Page 138 of His Darkest Obsession

You fucking liar!

Something snaps inside me.

In a single fluid motion, I reach across the desk, grab him by his expensive suit lapels, and yank him forward. His body slides across the polished surface, sending papers scattering across the office.

I slam him down hard against his own desk and my hand closes around his throat.

I bend down until my face is inches from his, close enough to smell the stale coffee on his breath.

"IS THIS WHERE YOU DID IT?" With every word, my fingers tighten around his windpipe.

Not enough to kill. He doesn't deserve that mercy yet.

"I don't—I don't know what—" Bennet's face reddens as he claws at my hand. "What you're talking about."

His pathetic denials only feed my rage. This piece of shit thinks he can continue to lie his way out of this after what I've read?

After what he did to her?

"STOP LYING TO ME!" I roar, slamming his head back against the desk for emphasis. The impact makes a dull thud that gives me a sick satisfaction.

The fire alarm continues its relentless wail around us, but I barely hear it now over the sound of the blood pounding in my ears.

Spittle forms at the corners of his mouth as he struggles to speak. "I'm not lying! I'm not! I don’t know what you’re talking about!"

I lean in closer, bare my teeth, and unleash the name that will strip away all his pretense.

"AMELIA TAYLOR!"

Bennet's eyes widen at the name. The blood drains from his face. His lips move, but no words make it out.

Then, the sobbing starts. Pathetic little hiccupping noises that make me want to crush his windpipe completely.

"Please... please don't..." Tears streak down his face, mingling with the sweat beading on his forehead. "I have a family..."

"SO DID SHE!" I slam him against the desk again.

His sobbing intensifies, snot running from his nose as he breaks. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"Is. This. Where. You. Did. It?" I slam his head down on the surface with every word. Over and over and over again.

Blood begins to leak from his ear. His hand jerks every time his skull impacts the hard unfeeling surface of the desk.

"Yes," he finally admits, whimpering pathetically. "Yes… this is where I did it."

Something inside me shatters at his admission. The image of Indigo flashes through my mind. The scars on her thighs. The terror in her eyes at the gala. The tremble in her lips in that basement when I killed the two cops who murdered her parents.

All her pain. All her suffering. Everything that had been taken away from her started right here. In this fucking office by this fucking animal howling pathetically in my hand.

Tears start burning at the corners of my eyes.

"Why?" The word comes out raw, scraped from somewhere deep inside me. "TELL ME WHY"

Bennet continues sobbing, his chest heaving. "Because I'm weak... I'm just a weak man. I didn't—I didn't mean to hurt her. I just?—"

"LIAR!" I roar, cutting through his pathetic excuses. "You didn't do it because you were weak. You knew exactly what you were doing! You did it because you knew you could get away with it! All of it!"

"HELP!" Bennet screams, blood bubbling between his lips. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!"