The Obsession

by Nora Roberts

  “Again. Don’t lose it. Imagine me imagining you naked. Yeah, that’s got you thinking.”

  She came out again, picked up one of the hubcaps, handed it to Dave. Went back.

  “Ky, wrap one of the loose ends of chain around your fist. Go with the music, play.”

  “I’ve got a hubcap,” Dave pointed out.

  “And drumsticks. Play the hubcap. Play the tools, play the instrument, whatever strikes. Play. You’re onstage, you know how to interact onstage.”

  She took them from play to war—instruments and tools as weapons. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the dog slinking back, caught him in the frame.

  “Tag!” she called out just as he grabbed one of the shoes.

  Lelo just laughed, hooked an arm around Tag. “Hey, he can be in the band.”

  She took the shot, took two more while the mood held. Then stepped back.

  “That’s a wrap, gentlemen.”

  “That’s it?” Dave blinked at her.

  “It takes her twice as long—more,” Xander corrected, “to set things up than to take the pictures.”

  “You can see if it was worth it. I’ll set the laptop on slideshow. If you like the group shots, I’ve got time to take individuals—you’d want to change again.”

  “It’s nice of you to offer,” Dave began, “but I should probably . . . Hey, that’s a nice shot.”

  She’d started with the basic band shot. “Yeah, it’s not bad.”

  “No, these are really good. Tons better than what we have now. You see this, Trilby?”

  “Sweet.” In his ruined shirt, he braced a hand on Dave’s shoulder, leaned in to study. “You got some individuals right here.”

  “Nice.” Ky unwrapped the chain. “We can really use these.”

  “Aces, but the others are going to be better.” Still barefoot, Lelo squeezed in. “Are they coming up?”

  “These are with the Nikon. I’ll switch cards when they run through.”

  “Can you email these to me?” Dave asked her.

  “You’re not going to want all of them, and the files from the Hassie are huge. I’ll send you a sample of the best of them once I go through.”

  She switched cards, waited to see if she’d gone wrong.

  “Told ya!” Lelo punched Dave’s shoulder when the shots began to slide on-screen.

  “These are— We look—”

  “Super cool!” Lelo punched Dave again.

  “I thought it was crazy, even stupid.” Dave glanced up at Naomi. “Big apologies.”

  “Not necessary. Worth the shirt?” she asked Trilby.

  “And then some. These are great. Really great.”

  “That’s talent, and that’s vision.” Ky nodded at the screen. “Shouldn’t have doubted you. Xander’s got a knack for spotting talent and vision.”

  “That one! Gotta have that one, the one with the dog.” Lelo scrubbed at Tag, who still had the shoe in his mouth. “Band mascot.”

  “How about that wine now?” Xander asked her when the slideshow started again.

  “I could have a glass—one—before I set up for individuals.”

  He took her hand, drew her outside the bay. “And after that, stay.”

  “Oh, I really should get back, take a better look at these, start to weed through them.”

  He leaned down, kissed her, warm and long in the quieting spring evening. “Stay anyway.”

  “I . . . I don’t have my things, or Tag’s food, or . . .” She should take a breath, take some room. Then he kissed her again. “Come home with me,” she said. “When we’re done, come home with me.”

  —

  He went home with her, and late into the night when whatever dream chasing her made her whimper and stir, he did what he never did. He wrapped her close, and held her.

  —

  While Xander shielded Naomi from the nightmare, Marla lived one.

  She didn’t know where she was, how long she’d been in the dark.

  He hurt her, whoever he was, and when he did, he whispered how he would hurt her more the next time. And he did.

  She tried to scream, but he’d taped her mouth. Sometimes he pushed a rag over her face, and the terrible fumes of it made her sick, then made her go away.

  She always woke in the dark, woke cold and scared, and wishing with all her heart for Chip to come save her.

  Then he’d rape her again. He cut her, and he hit her. He cut her and he hit her even if she didn’t fight the rape. Sometimes he choked her until her lungs burned, until she passed out.

  She couldn’t remember what had happened, not exactly. When she tried to think, her head hurt so bad. She remembered walking home, being mad, so mad. But couldn’t remember why. And she remembered—or thought she did—having to stop and puke in some bushes.

