Mind Games (Games Thriller Series) (14 page)

Chapter 44

Eric heard Chris say unlock just before he disappeared. The door popped open in front of him
and Eric stepped into Emily’s room. “Emmy?” She was under the sheets, sleeping.

Her eyes flew open at the noise and she jumped back in the bed and gasped.

“Emmy?”

She closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “Squirt.” She opened her eyes back up.

“Your door was locked.”

Emily looked at the door and back to him. “Then how did you get in?”

“Ty.”

Emily
shivered and her face went pale.

“Ty isn’t the bad
guy,” Eric said, reading her face. “He’s the one that protects us.” He sounded much like he did five years ago when they thought their mother was dead.

“How?”

Eric turned and looked at the mirror. “Ty?”

Chris stared at the two of them
and then closed his eyes in relief. “Thank God,” he said and looked back up. He glanced from Eric to Emily and offered an awkward smile to her slack jaw and raised eyebrows.

Emily looked into the eyes of the man who had changed her life, recognizing his face. “I’ve seen you before, on television.” She tilted her head in thought. “But your name isn’t Ty.”

“It’s Chris.”

“Ty was your brother,” she gasped.

Chris glanced at Eric and then back to her and nodded.

“So why did you answer to Ty?” Emily asked after a moment of thought and her eyes narrowed.

“I don’t know. It just seems to work that way.”

Emily crossed her arms
, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

He took a deep breath. “Ty always protected me. He was my brother and I loved him, even though he did those awful things.” He paused. He saw the conviction in Emily waning. “And he loved your mother, so I think he would want me to protect your family.”

“How do you know he loved her?” Emily asked, her voice softening.

Chris glanced at Eric again and then back to her. “I saw the videos, Emily. He died for her.”

Emily dropped her gaze and bit her lip before she glanced at Eric for confirmation.

“He loved her
,” Eric confirmed, looking directly at Chris.
He still does
.

Chris nodded slightly at Eric.

“Okay, so what are you protecting us from?” Emily asked, her eyes sparkling with hope.

Chris looked down at Eric. “Someone who wants to hurt your mother.” He looked back at her. “But I’m not about to let that happen.”

“What about us?”

“I’ll protect you too,” Chris swore. “If you are ever in danger, just call out my name and I’ll do my best to get to you. Unfortunately, I’m kind of stuck getting to you through a mirror.” He shrugged and looked at Eric.

“Actually, you need to call out the name Ty, not Chris,” Eric corrected.

Chris shrugged and nodded when she looked back at him.

“All I have to do is say ‘Ty’ and you show up?”

He nodded.

“What if someone is hurting us? How do you stop them?” she pressed.

* * * *

He was very quiet as he studied her. There were more questions swirling around her head but he couldn’t read her beyond the desperation in her eyes. “It depends,” he finally said.

She looked at Eric and then back at Chris. “What if it isn’t a person?”

His mouth went dry and the color drained from his face. A cold certainty bit at his backbone and he turned his gaze to Eric. “Can I talk to your sister alone?”

Eric
and Emily exchanged a glance and she gave a nod. The moment Eric stepped out of the room, Emily’s teary gaze met his.

“He’s been there,” Chris said, the anger flashed and his jaw tightened.

“Who?” Emily asked as the tears brimmed, rolling slowly down her cheeks.

“Frank’s ghost,” Chris said and the reaction in Emily’s eyes was enough of an answer. But her nod solidified it. “Sweet Jesus, you’re still in high school,” he gasped and closed his eyes. “This is going to kill your mother.”

“You can’t tell her. He said he’d kill all of us.”

Chris looked at her, understanding the mind game Frank was playing. Chris had played the same one on his victims not so long ago when his name actually was Ty. He gripped the sink and hung his head. When he looked back up at her, she took a step back in fear. “I am going to kill that son of a bitch,” he seethed.

“Thank you.”

“Just call.”

* * * *

Emily nodded and sat back on the bed as he disappeared.
It took her a few minutes to recover from the shock, but the swirl or questions continued and she needed answers. She wiped her eyes and headed into Eric’s room. He was sitting in bed waiting for her and gave her a big hug when she sat next to him.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded. “I will be. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, thank him,” Eric said. “He came to me tonight because he didn’t feel like things were ok
ay.”

She shook her head a little and looked at him. “His real name isn’t Chris, is it?”

Eric looked away.

She turned his face back to her. “His real name is Ty, isn’t it?”

Eric said nothing as he looked into his sister’s eyes. “Ty had a scar on his face.”

She considered what her mother had done to her. If she could make cancer go away, she could make a scar disappear. “Maybe he didn’t even have a brother,” she said aloud.

