Fatal Obsession (Black Widow Book 2)

by Christina OW

  “Should I not have asked that?”

  Ellie shook her head and tried to laugh off her concern. Her laugh sounded like she was choking. “Third wasn’t an easy birth so there’s a possibility I may not be able to carry another baby.”

  Ellsa put her arm around her shoulders, “Living a life worrying when your mind is going to betray you has taught me one thing. Enjoy the here and now. Better two than nothing and if you really want to have another, I’ll carry it for you. That’s what sisters are for, right?”

  This time when she chuckled it was out of genuine shock, “You would be a gestational carrier for me? Are you sure?”

  Ellsa shrugged, pulling her arm away and flipping the pancake, “Yeah why not? It didn’t look all that complicated in the movie.”

  “In the movie?”

  Ellsa rolled her lips into her mouth and she shifted from one foot to the other, “I don’t know if Robocop told you this but when I woke from that coma my mind was a blank page. The only thing that I could remember to do was talk and not eloquently. I had to learn everything from scratch. I’m just lucky I’m a fast learner. So yeah, most of my knowledge comes from endless hours of watching movies, nothing but movies.”

  Ellie couldn’t imagine what kind of frustration she went through. She’d been in a coma for a month and when she woke up, she remembered everything to the point when she closed her eyes thinking she was dying, Third the last thing she saw. Okay, not something to think about at the moment.

  “Going to the park and the zoo must have been a childlike experience.”

  She snorted, “Never been. I was never allowed to go out. I had to fight to take DJ to and from school, without an escort. Until I met or re-met Damien, I didn’t understand how much of a prisoner I was in my own home. And the worst part was, no one would tell me why.”

  Ellie hoped to God no one ever would. Ellsa wouldn’t be able to live with the fact she’d been under the control of an obsessed psycho and had killed several people because of it. “Well, you are here now and we can do those things together.”

  “Momma!”

  Ellie jumped, but Ellsa didn’t. She’d almost knocked the pan off the burner.

  Ellsa laughed, almost doubling over, “You okay?”

  “I will be when my heart drops from my throat,” she jumped again but not as bad as the first time, when DJ screamed again, louder, “So you guys play marco polo in the mornings till he finds you?”

  Ellsa rolled her lips to smother the laugh and shook her head, “No, it’s just that we are in a strange house. Usually, he gets up and gets his cereal, watch morning cartoons until I drag myself out of bed to get coffee. We talk a while before he goes to get ready for school. It’s both annoying and admirable how self-reliant he is.”

  “Momma!”

  “DJ, cut that out!” Damien’s loud bellow quickly followed.

  “Time to get coffee ready,” Ellsa spoke, walking across the room to the coffee maker. She looked so… normal.

  “Is his shouting part of his morning routine too?” Ellie teased.

  “Nope. He probably didn’t have much sleep. Hey, Ellie,” Ellsa began, turning around to face her, “When I… was DJ…”

  She quickly shook her head when she spotted Ellsa’s trembling lips, “No. He doesn’t even know. Damien made sure he wasn’t there when it happened.”

  “How did he explain his momma being passed out?”

  “The doctor gave you a sedative to help with the pain in your wrist.” A brow went up and Ellie smiled, “Yeah he didn’t believe that easily, but Damien said a few other things I didn’t understand, but he did, so that fixed it. You must be proud of your gifted son.”

  She nodded, a bright smile commanding her face, “The word proud isn’t enough to explain just how much. I’m just glad he finally has a like mind in his father. Did he like spending time with Agent Kevin? I was sure DJ was going to ask to live with the smartest man he’s ever met and only tolerate his substandard parents over the weekends.”

  Ellie shook her head, “No way. That boy adores you. And if you want a babysitter, Kevin would be happy to have him over. He’s Third’s godfather.” She rolled her eyes, “He gave him a brain exercise video for his first birthday.”

  “No way!” she exclaimed laughingly.

  “I wish I was joking.”

  “Momma, there you are!” Ellie turned to face the little boy with his hands on his waist and an accusing glare on his face. “Didn’t you hear me call you?”

