Fatal Obsession (Black Widow Book 2)

by Christina OW

  Damien unbuckled his seatbelt and slowly stepped out. “I’ll see you soon, Buddy. I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Elaine whispered with a glare.

  “I found them once, I’ll find them again. You’ll have to kill me to make me stop,” Damien whispered back with his own glare.

  Elaine rolled her lips, staring at him intently as if she was silently debating something. Then she climbed into the car and shut the door. The man—Mike, rushed back into his car and moved it out of the SUV’s path.

  Elaine spared him one last thoughtful glance and said, “See you soon, dad.” She drove off, leaving him standing in the middle of the road, the sound of sirens growing louder behind him.

  He had a son. That’s what she’d called begging him to protect. Their son, Damien James Chan. He didn’t care what Ellsa had done, all he wanted was his family and he was going to get it.

  ****

  “You let them get away?” Dale yelled, pacing the room his team called the horror room; because they got their briefs here for the horrific cases they were to solve.

  “I didn’t let them do anything. I didn’t have a choice in the matter.” Damien argued back.

  Dale snorted with a sarcastic laugh, “No choice? You could have stopped them if you wanted to, you just didn’t.”

  Damien nodded, “Oh yeah. You’re right. I most definitely could have stopped two armed mercenaries with no gun, a five-year-old boy and an unconscious woman as back up. My bad, cuz.”

  Dale stepped up to him and Damien stood his full height, half an inch taller. There was a lot he was willing to take from his cousin, but he wasn’t going to take crap about putting his family’s safety first.

  “You shouldn’t even have gotten as far as the main road. That wasn’t the plan,” Dale snarled.

  He got him there, but Damien wasn’t about to grow a conscience. “She collapsed and the kid was worried. What was I supposed to do? Tell him sorry, your mom is evil and doesn’t deserve medical attention?”

  “How the hell do you even know if that’s really her kid? She could have kidnapped him.”

  “Yeah, he acted real kidnapped to me.”

  Dale growled, stepping so close they were nose to nose.

  “Look, you keep on coming up with stupid assumptions; I’ll give you fitting answers.” Damien took a step back, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “Look, instead of yelling, why don’t we find out who took her? They meant business carrying around so much fire power.”

  He’d exaggerated a little on the number of weapons they had, but they didn’t look like the type to need much to kill someone. They spelt danger and if he had to say they were carrying a bomb in their trunk to get enough attention to find out who they were and who they were protecting Ellsa from, he was ready to swear to a nuclear bomb. But what use was that when he wouldn’t give them facial descriptions?

  He was a conflicted man.

  “Ellsa doesn’t have a son, especially one old enough to go to school. Ellie would have known about him.”

  Damien shrugged, not bothering to answer because he too found that strange. Didn’t sisters share everything?

  Why didn’t Ellsa confide in her sister about their weekend, their son and especially, her real line of work? Why didn’t she tell Ellie the fear she had for her life? Didn’t Ellsa care that Vladimir could have gone after her, mistaking her identity like he had?

  A lot didn’t add up about Ellsa’s life.

  Dale stepped back, visibly taking a deep breath. “How do we find them, we have no leads.”

  I do. Damien knew he should say something about handing DJ his phone, but not just yet. He checked his wristwatch. It had been five hours already and DJ hadn’t called yet. He spied Dale’s phone in the middle of the roundtable. Were they flying, was that why? Where were they going? Desperation burned his insides like an ulcer. He couldn’t lose her again; he couldn’t lose his newly discovered son. Maybe he should call. He looked at the phone again. Was it even on? He’d been watching it since Dale put it down. He needed to get to it without rousing attention. But Dale didn’t trust him right now just to hand it over without suspecting he was calling Ellsa. And if he knew Damien didn’t have his phone, he might just figure it out and decide to trace it. He should have thought of a better plan, at least turned the GPS off, but there wasn’t much time to think with one facing down two guns.

  He needed to get out of the federal building, with Dale and his phone.

  “Hey man, can we leave now?”

  Dale gave him an incredulous look. “What?”

  Damien shrugged, acting nonchalant even though he felt far from it. “We aren’t going to find them just standing around here. Those guys looked like they meant business. And it’s the middle of the night and you have a family to get to.”

  The family part did it. Dale cursed, grabbing his phone and stomping out without so much as a goodnight to the rest of the team. Damien waved to them with a short smile as he walked away. “It was nice meeting you all. See you tomorrow.”

  They stared at him suspiciously, especially the red head—he hadn’t caught all their names yet—but he knew he’d made the right decision-keeping most of the information to himself.

  Chapter Four

  “Hi Ned,” she said, pushing her way into his home.

  “What are you doing here, Ellsa?”

  She smiled at him, glad that for once someone recognized her. “I came to say hi and see how you are doing.”

  Ned kept the door open until she sat down, giving no indication that she was going to leave anytime soon. “What do you want, Ellsa?”

  “Are you still in love with my sister?” He looked away. Ellsa bit down, “That must mean yes. Why?”

  “Because compared to you, she’s a breath of fresh air. I would have done anything for her, just to have her. And I would have done anything to get rid of you.”

