Chapter One

Friday am, Los Angeles

A burst of speed came out of nowhere as the ball landed in his outstretched arms and he took off to the end zone. It was the fourth and ten with 30 seconds on the clock. He could feel the wind whistling past his sweat stained cheeks as the red and blue of the end zone grew nearer and nearer. The roar of the crowd was muted as he focused solely on his task.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the defence coming at him and he jumped, some would swear three feet up and over the solid wall of muscle that wanted to stop him. His foot stumbled on the line and the crowd held there collective breaths as he managed to right himself and slam the ball down onto the brightly coloured Astroturf. In slow motion he watched as the tan oval ball did a free fall onto the turf dispelling chalk and coloured dust. He looked up at the scoreboard as the clock ticked down to zero. All around him the stadium erupted in shouts and screams of jubilation.

He’d done it. He, himself, Jon Bon Jovi had just scored the winning touchdown in the 2008 Superbowl bringing victory once again to the New York Giants.

He let himself revel in the feeling that the whole civilised world had seen him score the perfect touchdown. He closed his eyes letting the roars of the crowd wash over him. An intermittent buzzer went off in the distance, distracting him momentarily before his team mates bowled him over. The buzzer seemed to be getting louder and as he turned to one of his team mates to comment on it everything disappeared to be replaced by the red digits of his alarm clock radio and the phone which was ringing indignantly in his ear.

Had to be Richie.

No one else would dare phone him in the middle of the night. He focused on the time.

Fuck. 1:50am. This had better be a fucking emergency.

“’Lo?” he mumbled, trying to get his mouth in working order.
“Jon.”
“Richie.”
“I’m in serious trouble man.”
“Where are you and what have you done?” he said automatically, as if he was talking to one of his kids.
“Oh my god, I think she’s dead. I think I killed her Jon.”