Catching the Storm

1. Thomas Gavin aka Future Murder Victim

Crystal's POV

There are some people who enter someone's life like a whirlwind. Like a hurricane. They cause disaster and mayhem everywhere they go and leave a wake of destruction in their path.

Maybe it doesn't start right away. Maybe they start off as someone you like. Someone you think you could grow to trust. Maybe they seduce you. They charm you. Befriend you.

They get inside your head and consume your thoughts. Blinding you to what they really are. To what they're capable of.

And then once they're through with you, once they've gotten what they've wanted, they toss you aside into the rubble. Leaving you to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess they made. The disaster they caused.

I had heard of many people like this. I never had the misfortune of meeting one. Until I met the man who called himself Thomas Gavin.

He was perfect in every way. He was absolutely stunning. Olive skin, jet black hair, and sapphire blue eyes. The very definition of tall, dark, and handsome. Strong jawline, body muscled to perfection and a smile that could make your heart stop.

He'd lean in when you were talking as if every word you said was vitally important. He'd shower you with compliments and dazzle you with gifts. He'd make you believe you were the only person in the world.

And then he'd destroy your world, humiliating and mocking you in the worst ways possible.

It seemed he'd saved his most venomous dose for me.

I'd never thought of myself as stupid or naïve. Gullible or vulnerable. Helpless.

And yet he'd made me feel all those things and so much more.

Angry. Humiliated. Frustrated. Embarrassed. Shocked. Angry. So very angry.

He'd pay for what he did, but at the moment I couldn't waste my time planning his inevitable demise. I couldn't waste my time trying to find him . . . yet. I had a more pressing matter on my mind.

I tossed everything out of my jewelry box and onto my bed, shifting frantically through it all for the familiar silver necklace with the large heart pendant covered in sapphires and diamonds.

Really, I wasn't one for the most flashy of jewelry. As a matter of fact, I hated that stupid necklace, and yet here I was frantically searching for it, praying it wasn't one of the items the bastard took.

When I came up empty, my hands clenched into fists at my sides and my anger spiked dangerously. I could feel my face flush and my heart start to pound.

No!

Bad enough the bastard had humiliated me beyond words, but clearly, that wasn't enough. Oh no, he just had to take that damn necklace too.

The door to my bedroom opened and Julie walked in with her laptop balanced in her hands. She paused and raised her eyebrows in question.

"Man, you look even more pissed off than you did this morning when you saw the newspaper," She said.

Julie Owens was my best friend. We'd been best friends for years and we met when we both went into modeling. We'd both risen to the top and had quickly become some of the most sought-after supermodels, obviously, that was no longer the case for me.

On the runway, she was always glamorous. Her make up always done to the extreme and the clothes she wore always complimenting her ebony skin tone. The outfits she modeled were always elegant dresses, sophisticated pantsuits, lacy lingerie, and sexy blouses. Her attitude was always kind and caring. Off the run was an entirely different story. Ripped up jeans, crop tops, ragged t-shirts, no makeup, and a Nascar cap covering her hair that she always kept cropped very close to her head. The only thing she ever kept from the runway were the heels that put her well over six feet tall since she was already five eleven without them. And her attitude off the runway was no-nonsense and blunt to the point it was almost painful.