Page 98 of Guarding Bristol

He had fifteen minutes to take this lethal dose of the product he’d built his piece of the empire with, or he would be turned over to an enforcer and disposed of in a much less humane way.Starting with the removal of body parts.

Cold sweat bathed his skin.His heart hammered a bruising rhythm against the inside of his ribcage.There was no choice to make.They’d even left the bag open for easy access.

He choked back a sob, tears blurring his vision as he raised the bag to his mouth with a shaking hand.The pills spilled into his mouth.They were bitter on his tongue.

A rush of defiance swept through him.Fuck them.Fuckallof them.

He crunched the pills between his molars for good measure.Forced them down his throat with a convulsive swallow and laid back against the pillow, closing his eyes.Fighting back the fear through sheer force of will.

In his mind, he was seated at his Fazioli.His fingers rested on the cool, polished surfaces of the keys.So familiar.So comforting.They moved effortlessly, the beautiful notes filling his head.

He felt the haze settle over him.Growing thicker.Heavier.

In his mind he kept playing.Drifting on the music just as he began to drift on the tide of the chemicals flowing into his veins.

A heavy blackness closed in around him, obscuring the vision even as he kept playing.

But the music grew softer.Quieter still.

Then stopped for eternity.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

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Bristol swallowed thelast of her wine and set her glass on the end table with a ragged sigh.Her second big one in the past half hour.“Still nothing?”she asked Cassie.

“Not in the last ten minutes, no.”

Had it only been ten minutes since Cassie had checked in with CPS again about TJ’s status?It felt like well over an hour.

“Maybe we should watch a movie or something.Or do a puzzle.It’ll at least pass the time.”

“You can throw on a movie if you want.”She wouldn’t be paying attention to it.

The only thing she cared or could think about, was TJ.Her mind kept circling back to being intimate with him last night and in the shower this morning.Knowing he’d come for her on the boat.Losing sight of him in the water.Being told later that Groz and Grady had pulled two people from the water.Then nothing since.

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