Page 85 of My Turn

Fury heated my body. “No, I couldn’t stand to see you that disappointed.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“I knoweverything.”

“Are you paying Ben to tell you about me?”

I reared back, blinking slowly as I processed her question. She watched me, looking smug as if she’d accomplished something.

“Who the hell is Ben?” I asked.

“Oh, don’t patronize me. You know ‘everything’, which means you know who he is. He told me.”

Leaning down, I pressed the plastic against her face. “What could he have possibly told you, baby? I don’t fuck with low-level criminals. He was probably drunk. Like father, like son.”

She shrieked and beat against my back. Locking my hand around her throat, I took away her air. Her eyes went wide and her assault slowed as she recognized that she was at my mercy. She’d become comfortable with me. Too comfortable. In this form, it was too dangerous to let her gain the upper hand.

“Remember what I told you, Alana. I am your savior. You have no idea what I’ve done to protect you. Maybe a ‘thank you’ is in order.”

Her jaw clenched and the fire in her eyes remained as she reached up to grab my wrist and attempted to remove my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh at the effort.

“You won’t give it to me. I guess I’ll have to take it.”

I continued to grip her throat, watching the panic take over. She kicked her legs and tried to scratch me. When her strength dwindled, her lips parted in a silent plea she never got the chance to make. Her eyes rolled back just before her body went limp.

I released her and got out of the car, then settled in the driver’s seat. Putting it in reverse, I whipped out of the spot and headed for the road. She wanted to play stupid fucking games. We could play.

*****

They say that obsession grows, that it morphs into something dangerous and uncontrollable. I don’t know if that’s true. Things had been this way for a long time and I hadn’t done anything horrible.

Killing Jake might have changed that, but what else was I supposed to do? He wasn’t good for Alana. I was protecting her. Could someone really say that was so bad?

Preston was a dick and he didn’t deserve to exist for another day, another opportunity for him to be a bane to women everywhere.

Those things weren’t horrible. I didn’t even see them as wrong. Putting Alana above everything else in this world was the definition of our love. It was a pursuit that defied law and reason. If something was bad for her, I’d get rid of it.

I looked at her limp form on the floor. Just yesterday, I decided I needed to be hands off as Erebus, but I was already screwing up. Once I got her to my place, I stuck her with something that would knock her out more than some choking. I couldn’t have her waking up before I got her into the basement. She’d never been down here because she claimed that every basement had bad shit in it. She wasn’t wrong, but I digress.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting. I’d already been standing around for an hour and I was getting antsy. Some people had no respect for other people’s time.

Finally, my phone buzzed, showing that someone was at the door. I climbed the stairs, then straightened my clothes so as not to rouse suspicion.

“Ben,” I said cheerily when I opened the door.

He raised a brow. “Hey, man. Sorry it took me so long. There was traffic.”

I knew there wasn’t, but it didn’t matter. I motioned for him to come in and he didn’t hesitate.

He trusted me. Mistake.

Whatever bullshit he’d fed Alana made her doubt me. She was already unhappy about the real me working with her brother, so when I thought about it, I realized that he was a problem. What did we do with problems?

“Let me show you why I brought you here,” I said, heading for the basement door.

“You got any beer?” He opened the fridge and grabbed one. I huffed, waiting for him to uncap it. After a long swig, he followed me.

With every step down the stairs, my heart thumped against my chest a little too hard. Jake was close to home and killing him had been a risk, but I was never a suspect. It was possible that Ben would arouse suspicion, but at the same time, he was a criminal. If he disappeared, they’d discover what he was up to and probably determine that it was a disgruntled client. After I was done, I’d have to make sure there were no records of any business we’d done together. That would fuck things up.

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