Obsession (The Talisman series)

by Sofia Grey

  “Yeah, a bit. No idea where he’s going, though.”

  We shut up when Gabriel started speaking again. “So tell me—how long have you been fucking Josh Delaney?”

  “You said it was unimportant—just a blip.”

  “I said a lot of things.”

  “Gabe, do you actually want to talk to me, or are you hoping to bully me into submission first?”

  “You don’t like it when I drive fast, do you?”

  Her voice was rising, fear colouring her tone. “You’re just trying to scare me.”

  “Is it working yet?” He chuckled while I swore under my breath. Jon had his taillights in sight, zipping along darkened country lanes at a speed that made me nervous. “So tell me, Suki—what was so bad about our marriage that you had to do this?”

  Jon’s phone trilled, he cursed and scrabbled for it with one hand while careering along the wet road. “It’s Anita. Josh will you take it?”

  I grabbed it, eager to reassure her and terminate the call. “Anita, it’s Josh. We’re a bit busy at the moment, can it wait?”

  Over the radio link I could hear Suki yelling at Gabriel. Something about him manipulating her. Anita’s voice was equally loud in my other ear. “He killed his ex-fiancée, Josh. Gabe killed her.”

  18.2 Suki

  The only thing stopping me from getting hysterical was the knowledge that Josh and Jon were somewhere behind us. Hopefully not far behind. Was now the time to acknowledge that, yes, it had been a mistake of colossal proportions to get in the car with Gabe? What part of my brain had been working when I believed him about going back to his hotel?

  I squashed down my fear and tried to feel angry instead. “Were you even going to give me back my passport? Or was that just a trick to get me to go with you?”

  “Why do you want your passport?” How could he remain so cold? You’d have thought we were discussing items on a shopping list. Instead, he was hurling us with reckless abandon around corners I would crawl around on a bright sunny day.

  “Why are you driving like an idiot? You’re going to kill us both.”

  This drew a snort of laughter. “Are you seriously questioning my driving skills, Suki? I drive fucking cars for a living. Or had you forgotten?”

  I screeched back, for one blissful moment, forgetting to be scared. “You keep trying to manipulate me, telling me I’m going mad, but you know what, Gabe? You’re the one with a screw loose. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m not doing anything. You, however, are going to commit suicide.”

  I gaped, all the breath disappearing from my lungs. “I’m what?” It came out as a whisper.

  “If I can’t have you Suki, I’m making sure nobody else—especially not Josh fucking Delaney—has that pleasure.”

  I had to keep him talking. While he was talking, he wasn’t doing anything else. “You can’t get away with that. Nobody will believe you.”

  He grinned at me. The bastard looked positively happy for a moment. “You know the great thing about phones these days? You can use them for email, too. And you, my darling, sent me an email about half an hour ago, to say you’re sorry.” He flashed me another smile, I saw his teeth glinting in the reflected lights from the dashboard. It was pitch dark outside. “And you sent me a text.”

  “You did that in Paris—you pretended I sent a text to Jon. Nobody will believe that same trick twice.”

  “Oh?” He sounded interested. The car lurched around a sharp corner, my bag slipped to the floor. As I tried to grab it, we swung around a tight bend in the opposite direction and my bag disappeared further into the footwell. “How did you figure out I sent Jon that text? How d’you know it wasn’t Josh?” He sneered Josh’s name.

  “I found the phone in your bag, that’s how.” Josh’s tiny camera would now be giving him an excellent view of my shoes. I had to hope it was still transmitting sound okay.

  “I might have got it from him. And besides. I’m not the only person you’ve talked to about your depression. You’ve told Babs.”

  18.3 Josh

  I couldn’t speak for a moment, then my brain clicked into gear. “Wait,” I snapped, then asked Jon, “how do I put this on speaker?”

  He pressed the required button and Anita’s voice poured from the phone. “Gabe’s mum has just been here, looking for me. She remembered meeting me at their house and knew we’re friends of Suki’s. Get this, she’s stolen Suki’s passport from his room—she gave it to me—and she told me he killed his ex-fiancé. She was unfaithful to him and he pushed her car off the road into a river. Gabe’s mum saw on the news about a mystery woman drowning and was petrified he’d done it again.”

