Page 73 of Unapologetic Obsession
Caden guided me to the couch, throwing Linda an order over his shoulder. “Grab the ice pack from the fridge.”
She ran to grab a compress. Natasha yowled for someone to help her up as she could barely stand. Linda merely stepped over her to rush the ice back to Caden.
His jaw clenched when I hissed at the impact. Once more, he glanced at Natasha, his anger bubbling like lava. “You’ll pay for this.” He nodded at Linda, who seemed to have been holding back for an unspoken command.“Throw her in the brig.”
Brig.
I must have spent a lot of time on cruises because it took me mere seconds to recall why the word sounded familiar. A brig was a temporary holding cell for passengers or crew members who committed serious offenses. Most ships had a small, secureroom—much like a jail cell—where they detained people for assault or drug possession until reaching the next port. There, offenders would either be handed over to local authorities or forced to disembark and find their own way home.
“No. Please, Dr. Maxwell,” Natasha protested in a whisper-yell. “Please, don’t do this.”
Guilt dragged me to the center of the earth.
Ibelonged in the brig, not her. What Natasha needed was urgent medical care, not to be thrown into solitary confinement. I couldn’t assault herandlet her be punished for my crimes.
Linda stepped forward. Before I could process what was happening, she grabbed Natasha by the arm and pulled her to her feet. The stylist ripped away from her and fell back on the floor, reaching out a hand toward Caden.
“Please, Dr. Maxwell!” she wailed, but was cut off when Linda grabbed her again. This time, she dragged Natasha across the floor and toward the door. Natasha did everything in her power to resist, and it turned into a violent battle of wills.
“Oh my god,” I cried out. “Tell Linda to stop.”
Caden apathetically watched the scene unfold. “This is how security handles people who cause problems. I wouldn’t want to interfere with their protocol.”
He was being deliberately obtuse. He was the law on this boat and could stop the woman’s suffering at the snap of his fingers. Linda was pissed about losing a day’s pay and blamed Natasha for it. She was being unnecessarily rough, and Caden was letting it happen—as a punishment for my injuries.
It was a twilight world where the victim of my assault was being punished for causing me adverse side effects. Whether Natasha was a good or bad person was irrelevant to her current treatment. I couldn’t ignore her heart-wrenching pleas as Linda dragged away her injured and unwilling body.
“Caden, please.” I turned to him, and whispered, “Please ask Linda to stop. She’ll listen to you.”
It was Natasha’s turn to be blindsided. In her enraged emotional state, she forgot her sticky situation. She stopped fighting Linda, and shouted, “Don’t call him by his first name. He goes by Dr. Maxwell.”
My eyes widened as the woman’s obsession with Caden settled like yesterday’s dust. She was deeply in love with him, and he…he was cruel.
Caden looked ready to murder Natasha, eyes radiating with rage I hadn’t seen before. Her suggestion that I shouldn’t use his first name prompted a fury much worse than the deliveryman, Jace, or the assault. “Get her the hell out of my sight,” he thundered.
Natasha protested again, which only made Linda haul her more aggressively for the last stretch to the door. I shook my head at Caden, but he ignored me. I begged him to change his mind, yet he remained unmoved. It seemed his anger wasn’t only directed at Natasha. He was pissed at me, too, not for hurting Natasha but for putting myself at risk while doing so.
Finally, I placed two hands on his broad shoulders, hoping to make him see reason. “Please, Caden. My hands feel better, and I’m sorry for letting myself get injured. I won’t let it happen again. Please ask Linda to let her go.”
“You promised me this morning that you’d be careful.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
His eyes flashed. “Next time you feel like slapping someone, have one of the guards do it. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes. I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“If I feel like slapping someone again, I’ll ask the security to do it,” I parroted. “I promise. Please just let her go.”
With a deep inhale, he tilted his head at Linda. It was barely a nod, but the signal was enough—she let Natasha go.
Natasha stood on shaky legs, eagerly fleeing the scene as quickly as her injured body would allow it. She was in no state to pack up her merchandise. Not that it mattered. Caden haphazardly informed Linda we were keeping the entire inventory and to settle the bill with Natasha. He also assigned her an extra shift for tonight, because clearly, I needed more supervision than one guard could provide. The shift came with overtime pay and an evening rate that superseded her day rate.
Incentivized by the bonus, Linda left to carry out his bidding. Caden continued icing my palm. The palm I used tohitsomeone. All the while, he warned me that if I pulled a stunt like that again, I wouldn’t leave this suite for the rest of the cruise.
His expression eventually softened, and my apprehension ebbed away. Though initially unsettled by how he treated his employees, I recognized the fairness in Caden’s approach. He had deliberately humiliated Natasha so she would never target me again. Nonetheless, he purchased her entire inventory, rewarding her team’s hard work for setting up this faux shop with a substantial commission. It also compensated Natasha for my violent attack. Likewise, he assigned Linda overtime duties, affording her the chance to recoup the wages he had previously docked.
