Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  His evil was now the face of every horror movie she’d ever see, and the center of every bullseye she’d taken a shot at since.

  Raphael would have fought back just as hard and yet he said, “Ali’s dead. The assassins are dead. You’ll be fine in New York.”

  The need to scream hit her hard. At least here, in the middle of nowhere, she’d get her chance to heal without drama, or expectations.

  Then she’d be ready to reclaim her life and introduce Jacob to the fast pace of the city. She snorted and said, “No. It will be worse. They’ll want to take care of me and find me a husband, like I need a man.”

  Raphael, her older brother by two years, said, “You’re still bitter about them introducing you to Ali.”

  Give the man the Understatement of the Year award. Perhaps that was bitter. She sighed and ignored the pang in her heart as she said, “He poisoned me and tried to stop me from having my son.”

  Her voice went more high-pitch at the end, giving her emotion away.

  Drat. She stood from her bed and checked her baby boy in his crib in her luxury suite and office but he slept still.

  Good. She’d never let him feel anything but loved. It was all he deserved.

  Mica would ensure that Jacob had everything he ever needed. He was already heir to her majority shares in the family company. One day he’d be richer than anyone else he’d ever meet. She would raise Jacob to be strong and smart and confident.

  Her brother said, “He is dead, so that is no longer a reason to hide.”

  Her body ticked like he’d struck her over the phone. She lifted her chin and said, “You and Gabriel have zero right to say a word about me not being in New York right now. I was running the family business while you were both… brooding.”

  Raphael didn’t argue. He gave another direct hit when he said, “We miss you, Mica.”

  And she missed them. She’d missed them for years when they’d left her alone to handle everything. “I miss you and Gabriel. I’ll be back soon. I just need to breathe, alone.”

  Her oldest brother Gabriel’s wife had seduced her other brother, Raphael, and then tried to kill Gabriel. Both her brothers had gone into hiding for years. Neither of them spoke until they’d married good women and forgave their past. “And I can’t fault that. Both Gabriel and I took off, leaving all the responsibilities on your shoulders.”

  Only then had Mica’s older siblings returned to her life. Both had run off and left her with controlling interest in their hotel empire, but taking up the slack had empowered her and she’d enjoyed running the business. “I liked working. I still do, but Ali… I need to rest.”

  Maybe, if they hadn’t disappeared for years on end, she’d have never fallen for Ali or almost gotten herself killed. “That’s why I support you, but if you needed to be alone, my castle has wings you can have, but I’d be here to protect you if something happened.”

  She stood from the bed and looked out the fogged glass windows, the darkness shadowing her spring-green lawn that was going to disappear under snow with another storm. “You and your wife need time alone in your castle. Besides I need more amenities like WIFI, but I appreciate the offer. My son and I are happy here.”

  The drop in temperature meant she needed to turn up the heater.

  “Don’t stay too long.”

  Mica, phone to her ear, slid her slippers on, checked her sleeping baby was warm, and made her way out of her bedroom, past the tapestries she’d hung in the hotel that was currently her home, and headed down the stairs to ensure the entire 52 room, 26 premium rooms and 8 suites in the chalet would be warm in the morning though every room had a gas fireplace and most had balconies and all around them were the Rocky Mountains.

  The thermostat for the house was in the backrooms, behind the empty space meant for a restaurant, that no guests ever saw.

  Raphael had no idea the current darkness of the hotel she was in as she simply said, “I’ll see you soon. I just want to watch out for my son and bond with him, alone.”

  Raphael asked fast, “What if Ali’s family does look for you?”

  She’d prepared for that. No one knew where she was. Her family didn’t. Her investors didn’t. She didn’t check in online for social media, though she posted travel pics as if she was in some far-flung place with her baby halfway across the world rather than a mountain chalet outside Aspen.

  Mica’s helicopter was fueled; her guns were locked away but loaded. As she made it to the bottom step of the closest grand staircase into the grand room with a huge gas fireplace, where she heard it creak but she didn’t blink as she said with her chin up, “I can take care of myself.”

