Cruel Obsession

by Beck, J. L.

  “Am I known for delivering peaceful deaths?”

  He laughs louder. “No. And that’s exactly why it’s going to hurt me to see you go. You could have had a long and prosperous career with me.”

  “Answer my question!” I growl. Two of his goons take a threatening step toward me, but Christian raises his hand, motioning for them to stay put. “Why do you want her?”

  “Well, let’s just say it’s Castro’s fault that I want her dead. But I don’t want to bother you with the boring details since you are going to be busy dying. Rest assured, I’ll take good care of your little Dove. I’ll make sure my men have some fun with her before I kill her.”

  I lunge for him before his last words have left his mouth. I’m fast, but his men anticipated my move. Two of them are on me before I can even get close to Christian. I let my fist fly, hitting one of them right in the nose, bones crunching beneath my knuckles. The other one grabs my arm and twists it back painfully.

  Twisting my body, I free myself and punch him in the chest in one move. The guy stumbles back but not before slugging me in the side of the head. My head is pounding, but I shake it off and try to push past him to get to Christian. When I look up, I freeze.

  Christian is only a few feet away from me, his gun pointed at my chest. I hear the gun go off and I feel the hot searing pain lancing across my chest like fire moving outward. My body jerks back involuntarily as the bullet slices through my muscle and tissue.

  “I guess for you, I can make an exception and pull the trigger myself, old friend,” Christian says, and if I didn’t know him any better, I would say he is actually a little bit remorseful for killing me. “Find the girl and bring her to me,” he orders his men without looking away from me.

  Anger and despair fill every fiber of my body. I want to kill him, want to kill every single one of his men, but all my body does is sag to the ground. I try to reach for my gun, but my limbs are useless. I’m useless. Dove is going to die. I’m going to lose everything.

  “Goodbye, Zane…” Christian’s voice sounds far away, but that can’t be right. He was just here. I feel my eyes close, my mind fading away. No, no, no! I need to stay awake. I need to get to Dove, protect her.

  I try to get up, but my body feels like it’s made out of lead. My mind is whirling, and all I can think of is how much I hate Christian. How much I want to kill him right now. I used to think he was my savior, Dove’s as well. He saved us both, and now he ends us both.

  The memory of how it all began comes rushing forward. The beginning of the end.

  “I’m not supposed to be released; you’re making a mistake.”

  “I can’t believe you’re complaining about being released early. Be glad you get to leave. Mistake or not. You’re no longer my problem,” the prison guard says and shows me through the door.

  I’m only seventeen, but for the last few months, I’ve done nothing but work out every day. Now I’m bigger than most kids my age, maybe that’s why they deemed me mature enough for prison. I’d only spent a few weeks in juvenile detention before they shipped me off to the state penitentiary.

  “Put this on.” He throws a bag in front of my feet, and I quickly realize it’s the clothes I wore the day they brought me in. I change out of my inmate uniform and into my old worn jeans and T-shirt.

  Then it hits me. I’m about to walk out of here. Free. But I have nowhere to go. I hate to admit it, even to myself, but here I know what was coming every morning. Every day was the same, an endless cycle of structure and routines. On the outside, there is nothing but chaos.

  I’ll be lost.

  Twenty minutes later, I’m outside, standing in a parking lot with nothing but two twenty-dollar bills in my hand. What the fuck am I supposed to do now?

  I start walking down the sidewalk, not knowing what else to do. I can’t just stand there. I make it about half a mile down the road when a blacked-out SUV pulls up to me. The window is being rolled down, and some guy appears on the other side.

  “I don’t need a ride,” I bark out before he can say a word.

  “You must be Zane,” the guy I’ve never seen before says.

  “How the fuck do you know my name?” I stop walking, and the car stops moving at the same time.

  “I’m Christian, and I’m the one who got you released early.”

  “And why would you do that?” I ask suspiciously.

  “Why don’t you get in and we can talk about it.”

  “I’m not getting into that car with you to suck your cock. Go ask what happened to the last guy who tried that shit. Oh, wait, you can’t, ’cause I fucking killed his ass.”

  The guy named Christian throws back his head and starts laughing out loud. He laughs for ten minutes straight before he can compose himself enough to talk again.

  “I like you already, Zane. Don’t worry, I’m not into that either. I want you to work for me… taking care of people. Just like you took care of that guy you were talking about.”

  “What’s in it for me?”

  “Anything you want. Money, power, women, drugs. Name it, and it’s yours.”

  Maybe I should have just kept walking that day. Maybe I could have kept her safe in a different way. I guess I’ll never find out. The past is the past, and there is nothing I can do to change any of that now. My eyes fall shut, and this time, I can’t pry them back open. I fade in and out of consciousness, knowing deep down, that this is it. I’m going to die.

  Pictures of everything I’ve ever loved in my life flash before my eyes, every single one an image of Dove.

