Fatal Obsession (Black Widow Book 2) (8 page)

Tasha knew alright. A woman’s body doesn’t burn hot as if she’d been held over an inferno of desire for her rapist. She let go of Elaine and dropped her head in her hands with a tortured groan.

“Then I cheated because I wanted to. Because he spoke to my baser instincts.”
Did I at least try to fight it?

“Having met the man, I believe that.” Tasha groaned again. “And or because your husband wouldn’t give you the one thing you wanted—a child.”

Tasha’s head shot up, “What?”

Elaine shrugged, “I’m just speculating. You’ve been married eight years with just one child, who isn’t Tom’s.”

Tasha thought that over. Tom wasn’t exactly the warmest person. She could see him not wanting children. But… “What if he can’t have children?”

“There is nothing wrong with me!”

Tasha jumped at the thunderous declaration, but Elaine, as always cool as a cucumber, didn’t even flinch. “Tom! We didn’t hear you come in.”

“I did,” Elaine interjected dispassionately as she stood.

Tasha gazed at her sister and saw the smirk.
Ow! The bitch!
“You said that last part on purpose, didn’t you?” It was more of a statement than a question because Tasha already knew the answer—Elaine didn’t like Tom one bit and no one was willing to tell her why.

Elaine shrugged then turned fully to face Tasha, “I’m going to be gone for a month and you won’t be able to reach me. Call Mike if you need anything, or if you feel sick again.” Call Mike? Yup, her sister didn’t care for her husband at all. “I’ll say goodbye to brainiac when Mike picks him up from school at the end of the day.” She hugged Tasha and whispered, “Head up, eyes open.”

Stay alive
. Why did she just think that?

Elaine pulled away. She turned, took a few steps and stopped in front of Tom at the entryway and stared—or glared at him. Tasha couldn’t see because Elaine’s back was to her, but the scowl, reddening face and clenched fists on Tom’s rigid body made her believe it was a glare as he glared back at her. Then Elaine walked past him, turning slightly so as not to touch him as she went by him and disappeared behind the wall. The opening and closing of the door signaled her departure. Tasha was left alone with an enraged husband and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.

Nervously she rolled her lips into her mouth and began, “Tom…”

“You want to know why you cheated on me? It’s because you are a faithless whore!” he yelled, turned around, rushed to the steps and stomped upstairs. His bedroom door banged shut, echoing in the whole house and inside her chest.

His
bedroom door. A room they did not share. She had a son who was not Tom’s. Her son bore the names of his true father. She’d cheated on him and he hated her for it. So why were they still married six years after their relationship clearly broke down?

She fell back onto the couch, cradling her head in her hands as she rubbed her already aching temples.

“What am I missing here?”

****

Damien stood outside the school building, watching for his son to come out after the final bell rang—finally. He had hoped VS would be the one fetching him, but he’d spotted
Uncle Mike
sitting in his car across the street and he’d clearly seen Damien also. It made him worry that she was still sick. He wanted to go ask after her, but he was sure he wouldn’t get anything from the stone-faced mercenary. Damien wasn’t sure about meeting his son in clear view of this guy—well, not only this guy but Dale’s team alsoand expect their exchange to go unnoticed. He was sure his cousin was hiding behind a bush close by ready to pounce. He never gave up that easily.

“Dad!”

Damien felt his whole mood brighten at that. He lifted his gaze to see his son run to him, his backpack bouncing on his back, his arms pumping at his sides and the biggest grin on his face. Day two of finding out he was a father and he loved the feeling it gave him. He felt fear too, because from now on his every decision would influence the kind of man his son would grow up to be and he was afraid of making a mistake and destroying his future. He squatted and like he’d seen VS do the day before, held his arms open and prepared to be barreled into. DJ didn’t disappoint, slamming into him with so much force, Damien wobbled on the balls of his feet.

He chuckled, returning his son’s fierce hug. Day two and he loved his son with depths he didn’t understand. Damien tried to pull away, but DJ just tightened his grip around his neck. Then he lifted his legs, effectively sitting on Damien’s lap. Worry began to set in. Something wasn’t right.

