Obsession (Seven Deadly Sins Book 2)

by Shantel Tessier

  He nods the best he can with my hand fisted in his hair. “I’m gonna give you five days.” Just like last time. “And if I have to find you again, I’ll break a leg as well.” I release his head, and it drops to the concrete floor.

  I stand and walk out of the room heading back up to my office.

  “You gonna tell Skye about what you found out?” Case asks as he walks in behind me.

  “Nope.”

  “Why not?” he asks confused.

  I go behind the desk. “Because Robert is her ex.” His dark brows shoot up. “There’s no way I am going to tell her that her best friend was out partying with her ex.”

  I pick up my phone and text Skye.

  SKYE

  I pull my phone out of my back pocket and see that Brecken text me.

  Brecken: How is your night going?

  I smile as I text him back. Me: It’s going well. It’s really slow, so I think I’m going to be getting off soon.

  I don’t want to be sent home, but I have the smallest section. They will send me home and split my section up between other two waitresses. And it’s really not worth working till midnight when you only make twenty dollars.

  Brecken: Okay. When you get off, come on up here to the club. Jet is gonna be up here later. He may have some information for us.

  My smile widens.

  Me: Best news I’ve heard in a long time.

  My phone beeps again.

  Brecken: I don’t wanna get your hopes up. But I’d rather you be here than have to tell it all to you. At least Jet can answer any questions you will have.

  Me: Aww. You’re so charming.

  Brecken: I try.

  I let out a little laugh as I place my phone back in my pocket. It’s amazing how often I smile now. Tiffany has been gone for over a week, yet I can now smile because of Brecken. And when I think of Tiffany, I smile too. I thought it would hurt forever. And don’t get me wrong, it does. But I can also think of her and laugh. Like when she insisted she needed to get a perm. It was the worst idea she’d ever had. She looked like a poodle that had been stuck out in the rain. She cried for days, and she even tried to straighten it, which just made it worse.

  Or like the time a guy had sent her flowers to work and she had lit them on fire in the parking lot ‘cause the guy had written the wrong name on the card. Tiffany cussed that girl Misty for three months. And when the guy came in to see Tiffany, she had dumped his soup on his lap.

  She was always doing things like that. Making me laugh. I didn’t realize how much I missed laughing until I didn’t do it. My chest still tightens when I have the urge to call her. To tell her about Brecken. I miss her! Every part of me misses her. But the only thing I can do about it is help Brecken bring her killer to justice.

  “Goodbye, Skye,” Cliff says as I walk past the kitchen.

  “Good night,” I say waving to him. I ended up getting cut early just as I had predicted.

  I grab my purse from the breakroom and walk out the back door. I hit the unlock button on the Range Rover, and a car door belonging to the car parked next to it opens. I come to a stop when I see Robert getting out of it. “What are you doing here?” I demand.

  He closes his car door, leans back against it, and places his hands in the pockets of his slacks. “I’ve been calling you. Have you not paid your phone bill?” he growls.

  I smile. “I got a new number,” I say as I continue to walk again.

  “You what?” he demands. “When were you going to call and give it to me?” he snaps.

  “I wasn’t.” I walk around the back of his car and open up the door the Range Rover.

  “When the fuck did you get this?” he asks looking it up and down.

  “That’s none of your business, Robert.”

  “Are you seeing someone?” he demands, pulling his hands out of his pockets.

  “Also. None of your business,” I say with a smile.

  “Skye …” I slam my door shut and start up the SUV. He comes up to the driver’s side window, but I put it in drive and tear out of there with a smile on my face.

  ***

  I sit in his office for over two hours. I hate to say it, but I’m bored. The pounding of the music is annoying. It’s not extremely loud like if you were down on the club level, but it is starting to give me a headache.

  Brecken seems frustrated. They’ve had a few problems downstairs. Every now and then, someone calls over the radio for him to come and take care of a mess. Every time, he goes running out of his office with a growl.

  I look up and find myself alone once again. Brecken’s been gone for over twenty minutes this last time he ran out. I get up and walk over to the large glass that overlooks the club. I know the clubgoers down below can’t see me watching. It’s a two-way mirror of some sort. I see Brecken standing behind the bar as he looks to be yelling at a bartender. One I’ve never seen before. He hasn’t told me, but I overheard him on the phone the other day while he was talking to Case that he fired their old bartender. He was fired because of me. Because I bought drugs from him. I tried to assure Brecken I had just bought a Xanax, but he didn’t care. He said he was gone.

  The new guy isn’t working out so well as far as I can tell. Brecken seems to always be bitching at him or about him. Max, I think is his name.

  Brecken gets my attention as he undoes the cuffs on his dark blue button-down shirt. He then rolls up his sleeves angrily and starts working behind the bar. I watch him as he moves, fast yet smooth. Pouring drinks, taking orders. I see women lean over the bar a little farther than they need to, pushing their boobs up into this face. It makes me pissy, but he doesn’t even seem to notice them. I smile as I realize he doesn’t care. I’m not sure if that is because of me or because he just doesn't have the two extra seconds to look at what they have to offer.