  “I know you can, sis,” Raphael said.

  The confidence he had in her twisted her. She’d never find a partner now that she’d trust and her son, Jacob, came first in her life anyhow.

  Her heart hurt and she pressed her hand to her chest.

  She’d need her medicine soon.

  A moment later the pain subsided, and she continued as she said without mentioning the pangs, “You bet I can. Remember when I flew my helicopter in to save you and your now wife?”

  “I owe you.” Raphael said as she found the thermostat and turned the dial up. “We both remember and you were so weak. You’re not giving yourself time.”

  She said, “The doctors said I’ll make a full recovery.”

  If she gave herself time to heal, without any stress in her life for now.

  She took one of the prepared bottles of formula from the refrigerator, the open door lighting the otherwise dark kitchen. Everything was quiet. Too late for birds to chirp, and all of nature’s creatures were probably hiding from the upcoming storm that she’d watched on the news, before her brother had called.

  Mica headed back to the suite she’d taken for herself and Jacob as his nursery as Raphael said, “If you aren’t stressed and don’t push yourself.”

  The quietness was exactly why she was here. And headed up the stairs again as she said, “I’ll be running down the streets of New York in terror if I have to actually live near Mom and Dad.”

  Raphael laughed and the sound calmed her nerves as she ignored the dark clouds behind the moon. Tomorrow the storm would be here. “Keep your phone on at all times and call me if you need anything.”

  As she made it to the top step she heard her baby cry. She sped up fast as she ran toward her room. “Jacob’s awake, I have to go. Goodbye.”

  “Goodbye, Mica.”

  She hung up the phone and tossed it on the dresser near her door as she hurried to the crib.

  Jacob’s beautiful chubby baby hands reached for his bottle like he might hold it firm as she put it in his mouth.

  Soon he’d be strong and big and able to hold anything, but for now he still needed her assistance. She held his bottle as she stood over him while he ate and stopped crying.

  She took off her shoes and stared at the moon that was now full in the night sky.

  Tomorrow was going to be quiet. She’d parked her car in the garage under the hotel so the storm wouldn’t hurt her vehicle.

  She changed into her night clothes, happy with the solitude.

  Silence was nice. Silence was why she was here. She picked up her baby and rocked him in her arms.

  Her body wrung in pain. This one came on fast, which hadn’t happened in a while. Raphael’s concern probably stressed her. She breathed through it.

  Drat she’d forgotten her medicine. That suppressed these attacks.

  Mica continued to smile at her baby boy while a sharp stabbing pain rocked her insides—she wouldn’t scare him. She placed him back in the crib as she sat on the bed, afraid to drop him.

  He drank his bottle and stared at her with big brown eyes. She ignored the writhing misery inside her and wiped her tears as she said, “Jacob, this is where we’ll be staying for a while.” She stood, palm to her heart. “Part of me wishes I’d hired a nurse right now but we’ll be fine.” Her mother had always complained sh
e was both independent and stubborn. But this was why she was a good CEO and now mother.

  The convulsion was subsiding, but soon she’d have horrible back pain because of it. “I’ll go get my medicine. Your mom will be healthy soon.”

  Mica made it to the door just as the room went black. Despite how her muscles were being tortured with spasms, she headed to the side of the bed and found her flashlight. “The lights went out like some horror movie, but see? These are fun. Flashlights.”

  She flicked the lights on and off making bunny ears on the wall.

  Jacob cooed.

  But the torment in her body now caused her back to convulse.

  She should have grabbed her pills. She bent over the crib and massaged her baby’s head gently. “Tomorrow you and I will play some more, okay?” She took a few painful steps toward the door, pretending her strained muscles weren’t a problem and spoke her lie like her infant baby was keeping track of her. “I just need to check the locks and windows.”

  Her son never needed to know she needed her medicine.

