Page 24 of Their Stolen Obsession (Phantoms and Obsession Duet #2)

Their Universe

Liv

H oly shit! My phantoms had found me! They had hunted for me and never gave up on me.

All the hopelessness disappeared as my heart raced as if the organ would explode out of my chest. The gunfire was terrifying, but with Sin and Saint on my side, I was safe.

No one could hurt me anymore because they’d rescue me.

I was certain until this asshole beside me pushed me into a car. A different vehicle from what I had arrived in—it must’ve remained on standby. The driver was prepared to snatch me up if anything went wrong.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I blasted on repeat inside my mind, with the back of my head banging on the seat. I was this close to freedom. This was a cruel life lesson not to get ahead of myself when I was still a step behind.

The cursing inside the car subsided, but the tension was palpable.

The ominous cloud remained trapped in here, about to suffocate us all.

Thick. Grim. Scary as hell. Especially for the sick son of a bitch who got shot in the chest. His wound leaked blood onto the passenger seat as he bled out, and the driver tried to compress the injury.

“Jesus Christ!” the driver shouted as he steered, letting go of the wound for two seconds to turn the wheel, and red stained the leather. “What the fuck happened back there?”

“I… I don’t know…” the thug beside me with a sweaty, wrinkly forehead stuttered. “These guys came out of nowhere. They shot up the Bravatas and came after us.”

The half dead man in the seat in front of me made an awful sound. He coughed, choking on his own blood. The gurgling sound made me sick to my stomach and bile collected in my throat. The smell of vital fluid was strong and crimson seeped through the material of the seat.

Saint’s shot must have hit the asshole’s lung. Good. Fucker deserved to suffer and gasp until he met his fate of death .

“Who were those guys?” He took his hand off the dying man’s chest.

“I… I… Don’t know!” Panic took over the dumbass beside me.

Several times, he raked his hands through his hair, and I knew his anxiety had set in once he got past the anger.

The unknown was a silent killer. A tormenting fate that haunted every one of these assholes, and they’d experience that terrible fate because I knew who those men were.

They were obsessive, possessive, and damn lethal.

Sin and Saint wanted me back, but I’d keep my mouth shut with the truth. No fucking way would I ever help a Pitrone. The Mafia family had made their graves, and they’d get to sleep in them soon enough. Forever.

Evil had taken over me. I too thirsted for revenge, and I had a shift inside of me.

The darkness had set in. Sin and Saint had taken each piece of me and molded me to them—a fixation within the dark turning into a love story I never saw coming.

I wanted their affection more than anything, along with whatever fucked-up happy ending fate had in store for me.

“I waited. I heard the shots.” Stammering came from the front.

“Everything happened quick— ”

“Fuck!” the driver interrupted. His hands hit off the steering wheel and caused me to jump. “Joe is dead, man.”

A hint of sorrow hung in his voice. The care he held for his fallen buddy was apparent. He glanced over at his dead friend, distress on his face, and I bet he wondered if he was next. If he’d die the same way Joe did.

Nah. His death would probably be ten times worse. Joe would grab a seat for him in the devil’s playground and wait for his buddy to come.

“What the hell should we tell Preston?”

A moment of silence. The boneheads needed sixty seconds to formulate a stupid plan that was sure to go up in smoke as soon as Sin and Saint got their hands on them.

I smirked. A brief grin, of course. I needed to lie low, keep the heat off me while I could. At least until I was somewhere safe.

“We tell ’em someone got the drop on us.” The driver broke the quietness. “But he’s going to want to know who.”

The guy beside me cussed.

Suddenly, the car swerved to avoid a cat that had run out into the street and veered to the right. Off the road and onto the dirt shoulder. The animal took off, narrowly escaping the tires, and ran for its life into the brush on the other side.

The asphalt gripped the tread as the car got back on the road, and the tires squealed. The drumming in my ears quieted after the vehicle’s close call with the ditch. Damn it! I could’ve made a run for it.

“Christ! This is fucked up.”

“Call the boss,” ordered the person beside me.

“I’m not calling him,” the driver argued, “I’m driving.”

“Shit,” the scumbag muttered under his breath, and he pulled out a cell phone from the pocket of his jeans.

He pressed one number. The suck-up had Preston Pitrone on fucking speed dial. Pathetic bitch.

He held the speaker of the phone up to his ear and chomped on his bottom lip. Good. He was nervous.

