Page 12 of Their Stolen Obsession (Phantoms and Obsession Duet #2)

Her Predator

Sin

“ A sshole still won’t give me anything.” Saint heaved with anger and paced the floor in front of me.

My blue-eyed best friend was a mess, and I had never seen Saint like this.

His hair was in disarray after running his hands through it repeatedly.

Half his shirt was untucked from his pants, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and he had forgotten to feed his damn cats.

The hungry little pests rubbed at my feet and wanted me.

This simply wouldn’t do. No fucking way was I going to let Saint lose his shit.

Roughly, I grabbed Saint by the shoulders, and I shook him. “Pull it together. ”

“I can’t!” Saint breathed heavily in my face. “She’s gone, man! Our girl has vanished! What if she never comes back?”

“She will,” I promised and stared Saint straight in the eye. “Do you hear me?”

“It’s been seven whole days. A fucking week! This is driving me crazy,” Saint admitted as he pushed against me, but I held on tight. “What if Liv is dead?”

Saint needed me, and I needed him. We were in this together.

I required him with a level head. I needed his deranged soul as black as my own and his dangerous abilities.

As unhinged as we may be apart, we were even more lethal together.

I needed my screwed up best friend who completed my messed-up self.

He was my fucked up other half, and we had been through hell. We could survive another round.

I pulled Saint in and pressed my forehead against his. He fought me. Our breaths heaved against each other, but I wouldn’t let him go.

“No. You don’t get to do this…” Saint tried to turn away as tears fell from his eyes, and he tried to hide them. “You don’t get to fall to pieces while Liv is still out there. She needs us. She needs you, Saint.”

Saint blinked at me as his nostrils flared, and he tried to hold back his anguish, but the emotion was too much for him. He shook as he crumbled and let the tears fall until there were no more left.

“Fuck,” Saint whispered hoarsely.

“You got this,” I whispered with determination and pulled back from him, only to grip his shoulders tighter. “We got this. Together. Now fucking suck it up.”

Saint chuckled with a hint of a smile. The fear left his eyes and strength won as I softly smacked his cheeks while he gave me a push. The testosterone between us rose, and we puffed out our chests as they collided with a grunt.

We had this. There was no backing down. We’d sooner die in the path of our destructive vengeance, bringing Liv back. Our obsession would come home, right where she belonged. I was fucking confident.

“How’s our prisoner?” I asked.

“Drooling from the mouth,” Saint replied as he got the bag of Purina cat food and poured some into bowls with the feline’s meowing around him. “Fucker couldn’t take the heat and passed out like a pussy.”

Speaking of pussy, Sebastian had been eating as if he were one for days.

We’d fed him wet cat food, the only nourishment the bastard deserved.

It was pure entertainment watching him crawl to a plastic plate using only his stumpy arms. He only denied himself food for a full twenty-four hours before the scumbag gave in.

Anything to keep the motherfucker breathing while we waited and Sebastian wasted our time.

If he didn’t give us any information soon, I was far too tempted to slit his throat and be done with him, but I had to hold on.

Liv needed us, and he was our only hope to finding out her location.

I groaned at the thought and left the room while Saint tended to his stray pets.

The hallway was long, and my shoes tapped against the tiled floor and echoed down the dimly light corridor.

I rolled up my sleeves as if I was ready for the fight of my life against an evil who thought he was greater than me.

But vileness was no match for two unhinged men who sought blood.

I admired the renovations we had made to the old hospital turned penthouse as I walked down a small set of stairs.

The psych ward was on the same level, and we had kept a padded cell as token of appreciation for history.

A trinket we kept hidden away except from those who needed to be held accountable.

Those who would scream for mercy and beg for forgiveness until they came face-to-face with death, but Sebastian was the exception. We needed him.

We trapped Sebastian in a padded room for the insane. There was a small window I peered through as my breath fogged up the unbreakable glass. The opening was high enough that the person inside couldn’t harm themselves, and the room had padded walls resembling flat square pillows.

We even gave the mother fucker a bed and not by choice. By need. The want to torture Sebastian for answers and bring him unbearable pain he couldn’t stand.

The plastic plate on the floor was half full. Sebastian had been eating more of his cat food before Saint had restrained him to the bed to torture him again. Good little feline. I should go in there and give the asshole a pet on the head.

I let myself in through the door and made my way toward the poor excuse of a man who had ruined too much. The room stunk of shit, piss, cat food, and decaying flesh.

Sebastian was in awful shape. Poor motherfucker.

He lay there, knocked out cold, with his mouth hanging open.

He reminded me of death—rotten flesh hung from parts of his body.

He had wounds everywhere, his face was barely recognizable, and his clothes were dirty and ripped.

Blemishes covered his chest; some had tried to heal, and others appeared fresh.

Those burns on his cheeks were nasty as fuck. Saint must have just given them to him.

I mentally gave Saint a pat on the back because he had done good.

He had resisted the urge to kill him and tortured him instead.

My best friend knew what was at stake. I on the other hand, well, fuck.

As I peered down at this motherfucker, all I wanted to do was end him, but we waited for answers.

We wanted Liv back where she belonged. With us.

But trust me, this dickhead’s time would come.

I loosened the restraints Saint had secured, but everything remained limp. The state he was in wouldn’t do, and Liv’s clock ticked down. The more time that passed, the worse the situation was for her, and we couldn’t risk that.