  Mica slipped out the door with all the lights on. “Finish your bottle, sweetheart. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

  Once she left the area she lived in, she just used her flashlight as her future hotel would cost a lot in electricity monthly, and she was only one person with a baby. The flashlight was the only brightness in the dark.

  She made her way down the stairs as her stomach flipped from multiple cramps. The poison hadn’t killed her though doctors hadn’t known exactly what it would do as it was never identified.

  Mica stepped into the kitchen and goosebumps grew on her arms. She flashed her light toward an open window and her body cringed as she made out a masculine shadow.

  Had Ali’s family come for her? Her guns were locked up. For now she used the wall to hold herself taller and asked, “Who are you?”

  The dark-haired man, tall, in loose clothes, bowed his head. “Lost, ma’am.”

  If he was here to kill her, he’d have shot her. Not called her ma’am.

  No way she could make it upstairs to get her son if he intended harm.

  So she stepped forward as lightning flashed outside. She swallowed and said a little prayer. “There’s a storm rolling in.”

  He glanced around the kitchen. She wasn’t sure what he saw in the darkness, but he asked, “Is this a hotel?”

  Her body needed to cringe in pain, but she held her head high. What if he worked for Ali? She held her head up as she said, “There are no rooms available. Town is down the main road.”

  He met her gaze and for one moment she was mesmerized.

  She wanted to trust him.

  But the last man who caught her eyes left her to die, so she was a horrible judge. He said, “I don’t have a car, ma’am.”

  She glanced up at the roof and half-expected the lightning outside to strike her. But this man seemed… genuine. It was already white outside and she’d murder him if he spoke the truth as she said to herself, “I’m a fool.”

  He placed his palms up as he stood and she came toward her as he said, “I just need a place to stay until the storm-”

  “I’ll get you a room but I’ll need to lock you in.” His lips thinned and he said, “I don’t like locks.”

  H’'d come through her kitchen window. Thunder boomed and the icy rain pelleted the glass.

  The storm had started early.

  If she’d been outside, she might have climbed in a window too.

  Which also made her stupid for justifying crime. She crossed her arms and said, “And I don’t like strangers near when I sleep.”

  He didn’t move a muscle, but his nose lifted as he said, “Lock your door then.”

  Her door and suite were fully stocked so one whiff of danger, and no one would get to her or Jakes. She had enough in stock and her gun. She passed him and picked up her pill bottle, hoping he had’'t seen what it was. “Oh, I can do more than lock my door if you come near me.”

  She dropped her pills and another tremor of pain rocked through her.

  He picked them up and handed her the bottle, taking one out. Then he ran back and grabbed her a glass of water from her tap. He returned and handed it to her as he smiled at her and said, “I’ll make breakfast for you, ma’am.”

  She took her pill. In a few minutes she’d be fine. Her eyebrow lifted. A man who intended harm certainly would offer to make her food. “Breakfast?”

  This close in the dark, there was a glimmer in his eyes that made her heart lift as he said, “Yeah, I can whip up eggs.”

  If he was here to rob her food, she had enough to survive the winter in her own panic room that was stocked with formula, water and canned food.

  With her medicine making her at full strength, she’d be able to protect Jacob upstairs, locking them into her bulletproof suite. She had to hope that not everyone in the world was evil. She offered to shake his hand and said, “My name is Mica.”

  His grip was firm and strong. “Rocco, ma’am.”

  The name fit him perfectly. He was strong like a stone, had the edges of a bad boy, but seemed to have a sweetness in his soul that made her trust when she trusted no one. Though neither one of them shared a last name, but if he was only staying the night, it wasn’t necessary to know more. She ended the shake and closed the window. “I told you my name so you don’t call me ma’am again.”

  He reached above her head and locked it.

  For one second it was like they were a team, but that sounded silly. She’d never trust anyone ever again. She needed to ensure she was always safe.

  3

  Rocco Hellsworth’s back didn’t ache today. His mattress wasn’t cheap, thin and full of springs here.

  And his shower this morning… heavenly.

