Endless Obsession (45 page)

“He was going to kill her,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

“Well, he’s not going to now. Stop fucking fighting. The bastard’s done for.”

Keeping his eyes on me, he cautiously let’s go, making sure I’m not going to jump back on Eric. It’s damn tempting. My eyes move to his man that has my other arm. Rex gives him a nod, and I yank my arm from his hold. My hate-filled gaze moves back to Eric. The dick has the balls to smile. I barely hold in the madness that’s trying to take over. I need to rein it in, for Poppy. I can’t let this fucker control me. But I only manage to keep it together until the psycho starts laughing.

My vision goes black, and I roar with rage as I charge him again. My foot connects with his stomach and he groans, but that smirk is still on his face. His teeth are bloody, making him look even more evil. Straddling him, I grab his hair with both hands, lift his head, and get down in his face.

“You’re fucking dead, you psychotic motherfuckin’ bastard!” I slam his head down. The heavy thunk of his head hitting the floor sends immense gratification through me. My knuckles burn and my muscles ache with my relentless pounding on his face. His face is hardly recognizable, but I still don’t let up. I can’t. Not until he’s completely obliterated. Never in my life have I ever
needed
someone to breathe their last breath until this very moment.

All too soon, I feel arms grabbing me again. I don’t know how long I’ve been at this, but it feels like ages, but it’s still not long enough. I yank and pull to try to get away from the arms that are pulling me back from my goal of killing this bastard, but they’re strong. I scream and kick out again, but no matter how hard I try to get back to killing Eric, nothing works.

“Let me the fuck go,” I growl at the person holding my arms, but keep my eyes pinned on Eric. He no longer has the smirk on his face. His eyes are swollen closed and there’s not a spot on his face that doesn’t have blood on it.

“Not doing it, man. You kill him, what happens to Poppy? You willing to give her up to finish this piece of shit off?”

His words hit home. There’s nothing, not even taking this fucker out, that would make me give up Poppy.

My chest pumps up and down with my heavy breathing. I look around and see several men in uniforms. One crouches down beside Eric, checking his pulse. He’s not dead. I know because his fucking chest is still moving.

“Let him fucking die,” I growl.

“Shut the fuck up, you idiot,” Rex says in my ear.

I glower at him and yank my arm.

“If I let you go, are you going to go after him again?”

I hold my tongue, contemplating my answer. I want more than anything to finish what I started, but my rational mind tells me I can’t.”

“No,” I grunt.

I look around the room, looking for the one person that I need to see. The one I need to hold, right this very moment. I spot her huddled down on the floor with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. A female officer is crouched down in front of her, talking softly, but her eyes are on me. They don’t leave mine as I walk over and get down on my knees. Tears are still flowing freely down her face. As soon as my knees hit the floor, she throws herself into my arms. My arms wrap around her, and I bring her body tight to mine. I bury my face in her hair as she weeps against my shoulder.

“I’ll give y’all a few minutes,” the officer says softly and leaves us.

I gather her in my arms and lift her up. Carrying her over to the couch, I take a seat. I hold her and close my eyes and simply breathe in her sweet scent. My throat clogs when I think about how close I came to losing her.

“Asher,” she cries.

“Shhh…” I soothe her through a scratchy throat. “I’ve got you.”

She continues to cry for several minutes, then pulls back, her breathing coming in soft hiccups.

“I was so scared,” she says, her voice hoarse from crying.

“I know you were, baby. I was too. But it’s over now.”

I run my hands up and down her back until I hear her breathing calm. Just as my eyes land on the dried blood on her neck and my ire ramps up again, a paramedic walks up, carrying a small medical bag.

“I need to check her over, sir,” he says.

As much as I don’t want to let her go, I do so anyway. The cut doesn’t appear to be deep, but it needs to be cleaned and bandaged. I set her down beside me and the paramedic sits on the coffee table across from her. I hold her hand as he starts removing the items he needs to clean up the wound. Looking over, I see another paramedic placing a mask over Eric’s face. He still hasn’t woken up. I hope the fucker never does.

