Page 182 of Secret Obsession
Can she hear me? Does she know I’m here?
The man chuckles. “I haven’t decided whether this ends with your death or just hers. Toss the knife, Miles.”
I glare at him, my fingers tightening on the handle.
“Don’t make me shoot you so soon.”
Fuck it. I toss the kitchen knife away. It clatters to the concrete floor, and I kick it backward. Away from both of us.
He pats the lid that he’s sitting on. “Willow Reed. What a peculiar name for an ordinary girl.”
I grit my teeth. “She’s not ordinary.”
“No? Neither was my brother. He competed in the two thousand and four Olympics. He had a family—”
“He tried to rape her,” I growl. “So clearly he didn’t think she was so ordinary either.”
“Interesting.” He tilts his head, staring at me through the holes in the mask. “So you’re saying it was in defense?”
“Yes.”
“Defense of a girl you weren’t with at the time. Of a girl who you bodily carried out of that club.”
“Yes.” My heart is hammering. “What do I have to do for you to let her out?”
He shifts. The gun’s muzzle shifts in my direction, and he raises it when I take a single step forward. “Stay where you are, Miles Whiteshaw.”
I raise my hands. “Okay, okay.”
“Your brother.” He leans forward. “Knox. Will you forgive him for delivering Willow to me? No, no, think before you answer. Mull it over. If the girl dies, it’s his fault, isn’t it? He put her into his car and drove her exactly where I said. He told her to go inside the house. He told her to come tome.”
My mouth opens and closes.
And I do think about it.
I think about him and only see a selfish bastard who put his love of me over my love of her.
“I don’t know,” I finally say. “Maybe I’d eventually be able to look him in the face again.”
He nods slowly. “A broken relationship. A wound that splits your family in two.”
“Yes.”
“And the love of your life, gone. Would you visit her grave? Would you go to her parents and her sister and tell them how it happened? How, when you finally get the padlock smashed and off, you were too late? Her skin will be mottled and blue from lack of oxygen. She won’t be pretty.” He raises the gun higher, his finger moving to the trigger. “Ah, ah. Careful.”
I step back. I truthfully hadn’t even noticed my jolt forward.
But I am envisioning everything he’s saying. He’s painting a bleak future for me.
“Should I tell you about the awful scream my mother let out when I told her that her baby was dead?” He sighs. It’s ragged, scarred. “Or should I let you wait to experience a mother’s cry of grief on your own?”
“Please don’t hurt her. Kill me if you must. Okay? Just shoot me in the fucking face and get it over with.”
He laughs and rises. “On your knees.”
A chill goes through me—and with it, my emotions. I drop to the floor. The impact rattles my bones, but I keep my chin up, and my eyes on him. He’s got everything, hasn’t he? Willow, his brother, me.
“She has to live.” I never thought I’d plead or beg anyone for anything—but for her life? Of course. I’d give everything. “Shoot me and open the freezer, let her out—”
