Page 27 of Their Stolen Obsession (Phantoms and Obsession Duet #2)

Her Predator

Sin

M y prison was my new home away from home. The torture was no joke. Every damn day, those motherfuckers took their shot at cracking us, but none of us spoke a word. Except for some idiot beside me. He didn’t last long. He caved and paid the price with a bullet to the head right in front of me.

No one cleaned up his blood. Only used a boot to cover the splatter in the dirt. I could still count pieces of his brains on the soil—a weird fucked up game I ended up playing to pass the time.

The date meant nothing while locked up in here without a goddamn clock. I held no recollection of anything normal. Only when the sun set and the moon showed up.

Sullivan barely spoke, but I found out his name. Saint. His given title at birth didn’t suit him. He was a stone-cold guy who appeared to get through extreme pain better than anyone else in this hellhole. There was no cracking him.

My last ordeal with the enemy didn’t go as planned.

I resisted all their painful tactics and made it to the finish line.

Until the biggest miserable fuck threw all his body weight into me and I crashed to the ground.

I fell straight onto my left shoulder. A loud pop of bone dislocating from the joint echoed in my eardrums. Pain rippled in agonizing waves one right after the other until I made it back into my cell, carefully placed my shoulder between the bars, and popped it back into place.

I didn’t make a sound, not one peep. But a scream echoed in my head until I passed out.

I didn’t know how long the blackout lasted. Nightmares of being stabbed repeatedly replayed in my mind. The torment lasted until I heard my name.

“Sin…”

The voice repeated over and over again. The sound was an angel in disguise, flying me away from the death I witnessed, and I awoke to the damage to my body. I realized the sharp blade was an illusion for the true agony I had experienced, wreaking havoc through me.

I rolled onto my left side.

“Fuck…” I winced .

Don’t put pressure on the injured shoulder. Noted.

“Sin…” There was my name again.

“Can’t a guy catch some Z ’s?” I asked, half unimpressed.

The other half? I was thankful for the company.

“Not in your condition, soldier.”

I peered up to my right, still in the dirt. The voice came from the cell beside Saint’s. The man who remained nameless, faceless, and the most quiet in the cell block.

Until today.

“How would you know about my condition?” I asked.

He replied, “Because I heard a bone crack when you fell.”

“Is that right?” I sighed and watched his cell for any movement. “Are you a doctor or something?”

I squinted, everything went blurry for a few seconds, then refocused, and I saw hands.

Dirty fingers wrapped around the prison bars with dried up bloody scabs on them.

He was missing a couple of nails, too. A torture tactic I hadn’t endured.

Fuck. I didn’t want to live through that nail biting experience, but I knew my time was coming.

“No. But I’ve popped a damn shoulder one too many times to count,” he responded .

“Really? That bad in here, huh?” I groaned and tried to get up. “How long have you been cooped up in this shithole?”

The struggle was real.

Once on my feet, I staggered, and my right side fell against the bars. I was too fucking weak. Tired. I’d be damned if I gave up. Plus, I didn’t want to miss all the fun because this asshole had finally joined the party. I could use the distraction.

“If I had to guess?” he responded with his toes hanging out of the cell. “A few months maybe. Times a blur when you’re caged away in here.”

Jesus. Months? I don’t know if I could take it.

“What’s your name?” I asked the burning question.

He remained quiet for a bit. Shit. I lost him. He was reverting into the darkness, into the stillness he had built around himself to defend against all the evil within these walls in order to stay alive.

I understood him more than ever. He had survived his lengthy captivity. Sane. In pain, tormented, but lucid. His soul shattered forever, but the pieces were still there to be put back together. Some day.

“Zane,” he whispered low enough I could barely hear him. “My name is Zane Adler.”

I grinned. “It’s nice to meet you at last, Adler. ”

I heard Zane chuckle. The rumble was low, showed off his humanity and a humble side of him. It took guts to reveal who he was after being locked up for this long, unsure who to trust when the mind played tricks on you. But Adler had chosen to have faith in me, and I wouldn’t ever forget that.

“Adler.” Saint joined the party. “The surname has a nice ring to it.”

Zane exhaled. “As it should, comes from a long line of wealthy assholes.”

It was my turn to chuckle.

Saint blew out a low whistle. “Damn. We got ourselves a billionaire here.”

“A rich man who hasn’t smoked a cigar in weeks.” Zane sighed. His brown-haired head banged against a bar. “Fuck. Anyone got a smoke?”

“Nope.” I answered with the pop of the P .

Zane muttered, “Shit. Worth a shot.”

“I could go for a double cheeseburger right about now,” Saint mumbled from the ground where he remained lying flat on his back. “With extra bacon and a shit ton of fries.”

My stomach grumbled.

“Can I get a whiskey on the rocks with that?” I asked.

We all laughed. The joke was bittersweet. Lasted for a moment until our harsh reality sunk back in .

“So, Zane… What the fuck did you do to get stuck in a place like this?” Saint asked, breaking the silence.

“I shot the leader’s son in the head and blew his fucking brains out,” Zane explained and held an arm out of his cell.

“He was a miserable son of a bitch, but he wasn’t the golden child.

I got off lucky. Their revenge fire missed me, but a bullet grazed me.

Then I got holed up in here. You know the rest of the story. ”

“All too well.” I sighed, misery clearly cut through my voice.

I peered down at the brain matter on the ground. A constant fucking reminder of what happened to a soldier who talked, and I kicked dirt at the rotten tissue. Goddamn bullshit. Everything about being caged away in here like an animal was pure hell.

I wanted out badly, I could taste freedom, an escape I’d fight to live for. Any day now, the time would come. I had to stay alive to see a newfound era I was unsure would ever come.