  23

  Forcing air into my lungs, I focus on each step I take. The last thing I want to do is trip and fall or injure myself. I’m not sure who is after us, but I don’t want to find out. The fear in Zane’s eyes was enough for me to stop asking questions and just listen.

  I should be jumping for joy right now, planning my escape, but I can’t even consider that knowing that Zane is back there going through god knows what. Yes, I know I should feel different, but I can’t. I just can’t. My stomach churns when I think about something bad happening to him. Shit, I think I’m going to be sick. Gripping onto the metal railing, I stop on the stairs and gulp precious oxygen into my lungs.

  It feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. Like no matter how much air I breathe in, I’m never really catching my breath. A door opens a flight above me, and I force my feet to move, carrying me down the stairs. I don’t make it but a few feet before I hear someone descending the steps. No. Not someone, there are two sets of footsteps. Two people.

  “You can run, but you can’t hide…” That voice is like nails on a chalkboard, and fear trickles down my spine at the sound. Immediately, I start running down the steps. I need to get out of this stairwell. It’s like a trap. If I stay here, I’m as good as caught. Dead.

  When I get to the bottom floor, I grab the door handle and twist it open. Cold air whips through my hair as I make it outside. The door falls shut behind me and I get ready to start running down the street when I stop dead in my tracks. Two men standing a mere ten feet away, smiles that promise horrible things on their faces.

  What do I do? Where do I go?

  Like a trapped mouse, I look for a way out, but there isn’t one. I can’t go back into the stairwell. I can’t go forward either.

  “Give it up, baby, just come with us, and maybe we’ll take it easy on you… maybe we won’t kill you right away. We can always have a little fun, give you a little pleasure…”

  My eyes dart around the space, there is nowhere to go. I’m trapped. Zane told me to run, to hide. I can’t die like this. I won’t die like this.

  “Don’t even think about it.” If his voice didn’t scare me half to death, the scar running from eye to chin on his face would.

  What do I do? I feel the panic rising, bubbling over inside of me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. This is bad. Something terrible is going to happen. Zane was right. He was right. The next moment
, the door behind me opens and the before I can turn around a hand slams over my lips while an arm wraps around my middle.

  Releasing a blood-curdling scream, I struggle with all my might, kicking my legs and flailing in his grasp. One kick must hit its mark because a second later, the guy releases me, a harsh fuck filling my ears. I don’t think I just start running. I make it all of ten feet before I’m cut off. My lungs burn, and my muscles are tense, fear and panic overtake my body. It’s fight or die, and I can’t die yet.

  “We told you we’d take it easy on you if you were a good girl, but of course, you couldn’t come quietly… looks like we have to do things the hard way.” One of the men pulls out a gun, and I open my mouth to scream, but the sound never comes. Before I can react, he’s on me, the butt of his gun flashes over my vision before it connects with the side of my head. Crumpling to the ground, the entire world goes dark around me.

  * * *

  When I come to, my entire body is throbbing, and my head feels like someone ran it over with a bus. Blinking my eyes open, I resist the urge to cringe at the bright light dangling above my head. What the— I don’t finish the thought as I realize by looking down at my hands that I’m tied to a chair, my wrists bound to the arms. Flickering through my memories, I try and recollect how I got here.

  Donna. Hospital. Zane. Knocked out.

  “Help! Someone help!” I call out to anyone who might hear me while pulling against the ropes that bind me to the chair. I need to find Zane, need to get out of here and away from these people. A soft chuckle fills the room, and I whip my head around, looking for the person the voice belongs to, but I don’t see anyone. Darkness surrounds me, except for the tiny light hanging above my head. I try and swallow down my fear, but it’s suffocating me.

  “Well, hello, Dove.” A man appears before me, he looks like a mobster, in a nice suit. His beady eyes trail over my body, and I can feel every single movement. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, granted it’s not under the best circumstances.” He motions to the rope and chair. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t offer you better accommodations. I’m Christian,” he says his name like I should know it.

  “Where is Zane? Where am I? Why did you take me?” The questions pour out of me like an overflowing sink. I doubt this man will give me an answer, but I still ask. I have to.

  “Zane?” He leans into my face, and I crane my head back to put some distance between us. The man’s voice smells of liquor, and that only intensifies my fear. Tremors wrack my body, and I start to shake as if I’m cold. “Zane is dead. I left his body back in the parking garage.” He pauses as if to take in my facial expression. Then his lips curl up into a tiny smirk as he watches me take in what he just told me.

  Zane is dead. My chest tightens, and my heart hurts. I feel like a piece of my soul shatters. Rationally, I shouldn’t care if he’s dead, but for some reason, I feel connected to him. Like I’ve known him my entire life.

  “I mean, it really is such a shame that he dies after all this time. It took you so many years to find each other again just for him to leave you...” Christian frowns, and then without warning, he reaches out and grabs me by the back of the neck, his fingers digging into the tender flesh hard enough to leave bruises.

