Fatal Obsession (Black Widow Book 2) (9 page)

“What?”

Damien sat up. “Your sister-in-law doesn’t know who she is—or who she was.”

Dale shook his head. “What are you saying? Ellsa has amnesia? But you said she fainted when she saw you? People don’t faint when they see someone they don’t know.”

“They don’t faint when they see someone they do know.”

Dale huffed. “I’m not playing this game with you Damien, would you just talk straight.”

Damien chuckled at that. When they were younger he’d enjoyed talking his cousins in circles until they pummelled him. “The shock of seeing me, sensing that she knows me but not being able to remember must have done it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe not, but DJ told me every time she tries to remember she passes out and gets feverish and sweaty.”

“Then what?”

Damien clenched his jaw. After seeing how dejected DJ was, his hands were craving the shape of Turner’s neck. He stood and approached the bars that stood between him and Dale. “Swear to me what I tell you will not be repeated.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Dale—”

“Damien,” he cut in. “I won’t protect someone who almost killed me and harmed my family.”

Damien brushed his hand over his face with a frustrated sigh. “It won’t matter one way or another if you arrest her. You’re not exactly the biggest threat they are facing,” before Dale could speak Damien hurried on. “Ellsa Jabari doesn’t exist anymore. DJ told me she got into a car accident. She was in a coma for a while and when she woke up they gave her an entirely different identity.”

“Who is she now?”

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

“How did you find all this out?”

Damien smiled proudly. “DJ, my son. He talks really fast. It took all my concentration to keep up.”

Dale smiled sadly at him. “I don’t want to burst your bubble, but how can you be sure he’s yours?”

“He not only looks like me, but we share one thing in common. The kid got my smarts, but he goes to a regular school, which tells me he’s just as humble as I am.”

Dale snorted. “Another Damien Chan, I feel sorry for his generation. But I know one who’ll finally get to live out his dreams—if he is yours. Does Uncle Hero know about him yet?”

He shook his head no. “When this mess is over, he will. Dale, things aren’t what they seem. You arrest her and she’ll be a sitting duck for Vladimir.”

Dale watched him silently for a moment before he spoke. “I’ll have Ellie bring you dinner.”

Damien watched his cousin until he disappeared around the bend. He moved back to the bed and laid down. He needed to get out of here.

Chapter Five

Tasha paced her room debating her decision. She’d finally decided that the day to confront Tom about the past had arrived. She just wished she had the courage to do so during the day and not—she looked at her bedside clock—at ten in the night. She’d been pacing for almost an hour since her decision and her stomach was still in knots. There was nothing calming about pacing.

“Oh God!” she moaned, chewing on her nails. She wouldn’t have been so nervous if not for his outburst that afternoon when he called her a whore. And dinner, she was ready to use a butcher knife to carve the tension up to pieces because it had been suffocating!

But if she insisted on this path, what if she’d done worse than cheat? She would be going into the confrontation blind. She huffed, but what could be worse than bringing a child of adultery into her marriage home?

The knots in her stomach tightened. Her hand to her belly she bent over and groaned. She was going to hurl!

“No!” she straightened. “Buck up and get things out in the open once and for all.”

Without giving herself a moment to think and pause, she opened her door and single-mindedly marched to Tom’s door and knocked. Silence followed and she was a little relieved. Ready to run and cower in her room, the door swung open and a bare-chested disheveled head Tom sporting a Hennessey in his hand stood there glaring at her. She looked him over again. He was fit—broad shoulders, trim waist and his flannel pants hang provocatively around his hips. He looked different and honestly, more attractive than when he was decked out in his two thousand dollar three piece suits, his hair parted to the left and was slicked back and yet, he did nothing for her. Not a spark or a wow or butterflies in the belly, nothing. But when she thought about DJ’s dad—Damien and the one minute interaction they had, she had hot flashes and all she could think about was stripping him of his clothes one at a time until she got to see what was hidden underneath. Maybe wanting children had nothing to do with why she cheated.

“What?” he barked at her.