“DJ?” his son didn’t respond, just hugged him tighter. His first instinct was to stand, pull him away and demand what troubled him. But he’d come here with a plan and their current position worked well for him.

“DJ, where’s my phone,” he whispered in his ear.

“Pocket at my back,” DJ whispered back but his voice was teary. That made Damien’s chest clench.

Discreetly, Damien swapped phones, replacing his with one he’d bought and programmed for DJ that morning. After zipping up the pocket, Damien went with his first instinct. He stood, holding DJ to him, pulled him slightly away to see his face—he’d had to be forceful because DJ wouldn’t let go—seeing his tear streaked face he demanded to know what the problem was.

“DJ, tell me what’s wrong?”

He sniffed, his chest jerking with each pull, “It’s Momma.”

Stay calm, stay calm
. “What’s wrong with your mother?”

His face crumbled then and he buried his face in Damien’s collar. Damien hugged him tight, praying whatever it was, it wasn’t that bad and this was just the overreaction of a young child.

“DJ, I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

He pulled away, wiping his eyes and cheeks dry with the back of his hands, “Momma,” he hiccupped, “when she woke up,” he hiccupped again, “she didn’t remember me.”

“What, why—” he hissed, “Did Mr. Turner make her forget again?”

“He tried but my little man here slapped the syringe right out of his hand.”

Damien turned, his entire body going rigid as he faced the mercenary. He didn’t look all that dangerous with that placating look on his face. Damien did a quick sweep of his body. No gun—at least he wasn’t holding one and if he had one on his person it was out of sight.

“Mike.”

“Damien.” He returned with the same hardness. It didn’t surprise him that Mike knew his name. Apparently they knew a lot about him, information they’d gathered over the years when he was searching for VS—Ellsa.

“Time to go home, buddy.”

Damien held his son tighter “Is that why she’s not here, because she doesn’t remember him.” It was hard to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but damn, if he ever ran into Turner, he would string him up by his balls for putting his son through such agony.

Mike’s gaze softened as he stared at DJ, who was quiet now, his head tucked under Damien’s chin. “She remembers him, took a few hours, but her memory—well the one year of it that she has—came back. It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but it’s the first time it took hours instead of minutes for her to remember.” His eyes shifted, glaring at Damien, “I have a feeling you caused it.”

Damien wasn’t sure how to react to that. “When can I see her?”

Mike scoffed, his lips turning up in a condescending smirk. “Don’t hold your breath.”

Damien bit down his back teeth to keep his temper in check. “I wasn’t asking.”

He felt a hand on his arm and he turned to it. Elaine. Great, another road block.

“Calm down hot pants. You’ll see her soon, as soon as you can shake your cousin off your tail.” Then to DJ she smiled and said, “Kiddo, time to go. You’ll spend more time with your dad, just not today.”

Mike’s jaw clenched at that and it was Damien’s turn to smirk. “Yeah, son, we’ll spend time together and soon.”

DJ sniffed, looked Damien straight in the eye and demanded, “Promise?”

Damien couldn’t help but feel proud of his tenacity. “I promise. Go with your aunt and take care of your mom until I can get you both back, okay?”

DJ answered with a hard nod, “I promise. I love you, Daddy.”

Damien’s breath hitched. Those were the most disarming words anyone had ever said to him.

“I love you too, son.” Giving him one last tight hug and a kiss on the forehead, he handed his son to Elaine, ignoring Mike. The man had rubbed him the wrong way and he’d shoot his toe off before he gave his son to him.

“Mike, you’re going to have to run interception.”

Damien didn’t need to be told what that meant. Dale was waiting for them. To follow them to where Ellsa was so that he could arrest her? He clenched his hands, biting down on his jaw. He was never going to allow that. DJ had been through enough already.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Keep standing there, like you’re waiting to meet someone.” Elaine answered.

He nodded and then watched them walk away, heading to different cars. They were both SUVs, black and with nothing to differentiate them except for the number plates. But he had a feeling those plates weren’t registered and maybe one of those changeable ones. Who’s to say a mile down those plates won’t change?