  “I… I don’t… understand. What are you talking about?” Confusion swirls. “I don’t know Zane. He kidnapped me, and…” The words keep coming until Christian squeezes the back of my neck so hard the words cut off, and pain consumes me.

  “Don’t lie to me, you little bitch. I know all about your connection to Zane. It took me long enough, but I finally figured it out.”

  He pulls back my head and stares directly into my eyes. He must see my genuine confusion because a moment later, he lets out a humorless laugh I feel in my bones.

  “You really don’t know, do you? Does the name William ring a bell?”

  Now I’m even more confused. How does he know about William, and what does he have to do with anything? The information isn’t adding up in my brain, or maybe I just don’t care to try and add it together.

  “William… he’s dead. I saw him die… I was there.”

  “He didn’t die, sweetheart. He recovered, and a few months later, he went back and killed your foster dad in cold blood. William Zane Brennen was a born killer, and that’s exactly why I hired him.”

  Like an atomic bomb, everything around me explodes.

  Zane is William.

  William is Zane.

  Christian shakes me by my neck, dragging me out of my own mind.

  “Let me tell you the rest of the story, Dove. When I found him in prison, he was killing guys left and right, even though he was one of the youngest inmates. I found a way to get him out so he could work for me. His talent was really wasted in prison. He did well for himself too. Worked his way up, became one of my best men. Little did I know, he had been hiding the one thing I’d been looking for all along. You.”

  Me? What does he want with me? I can’t fully wrap my head around it. Not around any of this. I have so many questions, so many, but I guess it’s too late for any answer now. Zane… William is gone.

  When the asshole let’s go of my neck, I lull to the side, staring off into nothingness. How couldn’t I see it? How did I not put one and one together? Why didn’t he tell me?

  Now he’s gone, and I… I’m going to die. He warned me, and I didn’t listen. Tears swim in my eyes.

  “You know I sent him to kill you?” His menacing voice draws me back to the present, and I shiver at the darkness of it. “He took you into hiding instead. I guess I should thank him for that. Killing you would have been a waste of something good, I see that now.” His eyes roam down my body, and I feel vomit rising in my throat.

  “What… What is going to happen to me?” It’s a stupid question to ask when you’re obviously standing on the edge of death, but I have to know if that’s where I’m going. If I’m going to die right now. “Are you still going to kill me?”

  Christian smiles, and I feel the promise of pain in that one single look. “I was going to, but it’s your lucky day because I’m feeling generous, and well, I have a much better use for you now.” Before I can respond, his fist comes out of nowhere, his knuckles crashing into the side of my face. Pain lances across my face, and all I can think before everything goes black is that I should’ve listened to Zane.

  To be Continued...

  Deadly Obsession

  Book Two in the Obsession Duet

  Deadly Obsession

  Coming very soon!

  About the Author

  Jenna Reed is the pseudonym of the international bestselling author duo J.L. Beck and C. Hallman who write contemporary and dark romance.

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  Also by the Authors

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  The Bet

  The Dare

  The Secret

  The Vow

  Bayshore Rivals

  (Reverse Harem Bully Romance)

  When Rivals Fall

  When Rivals Lose

  When Rivals Love

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  DARK ROMANCE

  The Rossi Crime Family

  (Dark Mafia Romance)

  Convict Me

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  Guard Me

  Tame Me

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  (Dark Bully Romance)

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  EROTIC STANDALONES

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  There Captive

  (A Dark Reverse Harem)

  Hurting You Sneak Peek

  Chapter One

  Stella

  Pushing the trash down one last time, I pull up the sides
of the bag and make a knot with the plastic flaps. I can’t believe I almost forgot this one. Paul would have had a mental breakdown in the morning if I had left the trash in here.

  It takes pretty much all the strength I have to lift the full bag out of the bin, so instead of carrying the sucker out, I decide to drag the heavy thing behind me. Hopefully, it won’t leave scratches on the university’s pristine cafeteria floors. I need this job too badly to get in trouble for something stupid.

  It’s eerie here without all the students. The huge space is so quiet and empty, but yet, I prefer it over seeing all the rich kids walking around inside. I try really hard not to be jealous, but it’s not that easy. All-day long I have to look at these people who have everything I’ve ever wanted. A family, an education, and a chance at a good life. And the worst part is that they don’t even seem to appreciate what they have.

  I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve overheard someone here complaining about the most ridiculous things. Being upset about a store being out of the newest designer shoes or handbags. Not getting the special edition sports car that they wanted. Having to wait an extra day to get their hands on the newest iPhone… the list goes on. Every complaint more absurd than the next.

  Meanwhile, I’m working my ass off just to make ends meet. With my parents gone and my grandma suffering from dementia, all the responsibility for my grandma falls onto me. With that, comes a stack of bills every month and that is the reason I didn’t go to college, even though I had the grades and the ambition to go. Instead, I took any job I could get right after I got out of high school just so I could support Grams and myself.