Read Online Time Storm Shockwave by Juliann Farnsworth - Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    “Do you think that he was really mad enough to trash his room like that? It doesn’t seem like him at all”—he looked away—“though he has been acting strangely lately.”
    “I’m sorry—” she shrugged “— maybe I can get him to come back.”
    “No, it should be me —” he stared down at his hands “—I’ll give him some time to cool off …Scratch that, I’ll send him a letter, and then give him some time to cool off, but I’ve got to get out of here.”
    She nodded and followed him up to the pilothouse .
    “I don’t know what I should say,” he stated dolefully.
    “I’m sorry might help, ” she suggested.
    “Yeah —” he drummed his pencil for a moment “—I don’t know what else to do.”
    He wrote, I’m sorry; I have been acting like a jerk. Please come back. He signed it, and then he put it in an envelope. He found the address, neatly penned it, and then pasted on the postage.
    “I’ll take that and mail it for you if you would like. I need to get something before we leave anyway.”
    He peered up at her gratefully. “I’m glad you are here.”
    “I am too,” she said. She leaned over and kissed him softly, and then left with the letter.
    He was falling in love with her, but he wished so much that he had handled things differently with his best friend. He hadn’t realized how much he cared until now.
    She had only been gone for about thirty minutes when he heard her voice.
    “Mark?”
    “Up here—” he answered in surprise, and met her halfway down the stairs “—that was quick, did you run?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact, I did.” She smiled.
    He noticed that she was wearing different clothing. He felt like an oaf. That must have been why she had needed to go into town. He should have known; she hadn’t had many things with her, and she was almost broke. He kicked himself for not having been more thoughtful and wished he had taken her shopping.
     
    ***
    Stewart sat in the corner of a dark room. His face was blood ied and bruised from being beaten. Initially he had only been threatened. The two thugs who had kidnapped him had ordered him to tell them where Mark was, but Stewart had no way of knowing. All he knew was that when he went back to the boat it was gone.
    His captors didn’t believe him. Why in the world they wanted Mark, Stewart couldn’t imagine. However, this afternoon, he had seen Ashlyn talking to them, and a picture began to form. He had assumed that she had only wanted him for his money. Now he doubted it was anything so innocuous.
    His first thought was that she had been in hiding, and capturing her was the reason they wanted Mark, but then Stewart had seen her talking to the thugs. There was clearly no animosity between them. In fact, it was evident that they were taking orders from her. She had walked into the room where he was being held, and just stared at him. Then she shook her head and walked out.
    He heard her say, “He’s useless, get rid of him.”
    The big guy, the one who had beaten him, walked in. His name was Justin. He was about six-foot-one with the body of a weight lifter. The other man had left with her, so it was just the two of them. Stewart braced himself and prayed for a quick death.
    Justin’s phone rang and he listened for a few minutes before hanging up, and then he said, “I’ll be back, don’t go anywhere, or I will make you pay.”
    “ Right”—Stewart said aloud—“as if I could go anywhere if I wanted to.” It wasn’t as if he hadn’t tried it before. He had yelled, screamed, banged on the locked doors, and even on the barred windows. There was simply no point.
    The building was off by itself between some palm trees. Maybe it was the local jail. He sat there considering his future. What should he do with the last moments of his life? He wasn’t close to his parents, and he hadn’t talked to his brother in years.
    Ironically, it was Mark that Stewart wanted to talk to, in spite of the recent