Page 137 of Obsession

I turn to leave, but Elliot shoots to his feet.

“I’ve only had a beer. I’ll drive you.”

“It’s fine,” I try to argue, but he walks ahead, swiping up his coat off the back of his chair.

I shrug on my own jacket and wave my colleagues goodbye before weaving my way through the busy tables.

“You don’t have to leave,” I tell Elliot as I exit through the backdoor into a cloud of smoke and rowdy laughter.

He puts his hand on my lower back and propels me forward, guiding me to his parked car. “It’s fine. I have an early start tomorrow anyway. I only showed up because Jeanine insisted I come along.”

“She can be persistent,” I admit as he opens the passenger door, his eyes twinkling with humor.

Jeanine never takes no for an answer.

I slide inside and blow on my hands to warm them up, my eyes snagging on the air freshener dangling from the rearview.

After shutting the passenger door, Elliot rounds the vehicle and gets in behind the steering wheel. He shuts the door andputs his seatbelt on before turning the key in the ignition. “Are you cold? You want me to put on the seat warmer?”

I drag my eyes away from his backseat. Unease nags in the pit of my stomach, and I wet my lips nervously. “Sure.”

Pressing a button on the dashboard, he puts the gear in drive and spins the wheel. We roll out of the parking lot, and I stare at the bar through the passenger window, watching it grow smaller and smaller.

“So they arrested Robbie?” he says, eyes on the road.

Streetlights flood the car in waves with muted, orange light.

I clear my throat; the lump is back with a vengeance. “Are you happy?”

A frown mars his forehead for a brief second before he whips his head in my direction.

His face briefly lights up as we drive past another lamppost. “Why would I be happy?”

“You didn’t exactly make a secret of your dislike for him,” I point out quietly.

His jaw clenches, and he looks back at the road. “I didn’t like that you picked him over anyone else.”

“Over you.”

Silence.

Elliot white knuckles the steering wheel, his shoulders stiff.

I stare out the passenger window while watching the quiet streets pass by in a blur. My haunted reflection gazes back at me in the glass. “I gave him up.”

The car crackles with tension. I look away from the window and sweep my gaze over his wispy, blonde curls, and sharp jaw dusted in a five o’clock shadow.

Robbie’s beard is longer, but everything about him is more unrefined. Elliot cares about his looks, and his hair is never out of place.

“So what?” he asks slowly, controlled, quietly. “You want me now that he’s out of the picture?”

“I didn’t say that?—”

“That’s what you meant,” he snaps. “You’re selfish to the core.”

I blink, confused. “Selfish?”

“I watch the news, Savannah,” he starts, his jaw twitching, “Robbie kidnapped that girl, and you didn’t like it. Admit it. You didn’t like that you were no longer the center of attention. You didn’t like to think of Robbie taking pleasure in another woman, no matter how sick and twisted the nature of that pleasure was. Now, it eats you up inside to think of him fulfilling those needs with someone else. Face it, Savannah. You can never be enough for a monster like him. That’s why you gave him up. If you can’t have all of him. No one can.”