  “How could he get away with something like that?” Jon didn’t seem fazed at all. He managed to talk while throwing the car around ridiculously tight bends in the pouring rain, following a pair of taillights, in the hopes that we had Suki in our sights.

  “That’s just it,” Anita tried to explain. “His mum provided an alibi for him. He never told her what he did, but she figured it out.”

  Silence hung between us for a long moment. “Don’t let him do it again, Josh. Please, bring her back safely.”

  Jon terminated the call, stuffing the phone in his pocket as he manoeuvred through the night. His concentration on the road ahead was fierce and I silently thanked any god who happened to be listening for my idea to ask him for help. I couldn’t have kept the car on the road—and followed Gabriel—and monitored the camera link. Without Jon’s help, Suki would be out here all alone. My gut cramped some more, this was excruciating. “Where is he going?” I snarled to Jon, not expecting an answer.

  And now the live feed was screwed up, but, thank God again, we still had sound. We’d been driving for over forty minutes, climbing higher towards the dense Ardennes Mountains. I remembered pictures from the tourist website—steep slopes, gullies, rivers and waterfalls, impenetrable forests. So many places to stop. So many opportunities to kill Suki. My current fear was he’d realise he was being followed again, even though Jon was trying to hang back. So far he hadn’t mentioned it. We listened, appalled, to their conversation.

  “Babs who?” Suki sounded defiant.

  “Babs, your shrink.”

  This time she sounded shocked. “How do you know about that?”

  “Her shrink?” Jon glanced at me. I shook my head, a flurry of new concerns running through my head. Although to be fair, being married to Gabriel would send anyone running for a psychiatrist.

  “Obsession27?” Gabriel’s tone mocked her. “Ring any bells?”

  “You hacked into my emails?” A note of disbelief. “It was you that changed my appointments. What gave you the right to do that?”

  “You’re my wife, Suki. That gives me every right.”

  “So you told Babs I was depressed? She’s a psychiatrist. People don’t talk to her when they’re happy.”

  He chuckled again. It sent shivers down my spine. “I told her you were going to kill yourself tonight. And” —he spoke over her when she tried to interrupt— “I told her your name. You’re going to be all over the papers tomorrow, darling.”

  “You’re crazy. You can’t get away with this.”

  “Watch me. And you know what makes it even sweeter? Because your darling Josh was following us, it’ll look as though he killed you. I can just see the headlines tomorrow. Jealous lover enraged when she goes back to her husband. While I, heartbroken of course, tell the world how he attacked me. Again.”

  18.4 Gabe

  I reluctantly gave Joshy-Boy some credit. I’m pretty certain he was still behind me, but some way back now. Even better, by the time he caught up it would all be over, for Suki at least.

  She clung to her seat as I threw the car around some more. Damned rental car; it didn’t perform as well as I needed. I’d lost traction badly on that last hairpin bend, the tires had struggled to grip. We only had a couple of miles to go. I was heading for a remote beauty spot, one
we’d explored on an early visit to Spa, years ago. A high rocky cliff overlooking a steep ravine, a natural waterfall hurtled down the slope to the lake far below. In daylight, it was a breathtaking view. It was the perfect place to take Suki for us to discuss how to repair our marriage, a location we both remembered with happiness.

  Or at least, that’s what I’d tell everyone.

  “We’re going to that lake, aren’t we?” I’d never included mind reading in her list of skills. “Our first visit to Spa, the Lake Gilleppe. We stopped there for drinks, a little café overlooking the water. It was owned by a couple of Americans—the Philadelphia.”

  “You told me it was the most beautiful place you’d ever seen.”

  “Gabe, it’s not too late. Let’s talk about this, really talk.”

  “We are talking.”

  Her left hand crept up to rest on my thigh. I could feel her fingers fluttering nervously against me. “Stop the car, Gabe. Please.”

  “If I asked you to give him up, would you?”

  Her silence spoke volumes. “You’re too honest, Suki. You should have lied and said yes.”