“Hey, yeah, uh, boss…” He exhaled with a brief pause and ran a hand down his face. “We’ve got a problem.”

He listened.

“Well, ah, you see someone was there and—” He licked his lips and shook his head. “No. Not the cops.”

Silence. A bump in the road, the sound of a knock with a bad ball bearing. The driver rolled down the window and spit out a loogie.

Disgusting .

“We don’t know. One asshole—”

“No, dipshit…” the driver interrupted as he turned off the main road and onto a side street. “There were two of ’em.”

“Two. There were two guys there, and they killed everyone except me and Jimmy. We got Joe with us, but”—he glanced at the passenger seat to confirm his buddy’s death and cursed—“he’s dead.”

Another break in the conversation I couldn’t hear. It was longer this time as the scenery rolled by, and I heard him try to speak, but Preston intervened several times. Dude was a pushover, totally whipped, and a huge pussy for his boss.

Finally, he spoke a full sentence. “Yes. We have the bitch. Come to think of it, she was yelling at those motherfuckers.”

Damn. A lightbulb eventually lit in his head that was full of hot air. He was onto my secret.

He turned his attention to me and grabbed my face.

“She was calling them by the names of Sin and Saint. I bet they got the drop on us because of her.” His hand pinched into my cheeks, pushed against my teeth and pain bit at me. “Got it, boss.”

The jerk hung up the phone and pushed me away. I rubbed my cheeks and moved as far away as possible. Right up against the door .

“Preston isn’t happy, man. I don’t like this.”

“Of course he ain’t happy, idiot! The Bravata deal got shot to hell by two psychopaths!” the driver yelled.

The two assholes argued back and forth for what felt like an eternity. In reality, the clock on the dashboard read five minutes. A whole three hundred seconds until the car came to a stop and the engine cut.

“Honey, we’re home.”

He grabbed me by the arm. “Let go of me!”

A struggle developed until someone cursed and yanked me out by my hair. We were back on Pitrone territory because Preston was there. He held my long strands and ripped at my scalp. The impact of being thrown from the vehicle onto the ground sent pain through me.

“I hear Sin and Saint came to your rescue. Who are they?” Preston asked, his voice on the verge of a snarl.

I ignored him. My mouth was only centimeters from the dirt as I huffed and particles of dust gathered. I wouldn’t even glance at Preston. He didn’t deserve my time. He was a waste of space on this planet, and he needed to be removed from it.

“Fine. Be a stubborn bitch.” Preston pressed his heel into the back of my head and the pressure forced me to eat dirt .

The soil from the earth went up my nostrils, and the particles made me cough. Grit got into my mouth and mixed with the taste of blood. Dust bit at my eyeballs every time I breathed too heavily, tears soaking the ground. After a minute, Preston eased off.

Instead of letting me go, Preston kneeled down and roughly grabbed me by the face with one hand. My cheeks pressed together until my lips puckered and he pulled me toward him. My nostrils flared as I stared at the monster sent to destroy me, and I knew I was in for the fight of my life.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, asshole.” I glared.

“Tell me…” Preston heaved out each word, hot against my face. “Who. Are. They?”

I spit in Preston’s face. A bold move I knew not to do, but I hated him with every fiber of my being. He was vile, pure evil, and had earned every horrible thing coming his way.

Preston wiped my saliva from his face. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Not if they murder you first,” I warned through clenched teeth.

Preston laughed in my face and pushed me away.

“You think your boyfriends are going to save the day?” Preston asked .

He stood up and peered down at me. I resembled a fly. A disgusting insect Preston wanted to demolish after he had plucked my wings so I couldn’t get away.

I didn’t respond. There was no point. Since the moment I met Preston Pitrone, logical thinking ceased to exist. We were far past reasoning and went straight to senselessness. No morals, only cold-blooded murder for power.

Preston gave me a shove with his shoe. “Well, whoever they are, they won’t ever find you. I’ll make sure of it.”

I lost my balance and fell to my side. Preston kicked me in the stomach, and I lost my breath. I recoiled into the fetal position, expecting another blow, but the harshness never came. Each inhale was agony searing through me.

“Take her back,” Preston ordered Zane. “I’ll deal with her later.”

Preston had more pressing matters to deal with, and he’d gather his men to search.

Unbeknownst to him, the Pitrone army would have to lurk in the shadows and become one with the darkness.

They’d have to display the characteristics of true phantoms, but Sin and Saint were one of a kind.

They stalked me day and night because distance couldn’t keep them from me. Right?