replacement continues to develop. When Replacement gets a seemingly harmless private investigation job-locate the owner of a lost dog-Jack begrudgingly a.s.sists. Little do they know it will place them both into the crosshairs of a merciless serial killer.
5.0 out of 5 stars Even Superior to the Other Jack Books October 30, 2014 By Rick Mitch.e.l.l VINE VOICE Amazon Top 1000 Reviewers This one [Jack and the Giant Killer] eclipses the others in content and form. It puts Mr. Greyson in the upper echelon of mystery/thriller writers writing today. He has given even more depth and sophistication to the characters without sacrificing any plot. It is as if his writing has matured with his characters, especially Replacement's (aka Alice).
Click the link below to purchase:.
Jack and the Giant Killer.
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Novels featuring Jack Stratton in order:.
GIRL JACKED.
JACK KNIFED.
JACKS ARE WILD.
JACK AND THE GIANT KILLER.
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