  He’d not had a shower alone in two years.

  Then wading through sewage… at least his skin now smelled like the almond soap he’d found in the brand new hotel room, like it was set just for him. The wood the place was built on still smelled almost fresh and the view from his room with a balcony was amazing.

  And this good morning was all because a beautiful woman with soulful brown eyes gave him a hotel room last night that already had a provision of amenities set up for him.

  Now he whistled as he left his room that wasn’t locked and headed downstairs.

  He’d promised Mica breakfast and he’d deliver. The kitchen made for a large staff had double doors that opened.

  A promise was a promise.

  Rocco opened the refrigerator and realized she had everything.

  He checked the drawers and pantries. Everything looked shiny and new. The halls were quiet and the rugs had the just off the roll smell. No cars had been in the parking garage. Her hotel wasn’t open yet so unless she had more family hidden around, they were absolutely alone. He’d have to prove he’d do no harm. The kitchen had enough food to last for months, but he focused on the bacon, eggs, and fresh vegetables.

  In prison he’d never had the option to make anything and the cooks weren’t exactly into healthy and delicious options.

  Rocco heated up a frying pan and mixed some vegetables in the food processor, then beat the eggs.

  Soon he had had the bacon sizzling, toast in and omelets with cheese and vegetables.

  He had a hum on his lips as he set the side table clearly set for staff, even dancing though no one was around and no music played. Outside the door, he heard footsteps and imagined his angel came back.

  She entered the room carrying a small baby. Was she married? She had no ring. Maybe she wasn’t but just had a stupid boyfriend who didn’t let other men know she was taken. He pulled a chair out for her and said, “I made breakfast… wh’'s this, ma’am?”

  She took the seat but bounced the baby on her lap as she said, “This is my son, Jacob.”

  H’'d only grabbed two plates. He placed one plate in front of her and glanced at the door behind her as he said, “He’s cute. Is your boyfriend here too?�
��

  Her nose twisted like he’d asked the wrong question and then she said, “I don’t have one. I had your room on my security camera and realized you were pretty tired, so I took a chance you were harmless.”

  “I will do you no wrong, ma’am.” What stupid man would leave a woman like Mica, and his own son? Rocco’s shoulders straightened, wanting to speak to the man himself. “Your boy is young.”

  Her lips pouted, her face red. “His father is dead.”

  His muscles tightened as he thought she didn’t seem sad, but angry. He shook it off. Grief was strange. He lowered his head when he said, “I’m so sorry, ma’am.”

  She had red in her brown hues as she snorted though her baby didn’t react with more than a wide eye glance around. “I’m not. I’m glad.”

  But then she cooed at her son and smiled at him.

  His mind swirled but he returned to the stove and added bacon to an oval platter. “Why?”

  Rocco put the omelet and bacon in the middle of the small table in front of her. “He tried to kill me to stop me from having a baby because he wanted to marry someone else.” She spoke like this was normal.

  Not a way to treat a dog, never mind a beautiful woman. Any man would be lucky to have someone like Mica in his life. He slumped in his chair. “That’s brutal.”

  She smiled and nodded like the’'d shared some sort of joke as she said, “I think so, which is why I am not sad he got what was coming to him.”

  At least she had a good spirit about everything. In prison that kept a man alive. He sat at the table and folded his hands in front of him. “How will you explain that to your son then?”

  The baby rested on her shoulder. Rocco glanced around the room and saw a pantry. He vaguely remembered something foldable so he jumped out of his seat to get it.

  “He’ll know his mother wanted him so much she fought for their lives,” Mica said.

  He found the foldable square and snapped his fingers. It was a Pack‘'N Play playpen. He unfolded it as he laughed. The mind sometimes sees before awareness was something h’'d read in many of the self-help books he’d devoured these past two years. “That’s… good. I made it yesterday, climbing that mountain to somehow find a way to make some money to help my mother who I wish had your fighting spirit at the moment. I need to make money for her care.”