Melia-Irrevocable Journey (Sequel to Irrevocable Quest)

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Pictures. Pictures of her, lying dead, mangled, naked and bloody. But now there were words on top. Typed crudely across her body, which wasn't hers, she reminded herself. "Bring her here." "Or this will be her end." And the date and time stamped on it. The next picture, her with... she leaned forward, she hadn't seen that one... it looked like her in bed with... Kell Stevak..... what? And then the next one... her in bed with Ryan... a bunch with her and Ryan.... And it was definitely her... not Megs. How did she know? Well, maybe nobody else would know, and that was another reason these really couldn't hit the internet. It would really put the damper on a lot of career's, not to mention ruin them. Rumors, true or not were damaging.... Pictures were devastating. The public mind believed them whether they were real or not.

"These came for me in the mail at the beach house before we left for the camping trip." He said.

"What? And you think they're real? Obviously, I'm not dead. Obviously, I haven't slept with anyone, including you." She stared at him frankly.

He threw them on the bed beside her. "I know they're not real." He coughed.

"Well, give them to my dad, he'll know what to do with them. I've actually seen some of them before. The one where I'm dead, or strangled, or whatever. I've seen that one before. About two years ago, someone emailed them to me."

He looked up at her. "Do you think it's the same people who killed Jerry?"

Those incidents seemed like a lifetime ago. Melia thought back. She'd witnessed a murder, and been thrust into a different life. Jared said that the guys who killed Jerry were a drug and porn cartel out of Columbia. He told her that Jerry's brother, what was his name? The guy who bought the Catalina house, was going after the killer. And there was a bad International agency involved. The guy he'd gone after, Liv Sinclair, had been working for this government agency.

"I don't know. The original porn dealer out of Columbia was supposed to be killed by Jerry's brother. Maybe Jerry's brother didn't get him and that's why there are still pictures floating around. Maybe he is still obsessed with me, and...." She looked at the pictures again. "You and Kell Stevak. Why me with Kell? That doesn't make sense. I don't even know Kell and I get the feeling that he doesn't even like me."

"I guess these people don't care. They just want to bring us all down."

"So, you think we should stay together until.... When ?" She looked up at him.

He thrust the note at her. "Bring her here. Whoever it is still wants you. I don't know if it's the guy that you witnessed murder Jerry, or someone else. It doesn't matter. We have to find out, and that means we have to stay together and be at these places together." He sighed. "No matter how I feel about you personally Melia, or about Jared, or what you two did to me, I won't allow you to be hurt again."

She stared at him. There he was, the Ryan she'd met two years ago. The one who did care about her. The guy who had awakened her senses the first time, the first love of her life. His eyes were steady on her, committed to his course, his hands seemed strong and capable, and eerily like Jared's. She looked away. That man was gone. That man was not always available. He truly wanted to hurt her, not an accident, or circumstantial, but truly inflict pain and sorrow on her. He was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"Okay." She said wearily, staring out the window at the darkened river and the moonlight on the rock splashes.

He nodded. "So, we'll stay together, and act normal for a few more weeks, and then we'll get it annulled."