  My eyes scan over the crowd, and I see two men over in the far corner. They seem to be shouting at one another, but I can’t tell if they are just trying to talk over the music or if they are fighting. Seconds later, the man who was doing the shouting shoves the other in the chest. He falls backward, loses his footing, and stumbles into a table. The table turns over and so does the man. The man who did the shoving yells something else and then turns around giving the guy his back as he goes to walk away. The man who now lies on the floor with drinks spilled all over his clothes gets up and charges the man walking way.

  “Shit!” I say when he jumps on the other guy’s back.

  A fight breaks out between the two of them as they fall to the ground. I look over behind the bar in time to see Brecken jump over the bar and run toward them. He leans over wrapping an arm around the guy’s throat and yanking him off the other man. Miller runs in to grab the other guy just in time and then they both start to drag the guys down the long hallway where the rooms are and out the back door. Damn, they took care of that fast enough.

  I go back over to the couch and sit down just as the door opens. A pretty brunette walks in. “Oh. Hello?” she says with a frown. “Can I help you with something?” she asks looking around to see that I’m alone.

  “I’m waiting for Brecken,” I say.

  Her lips turn up into an O. “Are you Skye?” she asks with a smile on her face.

  “I am,” I say slowly. “Who are you?” I ask wondering how this woman knows who I am.

  She walks over to me and reaches out her hand. “I’m Taylor. Case’s wife.”

  Now, I’m the one with the O face. “It’s nice to meet you,” I say although I’m not so sure it is. Case is not a fan of me, so I’m not sure his wife is either.

  “You too,” she says excitedly. Then her face drops. “I’m really sorry to hear about your friend.”

  I give her a soft smile. “Thank you.”

  She turns giving me her back and starts walking to the door. Before she opens it, she turns back to face me. “I know Brecken seems a little …” She pauses as she thinks of the right word.

  “Extreme,” I say, and she laugh
s.

  “Yeah. But he will do everything he can in order to find who hurt your friend. And he will protect you.”

  I tilt my head to the side. “That sounded like you’re speaking from experience.”

  She nods. “Let’s just say he saved me once.” My eyes widen. “These men—Brecken, Case, and Miller—they don’t know how to fail. They don’t know when to give up.” She smiles. “They may be a little extreme, but they fight for the things they believe in, and they believe in the women that they love.”

  “Oh, uh”—I shake my head—“it’s nothing like that.” I find myself flustered.

  Her smile widens, and then she turns around and walks out just as the door swings open. A very angry looking Brecken passes by Taylor, and she wiggles her eyebrows and then leaves us alone.

  He storms past me and over to the little sink. He turns it on and washes his hands. I catch the sight of blood running down his hands as the water washes it away and then he turns the water off and grabs a towel. I watch his hands waiting for the blood to return to the surface but nothing. It wasn’t his blood.

  “Everything okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah. Just some drunk idiots,” he growls and goes back behind his desk. He looks up at the door as if he just realized he walked right past Taylor. “What was she doing up here?” he asks.

  I shrug. “I’m not sure,” I say honestly. She came in and then she left.

  He sits down in front of his computer and starts typing on it as I lie down on the couch. I look over and watch him as his fingers move across the keys while his eyes stay on the screen. His jaw is tight, and his eyes narrowed. “Are you okay?” I ask.

  “Fine,” he growls.

  I frown. “What happened to those guys that got into a fight?” I ask curiously.

  “I beat their asses and then sent them on their way,” he says simply.

  Okay then. “Do things like that happened often?”

  “Things like what?”

  “Fights.”

  “Every night.”

  I let out a sigh at his monotone answers. It’s as if he’s on autopilot. He hears me speak but not really.

  The door swings open, and he looks at the door. He stops typing immediately when he sees it’s Case. “Where have you been?” Brecken demands.

  “I had to do something for Blane.” He rolls his eyes. “You know that guy can’t do anything for himself.” He looks at me. “Hello, Skye.”

  I nod and softly say, “Hello.”

  He goes to open his mouth to say something to me, but the door opens again. This time, it’s Jet. “About time,” Brecken growls.

  I sit up straighter. “What did you find out?” I’m not sure why I’m here or why Brecken wants me to hear what Jet has to say, but it has to do with Tiffany. And that is what matters to me.

  Jet sighs as he comes and sits down on the chair beside Case in front of Brecken. “I didn’t find out much,” he starts, and my shoulders slump. “Except that James is not your killer.”

  “Whatever he said was a lie,” I blurt out. He has to be the killer.

  Jet proceeds to talk to Case and Brecken as if I’m not even here. “Unlike you, Brecken, he showed me the footage from the club. He had an alibi. He was there the entire time. The time that you told me she left here and the time that he had finally left the club didn’t match. He did not—”

  “She was killed the next morning,” I interrupt him. Everyone turns to finally face me.

  “Skye,” Brecken says softly.

  I ignore him. “Jet, you were there when I called Throb. You heard the guy tell me that Tiffany owed James money.”

  “Just because she owed him money doesn’t mean he is the killer.” My mouth falls open. “She could have been in to many things that we will never know of, Skye. James could be the beginning of a long list of people she owed.”

