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.