Double Take (EBOOK)

Chapter 1
Jackson Rich glanced down at his watch: 4:32 beamed from the digital display like a fateful countdown. A shiver ran up his spine, as much from apprehension as from the bite in the air. He was alone in the boatshed, and except for the creepy array of hooks, tools and ropes that dangled off one wall like a treasure trove for sadists, the room was practically empty. Spears of late afternoon sunlight pierced the cracks in the weatherboards, illuminating the dust particles that floated in the afternoon breeze. If he’d organized this meeting for any later he’d be sitting in the dark. He made a note in his pocketbook to bring a camping lantern next time.
Thoughts of Rachel crept into his mind. It’d taken him several days to muster the courage to call her, and, although it’d been eighteen years since they last spoke, he’d recognized her voice instantly. He closed his eyes, breathed in the musty air and tried to imagine how much she would’ve changed—they’d been not much more than kids back then. He still remembered Rachel as the shy teenage girl with the troubled home life who hung off every word he spoke. It made him cringe at how badly he’d wanted her back then. But that was a lifetime ago. His only hope was that she still remembered the promise she’d made to him when they last met.
A car rumbled outside and he swiped his hand over the dollar signs he’d doodled on the dusty table. He stood, hitched up his loose jeans and wiped his sweaty palms down his thighs. His heart thumped in his neck as he waited to see who was first.
The ancient door emitted an eerie creaking noise as a tall, raven-haired woman stepped over the threshold. She commanded attention in an emerald green dress that molded to her hourglass figure and he obliged by openly drinking in her appearance. The soft mounds of her breasts bulged from the plunging neckline and a lock of hair, long, dark and silky, swooped over her shoulder and nudged the valley of those luscious curves.
Jack swallowed loudly. “Hello, Rachel.”
She strode towards him with a bold confidence that made him step back. Since he’d called her a week earlier, he’d been visualizing how their reunion would play out. But even if he’d had a whole year to imagine ways she’d greet him, he would never have guessed being pinned to the wall with her forearm across his chest as one of them.
It was several heartbeats before his mind kicked into gear. “What the—”
“Shut up,” she snapped. With the swiftness of a viper, her hand shot down the front of his jeans.
Jack recoiled and tried to escape, but she had him by the balls, literally. “What the hell?”
“I said shut up.” She squeezed tighter. The freshness of her peppermint breath did little to sweeten the evil in her eyes.
A hot rush burned his neck. Sweat dribbled from his armpits.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or yell at her.
Rachel’s eyes drilled into him. “If you cross me,” she hissed in an acid voice, “I’ll cut your balls off with a rusty can.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“Do you understand?” Her question blazed off her tongue.
Wincing in her vice-like grip, Jack nodded, and wondering what the heck happened to her. The girl he remembered wouldn’t have even raised her voice, let alone done this.

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