  His words burned her, like hot coal against her skin. She stood up and headed for the door. She stopped when she got to him. “It was nice seeing you again.”

  Not turning to look at her, “The feeling isn’t mutual. Just leave.”

  Ellsa walked past him, when he didn’t turn around to watch her, she pulled a syringe out of her jacket pocket and stuck it in his back.

  Ned fell onto the floor, stiff.

  She knelt down and turned him on his back. She held his hand up and watched it fall on the floor with a thud. She smiled as she watched his fear filled eyes watching her. “What’s your opinion on fire?”

  She turned on the gas, hung around for a minute, then lit a small fire near him, giving her enough time to leave the building before the apartment blew up.

  ****

  “No!”

  She sat up, her panic climbing when all she could see was darkness. But she heard voices. Loud, shouting voices. At first she thought it was just the remnants of her nightmare ringing in her ears. But… her nightmare wasn’t about a child. There was no child. So where was the loud boy voice coming from and who was he?

  She rubbed her throbbing temples. It hurt so bad, like someone had taken a hammer to her head. And when she closed her eyes she could see loud swirling colors that made her dizzy. But at least the ringing in her ears was fading. What the hell was wrong with her?

  Slowly she lowered herself back onto the bed, sighing with gratitude at the soft cloud her aching head landed on. She closed her eyes, crossed her arms over them and tried to keep her mind clear. But the shouting outside her door made that impossible, especially now that a female and a heavier male voice had joined the fray. Were they neighbors?

  She slowly moved her arms away and opened her eyes. Neighbors? Was she in an apartment—her apartment? And where exactly was that apartment?

  She searched her mind for answers, but she just drew blanks. Oh God! She panicked, forgetting the headache and quickly jumping out of bed. Where is the damn light switch? She cursed, silently moving her hands against the wall until sh
e got to the door. She looked down at the light coming from under the door, blood pounding harder in her head. Should she? What if something dangerous was on the other side?

  But how will I get any answers if I don’t open it?

  She took a deep breath, but that only made her head feel heavier and her hand shake harder. Cradling her head with one hand, she held the doorknob with the other and slowly turned it and stepped out—into a well-lit corridor.

  This was no apartment building. She was in a house. There was another door opposite hers, then at the end of the hallway, almost ten feet away, two more. The rooms must be spacious. Since the corridor leading to her left was a dead end, she turned to her right, grateful for the soft grey carpet beneath her feet. She didn’t want to make any noise and draw attention to herself. She got to a flight of stairs and slowly took them one at a time down to the main floor hoping they wouldn’t creak. The carpeting ended at the last step and her feet got a little shock from the cold marble of the foyer. Right in front of her, just a few feet away was a large dark door. A way out, her chance to escape—but to escape what? She wasn’t even sure she was in danger. Instead, she turned to her left and slowly walked to the entryway of what she believed to be a living room, where all the shouting was coming from. Three adults stood in the middle of the room shouting to each other; the child was seated on a single chair and pouting fiercely, that is until he saw her. His face lit up and he jumped out of the chair and raced to her. Something told her to brace herself and she did and glad for it when he slammed into her legs, hugging them tightly.

  “Momma, you’re finally awake!”

  Momma? The one word echoed in her head and her whole world tilted. She quickly reached for the wall to steady herself. She looked down at the little boy whose head reached her hip, his arms now wrapped around her right thigh as he stared up at her, fear and tears swimming in his eyes.

  “Momma, please tell me you remember me?” he begged in a little voice that shot right through her heart, breaking it.

  Her heart crumbled away when the realization struck her. Dear God, I have a son?

  ****

  Ellie clasped her hands together in prayer, kneeling beside her bed. It had been a while since she’d actually prayed, besides the bedtime prayers with the kids. After what happened with Ellsa, she’d lost a little of her faith. First she lost her parents in the shooting with that corrupt cop, leaving just her and Ellsa alone in the world. Then her sister, her only family just suddenly loses her mind and tries to kill the family she’d made with Dale… there wasn’t much to have faith about. But now…

  God, please let it all workout! Please give me back my sister the way she used to be. Spoilt, high maintenance, a snob—vices and all, but sane.

  She jumped when the door slammed shut followed by loud arguing voices. She’d been a little jumpy since Ellsa escaped. Not, that she didn’t love her sister, but she needed to be realistic about a few things and her children’s safety came before her hopes of a happy reunion.

  And speaking of happy reunions… She pushed herself off her knees and rushed out of her bedroom, hoping to catch the two before blood was spilled. By the time she got to the living room, there was barely an inch of space between Dale and Damien as they yelled at each other. She squeezed herself between the two, pushing Dale back with her ass and Damien with her hands.

  “Quiet down you two, unless you want to wake the kids,” she scolded, looking up at them. “Now, why don’t we all sit down and calmly talk instead of yell.”

  They still glared at each other, standing rigid with their fists clenched at their sides. After a few more seconds of the standoff, Ellie pushed against both of them again, but this time hard enough to send Dale a few steps back. He stared down at her in exasperation before he backed away completely, falling into the love seat. With him taken care of, she turned her attention to Damien, who was looking down at her with a weird look on his face.