“He had a brother,” Eric whispered. “I saw him die,” he added.

Emily stared at him, waiting for some sort of explanation and when he offered none, she asked, “How?”

Eric shrugged. “The same way he can see us. I saw more of what happened to mom than I wanted to.”

Emily
threaded her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

Eric shook his head like he was shaking away a nightmare.
“His name is Chris.”

“Level with me.”

“You have to promise me you won’t tell Mom.”

“He hurt her, Eric.” Emily said, remembering some of the stories she had heard.

“He saved her,” Eric defended. “And he saved you.”

Emily’s mouth dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“I fixed Ty. I wasn’t sure I could, he was so much worse than Mom had been, but I had all of Mom’s power, too.” Eric paused and took a deep breath. “He was lucky ’cause if it had taken any longer to convince Dad that I was fine, Ty would have died. I gave him everything I had and it not only fixed the bullet holes, it got rid of all his scars. That’s why I couldn’t fix you when I tried. I gave it all to him.”

“You still haven’t told me how he saved me
,” Emily replied.

“He knew you were sick. He found Mom and gave her the power back.”

Silence filtered between them.

“What did he want to talk to you about?” Eric asked.

“The ghost.”

Eric looked at her and when she avoided his eyes, he knew. “He hurt you?”

Emily nodded and the wall holding the tears back crumbled. Eric’s arms encircled her, squeezing her to him and the words he whispered pulled a sob from her chest.

“Ty will make sure he doesn’t hurt you again.”

For the first time since that ghostly devil assaulted her, she felt a true spark of hope.

“You mind if I sleep in here for the rest of the night?”
she asked when her tears dried.

“Not at all,”
Eric said and they curled up on the bed, their backs touching, giving her a small sense of security, but it was a long time before she drifted back to sleep.

Chapter 45

The morning rolled around faster than any of them wanted and while Tom woke the kids, Jessica stepped
into the bathroom toward the shower.

She turned at the sound of a throat clearing.

Chris’s eyes scanned her naked form and quickly shot away. “We need to talk, Jess.”

Jessica grabbed the towel and covered herself. “Not now, Ty,” she said, annoyed at his timing.

“Yes, now,” he insisted. “Frank has been there.”

“How do you know?” None of the mirrors in the bedroom were broken.

“Let’s just say I know.” Chris masked his thoughts so she couldn’t read them. “You need to come home.”

“I am home.”

“Then I need to come there.”

“No. You have to let it go, let me go.”

“Jess, I can’t.”

“You have no choice. Goodbye.” Jessica turned and let the towel drop. She stepped into the shower without looking back.

Chapter 46

Chris watched in frustration and then walked out of his bathroom three thousand miles away from her. He looked at the mid-morning Manhattan skyline.

“What do I do now?” he asked the skyscrapers. “What the hell do I do?”

He paced back and forth restlessly. He couldn’t let Frank touch Emily again, he was certain of that, but he didn’t know how he was going to stop this madness if Jessica didn’t come home. He knew what had to be done, whether he wanted to or not but the standoff with Frank needed to be in Maine and not California.

Chris pulled on
his coat, grabbed his camera, and headed out. He walked across the street into Central Park and wandered aimlessly through the walking paths, his mind preoccupied with Jessica and how to get her back on the East Coast. The click of a gun hammer caught his attention and he stopped. Slowly turning, he looked down the barrel of a mugger’s 38 Special.

“Give me your wallet
,” a strung out junkie demanded.

Chris let out a stifled laugh. “I don’t think so.”

The mugger stepped back and lowered the gun a little, taken aback by the response. He recovered quickly, pointing the gun back at him. “I’ll shoot.”

Chris tilted his head a little to the right and narrowed his eyes. “Really?”

“Give me the goddamn money!”

“No. Give me yours.” He smoothly transitioned into Ty, fearless and a little psychotic.

The mugger took another step back. “You’re fucking crazy!”

Chris smiled. “You have no idea.” He took a step toward the mugger and then lifted his hand to his head
, his index finger pointing like the barrel of a gun.

The mugger followed suit, his eyes popping in their sockets and perspiration broke out across his forehead. A stain slowly spread on the kid’s pants and the distinct stench of urine filled the air.

“Bang,” he said and laughed, but he didn’t squeeze the imaginary trigger, instead he willed him to slowly release the hammer and flip the safety on. When he relinquished physical control over the mugger, the kid bolted away as fast as a cartoon exit.

That was fun
.

