His Obsession (17 page)

Ursula gathered the books she needed and took a seat. The moment she
opened the first textbook, she was absorbed into her studies.
 

****

Stephen met James outside his club. The other man wore a pair of leather
pants, white shirt, and leather jacket. Stephen couldn’t help but chuckle at
his attire.

“Stephen Knox is laughing early in the morning. This is news to report.
Should I get a hold of the media? Your woman must be good for you,” James said
as he got in the car.

“Ursula is none of your concern. I’m happy.
Cadeon
is meeting us at Rebecca’s. He has a key.”

“I hope your thoughts are not true. I would hate to have to deal with
the Dominic shit again.” James closed the door, securing his seatbelt.

“Everything adds up. I don’t like this either.”

“Have you done any digging?” James asked.

“Nothing new.
I haven’t gotten ‘round to it this morning. I
don’t want to alert Ursula. She still doesn’t know about Possession, and at the
moment I want to keep it that way.”

“You’ll have to tell her eventually.”

“Not today. At the moment this is too dangerous for her. I want to keep
her as safe as possible.”

“Black is dangerous, I’ll give you that, but prostituting women? Or
buying them? I don’t get it.” James stared at him.

Stephen knew it sounded far-fetched. “There is a lot of shit going on in
this world that I don’t agree with. Money is money no matter how it is earned.
If you’ve lost a large sum of money and you need to get it back and quick,
wouldn’t you do everything you could to get it back?”

“I’d earn it the good old-fashioned way. I’m not wired to earn off the
backs of women, Stephen. I never have been.”

He knew James spoke the truth. Stephen would do the same. No woman would
earn his crust.

“Well, I wouldn’t turn a woman black and blue,” Stephen said.

“I would turn a woman’s ass red, but I’d never abuse her. Hitting a
woman in violence is wrong. I don’t agree with it. If Lloyd is looking to get
out of jail then I don’t know how we can stop him.”

“I don’t think him getting out of jail is the problem, James. I think
the means he is going to use is the problem.” The more he thought about Lloyd
the more he began to worry. He could use the clubs as leeway to try to get out
of prison. Possession and Ravage could easily be shown in the wrong light.

“Fuck, he better not have a death wish. If he tries to take my club
down, I’ll fucking kill him,” James said.

They sat in silence for the rest of the journey.

Cadeon
sat in his car waiting for them
when they pulled up outside her house. They all got out, the cold biting
Stephen through his jacket.

“I told Tate and Kevin to not bother today. They’re meeting us with the
others at the club.”

“Okay,” Stephen said.

Cadeon
knocked on the door. It had been a
few years since Stephen had last seen Rebecca. The door opened, and her head
popped round. He noticed she didn’t greet anyone but
Cadeon
.

“I’ve got some friends with me who want to ask you a few questions.” The
door was left open, and
Cadeon
escorted them all in. They
found Rebecca in the sitting room. She’d wrapped a blanket around her. She sat
on the farthest end of the couch.

“I’m sorry. I’m cold,” she said.

“You don’t need to be afraid, Rebecca. I care about you. How is
everything with Tate and Kevin?”
Cadeon
asked.

“They try to help me. I find it so hard. I want to go outside. My doctor
doesn’t think I have that symptom she mentioned. She thinks I’m repressing
memories, and it makes me think I don’t want to go outside.” Rebecca chuckled.

“Do you remember me?” Stephen asked taking the seat in front of her.

“Yes.”

“And me?” James asked.

“Yes.”

“We need to ask you a few questions.”

“Ask away. I don’t have a lot of guests. I’m not slow. I’ll answer
anything you need me to.” She gave a nod at all of them.

“Are you comfortable talking about your time with Lloyd Black?” Stephen
asked.

He noticed the fear in her. She fidgeted on the couch and stared between
him and
Cadeon
. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll talk
about him.”

“What about your own life?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Stephen glared at James. “We’ve recently come into some information that
may be crucial to something that is happening. Do you recall much of your life
before marrying Lloyd?”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Ask me anything about Lloyd, but I can’t
tell you about my past.”

“Why?” Stephen asked.

“Because I’ll be in trouble.
I’m only allowed to say that I met
Lloyd and fell in love. I’m not allowed to say anything else.”

Stephen nodded his head. He would need to wait until Monday to get the
answers he needed.

“I want you to tell me about Lloyd. Were you his only woman?” Stephen
asked.

“No. He would have meetings at his
house where a selection of girls would come. He’d pick them out, and then the
others would leave,” Rebecca said. “I had to provide entertainment after he
made his purchase.”

“He brought these women?”

“Yes. He always said they were a
good investment. Men always needed a hole to fuck, and they kept him in the
lifestyle he was accustomed to.” He saw the tears in her eyes. The barrier she
was fighting against was breaking down. “When he had the meetings I was so
afraid. He would warn me that if I didn’t please the man he handed me to, then
he would sell me, too, and make sure I didn’t have a good life.”