  Then the big car with the camper—was that it? She walked by a camper, and then something hit her. Something hurt her. And those awful fumes took her away.

  She wanted to go home, she needed to go home. She wanted to go back to Chip. Tears leaked out of her swollen eyes.

  Then he came back. She felt the movement. Were they on a boat? She felt, as she had before, the space tilt, and creak. His footsteps. She struggled, tried to scream, though she knew it was useless.

  Please, please, somebody hear me!

  He gave her one hard slap. “Let’s see if you’ve got one more night in you.”

  Something flashed, blinding her. And he laughed.

  “You sure aren’t much to look at now. But I can always get it up.”

  He cut her first so she screamed against the tape. He punched her with a fist cased in a leather glove, then slapped her to bring her around again so she’d cry when he raped her.

  It was always better when they cried.

  Then he used the rope to choke her. This time he didn’t stop when she passed out. This time he finished it, and took her out of the nightmare.

  When he raped her, when he choked her, he called her Naomi.

  Seventeen

  Soaking, sopping spring rains blew in. They made for muddy boots, wet dog, and some dramatic photos.

  Naomi worked in the unfinished bedroom with the ugly blue bathroom and learned to block out the scream of tile cutters.

  She spent the rainy Monday and started the rainy Tuesday refining the weekend’s work. She’d added the Wreckers to her playlist, used their music while she worked on the band shots.

  She switched off to blues when refining the shots of Xander on her deck, went random on the book-in-hand.

  If she put off working on what she thought of as Storyland, she’d get to it. Inside, she knew she had to get past the upset of seeing that damn book tucked in with all the others on Xander’s book wall. And right now, she was experiencing something new and different.

  She was happy. Not just satisfied, content, or engaged. Happy in a way that stuck with her right through the day—rainy or not. The house, the progress on it, the work—because, God, she did good work here. Even the dog gave her a sense of happiness.

  And still, this was more. However it had happened, however it ran contrary to ingrained habit and what she considered good, sensible judgment, she was in a relationship. And in one, she had to admit, with an interesting man. One who engaged her, mind and body, who worked as hard as she did, and enjoyed it as she did.

  Who could blame her for wanting to hold on to it as long as it lasted?

  She matted the manipulated shot of him on the deck. Toned black-and-white, his eyes boldly blue, the dog’s crystal. Bright white mug, and the red-gold streak of sun an arrow over the horizon where sky met water. She’d debated between white mat or gray, and saw now she’d been right to go with the gray. It popped the colors out, didn’t distract as the white might have. Pewter frame, she decided, not black. Keep those edges soft.

  She propped the matted print against the wall, stepped back to study it.

  The start of a good day, she thought, remembering. She only had to eliminate
the visit from the chief of police, and it had been the start to a most excellent day—that ended as it began, with Xander in her bed.

  She hooked her thumbs in her pockets, giving the prints ranged against the wall a critical study, called out a come in at the knock on the door.

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she told Kevin. “Perfect time to break.”

  “Good, because Lelo’s downstairs.”

  “He is?”

  “Yeah, he wanted to . . . Wow.” He came all the way in, leaving the door open so the sounds of hammers and saws echoed from downstairs, and the tile cutter screamed down the hall. “Those are great. That’s Cecil’s barn—and Cecil. And Xander. Mind?” he asked, and crouched down before she answered. Tag padded over to nose under Kevin’s arm for a hug.

  “This one? Man, you can smell morning. That minute before it bangs open and it’s day.”

  “You make me wish you were an art critic.”

  “It’s how it hits. The black-and-white with the bits of color, that’s dramatic, right? And seriously cool. But this one, it’s the quiet and the . . . possibilities?”

  “Definitely wish you were an art critic.”

  “I’m not, but I’ve got to say Cecil’s barn never looked so good. Where are you going to hang them?”

  “I’m not. They’re going to the gallery in New York. In fact, I need to do a second print of what seems to be your favorite. The gallery owner wants one for his personal collection.”

  “Hah.” Visibly tickled, Kevin pushed up to stand. “Xander’s going to New York. You know, the shop where Jenny works would go nuts for those smaller ones there—the flowers and the barn door, the old tree.”