Chris chuckled and continued his meander through the park. He walked across the bridge by the pond and looked over at the Plaza Hotel, stopping to lean on the wall. He lifted his Nikon to take a shot of the hotel and froze with the camera midway to his face.

Blinking, he turned back the way he came and what just occurred dawned on him. “Damn.” He could’ve just as easily made that kid pull the trigger like Jessica had.

He continued his meandering south through the city, taking pictures in the Village, Little Italy and Chinatown of whatever struck his fancy before hopping on a subway back to the
Upper West Side and his apartment.

Chris walked into his dark room and set the process of developing the pictures in motion.

After hanging the negatives to dry, he left the dark room and flopped on the couch, restlessly flipping through the channels until he finally threw the remote on the table in disgust.

His mind wandered back to the junkie. He forgot what a rush it was to scare the daylights out of someone
; it had been so long.

“Imagine what kind of trouble I could find after dark.”

The idea thrilled him and a slow smile spread over his face.

“What the hell.”

Chapter 47

Chris dozed off on the couch, waiting for darkness to fall on the city. Another dream took hold, but this was different and disturbing. Crossing through her bedroom, he carried her limp and bloody body in his arms, tears blurred his vision and harsh gasps tore from his lungs.

He sat up straight when he heard his name, blinking and looking around in confusion. The nightmare remained clear in his head.

“Jesus.” He wiped his face and headed into the bathroom, looking curiously at the mirror. “Jess?”

She appeared in the mirror clearly upset.

“What’s wrong?” Chris asked, his eyes darting from corner to corner.

“It’s not Frank.”

“Then what is it?” He was more than a little confused, especially since her hair partially hid her eyes.

“I needed a friend.”

Chris stepped back in surprise, raising his eyebrows and pointing to his chest. “Me?”

Jessica nodded, meeting his gaze with teary eyes.

“Okay. What happened?”

“Tom and I got into a fight.”

Chris glanced down at his sink. “I’m sorry.”

“It had nothing to do with you. It’s not always about you,” she sn
apped.

“Oh,” he said sheepishly. “Then what was the fight about?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

“He was pushing me to let the kids audition for some show that the director is producing.”

“That’s insane.” Chris had as much distaste for the Hollywood scene as she did, especially since he moonlighted as a special effects artist a lifetime ago.

“I told him it wasn’t the life that I wanted for the kids and he asked if it was the life I wanted and before I could stop it from coming out, I said no.”

“That had to hurt.”

Jessica nodded. “He didn’t want me to watch the next scene.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I was just so angry, it slipped out.”

“Ah Jess, what is it that you do want?”

“I hate L.A,” she whispered. “I hate his house.”

“It certainly isn’t you.”

Jessica’s brow crunched. “How do you know?” She wiped the tears from her face.

“I had a little talk with Eric last night.” He masked his thoughts; she was in no condition to hear the rest of what happened.

“Why?”

“I thought something was wrong. I told you this morning I thought Frank was there, but I couldn’t locate you, so I did the next best thing. I woke Eric up to check on you.” He shrugged. “Guess it was a false alarm. You could have just been having a nightmare.”

Jessica looked at him thoughtfully. “I want to go back to my house in Maine. At least I have friends and family there,” she said. “Coming out here every once in a while is okay, but I’ve only been here two days and I am already homesick.”

“I can’t give you any advice Jess,” Chris said. “I’m an
East Coast boy myself. Besides, you already know how I feel. I can’t exactly be neutral on this one.”

Jessica nodded. “At least the kids are with us this time.”

“You’ve got a couple of great kids there.”

“They are, aren’t they?” She laughed a little. “Tom taught Eric to surf yesterday and he did so well and you also should have seen them today
—they were great on camera.”

Chris tilted his head. “Pardon?”

“Tom got them walk-on parts today. And they were better than some of the professionals.”

“Surprised you let them do that.”

“I thought it was a one-time thing, but I’m not so sure after the conversation I had with Tom. I think he planned it with the director. I should have seen it coming.”

“You can’t see everything coming,” Chris replied. “Don’t beat yourself up. He will come around, if not,” he paused with a shrug
, “I’m always here for you.”

“Thanks Chris,” she said. “I’m going to venture out.”

“One more thing,” Chris said before she left.

“Yes?”

“Be careful. I think Frank knows where you are.”

“I’ll be careful. If not, you’ll hear me screaming,”

Chris shivered and goose bumps appeared on his arms. The bumps under his cast chaffed and her final words echoed in his ears. He hoped like hell he wouldn’t hear her scream any time soon.

He looked thoughtfully at his reflection and closed his eyes for a moment. “She needed me,” he said aloud and slowly grinned.