Pitch Black: A Romantic Thriller (Blackwood Security Book 1) Read Free Page A

hoped they were getting good and wet.
    Barely resisting the urge to drive the Viper straight through the lot of them, I pulled to a halt next to the rest of our cars. My friends were waiting when I got out, and they formed a barrier around me to shield me from the circling sharks. One held an umbrella overhead, and we moved towards the church as one mass with the guys at the front shouldering any particularly persistent reporters out of the way.
    Their shouts echoed in my ears.
    “Look this way,” one yelled before Dan pushed him aside.
    “Come on, just give us a picture,” another called.
    As if.
    I kept my head down, wishing the service was over before it had even started. A couple of my team stayed behind by the doors to keep reporters out of the church. A few of them tried to talk their way in by claiming to be friends or relatives, demonstrating they had as little respect for the dead as for the living.
    I sat down on the front pew next to Nate, my husband’s best friend and business partner. Another of my girlfriends, Mack, took the other side. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, not concerned with hiding her emotions like I was. Bradley leaned forward from the row behind and squeezed my shoulder in a show of support. He’d foregone his usual riot of colour and put on a black suit, but his watch was pink, and he had a diamond in his ear. He couldn’t help himself.
    I nearly lost it when the pallbearers carried the casket in. Six of my husband’s oldest friends shouldered the burden, the grief on their faces mirroring my own. The casket was a plain oak affair, with brass handles and a simple arrangement of orchids on the top. He wouldn’t have wanted something fancy, and it was closed of course. In fact the whole thing was more for show than anything else, as firstly, there wasn’t a whole lot left of him, and secondly, what was left had pretty much been cremated already.
    The pastor stood up and droned on for a lifetime. Well, about twenty-five minutes, but it seemed much longer. His whole speech came across as insincere—hardly surprising as he’d never met my husband. The part where he said our kids would miss their father terribly was particularly touching, considering we didn’t have any.
    Still, I couldn’t totally blame him. I’d refused to give him any personal details, so he tried his best, and I had to be grateful for that. I blocked out the rest of his words and concentrated on staying calm.
    Just breathing.
    In and out.
    In and out.
    When he muttered his final prayer, we all trooped outside for the burial. It was still raining, which at least gave me a good reason for hiding under an umbrella once more. The last thing I wanted was to wake up the next day to find my face plastered across the front page. I wouldn’t put it beyond the reporters to photoshop a big grin on my face to show me “gleefully celebrating” the death of my husband, just to stir things up a bit.
    As I watched the casket being lowered into the ground, my heart sank down with it. Never again could I love anyone the way I loved that man. When he died, a big part of me died too. I’d been reduced to a shell, mechanically doing the bare minimum to work and stay breathing but not caring whether I ultimately lived or died.
    I was alive, but no longer living.
    The pastor sprinkled a handful of dirt on top of the casket then Dan nudged my arm and gestured towards the black rose I was clutching in a death grip. I forced my fingers to loosen and threw the single flower into the grave.
    That was it. Over.
    My soul mate was gone.

Chapter 3
    AS THOSE PRESENT started to leave, I stayed frozen to the spot. Lingering glances made my flesh crawl, people not sure whether they should come over and speak to me or just go. I was in no mood to talk to anyone, so I was grateful when my closest friends once more formed a wall to protect me from the crowd. Thankfully their action deterred most people from coming over.
    I say most, because