Page 120 of Deadly Obsession

The night it all began.

The night we met.

The night my life changed.

We stop at a black door, and Elias turns to me.

“Are you sure you want to go down there?”

I fidget on my feet and chew on my lower lip.

“Sage, listen to me.” Elias takes my face in his hands. He rubs his thumb over my bottom lip, pulling it from my teeth. “The things I’m going to do—”

“I want to go. I need to see.”

He closes his mouth and grits his teeth, his nostrils flaring.

“I’m not going to hold back, and you might see me... a different way after.”

I catch his thumb when it passes over my lower lip again, and I take it into my mouth. My tongue lashes over the tip, and Elias lets out a puff of air.

“I know. I don’t care. You’re myhusband.I... I want to help.”

Elias drops his hands, and he’s preparing to argue, but I hold up my finger.

“I need to help. Please.”

I’ve come a long way from nearly puking after watching Noah’s father stab a fork in Del’s hand all those weeks ago, but that was different. I wasn’t expecting it, and I was already nervous as fuck about wearing the wire.

Now I’ve seen dead bodies. I’ve sewed up bullet holes on my husband’s body. I fucking shot a man.

And I stabbed Chase.

I’m not letting Elias go in there alone when Chase is the one who abused me. He threatened me.My family.

He should die bymyhands.

I’m not sure Elias will allow me to be the one to take his life, I’ll worry about that once we’re down there.

He studies my face for a few seconds, then gives me a curt nod. After putting a code in the keypad next to the door, we descend the stairs.

I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe a cold, dark, and haunted basement like the ones in horror movies. But the staircase is solid, not some decrepit wooden steps.

The walls are clean and painted red with beautiful minimalist artwork hanging throughout.

The floors when we get to the bottom are a lovely, stained cement.

There’s a black cotton couch and matching recliner, a coffee table, and large television hanging over a fireplace.

A few arcade games, including pinball, are tucked in a corner.

This place is cozy and nothing at all like I’d expect a torture chamber to be.

We walk through another door and into a red-walled hallway. There are four black doors on each side, all closed.

We pass them until arriving at a door in the very back of the hallway.

Elias pauses before turning to me. “Are you ready?”