Once all Sebastian’s limbs were free, I reached inside of my pocket and pulled out an inhalant. As illegal as these might be, I was rich, and I could get my hands on anything I wanted. That included smelling salts.

“Wakey, wakey, motherfucker,” I announced as I held the chemical compounds up to his nose and Sebastian inhaled some. “Time to rise and shine, princess.”

Sebastian exhaled a coughing fit and winced in pain. “Fuck!”

Roughly, I lifted Sebastian by his hair, showing him no mercy as he cursed.

My grin grew bigger with each yank until my face was in his, and he stood, even if he didn’t have the strength to.

I dropped the salts, wrapped my hand around his throat and squeezed until a teeny tiny squeak came out.

Prick sounded like a goddamn petrified mouse, and fuck, did it ever feel good.

I stared straight into his wide eyes and demanded through clenched teeth, “If you won’t tell us where Liv is, you can at least let us know who you stole money from.”

I squeezed tighter. Because he had no fingers, Sebastian couldn’t grab me as I lifted him from the floor. I laughed in his face.

Goddamn. Sebastian was pathetic.

Sebastian was a rodent caught in my trap.

He had no chance of beating me, a wicked man who had stared death right in the face and came out alive.

I was darker than he had ever been, more deadly, damaged, and deranged.

Sebastian Chamberlain had messed with the wrong man.

He had stolen from me. I wanted my little obsession back.

“Tell me,” I snapped.

Spit hit Sebastian as I watched his lips turn blue while the color drained from his face. His mouth opened and closed as he gasped for air, but none came through my restriction. Fuck. I could get off on this.

Goddamn it, I wish Liv was here.

That thought only made my rage grow when Sebastian gave no sign of talking. He only wanted to breathe. Fine. Fuck!

“Have it your way, princess.” I threw Sebastian as if he were a rag doll against the padded wall and stalked to where he bounced off the wall. “But I want an answer, and I wanted one days ago.”

I pinned him right back up against the wall with my forearm pressed to his throat. The fear left his face, and he laughed at me. Fucker was messing with me! Again! I’d teach this asshole a lesson.

I grunted as I pressed my arm tighter up against his jugular, cutting off his circulation. I wanted to break his fucking neck. Sebastian was a goddamn psychopath. One moment he quivered with fear, leaving me thinking he’d answer, and the next he was a damn maniac!

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

I’d had enough.

“If you don’t give me an answer when I loosen my grip…” I warned through clenched teeth. “You. Will. Be. Fucking. Sorry. Understand?”

Sebastian gave me acknowledgment with wide bloodshot ugly as fuck eyes.

Slowly, I eased up. Sebastian coughed in my face to catch his breath, but I remained steady, ready for any hint of Liv’s whereabouts. I couldn’t screw this up. She needed me. She needed us .

Sebastian choked out with a slight wheeze, “Fuck you. ”

“Motherfucker!” I roared.

Immediately, I grabbed the hanging flesh from Sebastian’s cheeks and slowly peeled the burned skin back.

The blisters oozed, blood mixed in with the puss, and I quivered with excitement.

The sight was delightful, and oh so fucking glorious, like a piece of artwork Saint had started, and I was about to finish.

Ninety percent fucking satisfying, while the other ten percent wasn’t there yet.

Sebastian screamed.

Yes. There was another five percent, and the sound waged a war against my heart. A sea of pain, caused by Liv’s absence and Sebastian’s greed, swallowed the remaining five percent.

“Okay, okay!” Sebastian shouted. “I’ll talk!”

I stopped dead on the spot before I peeled another chunk of skin from his cheekbone like an orange peel. The juices accidentally squirting out. A citrus fruit was much more appealing than this fucker’s disgusting puss.

I wiped my hands on Sebastian’s clothing and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Talk.”

“Liv…” Sebastian began as he panted, and his fucking breath stunk like a horse’s ass.

“Yes. Liv. Who took her?” I asked desperately .

Fucker laughed after he caught the whiff of my misery. He howled until I had the need to cry because I knew what was coming.

Sebastian whispered, “She’s as good as dead, just like I told her.”

Son of a bitch!

I wasted no time and placed both my hands around his neck. My grip squeezed until Sebastian’s eyes bulged from his head, and I knew every second that passed, he lost more brain cells. The fucker probably wouldn’t have any left.

I was angry, not only at Sebastian, but at myself.

We had blown our only lead. We would’ve had more to go off if we hadn’t been damn stupid in our need to end his life.

Sebastian’s cellphone would’ve come in handy, but we had destroyed it.

Smashed the device to pieces on the side of the street when we had kidnapped him.

It was the only evidence tied to Liv and her captors.

Liv should be here to end this asshole’s life and not me. I didn’t have the right after Sebastian had taken everything from her, including her freedom. She should choke him out, make him bleed, and kill him to release her from the grave he had dug for her to die in.

I released Sebastian, picked up the plate of cat food and pressed the remaining continents into his face. He fucking choked on the scraps as I grabbed the smelling salt from the floor and walked out of the room before I killed him.

In the middle of realizing it was Liv’s choice on how Sebastian died, a light bulb went off. Hope remained. We still had one source of evidence left, thanks to the necklace we had secured around Liv’s neck. The video. It was time to sit down and relive the worst five minutes of my entire life.

Liv’s kidnapping.