Empire of Lies

I let out a long sigh after reading the last headline on my iPad.

It’s official now.

Meredith’s disappearance and “suspected murder” are old news to the mainstream media.

There’s a brand new missing woman to exploit, and her story is far more compelling, far more sick and twisted. Or, so they think. (They have no idea that she’s arranged her own fucking kidnapping, and Trevor is handling that job. I refused.)

In the few days since I’ve left Meredith in Mexico, she’s become old news to me as well. I’ve handled four people on my list—three on the same night, and I’m closer to being free from all the painful nights I’ve suffered in my life.

Sure, she’s crossed my mind a few times, and I can’t deny that I’ve taken multiple cold showers with her beautiful face and sexy body in mind, but that’s it. I may have also been tempted to call the resort or open my tracker app, to make sure that she’s okay, but that doesn’t count. I didn’t do it.

I couldn’t.

The last time I broke up with a woman—over a decade ago, I felt absolutely nothing when we said our final goodbyes. She meant nothing to me and it was a dead-end relationship from the very begi

Although I can still feel several hard, uncomfortable pangs in my chest, and a painful twinge in my heart that I can’t quite explain, I know it’ll all go away eventually.

She’s no different She has to stay in the past. Forever…

Picking up my iPad again, I type in the last name of my current target—Phil Nielson, a Wall Street suit. I start to re-watch all of the short videos I shot of his daily routine yesterday, but I stop halfway through and close the file.

Sighing, I pull up the video of me and Meredith’s wedding, and then I re-watch that instead.

One more time doesn’t mean anything…