  “If I say yes, what will change?”

  “Hmm, that’s a good question.” I grinned at her in the darkness, enjoying her grimace as we climbed steadily on the wet slope. “If you say yes, you will leave him. I might not do everything I planned.”

  Her voice sounded tight. “And what are you planning, for God’s sake?”

  “How much does Jon Craigowan mean to you, Suki? Is he important, too?” I heard her swallow. She stared fixedly out of the window, her fingers clenched into my thigh. “I’m going to be grief-stricken in the race this weekend, Suzu. I might put my car off the track. And I might take him with me.”

  18.5 Josh

  Jon thumped the steering wheel. “The fucker. I wish I’d let you finish him off, Josh. So help me when I get my hands on him, there’s not going to be much left.”

  I could hardly speak, my chest was so tight. “Do you know where he means? The café?”

  “If I’m right, it’s at the top of this hill.” We kept seeing glimpses of his car ahead, fleeting shards of light as he rounded the bends. I didn’t know how Jon kept the Audi on the road, yet he managed to accelerate to close the distance between us. And we had another problem to contend with. The audio link was failing, crackling and fading. I whipped out my phone, no signal on that either. Jon glanced at me. “Have we lost sound?”

  I nodded, unable to speak. Without audio we couldn’t tell when they stopped, if he pulled off the road and killed the engine we could quite possibly drive straight past them.

  “I’ll get closer, get right on his tail. He knows we’re here anyway.”

  My eyes searched the darkness, longing to come up behind them. Once we did, I wasn’t sure what we’d actually do, we were playing this by ear. “There’s the Philadelphia.” Jon nodded to an unlit building as we swept past. “We’re near the top of the hill.”

  He cursed as the tires skid around another bend and then inhaled sharply as the road straightened out and dropped before us. We could see the next mile clearly in the sweep of our headlights. There was no car in front of us.

  18.6 Suki

  I thought Gabe would pull into the car park for the Philadelphia. I knew the gardens at the back of the café opened onto a trail that led along the side of the hill. The same trail we’d walked all those years ago. And he might have intended to do just that.

  But Gabe’s arrogance, his confidence he can drive anything, was also his weakness.

  I remember him swearing as he snatched at the wheel, the tires bumping over loose gravel on the side of the road, and then we spun. It happened in slow motion. Gabe changing gear, stamping on the pedals, hauling on the wheel. The car yawing side to side, the screech of the brakes, the rain beating against the windows. The jolt as I banged against the door, my hands flailing for something to hold onto as the world went crazy.

  And Gabe, battling to the last, as the car gave up the struggle.

  18.7 Josh

  “Fuck!” Jon yelled, hitting the brakes so hard I’m surprised we didn’t catapult through the windows. “They must be in the car park.” The road was too narrow to turn round, I gasped as he slung his arm across my seat and rammed the car into reverse, hurtling backwards the hundred yards or so, back to the café. And the empty car park.

  “Not in front, not here… they didn’t have time to turn around and go back—we’d see their lights.” Jon turned the car slowly in a circle, the headlights on main beam, lighting up every corner of the deserted patch of tarmac.

  “Is there somewhere else behind the building?” I peered through the rain, baffled.

  “Maybe.” Jon shot forwards again. There was a narrow path leading to an outbuilding, but no car. “Damn. Where the fuck are they?”

  I sucked in my breath. “They must have doubled back. There’s no other option.” Jon was already racing for the road again, pulling out onto the ribbon of tarmac when I saw something different.

  “Stop!” He hammered the brakes again. We lurched to a shaky halt. I pointed to the tree line at the side of the road. “That gap looks fresh. Look, there’s debris on the road.”

  For a long, agonized moment, we stared at each other, neither of us willing to voice our fears. The very real possibility Gabriel had driven off the road. Oh, Jesus. I didn’t want to look. An image of Suki’s broken body flashed into my head. No, I wasn’t going to buy into this. Jon must have come to the same decision at the same time. As one, we threw open the doors and scrambled to the tree line, slipping on the broken twigs and leaves as we pushed through the bushes.