Once Poppy is bandaged, I pull her back into my arms. Several cops come by to ask questions. We answer, my blood pumping double time as I recall what happened. Poppy sobs against my shoulder, I’m sure still living the nightmare. I know I’ll be living it for a long time to come too.

Rex comes to a stop beside the couch. Poppy won’t release my hand, so I stand with it clasped in mine to speak with him.

“How did you know to come?” I ask.

He looks around the room, before bringing his eyes back to me. The look he gives me would give a lesser man the fucking shivers.

“I went to his place to take the fucker out before the cops got to him. He wasn’t home, but I broke in.” He shakes his head and curls his lip up in disgust. “You’d fucking flip your shit again, Asher, if you saw what I found. He had hundreds of pictures plastered on the wall of his closet. All of Poppy, some of you and her. Some of you both while y’all were… having sex. The bastard was sick. Your face was cut out of all of them and replaced with his.”

White hot rage fills my gut, making my stomach cramp. I want to rip that sick fuck’s eyes out and shove them down his throat, right before I slice his puny dick off in small pieces and make him eat those too.

Poppy whimpers. I look down and realize my hand is gripping hers too tight. I immediately relax my hold.

“Sorry, Beautiful.” I lean down to kiss her forehead. She gives me a watery smile and takes a sip of the water one of the officers brought her.

I stand back up and shoot my eyes to Rex, who still looks like he’s ready to do permanent damage to Eric himself. I lift my chin, silently telling him to continue.

“Some of the pictures were within the last few days. It showed you and Poppy walking into your apartment building, so he knew where she was. I knew he was coming here, so I called my buddy with the APD, told him what was going on. I tried calling you, but it went to voicemail.” I remember crushing my phone in my hand. “I hoofed it to your apartment and saw the fucker’s car parked down the road. Called Travis back and headed inside.”

I take in everything he says. From what Eric was spouting earlier, he’s been at this for a while. From the beginning, actually. I just don’t understand how he was able to hide it so well from me. I never knew he was interested in Poppy until he told me of their dinner plans. An image of him sitting across from her, of him taking her home and being alone with her, hurting her, slams through my head and brings back the wraith I want to inflict on him. My best fucking friend. A man I trusted. A man I was going to bring in as my partner. I want to feel remorse for losing someone I considered family, but I just can’t muster any. He almost took away the single most important person in my life. He can rot in hell for all I care. I hope he becomes someone’s bitch boy in prison.

A couple hours later, after they scrape the scum from the floor and cart him off and finish asking hundreds of questions and gathering evidence, we’re finally alone. I scoop Poppy up in my arms and carry her directly to the bathroom. She’s been quiet, except when she’s been forced to talk to the cops. I’m starting to worry. I set her down on the basin and pull the blanket from her shoulders. She watches me with still frightful eyes, her body shaking. I want that look gone. It’s killing me to see it.

I bend down so we’re on the same level, searching her eyes with my own, praying to see the light come back into them.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She looks down at her hands twisting in her lap. I grab them and lace my fingers with hers. When she looks back up, tears are swimming in her eyes. She tries to smile, but it falls flat.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.” I pull her forward and breathe a sigh of relief when her arms wrap around my waist. I maneuver her legs apart with my hips and step in between them. She takes several deep breaths, trying to gain control. I hate that she feels like she has to. She should never be in a situation where she has to fight for control.

“I can’t…” She stops and takes a deep shuddering breath. “I can’t believe he touched me, Asher.” The look she gives me rips my fucking heart in two. “He touched me, and I never knew. He had his… hands on me, and I never knew. How could I have not known? I feel so dirty.” The hiccupping sob that leaves her lips has the rage coming back full force. I wish I had finished him off. He doesn’t deserve to live. He made her feel this way. He made her feel unclean and contaminated.