Do not chicken out!
Swallowing hard, she blurted out, “We need to talk.”

He stared at her long and hard, took a swig out of the bottle and walked away leaving the door ajar. She figured that was as much of a ‘come in’ than she was ever going to get. She stepped in, hesitantly shutting the door. She didn’t want to be trapped in there alone with him, but she also didn’t want to wake DJ in case their voices raised—she was sure that would happen.

“What do you want?”

Inching closer to him, facing his back. “The truth. I want to know everything that happened before the accident.”

He turned around slowly to face her. “About what?”

“About us, mainly,” she took a step closer. “Why and how did I end up wrapping my car around a tree? Why you don’t want me leaving the house unless I’m picking up DJ and even then I have to stay in the car?” Bracing herself she added, “and why we are still together when you clearly hate me for cheating on you and for DJ’s existence.”

He answered with another glare and another swig of the bottle.

“Tom, why are we still married?”

“Because I love you and I forgave your indiscretion,” he bit out, a slight slur to the bitter words. She didn’t believe him because sincerely, when she looked at him she felt nothing but annoyance. It had been like that for a long time and probably even longer. She was finally admitting that to herself after months of denial and confusion. It made her wonder why
she
stayed.

“Then why do we have separate rooms? Why don’t you ever try to kiss me, touch me or even—you’ve never tried to have sex with me. Why don’t you ever say you love me?”

The bottle dropped with a soft thud on the carpet and the brown liquid pouring out should have been her first and second cues to run. In fact, his sudden change in facial expression before that should have had her legs moving. But she reacted too late. By the time she turned around and was just a step away from the door, her hand reaching for the knob, she knew it was a little too late. His arm circled her waist and she went flying across the room and landed on the bed on her back. She crawled back until her back hit the headboard watching as he came towards her like a predator stalking his prey.

She should never have closed the door.

****

Damien stretched out on the cot waiting for his promised meal. It had been hours and he was starving. His morning excursions didn’t leave much time for more than just a snack. Right now, they should have been gone, been miles away from Georgetown. Instead, he was in a cell until his cousin saw fit to release him. And his son and Victoria Secret had probably been moved to another location. It was the second time they’d almost been caught, he didn’t think Mike and Elaine would allow a third. He pounded his frustration into the pillow before he turned on his side. The cot was still short but at least laying on his side was a better fit.

He’d just put his head down when he heard loud voices approach. And from the sound of it someone was getting his head chewed off. He raised his head to hear better and chuckled once he recognized the voice. It was Ellie and she was pissed! One guess who was getting their ass handed to them.

Damien stood and approached the bars. He wrapped his hands around the rods and waited for his cousin and his wife to round the corner. It didn’t take long and he wasn’t disappointed. Once Ellie saw him, she turned to Dale with a glare, mumbled loudly ‘asswipe’ before she rushed to the bars with a contrite look on her face.

“I’m so sorry this idiot did this to you. When he called me to bring you dinner, I brought a lawyer instead.”

Damien nodded, because if he spoke he’d end up laughing. His cousin was mad enough to keep him in that cell an extra day if he laughed.

“Don’t worry, Daniel will get you out of here tonight.”

“He wasn’t under arrest in the first place,” Dale mumbled.

“Oh? So is this your new visitors quarters? Thanks but he doesn’t need room and board, he has that in my house. You, mister, will be getting comfortable on your office couch if you don’t open this door right now!” She turned back to Damien then, stroking his hands in a comforting gesture. “Got you caged up in here like a zoo animal.”

Oh hell. She was not making it easy to hold the laughter in.

“Step back,” Dale ordered, signaling the officer standing on the side with a suppressed smile to open the door.

Damien was so relieved Ellie had come to his rescue he could kiss her—but wisely wouldn’t unless he wanted to die caged up like a zoo animal. Once the door swung open, he quickly stepped out and the first thing he did was hug Ellie.

“Thank you. That damn cot was made for a child.”

Dale smirked. “This room and board wasn’t made for comfort.”

