Killing Me Softly: A Thriller Romance Novel

Chapter 15

I swear, the week could not have gone by any slower! I wanted to get back to Yoakum as soon as possible. I didn't know what it was. Perhaps because it felt nice to be back home, even though my parents no longer lived there.

Perhaps it was the fact that two different guys—one I knew, and one I didn't know—seemed to find me beautiful and hit on me. These two guys were both connected to Theo and Mary Jo somehow. On a much deeper level with him that I could ever be with anyone there in Austin.

People knew people in Yoakum. I didn't feel alone there. Not like I did in the little big city of Austin.

This was the first time I considered perhaps moving back to Yoakum. But why?

Was it because I went to high school there and recognized mostly everyone's faces? No. Was it because Mary Jo's murder felt very personal to me? No.

Then I realized what it was. When I moved away, I had left my heart back in Yoakum.

When I thought about love and how I never found it again in Austin, I started to wonder what was wrong with me. How come no one in Austin instantly struck a chord with me like Theo did?

I was completely foolish. I had spent most of my life sitting around and waiting for Theo to fall into my lap. I knew that would never happen. Not with Mary Jo around. The harsh realization was that it was very plausible that someone as envious as I was of their marriage could have possibly done this.

They could have murdered Mary Jo! Why not, right? When I learned Mary Jo cheated on Theo, I could have killed her! I wanted to kill her. But by the time I found out about it, it was much too late.

But, someone as obsessed as I was could exist out there. Someone who was a more murderous, more relentless version of me. Someone who followed them as closely on social media or in person. Someone much closer to them...like Amelia Jameson?

My jaw dropped when I started looking into the outer circles of Theo and Mary Jo. Who their friends and acquaintances were. Surely I would eventually stare the killer in the face at some point, whether it be their profile picture or in the press once they solved the case.

Who would want her dead? I kept repeating to myself as I scrolled every picture and every post on Amelia's page. One post stuck out to me almost immediately. It was a video of Theo and Mary Jo at the beach together.

"Aw, aren't they so cute they just make you sick? Wave at the camera, brother! Wave!" Amelia said.

But Theo didn't wave. Instead, he side-glanced her and shot her a bad look—or perhaps it was an annoyed look—as he sat on a beach chair leaning over and talking to Mary Jo who was flat on her back sunbathing in a white bikini.

Then I scrolled down more on Amelia's page and saw many more photos of Theo with Mary Jo on the beach together. There were some taken on a boat, too. Seeing Theo without his shirt on and giving Amelia bad looks made me wonder what made her keep doing this.

"Say hi to the camera, Theo," Amelia said in another video, approaching him on the boat.

"Get that thing out of my face, will you?" Theo said and stepped past her, and that's when I saw it.

There he was with his dark, parted hair and sunglasses sitting at the driver's seat of the boat. Donnie Styles. "Maybe Donnie will say hi..." Amelia said, approaching him with the camera. "Say hi, Donnie!"

"Hi! Hello, to all you losers out there who wish they had a boat and a body like mine!" Donnie said and flexed, before sticking his pierced tongue out and throwing his head back to laugh.

Donnie has a boat? I thought. He probably has five boats and a freaking yacht. The guy did not seem to care about flaunting his wealth, much like Mary Jo didn't once she got it. She flaunted it all, perhaps a little too much.