  Damien walked in—more like dragged himself in—behind him, smacking the back of his son’s head, “She’s your mother, not your pet.”

  DJ rubbed the back of his head with a harsher glare for his father.

  “Middle D, this how you wake up in your home? Kid’s got some bloody lungs on him.” Dale grumbled as he dragged himself into the kitchen and dropped on a stool at the island one away from Damien.

  “Language please,” Ellsa chastised sweetly, placing two mugs of coffee before them. “Little man, on the stool between these two bears. Was there a reason for your bellowing?”

  “Just wanted to know where you were,” He grumbled. DJ stomped to Damien and tugged on his shirt. Without turning around, Damien reached down, grabbed the back of his onesie Spiderman pajamas and lifted him on the stool between him and Dale. When he wobbled, Dale grabbed his little shoulder to hold him steady.

  They were such a miserable trio, it was too amusing.

  Still glaring up at Damien DJ asked, “How else was I supposed to find her?”

  Damien turned to him, “Did you try searching the house first?”

  “But you said I should yell just in case you and momma were busy having sex,” Dale spat out his coffee in a spray at that. DJ just gave him a disgusted look before he turned back to his father who was now wide awake and went on, “and not knock because the chance of you hearing me is slim to none. And not to open the door and just come in because momma would kill us both—me for seeing what I shouldn’t and you for not being able to stop.”

  Ellie pressed her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. But Ellsa’s bulging eyes and reddening cheeks were making it near impossible to hold it in. Dale, however, was doubled over, laughing hard.

  “DJ, you left me in bed,” Damien answered patiently.

  “That doesn’t mean Uncle Dale and Aunt Ellie weren’t having sex.”

  “Oh dear Lord!” Ellsa groaned. Ellie covered her mouth with both her hands but she could do nothing to stop the laughing tears.

  “You know, your kids are going to be five one day,” Damien responded to Dale’s loud, out of control laughs.

  Ellsa sighed and began serving up breakfast, “How about some breakfast? And maybe after daddy’s suggestions are done biting him in the butt we can try to convince him and Uncle Dale to take us to the museum?”

  DJ threw both his arms up, fists high, “Yeah! Finally, I get to go!”

  Ellsa placed a plate of eggs, pancakes and bacon and a glass of milk in front of him, “Did I miss the part where you asked Daddy?”

  DJ turned to Damien, hands pressed in prayer position, “Please Daddy! Can we go, I promise I’ll behave.”

  Damien exchanged a look with Dale over his mug. Ellie knew what they were silently conversing over. Vladimir. His men hadn’t come last night and they may still make an appearance and they wanted to be ready for them. So why stay in the house? Wouldn’t going to a public place be safer, especially since there was a child who might be caught in the middle? He’d already been used against Ellsa once before and people died because of it.

  “Yeah, let’s go to the museum. It might be fun. No reason to sit around the house waiting for the day to end.”

  Dale stared at Ellsa long and hard before he nodded. “It could be fun and safer.”

  “Safer than what?” DJ piped up.

  “Rock climbing. You’re not tall enough for that,” Damien answered, rubbing his head. DJ seemed to think it over a little before he gave a sol
id nod and attacked his pancakes.

  Ellie admired his quick thinking. It must be hard work to keep up with DJ.

  “Uncle Dale… if you get Kevin to come I’ll forgive you for being mean to my momma,” DJ said conversationally but it drew all their attention.

  “I’ll call him right now,” Dale responded.

  “Of course, just saying sorry would have sufficed.” This time it was Damien who spat out his coffee.

  “Damien James Chan!” Ellsa sounded out the warning in all his three names and it hit home.

  His head lowered and when Ellie thought he was about to apologize he said instead, “I won’t apologize for being right. Even if it means I won’t go to the museum.”

  Ellsa groaned, pressing her fingers over her eyes, “Damien.”