  Standing there at the top of a sheer drop, the rain battering down on us, we stared into the darkness, searching for a sign of them. There were deep scrape marks—ruts from tires leading away from our feet, more broken twigs and branches strewn before us. Jon had a tiny torch in his pocket, he cast a pencil thin sliver of light across the ground. It was impossible. The rain clouds were so dense there was no moonlight, we couldn’t see anything.

  We could hear though.

  Even over the drumming of the rain, I could hear a high pitched keening. A voice. And a sharp tapping noise.

  It was Suki.

  “I’ll bring the car to the edge.” Jon galloped back.

  “And then there was one,” I murmured to myself. No torch, no rope, no phone signal. But Suki was alive. And I was going to rescue her.

  18.8 Suki

  I had no idea where I was. As I inhaled painfully—it felt as though I had glass under my skin. I figured I was upside down, my seatbelt tight as it suspended me. The engine had stopped, the only noise I could hear was rain battering down against the bodywork, a noisy staccato that drowned out anything else. I’d stepped into hell. A wet hell—everything was wet.

  Gabe. Where was Gabe?

  I turned my head. I seemed blocked somehow, by Gabe. His bulk, his lifeless body lay against me, half under me. I wasn’t upside down after all. The car lay on its side, the driver’s door into the ground, and I dangled over him, unable to free myself. I blinked, tried to shake my head. A tinkle of glass rained down around me, falling from my hair. The windshield had shattered, I was covered in broken glass. And rain, that’s why I was wet. A surge of relief. It wasn’t blood.

  In the movies, when cars run off the road they always burst into flames. No, I couldn’t think of that. I forced my mind to think of Josh. He was just behind us, with Jon. They’d rescue me. If they found me.

  Concentrate, Suki. Focus.

  I had to get out, climb through the windshield. Easier said than done, the slightest move made me scream in pain. My right shoulder could have been on fire, from my wrist to my chest the pain burned into me, it felt as though I was impaled on a butcher’s meat hook.

  I tried to shout for help. It emerged as a rough whisper, it hurt to draw enough breath, but I had to—I had to. Trying to ignore the pain, I sucked in as much air as I could and wailed
at the top of my voice.

  “Heeeeeelp….”

  Christ, that hurt. But it’s the only way anyone—Josh—would find me. In desperation, I gingerly, moved my left arm and started banging my wrist against the dashboard. My watch was small and dainty, but it made a sharp, metallic noise with every smack.

  Beneath me, Gabe didn’t move. I couldn’t even hear him breathing.

  18.9 Josh

  I was already feeling my way down the embankment, slipping and sliding in the mud, when Jon brought the car to the very edge. All of a sudden, a broad swath of ground lit up before me. I blinked in the bright glow, shading my eyes for a second with my hand as my vision adjusted. And there it was, only twenty yards further down.

  Adrenalin surged. Finding my voice I yelled her name. “Suki! Suki!” I could hear Jon coming down the slope now, his voice yelling, too. We stumbled and slithered, uncaring of the slope, ignoring the rain, our only goal to get to the car. I couldn’t hear her any more, but I knew where she was.

  Giddy with relief, I almost didn’t see where the car was, almost made a disastrous situation a thousand times worse.

  Gabriel’s car was perched on its side on a rocky outcrop, the back end teetering over a sheer drop. With the light from Jon’s car I could see inside, almost. I crouched beside it, smearing the mud with my hands, tears running down my face as I saw Suki inside. Jon crunched through the undergrowth to my side. I held out one arm to stop him. “Don’t move.” He froze.

  I snaked my arm through the open front, catching Suki’s hand as she stretched out to me. Words failed me. She hung there, dangling on her seat belt, sobbing and smiling at the same time. “Josh, Josh,” she cried over and over. “Get me out of here. Please.”

  “I will, baby.” I swallowed, dragging my attention back to the car. Suki was alive. Sweet Jesus, she was alive. “You need to stay perfectly still.” I made my voice calm, my fingers squeezing hers, sharing my strength, needing her touch. “If you move too quickly, the car is going to go over the edge.”