  Please let it be something other than him claiming I’m his Victoria Secret again.

  “You two don’t look that much alike.”

  “What?”

  His lips twitched in a smile. “Your face is round and hers is long.”

  Ellie could hear her heart beat in her ears. He couldn’t mean what she thought he did, could he? She didn’t want to hope; too much had gone wrong already.

  “You—you saw her?” her voice barely above a whisper.

  Without answering her question he went on, “I read somewhere that twins sometimes think the same, but I wasn’t so sure until today.” He raised his hand to her hair, combing his fingers through it. “Both your hair is cut in exactly the same length and styled the same way.”

  Ellie grabbed the wrist of the hand in her hair and demanded impatiently, “So you saw her?”

  Damien grinned, “I would have thought it was you if not for the obvious reasons.”

  She clapped her free hand over her mouth to keep the grunted mix of laughing and crying from escaping. With blurred eyes she demanded, “How is she? Did you arrest her? Can I see her? Dale—” she sobbed her husband’s name as she turned to him.

  Dale watched her, his expression shadowed from her except for his intense eyes. Then with a sigh he said, “Romeo there helped her escape, so no, she wasn’t arrested.”

  She ignored the venom in his words and turned to Damien, “You did that?”

  She was happy and yet sad about it. The last thing she wanted was her twin being locked up for the rest of her life, but she still needed help if she was to gain her sanity. She didn’t care what anyone else said, Ellsa could be cured because she wasn’t born insane. Nothing in her DNA or whatnots made her a sociopath or a psycho. Otherwise, she’d be just as insane.

  Damien clenched his jaw, turning his hand in hers so that they were clasped palm to palm. “She wasn’t well; I needed to get her to a hospital.”

  She felt the panic settle in, “What do you mean? What was wrong with her?”

  “She fainted when she saw me. Then she got feverish and all sweaty.”

  “Why didn’t you start with that? I need to go to her.” Ellie turned to rush out of the room, but Damien’s grip on her hand drew her back.

  “No need for that. We didn’t get to the hospital,” then he looked behind her at Dale, who in turn returned the solemn gaze. Ellie felt the dread settle in. Was this nightmare never going to be over?

  “What? What is it?”

  Dale stood, pulling her against him, back to chest, his arms winding around her waist. “A man and a woman, both armed, forced Damien out of the car and drove away with her.”

  She slumped against him, “What?”

  “We don’t know what they wanted with her or the boy—”

  “I do.”

  ****

  What am I doing? Damien hadn’t meant to say that, but the misery on Ellie’s face… VS would have wanted him to do this. Ease her sister’s suffering.

  “What do you mean?” Dale demanded through narrowed eyes, his voice just as accusing.

  Suddenly he wished he was making this confession to Ellie alone. Could he trust his cousin? In the past, he wouldn’t have thought twice about that but now, they were on opposite sides. Dale was determined to put her away permanently while Damien was looking to save her from that fate. God, he was never one to question facts backed by proof—Ellsa was a murderer and a dangerous one at that, but… the woman he knew all those years ago and the one he met today, she didn’t look capable of hurting a fly.

  “Damien!”

  Hoping against hope that this wouldn’t bite him in the ass, he said, “I think Ellsa is under protective custody.” When that revelation was met with silence, he went on. “I spoke to the woman. She knew who I was and how long I’d been searching for VS. She said I was making their job hard with my persistence.”

  “What job?” Dale hissed.

  “Protecting her from Vladimir—at least I think it’s him. He was the guy she was running from the first time we met.�
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  “In Miami?” Ellie squeaked. “Why would she need protection for all these years and why didn’t she tell me?”

  Damien shook his head, “She must have had her reasons. These people meant business, Ellie. There was nothing law enforcement about them. They looked more like hired mercenaries.”

  She clutched her hair in tight fists, her eyes wide with fear. “And you let them go off with my sister!”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice! They asked me nicely to step out of the car and when I say nicely, I mean with a gun in my face.”

  Ellie turned, burying her face in Dale’s chest. He held her to him, remorse in his eyes. “If I was there with you we might have—”

  Damien shook his head, “No, I think she’s safe with them.” When Dale went to protest, he held his hand up. “You don’t go against the Russians unless you can play on an equal playing field. We can’t, but they can. They seem to care about VS and that’s enough for me—for the moment.”

  “If Ellsa knew this man was a threat, why didn’t she do anything to protect Ellie?”

  “She has been safe.”

  “Except from Ellsa herself,” Dale gnashed out.

  There was so much of this that Damien didn’t understand—a state he despised being in—and he needed to figure it all out before the walls came closing around Ellsa. He looked at his wrist watch. It was a few minutes to midnight. Why hadn’t DJ called him yet?

  Sniffling, Ellie brought her face out of hiding from Dale’s chest, “You mentioned a boy. Did she kidnap another child?”

  “No,” “Yes,” He and Dale answered simultaneously.

  At the tortured look on Ellie’s face, Damien quickly said, “The boy is hers.”

  Dale snorted, “How would you know?”

  With a silent prayer that he wasn’t making a mistake by confessing this Damien said, “Because he’s mine too.”