  Taking his cue, Damien lifted DJ onto his lap, “Okay little man, let’s talk. We understand where you’re coming from but standing up for what you believe in doesn’t give you the right to be rude. There is a better way to put your point across. And you should have started by asking Uncle Dale if he did apologize to your momma first.”

  “I know he didn’t. He’s too macho, like Uncle Mike.”

  Ellsa groaned again and then turned to Ellie and muttered, “Please tell me he doesn’t get his sass from me?”

  Fighting a smile, Ellie responded, “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

  ****

  “Would you calm down? You’re behaving like a rookie.”

  Damien glared at his cousin, “There is a madman after the woman I love. Forgive me if I’m not feeling very calm.” He looked ahead to where he’d last spotted Tasha. She was laughing animatedly with Ellie. With Kevin playing tour guide for DJ, it left her free to bond with her long lost twin sister. It made him smile watching her. She’d never laughed like that before and he was sure it had something to do with Ellie.

  “The woman you love, ha? You sure you aren’t misconstruing your own obsession for her?”

  Damien turned to look at his cousin who had his eyes fixed on the duo—or just Ellie. He looked too serious, the jokester he grew up with barely visible.

  “I love her. I know that now for sure. Dale, if this is hard for you… once this is over we can leave—”

  Dale cut him off with a snort, “Look at them. I’ve haven’t seen Ellie that happy in a long time. If I have to tolerate Ellsa to keep her happy for the rest of our lives, I’ll do it.”

  Damien shook his head, looking around again, “Tolerate? Technically, you look at Ellsa every day seeing as how she shares a face with Ellie.”

  “Smart ass.”

  Damien chuckled, then seriously he said, “Dale, I’d rather we see each other over the holidays than have DJ pick up on your hostility towards Tasha. I want my son to be able to turn to you if something happens to me, not Mike. It’s the last time he uses DJ against his mother.”

  Dale sighed heavily, “I understand and I know Ellsa wasn’t to blame for what they did to her but… it’s hard to forget, not to be cautious around her. How do we know that chip still in her head won’t be used to control her again?”

  “Vladimir’s had over a year to do so…”

  “Or just over a year to find a way to remotely change that memory chip to a control chip?”

  Damien went cold. Damn! Without looking at the blueprints, he was fifty-fifty on that happening. And Elaine wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. She would kill Tasha if it meant stopping her from hurting anyone else.

  “Maybe you should think about getting it removed.”

  The temperature dropped a few more degrees. “And risk her almost dying again? No way!”

  “Are you willing to take the risk that she could be controlled again? Or worse…”

  “What could be worse?”

  Dale stopped, drawing him to a stop. The look in his eyes was intense and yet… pitying. “She recognizes her nightmares for what they are, memories. Do you see Tasha surviving that?”

  Damien was drawn to Tasha by her laugh. Dale was right. The guilt would eat her alive. “I’ll speak to Elaine,” he croaked, choking with emotion.

  “Why don’t you call her now while we are still alone?”

  With a hard nod, he dialed Elaine’s number. She picked up on the first ring, “Elaine—”

  “Damien, you’ve got your eyes on Tasha?”

  Something in her voice worried him, “Yes, why?”

  “Vladimir is dead.”

  Damien slapped Dale’s shoulder and held on as relief washed over him.

  “It wasn’t us, Damien.”

  So what? “I don’t care. He’s no longer a problem in our lives.”

  “What was left of him was wrapped up in red and pink ribbons with a giant bow and a card attached.”

  Damien clenched the hand on Dale and Dale grabbed hold of his wrist. “Elaine…”

  “It said ‘to Ellsa with love’. Do not let her out of your sight!”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Do you think they sell eighteenth century lingerie in the gift shop?”

  “What?” Ellie exclaimed laughingly.

  Tasha smiled naughtily, “Just for science purposes. You know; the evolution of fashion in the bedroom.”

  Ellie shook her head, “Is sex all you think about?”

  Tasha shrugged as they rounded the corner, “It wasn’t until I met Damien. Now all I want to do is make love to him in every position humanly possible. I wish there was a book somewhere that detailed all sex positions. We could mark off as we go through it.”