  She’d matted them for herself, but . . . maybe. The commission, if they sold, could carve nicely into the cost of the old cedar chest she had her eye on at Cecil’s.

  “I might take some of them in, see about that. Did you say Lelo’s downstairs?”

  “Hell, got off track. Yeah, he said he’d look at the yard, work up some ideas. But he’s poking around with the guys downstairs—or was when I came up.”

  “We talked about him looking at the yard, but it’s pouring rain.”

  “It’s Lelo.” Kevin’s shrug said it all. “If you’re going to break for a bit, I’ve got some things to talk to you about downstairs. The laundry room deal, and up here, the studio.”

  “Okay. Let me talk to Lelo, then I’ll find you.”

  “We appreciate you don’t breathe down our necks when we’re working. I mean that. But you might want to take a look at the work on the master bath before you close off again.”

  “All right.”

  Kevin peeled off in the direction of the master, and the dog started down with her. Tag paused on the stairs, sniffed the air. If a single bark could signify utter delight, his did before he all but flew down the stairs.

  She heard Lelo laugh. “Hey, there he is! How’s it going, big guy!”

  She found them, already wrestling over the painter’s tarp. Lelo wore a wet cowboy hat and a yellow rain slicker.

  “Hi. Figured it was a good day to take a look around since we’re rained out on this patio job.”

  “So you want to slosh around outside here instead?”

  “Rain’s gotta rain. I didn’t want to go poking around without letting you know.”

  “Let me get a jacket.”

  “I can just make some notes and all if you don’t wanna get wet.”

  “Rain’s gotta rain.”

  He grinned. “There you go. Meet you out there. Okay if Tag tags with me?”

  “I’d have a hard time stopping him. I’ll be right out.”

  She grabbed her rain jacket, a ball cap, and took the time to change her sneakers for boots.

  When she got out front, Lelo wandered in the steady rain, tossed a sodden tennis ball for the delirious dog.

  “Got a good start on the cleanup,” he called out.

  “Xander did. I’d barely started on it.”

  “He likes the work. My dad’s always saying he’d hire Xander in a heartbeat, but then who’d fix his truck? I want to say right off, I hope you’re not in love with those old arborvitaes because they gotta go.”

  “I’m not in love.”

  “Excellent. Anything you especially want?”

  “I thought an ornamental weeper, like a cherry. Over there.”

  “Uh-huh.” He stood, rain dripping off the brim of his hat, studied. “That’d work. Have you ever seen a weeping redbud?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s not red. It’s lavender.”

  “Lavender.”

  “Awesome color, and just a little less usual. And it’s got heart-shaped leaves.”

  “Heart-shaped.”

  “You maybe want to look it up.”

  “I’m going to.”

  “You could maybe do some pavers, you know? Kind of winding, not straight-arrow-like. And set off the house with native shrubs and plants. You like birds and butterflies? Like that?”

  “Sure.”

  “You gotta have a mock orange. It smells good, looks pretty, and it’ll draw the birds and butterflies. And Juneberry. It’s got white starry flowers, and it fruits. Purple fruit about this big.” He circled his thumb and finger. “You’ll get the songbirds with that. You can eat it—it’s pretty good. And you want some rhodos.”

  He walked, gesturing, tossing the ball, rattling off names, descriptions. And painted a picture of something fanciful and lovely.

  “I was going to plug in a tree, a couple of shrubs, do some bedding plants and bulbs.”

  “You could do that. It’d look fine.”

  “Maybe it would, but now you’ve got me thinking about plants I’ve never heard of and trees with heart-shaped leaves.”

  “I could draw it up for you, give you a better picture.”

  “Okay, let’s do that.”

  “Can I see around back?”

  “We’re already wet.”

  As they started around the side, he reached into the pocket of his slicker. “Want?”

  She glanced down, saw the classic yellow pack, caught just the drift of that comforting scent as he drew out a stick of Juicy Fruit.

  Though she shook her head, deemed herself foolish, the simple pack of gum cemented her initial impression of him.

  Kind, sweet, loyal. No wonder the dog adored him.

  “You get afternoon shade here,” Lelo continued as he folded a stick of gum into his mouth. “It’s a nice spot for a hammock or a bench, some shade lovers. You wind those pavers around, you’d be