Page 13 of Comeback
Megan sat in the passenger seat. She wasn’t hurt, but tears streamed down her cheeks. “Great.Great.Youkilledhim, Jack!”
That was when I woke, yelling at the top of my lungs.
The bedsheets beneath me were soaked with sweat. I dangled my feet to the floor and clutched my head in my hands.
“Fuck me,” I whispered.
The nightmares were getting worse.
***
I took my morning swim to drown out all the bad thoughts.
My slice of the beach was private, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. I didn’t know why. Sure, boats floated in the distance, but there wasn’t a soul anywhere near me.
I waded in the water, sweeping my eyes across the empty shore, studying the trees.
Still nothing.
Nightmare’s got me all fucked up,I thought.
I swam back to shore and circled around to the front yard. A black SUV was parked on the road outside my house.
Weird,I thought.Who’s that?
I walked down the long driveway and went over to it. I cupped my eyes against the window to see through the tinted windows. The car was empty.
Hm.
I went back inside.
The landline was already ringing when I stepped inside. I hesitated to answer—after the nightmare, after feeling like I was being watched, I had an ominous feeling about it.
But the phone continued to ring. Finally, I answered. “Hello?”
“There you are. Been ringing you for the past thirty minutes.”
I let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice.
“It’s Brent, by the way,” he said.
“I know it’s you,” I said. Brent was my personal accountant. He was my only contact with the outside world, and the only person who knew my whereabouts. “What’s up?”
“Have you seen the news lately?” he asked.
“No.”
“You might want to,” he said.
“Why?”
“Your name’s starting to come up again, Jack.”
“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered. “Why?”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the Devils fired everyone in management a few months back—”
I cut him off. “They didwhat?”
