Page 66 of Deadly Obsession

“Is bodyguarding even a real word?”

“Sage,” Noah warns. She casually sips on her vodka tonic while I sit across from her, having a panic attack about telling her the truth.

Will she hate me?

Will she kill me?

“Sage?” Noah’s voice has softened, and she reaches across the table to grab my hands. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

I gulp down the rest of my espresso martini and signal the waiter for another.

“Okay, wow, ordering another drink. This is serious—”

“I’ve been lying to you.”

She opens her mouth to respond, but I can’t let her. I have to get it all out while I still have the courage to do so.

“Remember I told you about my ex, how he stole my identity and ran up my credit? Well, it was a lot worse than that. He never went to jail—”

“Wait, why did you tell me that he did?”

I shrug. “I didn’t want you to judge me for not turning him in. I also didn’t tell you that he cheated.”

“Oh, hell no! Where do I find him?”

“Yeah, look, I don’t care about the cheating. And I didn’t turn him in because he scared me. He threatened me not to say anything to anyone or quote, ‘I’d pay.’ Well, you can judge me now, call me an idiot, because he moved on to bigger crimes. When he turned to drug dealing, I filed for a divorce. He just got worse from there. He’s, like, some wannabe crime lord now. I changed my name so he couldn’t find me. It didn’t matter. He found me anyway. He showed up at my apartment the day after your father’s Christmas party and hit me—”

“I’ll fucking kill him.”

“—then he threatened to kill my parents if I didn’t help him.” I know I’m speaking fast. I hope I’m making sense. I take a deep breath and continue. “He wants to take down the QBM and the Empire and start his own mob so he made me wear a wire to your father’s dinner—don’t worry it didn’t work—then he wouldn’t let me go visit my parents for Christmas without him, and his goons, escorting me. Elias showed up right as Chase was leaving, and Elias proceeded to kill the two goons babysitting me. For the past week, Elias has been trying to find Chase while I stay at his penthouse because I can’t go back to my apartment... or back to work... or out in public without protection. Hence the two big guys back there.”

I point over my shoulder.

The waiter returns with my second espresso martini, and I down nearly half of it.

“Holy shit, Sage.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you. I really wanted to, but Chase said if I told you or Elias, he’d torture my parents.”

“Where are your parents now?”

“Elias has them somewhere safe.”

Noah shakes her head. “Elias is so fucking obsessed with you. I should be pissed, but it sounds like this is a good thing. He’s taking care of it?”

“He is. Chase is behind a lot of the human trafficking that Elias has been busting lately.”

“Unbelievable.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to bother you or Del with this. You two already have a lot to deal with.”

“You will never be a bother. And don’t worry about us. I’m just glad Elias is taking care of you. He hasn’t mentioned any of this to Del or me, and I won’t tell Del shit either. He and his brother need to work on their communication problems. If Elias wants to tell him about the woman he’s obsessed with and protecting, that’s on him. How the hell did he find you anyway?”

“Some real spy bullshit. Something about putting his phone next to yours and cloning it, which gave him access to the tracking app we use.”

I refrain from telling Noah that I found this stalkerish behavior extremely endearing. Elias is full of red flags, but my delusional self only focuses on the green ones.

Is killing someone for me a red or green flag?