Ellie pulled away and glared at him. Taking Damien’s hand, she pulled him past Dale. “Let’s go before he finds some charges to keep you locked up.”

Damien hurried after her. “Don’t have to tell me twice.”

He only breathed a little more freely once they were out of the basement. He’d only feel completely relaxed once they were out of the building, but he needed to get his phone first. They could keep the rest of his things for all he cared. When they stepped out of the elevator and into the hallway, a man, impeccably dressed with a leather briefcase and a fierce look on his face, met them.

“Daniel, don’t start,” Ellie warned harshly.

Damien nodded to himself. He was the lawyer he owed his freedom to and definitely not a fan.
What did Ellsa do to him?

“Damien,” Dale began, behind him at the same time Ellie tried to pull him away from the duo. Dale quickly fastened a halting hand on his shoulder. “I want you to meet Daniel Baker. Ellsa’s only surviving victim.”

Ah hell! It was one thing taking her side with no faces or names to her victims, but another when he stared one of them—make that the only
living one
of them—in the face. But he needed to remind himself that she wasn’t the same woman and he was doing this for his son.

“I’m just going to say thanks and leave it at that. Dale, can I get my stuff?”

“How the hell can you defend that monster?” The one living victim snarled, getting right up in his face.

“Daniel, stop that!” Ellie admonished, but she might as well have said nothing because he wasn’t letting up.

“Do you have any idea what she did to me, to all of us? I’m lucky to be alive!”

“I’m sensing survivor’s remorse?” Damien took a quick step back when Daniel lunged at him.

“Not funny, cuz!”

Damien ignored Dale and kept his attention on Daniel. “How long have you and Ellie known each other?”

When he didn’t answer Ellie did. “Since college.”

“With the boyfriends coming and going, have you always been the one constant in her life?”

“Yes. She’s my best friend. I would do anything for her,” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Ever wonder why you lived and the others didn’t?”

That drew silence until Dale said, “What’s your point?”

He shrugged though the question did raise numerous others. “I’m not sure yet but it’s something I’m definitely going to find out. My stuff?”

“Here.”

Damien leaned enough to the side to spot the pretty blonde—Paloma was her name, holding a tray with his things on it. He walked around Ellie and Daniel and stopped in front of her, gifting her one of his smiles that got a raised brow and half a smile in return.

“You are such a doll.”

“Call me that again and I’ll kick you.” He had to laugh at that. “And, by the way, I also think something weird is going on. She wanted to hurt Ellie but never hit her where it would hurt most—the two men currently in her life.”

“You too?” Dale lamented.

Paloma shook her head, “I’m not defending her, I’m just saying it’s weird. I think there is more to it than any one of us thought to check. Even when she tried to steal Third she was desperate, she actually believed he was hers. And once Gwen shot her the case was closed, none of the normal procedures were followed. We study sociopaths and psychopaths and yet not one of us bothered to try to get into her head to figure out why she lost her marbles.”

“Gwen, that’s the redhead man-eater?” Damien asked, taking note to keep her away from Ellsa.

“Also Dale’s lover,” Ellie supplied.

“
Ex
-lover,” Dale countered.

Damien whistled, “Dale, you dog.” He chuckled when Dale flipped him off.

“Oh, your phone kept ringing but each time Audrey picked it up, the person on the other end hung up.”

Damien felt apprehension tighten his muscles but he fought to conceal it. DJ must have been the one calling and hanging up when he wasn’t the one to answer. “Probably because my phone is voice activated. Can’t have every Tom, Dick, Audrey and Paloma answering my phone.” He winked at her.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head, “I’ve been married too long to fall for your smooth undercover flirtations. And Audrey wants to pick your brain once you cross over from the dark side.”

He nodded, watching her walk away for a few seconds before he punched the code to open his phone. It was DJ and he’d called eleven times and sent countless texts. Something was wrong, something was very wrong. He opened the most recent text. It was an address and the message ended with an SOS. He needed to leave, now!

“Ellie, mind giving me a ride home?” he asked as he moved and texted. ‘On my way. Sit tight, I’m coming.’