Disclaimer
Dedication
Ashleigh’s Acknowledgments
Mary E. Palmerin’s Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
CHapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Epilogue
Copyright © 2016 by A. Giannoccaro and Mary E. Palmerin
Editing by Kellie Monttgomery
Cover Design and Interior Formatting by Pink Ink Designs (http://www.pinkinkdesigns.com)
Spanish translation by Elisabeth Pallmerin
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading and electronic sharing of any part of this book without dpg approval the written permission of the authors or publishers constitutes unlawful piracy and theft of the authors’ intellectual property.
If you would like to use the material from this book (other than for review purposes), prior written consent must be obtained from the author
All nursery rhymes and parts thereof obtained from Project Gutenberg which is public domain.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination and are all used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, are coincidental.
Disclaimer
Readers, please note that this tale has graphic depiction of abuse including but not limited to; rape, physical torture, emotional abuse, murder, strong language, sexual degradation and humiliation, unconventional sexual practices, and detailed descriptions of several mental disorders. With that being said, we know that there are many dark books out there that have similar content. However, this story is an emotional mind-fuck that will have you questioning all your morals and your ideas of normal.
If you are the least bit frightened, you should be. We understand as the authors that we were taking a big chance when we decided to tell this story, but every writer tells tales for different reasons. We write what we fear, for thrill, and for things that we are not supposed to discuss.
This is not a romance. This tale is not about love. It is about goodbyes and manipulation in many forms. So, if you feel like you can continue reading, we hope that you enjoy this book. As always, thank you so much for your continued support.
Love,
Ashleigh and Mary
Dedication
This one is for our readers and all those who love the darkness as much as we do. Much love xx
Ashleigh’s Acknowledgments
Mary, thank you for dreaming up this story and making me a part of it. I have loved every minute spent in The Red Market and am sad the story is over. You have become not only a partner but a friend.
To my husband Rick, once again I could never do what I do without you by my side. Your love support and faith in me help me up when I am down. You are the one who believes in me me even when I don’t believe in myself, thank you for being my everything.
To my family, thank you for supporting me as I followed this crazy dream and for all the small things you do to help while I work on each book.
Karen, my book person, my friend, my sounding board and the lady who kicks my butt when I need it. Thank you again for always being there when I need you even from the other side of the world.
To our beta’s on this project, Julianne, Di, Jamie and Michelle, sorry, and thank you. We made them cringe, cry, gag and even give up food with this one and they have been amazing all the way through it. You ladies are awesome.
Di Covey, you are a special person and each time I get to work with you I am reminded of what an amazing lady you are. Your support and love of us authors is beyond huge and I appreciate what you do so much not only for us authors, but for our readers and this whole community - we need more Di’s in this world. Keep being you xx
Ashleigh’s Assassin’s, my super street team! Thank you all for being my team, for promoting me so selflessly even when I can’t always be around. I love all of you ladies so much.
Cassy Roop of Pink Ink Designs, for a stunning cover and the best formatting any author could ask for. I love working with you, your love for what you do shines through in every project. Thank you so much.
Kellie, for editing our work and helping us make it perfect thank you. You promised not to hate us… I have that in writing!
Love Between The Sheets, thank you for all the behind the scenes organising and planning you do for us. To each and every blogger that signs up to promote us, thank you we appreciate it more than you will know.
Twisted Sisters, you all know who you are… thank you for loving stories like ours and taking a chance on us. This group of ladies has fast become my ‘book home’ and the one place I go to fit in. Thank you for the laughs, inappropriate comments and posts and most off all for reading.
To my readers, to every single one of you that took a chance and read my stories thank you. Without readers my books have no home so you are the biggest thank you on my list.
Mary’s Acknowledgements
I want to acknowledge my writing partner, Ashleigh. Months ago, we spawned an idea. It was terrifying, exciting, and liberating to birth such a story. Now, here we are ending it. I couldn't be prouder of the facet we depicted. Ashleigh, thank you so much for being not only an amazing writing partner, but a great partner and sounding board for me. You are one of the most incredible people I have the honor of knowing.
As always, a big thank you to my better half, Domingo. You keep me sane, grounded, and love me despite my passion that keeps me up late, even on my days off. You have the patience of a saint and your heart is bigger than the universe. Every single day, I'm not only grateful for your love, but for the life you instill in me. It wasn't until that early morning phone call and two words you said to me that changed me, and my outlook. For that, I am lucky to be alive and have this miraculous life. I love you more than any amount of words could describe.
