Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉🎉 If I made any typo errors, please point them out to me so I can rectify them. I kinda rush this chapter Happy reading😊😊
The telephone rings, disturbing the peace of the quiet office, jerking me up from a dreamless sleep as I throw my two hundred and seventy-eight pounds of body weight around the recliner chair to find balance. Reports and files are scattered everywhere and are on every available surface of the cheap mahogany table. Even my name plate sits inside one of the drawers collecting dust in line with how many years I've been sitting on this case. I flip on the desk light and it blares into my blood-rimmed eyes, shooting straight for my brain and giving me an instant headache. The telephone continues ringing, contributing to the throbbing effect in my head and I pick up the damn thing. “What?!” I snap into the phone while reaching for the half-empty bottle of bourbon on top of a stack of old files. “Burky, did I wake ya?” My partner, Steve Robertson, and old friend teases into the telephone. He's never in a good mood whenever he resorts to teasing. “This had better be good, Steve. What'
JOJO'S POV Six days ago, Jeremy Vongov walked out of my life and I didn't follow him. The piece of paper he forced into my hand is collecting dust inside the bedstand drawer. The hospital just approved my clearance, declaring me fit for the real world. “You ready?” Aunt Sherry asks from the door. “Yeah, I can't wait to be out of here.” I start to leave the room but stop at the drawer and chuck the stupid piece of paper into the back of my jeans. After this, no more. At the parking lot, standing out from everyone around them, I see Mallory and Kendrick holding up colorful placards that respectively read: WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, GINGER!!! WELCOME BACK TO THE WORLD OF CRAZINESS AND HOMEWORK🙂🙂… I turn to Aunt Sherry in shocked laughter and she nods with a wide grin, “Go on.” I drop the bags in my grip to start sprinting towards my besties. They drop the placards and start running towards me and I can feel the joy bubbling out of me until it is suddenly taken away. A black va
JEREMY'S POV Six days ago, Josephine Dukes ordered me out of her life and I called her bluff to her face. Thing is, she wasn't joking when she said it. She wanted me gone. She didn't care about the truth if it had my name involved in it. My head's been jumbled up ever since. My feelings soured to the gutters. I can't explain the deep longing inside of me. I can't explain the guilt that eats at me every time I close my eyes. So I resort to Vodka to numb the aching hole that has become so glaringly open in my heart. And the alcohol led me to a place of answers. “Let him in.” I shrug off the security guards as the long glass door slides open. “William Dukes,” I announce as I enter the spacious office. “Do you mind?” I sit on the leather chair opposite him without waiting for his approval. “And you're… Maxim's Bastard?” “Ouch!” I hold a hand to my chest. “Very hurtful, Mr Dukes. You almost pierced a hole in this stony heart.” There's a soft knock on the door and a young male in
JOJO'S POV “Let me out of here!” An annoying female voice shrills followed by some thumping against metal. “Shut up,” I groan against the excruciating pain all over my body. Something hits my head and my eyes flash on the provocator. “Wake up Bonehead.” She glares at me from the other side of the moving van we're trapped in and I know with every part of me that if she was just an inch closer, her soul would be staring up at this scene as it helplessly floats towards the place it belongs to. Hell. I banish the thoughts from my head and fix her a smile, “It's such a disappointment to see you, Claire.” “The feeling's mutual, Josephine. Come to think of it, you really seem familiar.” She arches a thoughtful eyebrow, “Like we’ve met before. And we might've been friends.” “Shut up, Claire. The idea of that sounds nauseating.” The van we're in is bigger and older than the one I was dragged into at the hospital and there are lots of tools hanging on torn nets along the sides of the
“Let me go!” I keep screaming and fighting for my freedom as men carry me onto the lower deck of the yacht. My father has one of these in Seattle. He called it Love, who was one of his many very young, very flashy side pieces and Mom didn't bat an eyelash. She never does because her lashes are too expensive. But she'd keep tabs on them, waiting patiently to pay them off after the third month because no side piece deserved to stick around after the three month time limit. She'd use extreme measures when they got too greedy. Blackmailing, spamming, bullying, sharing explicit videos, and even physical assault were just to ensure they stayed away after kidnapping, torture and other stuffs I'd rather not talk about. And in Josephine's case, what can I say other than I learn from the very best. If I got carried away back at the warehouse, it was because the skank didn't know when to shut her mouth. She needed a good lesson on manners and since her parents didn't teach her, I took it up
JOJO'S POV I wake up the next day with horrific bruises all over my body. My face was fairly safe because I'd protected them with my hands when Claire was beating me up though I still had a swollen jaw and bleeding nose. My torso had boot-sized purple bruises around my ribs and stomach region, there were bruises everywhere with varying shades of color that ranged from blue to purple to red to black but that was the least of my problems. I couldn't find the Bradawl I'd hidden in my pillow the night before and after destroying all the pillows, the mattress of the bed and even ransacking the entire room, I knew they'd taken it. Feeling defeated, I trod into the bathroom to wash up and came out to see a bright little sundress neatly lying on the ruined bedding. A voice speaks from the telephone, “As I said before, everything in the room was made to your pleasure. There'll be no replacement of furniture or bedding for the room. Breakfast will be by the dock in ten minutes.” I pick u
I glare at the asshole who somehow has become an integral part in helping us find Jo. “D’you hear about Kingston?” Kenny says beside me and I ignore it in favor of watching Vongov stride past us to the admin office. “Mal? Mal? Malle?!” She nudges me and I turn sharply. “Don't call me that.” “You seemed lost.” “No I wasn't, you were saying something about… Kingston.” “Oh yeah, some steroids were found in his locker so he got kicked out of the football team.” “That’s sad...” “Yeah, and Claire hasn't posted anything on her socials. Come to think of it, she hasn't posted anything since she got suspended.” “Yeah so sad,” I mutter and a book whacks the back of my head. “Ow!” I scowl at her. “You'll end up drilling holes in his head if you don't stop.” She says, ignoring my glare. “He deserves more than a hole, Ken.” “Jeremy Vongov is the only other person in the underworld who can help us find Jo. We do need him.” She tries to reason with me but all I see is red. JoJo's blo
JEREMY'S POV I'm heading towards my car after the confrontation with Kai and his flavor of the week when former principal Dennis comes out of the exit. “A word Mr Vongov.” He says and slowly walks towards his office. Dennis has a slight limp in his walk from his days in the army. He's in his late eighties and a distinguished professor with years of academic recognition and exploits that are evident on the walls of his office. He never married after losing his high school sweetheart when they were eighteen. She’d gone to visit him in the army for the weekend and she returned with the flu. He didn't get the news until he was discharged from the army, eight months later. He blamed himself for her death and the scar never left him. He decided to pursue her dreams of becoming an English professor notwithstanding his skin color and he ended up falling in love with education. He retired some years ago and has been living out his life in a retirement home for the elderly. I follow hi