This is a continuation to the story "Starting Over", which was written several years ago. It was not just a stroke story, but had some more fleshed out characters. I've tried to get started on this sequel several times, but never got going on it.
In Chapter 2 of Book II, we saw John and Livy get out of the hospital. They rested and then Livy rewarded him with some good sex. John went to Mary's bar and Juliet was to come over and visit him, presumably for sex, when he noticed someone watching either his apartment or Juliet coming out of the bar. He found out that Luke Cole had seen someone watching him and disappeared while checking him out.
Main Characters
LTC (Retired) John Jackson, 5'11", 180, 46 years old.
Marie Jackson, John's dead wife, 5'8", 140, 44 years old.
Angelica Jackson, John and Marie's daughter, 5'5", 125, 19 years old.
Mary Bradford, bartender, 5'5", 120, 34 years old.
Margaret (Maggie) Bradford, Mary's sister, 5'6", 115, 37 years old, and John's love interest.
Madeleine (Maddie) Bradford, Maggie's daughter, 7 years old.
Juliet Margolin, waitress, 5'4", 145, 24 years old, Mary's cousin.
Samantha (Sam) Walker, 5'6", 130 pounds, 39 years old, John's neighbor.
Joyce Walker, Sam's daughter, 5'4", 120 pounds, 20 years old, and now an exotic dancer using the name Lily
Marion Walker, Sam's daughter, 5'4", 115 pounds, 18 years old.
SFC (Retired) Craig Smithson, 6', 190, 47 years old, NCO from John's Army unit.
Captain Jeff Smithson, 5'11', 185, 44 years old, SFC Smithson's brother and a captain in the Seattle Police Department.
Jeanne (aka Jasmine) Welch, 5'5", 110, 21 years old, exotic dancer.
George Watkins, 6'4", 280, 35 years old, bouncer.
Olivia, 5'4", 120 pounds, 21 years old, called Livy, exotic dancer.
Luke Cole, 5'10", 180, detective in the Seattle Police Department.
Marcus Candiotti, strip club manager.
Mark Vilmer, CIO of his third start-up and human trafficker
Melissa Vilmer, Mark's wife
Max Meridian (real name Harold Johnson), Mark's lead kidnapper and enforcer
Previously:
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Juliet crawled out of bed. She was wearing just her panties and her voluptuous body was shining in the morning light. John looked her over. "Although it's going to be hard to pass this up." He stepped forward and hugged her and kissed her, his right hand moving up and squeezing her left tit.
Juliet giggled and he stepped back. "Well, Mr. Smartass, I'm going to hold you to that."
"You're going to have to do more than that, my sweet young thing."
Juliet grinned and got dressed. John did, too, and when she left, he immediately put on his shoulder holster and his weapon. He was going to be armed wherever he went now. He had to find Luke and the assholes who were doing this.
-------------- Saturday, 4 May 2013, John's Apartment, Seattle, Washington.
John went directly across the street to the buildings where the guy who had been watching had been standing. He called Captain Smithson and told him where he was and what he saw last night.
"I'll have an officer come right over."
"Roger."
John hung up and went back through the opening between the buildings. It was just a small corridor, a personnel only passage between the two buildings and came out into a small parking area. There, on the right side, was Luke's car. John immediately went to it and found Luke laying in the car, blood on his head. The front seat had been reclined enough that you had to get close to the car to see him. John checked and he still had a pulse, but a weak one.
John heard someone from the main street yell for him and he raced out there where a uniformed officer was standing. The officer said Captain Smithson told him to find Mr. Jackson. John said that he was Jackson and then told him what he'd found. The officer called for an ambulance on his radio as the two of them raced back to Luke's car to see if they could do anything for him.
The only thing they tried to do was to see if there was still any blood seeping that they could cover and stop. It appeared that that had already clotted and stopped since Luke had been there a while. There was nothing to do so they waited for the ambulance until it arrived. While they were waiting, the officer called Captain Smithson who dispatched forensics people to check the car for fingerprints and the surrounding area. In the meantime, John and the uniformed officer took pictures of how Luke was positioned. The EMTs, with the officer still alive, would take him immediately, before the forensics guys could get there.