  “There is. It’s called the Kama Sutra.”

  “The kama what?”

  Ellie looped her arm through her sisters and laughed, “I’ll lend you the copy you gave me.”

  Tasha stumbled on her feet and if it weren't for Ellie, she would have kissed the ground, “Excuse me?”

  “You got it for me on our eighteenth birthday. Mom and dad were not amused.”

  That familiar sadness came over her at the mention of their parents. The only thing Elaine had told her about them was that they were dead. She only found out their dad’s name was James from Damien.

  “You said your daughter is named after our mom and Dale’s mom.”

  “Uhm,” Ellie responded, concern creased her face. Tasha hadn’t wanted to sound sad and emotional, but it hurt a lot not knowing her parents, worse, not remembering them.

  “What was mom’s name?”

  “Stacey.”

  “Stacey,” she echoed with a watery smile, “that’s a beautiful name.”

  Ellie hugged her arm, “You could name your daughter Stacey-Alice, I don’t mind sharing.”

  “Shh!” Tasha looked around, “Don’t let DJ hear you say that. He’s on a sibling campaign. He wants a sister and a brother.”

  Ellie chuckled, “And what’s wrong with that? The kid’s going to be lonely without siblings.”

  Yeah, Tasha thought so too but… she still had this feeling of doom hanging around her. She thought the other shoe had dropped when Dale practically attacked her in the cabin and arrested her but… there was something else coming. She could feel it.

  “Tasha, what’s wrong?”

  She looked behind them to make sure the guys weren’t close then turned back to Ellie, “Promise you won’t say anything to Damien? It might be nothing, but my mind is playing tricks on me…”

  “Tasha, what is it?”

  She noticed she hadn’t promised but… “I have this feeling that something bad is about to happen. That something is going to destroy our lives… The first time I had it, it was just the three of us—Damien, DJ and me—and I thought Tom my husband would do something to keep us apart again. But now that you and Dale are in my life again, my family, the feeling has grown tenfold. I feel like…” she stopped, the hair at the back of her neck standing up.

  Something wasn’t right. The corridor they’d gone down was almost empty with a few bodies moving around, but there was something else, a danger, she could sense it. How, she hadn�
��t the slightest clue, but she knew it was there.

  “Tasha, what is it?”

  She drew Ellie closer and slowed their pace and just listened. The corridor echoed with footsteps, but there was a set—no, three that moved different from the others. They’d slowed when she and Ellie had, but now… she tilted her head slightly towards the ground. They were separating, one still followed but two moved outwards. They were going to try to surround them, she could feel it.

  “Ellie, slowly pull your phone out of your bag and call Dale,” she whispered, looking around for reflective surfaces. She needed to look behind them without being obvious.

  “I would, but won’t that be a little obvious?”

  “What?”

  “My husband is an FBI Agent. I help him decompress when he comes home from tough cases. You think we are being followed. The best option right now is to pretend we haven’t noticed and join that crowd there.”

  Tasha nodded, but felt her body go rigid when the footsteps quickened. “They are coming for us, I want you to run.”

  “Hell no!”

  “Ellie!”

  “What are you going to do? Try to reenact a fight scene from a movie you watched? You might have been on the money about being followed but watching Enter The Dragon doesn’t make you Bruce Lee!”

  “What? Who’s Bruce—”

  “Tasha, honey.”

  Tasha’s feet froze under her and she drew Ellie to a stop. She’d hoped to never see this man in her life ever again, but it looked like she was right and he was the proverbial shoe. She turned around to face him, keeping Ellie close.

  “Tom, can’t say I was looking forward to seeing you again. Ever.”

  Tom looked from her to Ellie, “I see you’ve met your twin. How did you find out about her?”

  Tom knew? Of course he did, the selfish asshole. “What do you want?”

  Remorsefully he said, “I just want to talk. Apologize for what I did.”

  Tasha looked over his shoulder to see who the two sets of running feet belonged to. Dale and Damien, to her relief. “Now isn’t the right time.”