And true to Elaine’s word, two cars pulled out behind them chasing after them, picking up speed as Mike and Elaine increased theirs. He prayed Elaine got home safely with his son. He didn’t want to worry about an accident that would steal DJ away two days after Damien had found him.

He stood there until the place emptied of kids and cars. It was quiet, eerie quiet. Urban legend kind of quiet. That was, until he heard footsteps behind him. He had a good idea who it was, but he turned around, just in case.

“I should never have trusted you,” Dale accused, glaring daggers at him.

“Ditto. How long did it take before you spilled everything I told you? Did you tell them about my son too?”

At least the man looked ashamed, even if it was just for a fleeting second.

“The woman is a cold blooded murderer! Do you know that we still can’t find her last victim’s body?” Dale smiled triumphantly, having seen the shock Damien felt on his face. “That’s right. The man was a psychiatrist at the institution she was in. All they found was blood and nothing more of him the day she escaped.”

“And that tells you he’s dead?” Damien shrugged. “He could have run off, laid low out of fear for his life.”

He shook his head, “There is no convincing you otherwise. Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

“Why?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Dale grabbed him and roughly turned him around. “Damien Chan, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting a convicted murderer. You have the right…”

Shit
, Damien cursed when he heard and felt, the cuffs fasten painfully around his wrist. He hadn’t expected this kind of delay in his plans. The ride to the FBI office was a long and quiet one and quite irritating. Dale kept glaring at him through the rearview mirror and in the back, next to him the woman with the red hair and black tips kept leering at him. Add that to his plans being delayed, his frustration was on overdrive. He was glad when he was finally out of the car, but that quickly disappeared when Dale purposefully paraded him in front of his peers—well, with this and how far Dale was going to embarrass him, his career in the FBI was over before it even began. Once Dale had enough of his coworkers hauling insults at Damien, he took him down to the holding cells. Damien stared straight ahead, biting down on his jaw to hold his anger in, trying not to let the insults get to him. He was making the right decision for his family and no one was going to make him feel guilty about it.

Damien rubbed his wrist when the cuffs were removed and he walked into the cell, his temporary home for the next forty-eight hours—hopefully.

“Little D, aren’t you breaking procedure here?” Damien taunted, keeping his back to him as he looked around the six by ten walls and bars, the little cot that wouldn’t hold him, width or length wise, the silver toilet that, thank heavens, looked clean and the sink right next to it that had a bit of rust on it. He’d lived in worse the years he spent searching for VS.

“Nope, I decided to spare you and strip you in here.”

Damien chortled, turning around. “Spare me? Then what was the two man parade about back there?”

Dale stepped into the cell, holding a tray. “Empty your pockets and dump everything in here, including your cell phone.”

Damien did as he said with a little snort. “I think we already know you can’t get into my phone.”

Dale shrugged, “Me, maybe not, but Audrey will crack it in under an hour.”

Yeah, Kevin had a better chance once he’d figured it all out, but Audrey didn’t have a chance. But he might be proven wrong, which meant he needed to be out before it got too late.

“Do I get my phone call?”

“No,” Dale responded, stepping out and handing the tray to a uniformed officer. “Could I have my leather jacket, please?”

He shrugged it off and tossed it to Dale. “What? Freezing all night is part of my punishment now?”

Dale’s lips rose in a cocky smile. “You’ve got a blanket and I’m sure you’ll survive.” He swung the door shut and the slam echoed in the dimly lit basement.

“My phone call?” Damien insisted when Dale began to walk away.

“Who do you plan on calling?”

He smiled coyly. “None of your business. Just get me my call.”

Dale stomped back, his nostrils flaring. “Why? Why would you take her side over mine?”

Damien backed up, collapsing onto the cot and taking a casual pose, his arms crossed behind his head and his legs crossed at the ankles, feeling anything but casual.

“It’s not about taking sides. It’s about doing the right thing for my son and his mother.”

“Are you hearing yourself?” Dale yelled. “Your son and his mother? I’ve known Ellsa long enough to know the probability of that boy being yours, much less hers, is slim to none. She’s using you! Everything was set up just right for you to fall for it.”

“To use me she’d have to remember me,” Damien revealed.