I push my anger away and cup her face, forcing her tearful eyes to meet mine. “You didn’t know because he was a sick and twisted son-of-a-bitch that thought he could take whatever he wanted. Don’t let that bastard haunt you. Nothing,” I tell her with conviction. “I swear to you, Beautiful, nothing or no one will ever hurt you again.”

I know I shouldn’t promise her that. There’s no way I can know what the future will hold. I can’t guarantee that I won’t always be around to protect her, whether it be while she’s out by herself or if, God forbid, I were to be taken away from her because of my health issues my, but I swear on everything I hold dear, I will do everything within my power to keep her from harm.

“I know. I trust you to keep me safe.” Her voice may be small, but the impact of her words has my heart swelling bigger than the Grand Canyon. She just gave me the world… no, the universe, with her words.

“I love you, Poppy.” I dip down for a sweet kiss.

“I love you too, Asher,” she whispers against my lips before deepening the kiss by wrapping her legs around my waist and bringing me flat against her. I hold her head and plunder her mouth, our tongues slipping against the others.

“Shower,” I tell her when I pull back.

She nods and reaches for the shirt to pull it off her shoulders, but I push her hands away. She watches me as I gently push the material down her arms. She truly is the most fantastic sight I’ve ever seen. Her lightly tanned skin comes into view and takes my breath away. Her gorgeous breasts with their hard little peaks are on display. I want to reach out and plump them up for my watering mouth, but I hold back, not wanting to push her after enduring what she did tonight. When my eyes land on the apex of her thighs, I have to bite down on my tongue to keep from growling. His hands were there. He touched her in the most intimate way, I had to watch it. And God only knows how many other times he’s hand his dirty hands on her. The bastard is lucky he didn’t have the time to go further tonight, because there’s no force on earth that would have prevented me from killing him then.

“Hey,” she says, drawing my attention to her face. She’s watching me with worry. “Like you told me earlier, it’s over. He’s gone and won’t be coming back.”

I rest my forehead against hers, taking in a few deep breaths, pushing back the anger that’s wanting to boil to the surface.

“My fucking friend did this to you. I’ve known him for ten goddamn years. I’ve drank with him, partied with him, had him at my fucking family’s table.” I shake my head and close my eyes. “He tried to hurt you, was going to hurt you.”

Poppy’s grip tightens on my cheeks, and I open my eyes.

“But he didn’t hurt me.” My eyes flicker to the bandage on her neck. “This is nothing, Asher. Just a little nick.”

I know what she’s saying, but I still can’t get it out of my head that my best friend did this. That I had no clue he was so unhinged.

Poppy pushes me back and jumps from the counter.

“Come. I need you to help me wash away his touch.” She grabs my hand and pulls me to the shower. After turning the spray on, she turns back to me. We keep our eyes locked as she lowers herself to the floor. Her hands grip the waistband of my briefs and slowly lowers them to the floor. It’s not sexual, what she’s doing, but my cock still hardens nonetheless.

I bend to scoop her up into my arms and walk into the shower, and under the warm water. I lower her to her feet and grab the washcloth. I take my time as I wash her, making sure to clean her thoroughly between her legs. I keep it all impersonal. This isn’t for pleasure; this is to wash off the residue of the sick fuck who touched her.

I step behind her and grab the shampoo. Squeezing a generous amount into my hand, I work a lather into her hair. She drops her head back against my chest, closing her eyes and releasing a contented sigh. I take us both a step forward until we’re under the spray to rinse her hair.

After I condition her hair, she reaches for the soap to wash me, but I stop her.

“I’ll do it quicker. I want to get you in bed.”

“Okay.” She smiles softly, but I still see the lingering pain in her eyes. I know it’s going to take some time for the look to completely disappear. She watches me as I quickly wash my body and hair in record time.

Once we’re both dried, I put one of my fresh shirts on her and lead her to the bed where we both lay down. Before I get a chance to pull her to me, she molds her soft body against my hard one, tucking her head into my neck. I feel her kiss the skin there, and I smile into the darkness.