To my family, there are not enough words to express my gratitude. You love me more than I deserve, and I know I color outside of the lines, but you accept me anyway. Thank you.
To my Thelma, my best friend, my soul sister, my beta reader, and so many other things. You were one of my first readers and I know that life brought us together for a reason. It turned into something so much more than that and I am beyond grateful. I can’t say thank you enough for the late night phone calls about plot ideas, twists, minor details, and your ideas have inspired so much in every tale that I create. I am honored
to have you alongside of me during this journey. I know that The Goodbye Man was not something that was easy for you to read, but you took into your heart, read it, and lived with the characters just as much as I did writing them with Ashleigh.
To Kelly Riley, my best friend who helps me understand that true, genuine kindness is still present in this world. She was one of my first readers turned into something so much more and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. Your support and encouragement in all my tales makes my heart swell with joy. You are an amazing woman. Thank you, Kelly. I know that this dark, depraved tale took you to a place that you were uncertain of, but you went there. I cannot thank you enough for traveling to it with me, chapter by chapter and giving me your sound advice. I promise to one day finish a vanilla that has been on my computer for years.
To Diana Covey from Twisted Sisters’Book Review. I would not be where I am at without her. She has exposed all of my books to dark readers, and I am certain that I would not have the courage to spill the words to tell this story if it wasn’t for her. It’s not just about the exposure, it is about the friendship and lifelong bond that’s been formed. Thank you, Di.
To Julianne McCorkendale, blogger. You have become such an amazing friend and supporter of my work. Your passion and encouragement is something that has kept me grounded during my publishing career. Telling dark stories isn’t easy. It’s scary, and you are always there to offer me kind words. I cannot thank you enough. I hope the character in Rhys’ story did your name justice!
I want to say a big thank you to our Spanish translator, Elisabeth Palmerin. Thank you for answering my random messages and translating everything, including some vulgar scenes. Both Ashleigh and I are so grateful for your time!
To our betas, Julianne, Michelle, Jamie, and Di, thank you for living this gruesome, cringe-worthy story with us. You helped us make this story possible with your encouragement and support. Love you!
To all my girls on my street team, Mary’s Magnificent Minxes. You are a spectacular group of women who love my stories. Most of all, we have grown to be great friends. You are total rock stars. I love you ladies!
To my editor, PA, aka my sanity, Kellie Montgomery. You are my rock. That is one sentence to sum you up. You tell me what I need to hear, when I need to hear it. You keep me organized and you always make me laugh. You deserve a million thank yous and even that wouldn't be enough. You're truly a diamond in the rough and I'm lucky to have you in my corner. Love you!
To my readers, I could write thousands of words about how I feel and that would never suffice. I never thought I would have the courage to share any of my stories, but here I am sharing one of the darkest ones I had the pleasure of writing with Ashleigh. It is dark, raw, and brutal. It will take you to places you have never traveled before. I write what I fear, what I am not supposed to talk about. I want to thank you for taking a chance on this novel. I hope that you enjoy it. As always, carpe fucking diem.
Mateo
I will never understand the silence
“She fucking left meeee!” I scream into the empty space that should be full of bodies by now. My eye twitches and my teeth grind together, because I am so riled up.
Insanity is beating through my veins as the stark truth is sinking in. It has been three weeks, she is not coming back and I am almost sure she is dead. The thought of her dead body makes my dick hard, a memento of my abandonment. I imagine what it would be like to kiss her cold dead lips as my hands explored the scars on her body. Her outside matched the inside, marked forever. Only now in this moment her dead body isn’t half as appealing as her life was. She breathed it into us, even Caesar came alive when she was around. Only for him she was his weakness, the thing that could destroy him. She is making me stronger and better, she makes my urges easier to control.
Now with her missing, I am plunged into a whirlpool of internal chaos. Images of Ophelia and bodies haunt my mind, awake or asleep. I have this debilitating fear that someone else is enjoying her dead body the way I am so desperate to. I know that no amount of physical torture or abuse could have damaged her. She is the most fucked up example of humanity you have ever seen. Even with my monsters I couldn’t withstand what she has endured and survive it. Nothing could break Lettie, except love or death. The two things she has wished for since the moment I first saw her.
