Page 35 of A Monster's Obsession

“I wanted to know who he was working for. He was pretty good about covering his tracks, but I caught onto him when I was following Sasha the first time months ago.”

I continued to pace the length of my office as I processed the information Darby told me. I trusted the twins. They were family. However, with what I just found out from Markos, I would have to kill people I considered part of my family. And make no mistake, I wouldn’t hesitate to take any motherfucker out who went against me; family or not.

But in Darby’s case, I knew he wouldn’t betray me. There’s always a reason for his actions.

“Who is he working for?”

“Douglas Abbott.”

The name sends a chill up my spine because Douglas Abbott is way more dangerous than his son Patrick could ever be. And now that I know, he’s involved. There is definitely a cause for concern.

“Wait. He was following Sasha before I moved to the island.” Pieces of the puzzle were missing.

Founder’s Island is an untapped resource, especially for businesses like mine, but it wasn’t a well-known fact. The Bishops’ family had this shit on lock, and I know for a fact they wouldn’t let a piece of shit like Douglas Abbott in to do business. Hell, we had to become family before we were allowed to set foot on the island.

“Yes. There’s more to the deal with the gallery, but I hadn’t figured it out yet,” Darby replies with furrowed brows.

“Why haven’t you told me about any of this shit?” I question, my anger simmering under my skin like hot lava.

“Because I haven’t figured it out yet!” Darby’s voice gets louder, but he doesn’t yell. I can tell that he’s frustrated, and under normal circumstances, I would be the voice of reason. However, my logic took a back seat when I found out my wife had a gotdamned stalker.

“Alright,” I say, running my hand through my hair and taking a deep breath. I need to calm the fuck down so that I can think. There’s a reason why I’m the next to take over the family as Don. It’s not because my father is the current head of the family; that’s not how it works with us. It’s the most qualified to lead us into success.

I’m intelligent, business savvy, and a fucking savage. I take what I want and kill who I need without issue. I didn’t have a conscience before, and now it lives within my wife. Sasha is my walking talking soul, and now I find out that Douglas Abbott has been watching her for months.

I won’t have that. I can’t have that. I will wipe out their entire family line before I let them get close to my Céile. She won’t end up like Cara. I refuse to let it happen again. I won’t be able to survive it. But neither would anyone else.

“Sasha is safe, Sawyer. I promise you that. Neither Flynn nor I would ever let anything happen to her.”

Darby’s hazel-green eyes twinkle with a sadness that I hadn’t seen in a long time, or maybe it’s been there, and I refused to look. I hate to look at the twins sometimes because the guilt is still there. They didn’t blame me for what happened to Cara, but obviously, someone in their family did.

“I trust you to take care of Sasha. It should be you with questions about safety. After all, it was my fault that…” I trail off because I can’t bring myself to say the words.

“You didn’t kill my sister, Sawyer. Cara’s death isn’t on your hands.” Darby’s words were meant to be reassuring, but they weren’t. They burned through me like fire. My arrogance got my first wife killed, but I would never underestimate an enemy again.

Now to take care of my current enemy… Austin Thomas is a dead man.

Chapter 19

SASHA

“Oh my goodness, Rae, she’s just the sweetest little person in the world,” I smiled down at a sleeping Pilar as I run my hand over her soft midnight curls. She is only a week old, and she is already full of personality.

My best friend attributed her daughter’s attitude to her aunt Dove because Raven stayed mad at her throughout her pregnancy. I said Pilar’s attitude was because of her mother, who kept trying to fight her entire pregnancy.

We are sitting in Raven and Lennox’s plush penthouse apartment while I gush over my Goddaughter. I made a promise to myself that I will not neglect my friendship anymore. I avoided Raven for the last few weeks of her pregnancy because of my horrible mistakes, so I decided I needed to be woman enough from now on to face my issues head on. Hiding from my family and friends will never be the solution. I definitely need to be here for Raven now because I know she’s missing her older sister and her mama.

I finally finish stalling and get down to telling Raven all the sordid details of what lead to me and Sawyer’s shotgun wedding. After saying it all out loud, I realized how dramatic it all sounded.

“So, you needed money, and instead of coming to me, you went to a loan shark? Then Sawyer had to marry you because the loan shark turned out to be a human trafficker who belongs to a mob family. And now you’re under the Nash family protection as Sawyer the Don’s wife.” Raven summarized everything I had told her. I nodded my head slowly at the accuracy.

“Damn, sis! When you get into trouble, you go all out.” Raven shook her head with a look of total dismay on her pretty face.

I sighed dejectedly, “I just wanted to do things on my own.”

“You know, I understand. I’m not judging you, Sasha. But I will help you with anything. That’s all I’m saying,” Raven replied.

“I know you would. I’m just glad Sawyer was there to help me before it was too late. If it wasn’t for him offering this marriage arrangement, there’s no telling what would’ve happened to me.”