When the ambulance arrived, John watched them stabilize Luke and asked them if he was going to be okay. They said it appeared that he would live, but they didn't know about any internal damage to the brain until they got to the hospital. John stepped away and called Maria.
"Maria, we found Luke. He was hit on the head and an ambulance is taking him to the hospital. He is stable, but they need to check his injury and his head. You can meet them there." John then gave the name of the hospital and answered as many questions that Maria had that he could. Unfortunately, he didn't know much.
The forensics guys arrived and they made sure they had John's prints to eliminate him, even though he was printed to become a private investigator and the federal government had his prints from his time in the Army. John then led them to the front of the little cut-through between the buildings. He showed them where the guy had been standing when watching his apartment and they searched the immediate area. They found a couple of cigarette butts just in case it was from him and took them, but nothing else.
John went home and waited to hear something. He called Craig and gave him an update on what was happening. Craig said that maybe they might get some more billing out of something related to this, but didn't see anything immediately. Naturally, now that Luke was found, he was concerned about keeping the business afloat.
John pulled out the information that Luke had brought over on Friday afternoon before he went to the bar. He started making notes about the similarities and differences. Based on the way things worked, all the strippers were taken in a similar way. They all had bouncers who watched them leave who had to be distracted. He also noticed that none of the clubs that were hit had had any video security. He wrote a note to check to see if that was normal for the clubs in this area or if the perpetrators had scouted and hit only clubs that had no cameras.
He continued to search the notes and finally hit on another item. The dates appeared to be exactly 3 weeks apart. Would they stick to this calendar? Would they change this now that they knew the police in the area were sharing and consolidating information?
John worked until almost midnight going over all the files and trying to compare and contrast them. Finally, he felt exhausted and got up from the table. He walked over and turned on the TV to relax to some movie or something when the doorbell rang.
John snatched up his gun and walked over to glance out the peephole. It was Livy and Lily. Now this was a good thing.
He opened the door and waved them in. "Now this is a very pleasant surprise. I don't think I've ever seen two such delectable creatures crossing my threshold." They grinned as they passed him and he checked them out. They appeared to be dressed in pretty normal jeans, blouses, and light jackets.
They went forward a few feet and stopped to turn around. Lily spoke first. "Can we have a beer?"
John nodded. "Just a sec." He went into the fridge and brought three back, one for each of them, in bottles. No glasses. "Here we go."
It was when he handed the beer to Livy that he could see her tremble a little and that she seemed a little worried and tired. He looked at Lily who was watching him.
Lily saw John looking and put her arm around Livy. "She's having trouble sleeping. She was fine the first day, but as things settled in, she became more and more terrified to be alone. I thought maybe we could calm her down and she could stay here for a couple of days. There's nobody she is really comfortable with around here. Her mother moved to Spokane and she doesn't want to go there. What do you think?"
John put his beer down and took Livy's free hand, noticing now how she had tried to cover dark circles under her eyes with makeup. "Of course you can stay here. That was a traumatizing experience, even though you escaped physically unharmed. Did you look at the information they gave you in the hospital about therapy?"
Livy nodded her head. "Yes, but I haven't called anyone yet."
John nodded. "Good. We can call them tomorrow and see if they are open, or on Monday if they are closed tomorrow. Until then, you are welcome to stay here."
Livy looked at him with big, fearful eyes. "In your bed?"
John hugged her again. "If that's what makes you comfortable, yes."
Livy hugged back very hard, crushing them together. "Thank you, thank you, John." John could feel her trembling.
"No problem." While he was hugging her he looked at Lily.
Lily cracked a small smile at John. "Yes, John, thank you."
John released the hug and they all sat on the couch and easy chair in front of the TV. There was a movie on, but nobody was paying attention to it, so John turned it down but left it on. Lily was describing some things at the club that were funny and they all relaxed and laughed a little. Livy seemed to relax and enjoy herself. After they finished the first beer, John was yawning and said it was time for him to get some sleep.
Livy got up. "Me, too."