Cold clammy skin moves beneath me as I vent my frustrations on the poor lifeless victim on the gurney. They used to get freedom, but Caesar’s rule is over. I am not a martyr. I’m a tyrant and I plan to take what I want; we no longer sell freedom we take bodies. Prisoners sentenced to a quiet death and a lifetime of recycled pieces that will heal others. I have to get Lettie out of my head and this - this is the best way to do it. I growl into the white sheets as my come spurts inside the dry, unforgiving cunt that my dick is resting inside. My fingers dig into the flesh of her thighs as I grip her hard and cling to thoughts of better times. This operation is far larger that our previous one and we have lost three of them already. We need more staff; they died before we could even harvest them, I should be working. I need to stay focused on keeping the conveyor going and the customers happy. Being the boss isn’t what I had imagined. In my mind I had her by my side as we build this into our own little world. We could be the ones saying the goodbyes and reaping the rewards. “Fuck you, Caesar.” I scream at the missing man that is nowhere; he is not here or anywhere else.
Sliding off the body I have used to sate my needs, I pull my jeans up and light a smoke while I walk through them. They are not in neat lines like before and it makes me tick with anxiety. The awkward shape of the room doesn’t allow it and I find myself wanting to rip walls down so that it does. The constant trickle of chaos that has followed Lettie’s entrance into my life has continued even now in her absence. I need order and routine, I am a time bomb without it.
The sound of my teeth grinding in my own ears is enough to remind that there is something else missing. I pushed her to torment him, I wanted him to fall apart, but I never dreamed he would leave. Nothing has ever made him waver from his path. He has had times where the noise was too much and he would need to take a few days. He goes to see his doctor on the Upper East Side and then returns. He only ever went to the civilized part of town for the help of his shrink; he preferred the squalor of Hunts Point. Filth, poverty and desperate people are what comforted the internal demons that live inside of him. I miss him, it hurts more than I would like to admit that he is gone. I expected him to fight me for her. I thought he would either kill her or send her away and order would return. No, he had to force me into the trap that is Lettie. He pushed right back and I was the one to fall in love with my own devil. He made me touch her, forced me to kiss her. He allowed me to feel her move as her body became mine. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to save me. I never wanted to be saved! I am happy with the dead; they can’t leave, they can’t hurt you and they don’t feel anything at all. I slump into the chair in my new office. Everything in here is metal, the sort of furniture you’d expect to find in a sanitarium. The chipped paint on the cream and dirty blue cabinets bothers me, it draws my eye and makes me lose focus. There is another note today, same one we have received weekly for some time now.
Where is Caesar? I have something to show him.
Call me.
There is a phone number on the back, a different one every week, burner phones. I am sure that there is someone who is unhappy about us being here, snatching up the bodies and using them. I am not paying for all the spare parts. I have hired a few men that are less than stellar citizens to abduct people for me. It’s going a little slow and we need more. I start to think about how Caesar did it; I could collect an extra two a day if I could bring myself to fuck a living body. The thought of a whore riding my cock has me reaching for the trash can as my empty stomach heaves into it. Bile is all I have to throw up, reminding me I haven’t eaten in two days. I scream for Hugo, wiping my mouth with the note that I found on my desk.
“Mateo?” he answers my call as he steps through the door. He is everywhere.
“I need something to eat, smokes and a bottle of brandy.” I hand him some cash from my desk drawer. I won’t leave and go myself in case Lettie returns. I want to be here if she comes running back, even if it’s only to kill her and fuck her body for the hurt she has caused me.
“Sure thing, there are two coming in. They are an hour away I will be back before then.” Hugo closes the door behind him and I am left with myself again.
Screams. ear piercing, horror filled screams wake me. My head hurts from where it was stuck to the desk and my back aches from slouching over in an unnatural way. The sound carries through the air again. I wish they would fucking gag them. Someone is going to make a complaint to someone else and I could live without the police for now. I scrape the chair back on the bare concrete floor and stretch my tired body out. I need to set up some sort of accommodations here, because I don’t like staying far from work. The flat has too much of her in it, too many memories of my living doll.
“Shut her up!” I yell down the stairs as I descend them to the processing area where our new guests are disinfected. They are blood and tissue typed and then put to sleep for the last time.
The girl's howling continues for a few minutes before we shut her up. A wet wash cloth is shoved into her mouth and she is bound with cable ties. I step into the stark white room, where the tiles are easy to clean and sanitize daily. This is the beginning of the end for all who come inside this building. This is a processing plant, where we process the raw material into the final product, nothing more and nothing less. They are not people in here, they are raw materials.
“You are making me tie you up and keep you quiet and I don’t like that. I like when my guests have manners.” I slap the offending girl across her bare ass cheeks, leaving a nice red hand print. The other little girl's eyes go wide and she silences herself with a sniffle and looks at the floor.
The Goodbye Girl (Red Market Series Book 2) Page 1
