Page 63 of Deadlier Obsessions

“Thank you,” I whisper as I glance at the bottle, but concern fills me when I realize the seal is broken.

“I don’t want this. It’s not sealed. I don’t trust him for obvious reasons.”

Leaning down, he kisses me on the top of the head. “All good, mama, I broke the seal myself.”

I nod and twist off the cap the rest of the way and chug the bottle, not stopping until it’s empty. Then he hands the other one to Lucy, and she does the same.

“I really have to pee.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

SEBASTIAN

I try to carry her to the bathroom, but of course, she won’t allow it, claiming that she is fine to walk. She waves her hand at me, attempting to shoo me away, but I won’t allow that. Crossing her arms over her chest, her lashes flutter as her gaze reaches mine. “You don’t need to watch me pee.”

Rubbing my thumb softly over the bruise on her cheek, I groan like it causes me pain, because it does. “Baby don’t ask me to leave you alone, because I can’t. I’ll turn around, but that’s the best I can do.”

“Sebastian,” she whines.

I shake my head. “I can’t, Stella. Please don’t ask me for impossible things right now. The thought of not having you in the same room is too much to bear. I know what you went through was horrible, but I thought I had lost you. The thought of life without you? It’s intolerable. The pain in my chest when I heard your screams was excruciating. I need you close, baby. So please do what you need to do, but don’t ask me to leave.”

She nods slowly. “Fine. Turn around, please.”

I do as she asks and she huffs in annoyance, “Turn the water on. I can’t pee with someone listening.”

Chuckling, I turn the water on so she can work through her stage fright.

After she washes her hands, I wrap my arm around her, tucking her into my side as we walk back to the others.

“Pretty Boy, did you seriously go with her while she took a piss?” Mav asks as we join them again. I flip him off, because I know it was needy as hell of me, but we nearly just fucking lost our girls, so excuse me if I’m feeling a little protective right now.

The asshole who took them sits with Gage beside him, probably thinking he’s somehow getting away with this attempt to take our women from us, but clearly Gage has a game plan here, so I’m happy deferring to him for now. As long as I get my chance to make this fucker hurt.

I sit Stella down in the seat they left for her, and stand behind her, my hands on her shoulders, because I need that connection to her right now.

“Stel, are you doing okay, babe?” Lucy asks, reaching over to grab her hand. She nods bravely, but I know she’s fucking hurting.

“What’s the plan now?” I ask, because I want to get them back home, and looked after. This trip was the worst fucking decision of our lives, and they’ll have to knock me out to get me away from home with our girls again in the future.

Gage nods at his new friend. “Our buddy was just about to tell us why he took the ladies, and who the hell Abigail is.” The girls both gasp and look at each other, and that’s when I realize there’s more to this than I knew, and somehow, they’re in the loop while I’m not.

“Go ahead, frat boy, put us out of our misery, before we do the same for you,” I mutter, watching the fucker look at me with wide eyes, like somehow, he thought he was going to survive this.

LUCY

The second he mentions the name Abigail, I realise who this monster is, and I finally understand why we’re in this situation right now. Stella shares my look of horror at the revelation, and I know the guys are more than curious now.

“This is about Abigail?” Stella asks quietly, leaning back into Sebastian’s touch, while I take comfort from Mav’s hand on my thigh as he crouches beside me. Did we do this? Is this our fault? And more to the point, did he hurt her first? Are we the second act, after he took his revenge on her already? I hope to God that she’s safe and well somewhere far away from him.

“Who’s Abigail?” Gage asks, clearly not for the first time, and this is a level of patience I’ve never seen from him, I think. Where’s the Gage Rage we know and love, dude?

The guy, who I now know is Andy, the guy who abused Abigail, a young woman we met at a book signing about three months ago, sighs heavily. Oh, I’m sorry, asshole, are we annoying you?

“You’re Andy?”

He shoots me a glare, and I see Gage’s fists clench as he fights his natural response to beat the guy. Maybe when he hears how we know about him, he’ll finally do what feels right. If it feels good, do it. Making this asshole pay will feel good for all of us, I’m sure of that.

“You bitches, you ruined everything,” he hisses at me, somehow missing the way all three of our men tense at his words. He really doesn’t see that he’s about to die in the most horrible, painful way possible, and while that kind of thing freaked me out before, this bastard hurt Stella, risked her baby, and mine, and brutalised his fucking girlfriend. He deserves all the pain.

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