  I shake my head. “I told you.” I fist my hands down by my side. “I heard Oscar on the phone with James talking about a limo …”

  “Just because Tiffany left Seven Deadly Sins in a limo does not mean that she died in that limo.”

  “You’re joking, right?” I snap.

  Brecken stands and starts to walk toward me, but Jet lowers his hand to tell him to sit down. He stops walking toward me but doesn’t sit back down. Jet looks at me. “I want to find the killer just as much as you do, Skye. We all do. But we need to do it the right way.” Why do people keep saying that? “I’m sorry, but James isn’t the killer. He offered his DNA. He was very cooperative, and I’ve been doing it long enough to know when someone is hiding something. He had nothing to hide.”

  I fall back down on the couch and place my head in my hands. I feel my throat start to close, and my body shakes with anger. Am I missing something? Is there something I haven’t told them that I know …? I have nothing.

  “What did you say made him a suspect?” I hear Case say. I listen but keep my head down.

  “I just told them that her phone records showed multiple calls to the club. I showed him a picture of her, and he said he recognized her. That she had come to the club on several occasions. He even showed me footage of her there the night she disappeared, but it was before she was here.” He shrugs.

  I hear someone take a deep breath. Then I hear Brecken’s voice. “Did you ask him what I told you about earlier tonight?” My head snaps up at that.

  “What did you find out tonight?” I demand.

  The room falls silent as Brecken stares at Jet. After what feels like a few long minutes, Jet answers. “He did not have any information on that.”

  “Any information on what?” I snap. When no one answers, I look at Brecken. “Brecken?” I demand. “What are you talking about?”

  Someone’s phone rings as Brecken starts to walk over to me. He sits down beside me and drapes his arm over my shoulders. I shrug to push his arm off as Jet answers his ringing phone.

  “What are you keeping from me?” I demand as I look into his dark brown eyes. My lip trembles, and my hands get sweaty. I don’t know if I’m nervous or pissed. Has he had information that could lead us to her killer this entire time?

  “It’s not much, but …” he begins but is interrupted.

  “What the fuck?” Jet shouts standing in a rush. “There’s no way … that’s…”

  Everyone places their attention on Jet, but he has his bright blue eyes on me. And suddenly, I forgot what Brecken was saying. “What?” Brecken asks.

  Jet runs his hand through his hair. He’s nervous. “How long does she have?” he asks into his phone.

  My body stiffens, and Brecken shoots to his feet. “What the fuck is going on, Jet?” he demands.

  “Thanks for the heads-up,” Jet says and then hangs up his phone. “Brecken, may I talk to you for a moment?” He starts walking to the door, but I stand.

  “Absolutely not!” I shout. They come to a stop. “What in the fuck is going on?” I shout. I’m losing my mind. “Who was that, Jet?” My voice shakes. Who would be calling Jet about me?

  He looks at Brecken. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

  “What the fuck?” I snap. “What is going on?” I storm over to him and place myself between Jet and Brecken. Case finally stands from his seat. “Tell me, Jet.” He stays silent. “Whatever you tell Brecken, he’s gonna tell me.” That’s a lie, and everyone in this room knows it. I was just mad at Brecken because he was keeping something from me. But it was the only thing I could think of at that moment.

  He swallows and then lets out a long sigh. “That was Officer Dale. He was giving me a heads-up.”

  “About …?” Brecken growls.

  “Someone called into the station giving them a tip that Skye is a murder suspect in the case of Tiffany’s death.” I gasp. He keeps his eyes on Brecken.

  “How long?” Brecken demands. And I try to breathe.

  “About twelve hours,” Jet answers.

  “You have to get her out of town,” I hear Case order.

  “I
don’t understand.” I breathe, feeling my chest tighten. Me kill Tiffany? Who would think that? How could someone even suspect that?

  “We need to go!” Brecken says.

  “I’ll take care of everything here,” Case informs him.

  Then I feel hands on my shoulders. “No,” I whisper shaking my head. “I would never …” I’m spun around and then two hands land on either side of my face. Brecken leans down to look me in the eyes.

  “We have to leave town.”

  I shake my head. “But Tiffany …?”

  “I can’t find the killer if you’re in jail,” he says, and my breath catches in my throat.

  “Jail?” I whisper. “But I didn’t …”

  “We know,” I hear Jet say from behind me. “Get her out of here. Now!”

  Brecken lets go of my face, grabs my hand, and yanks me out of the office.

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  BRECKEN

  She stayed quiet as I dragged her out of Seven Deadly Sins. She stayed silent as I drove her to my house and then while I packed us a bag. She also sat quietly on the bed as I called and got us two plane tickets out of town. Within less than an hour, we were sitting at the Chicago airport on a plane waiting for takeoff. She silently wept as I tried to quit shaking. Fear for what will happen to her and nervousness for myself.

  I’m taking her to my parents’ house.

  I had gotten their anniversary invitation in the mail and wanted to do everything I could to avoid going, but I felt I had no other option when Jet informed us that she is now a suspect in Tiffany’s murder. I had to get her out of town, and no one there in Chicago would ever guess I took her home. Back to my old home.