Her hands kept rubbing her legs.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you
everything when we went to the club, but he made sure I was never alone. The
pain if another man spoke to me hurt so much. I wasn’t brave enough to fight
him. I wanted to fight him all the time. I was never strong enough.”
Cadeon
wrapped his arms around her. Stephen watched the
woman come apart at the seams. Guilt filled him to the very core. He hadn’t
been paying attention when this woman needed it most. He’d been too upset by
the lack of a woman in his life to give a shit about anyone else.

He would change it. Every member was
being thoroughly checked from now on. All his existing members would be
investigated.

“The man you had to entertain, what
was his name?”

“
Dominic,
and he was British. I never knew his last name.”

And there was the connection he
needed.
Cadeon
comforted her while James and Stephen
left. They drove in silence to Possession. He pressed the security digits then
waited for the gates to open. Like always he went through the back entrance.

When they were in the privacy of his
office, Stephen lost it. All his anger he took out on the furniture in his
office. James stood in the corner with his arms folded, watching him.

“Trashing your office is not going
to change anything that happened. This was not your fault,” James said.

“Not my fault?” Stephen threw the
computer to the floor. The screen smashed. “Do you think my father would have
let that slide? He would have known instantly what was going on. What did I do?
I sat back and did nothing.” He walked over to where James stood. “That woman
has no life because of me. She lives in a house that she refuses to leave. What
kind of life does she really have? She depends on a lot of people, James.”

“And you think trashing your office
will solve all of those problems?”

“Your father gave you one piece of
advice, to look after the club and make sure all members are safe. You’ve done
that. Ravage is flourishing, and you’re in complete control of everything you
do. My dad asked me to keep Possession in the same high regard. I fucked it up,
James. He asked this one thing of me, and I messed it up.” He started to laugh
at the situation. James stared at him. “Do you know what the funny thing is? I
was jealous of all you. You knew what possession was all about, while I thought
it was a load of crap. I now know it’s not.”

He stared round the office, the same
office his father had used and his father before him. There was a lot of
history in the room, and he’d trashed it.

“You’ve fucked up, so deal with it. You
don’t have to spend the rest of your life messing up. Rebecca got hurt. You’re
on the ball now. Don’t mess up again.”

“That simple?”

“I wasn’t always a dominant,
Stephen. When I found out about my parents’ preferences I freaked out and
rebelled. It was only after time that I realised the real person I was. This is
who I am. The woman I meet has to accept me how I come. I’m not going to
change.”

Stephen nodded, unable to do
anything else. There was a knock on the door, and Lucas entered. He took one look
at the mess then left.

“I guess we’re meeting elsewhere.”
James left him to go find Lucas. Stephen grabbed his cell phone to call Ursula.
He needed to hear her voice.

The call carried on without
answering. When it went to voice-mail he hung up and re-dialled her number. She
answered on the third ring.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi, it’s just me. I wanted to check
in.”

“You couldn’t stay away too long.
Are you missing me?” she asked.

He glanced around the room, his
temper calming down the moment she began to talk. “You have no idea how much
I’m missing you. How come you couldn’t get to the phone?”

“I was sucked into college work. I
have this paper to write. When I get interested in it, I can’t do anything but
work. That’s the way I am.” She chuckled.

“I’m glad.”

“My sister is going to be at my
parents’ next weekend. She wants to meet you.”

“It should be fun,” he said. Every
word she spoke allowed him the chance to completely calm down.

“Yeah?
What if you see her and decide you
like her more than me?”

“That would never be possible.” He
knew there was no other woman on the planet for him.

“How do you know?” she asked.
Stephen heard the doubt in her voice.

“When I’m with you do you really
think I could pass you over for someone else?”

“You haven’t met her.”

He sighed. “She wasn’t the woman who
came for the job interview to clean my house. Also, she hasn’t put up with my
temper and made me work for a conversation. You do all of those things.”
    

“What about sex?”

“Are you seeking a compliment?” he
asked.

“Always.”

He laughed at her playful tone. “If
you’re ever in doubt of my affection, touch the pendant I gave you.”

There was rustling, and he knew she
was touching the necklace. “It is a beautiful necklace.”

“I would not give that to any woman
in my life. I gave it to you.” He sensed her smile down the line.

“Will it always be like this?” she
asked.

“Yes. The only difference between
now and the future is I’ll be sitting by you when we’re talking.”

James came to the door and gestured
for him to hurry up.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll be home soon.”

“Okay, I’ll miss you.”
                       

He
hung up wanting to say so much more to her. Stephen shut the phone then walked
out the door to find James waiting for him.

“Are
you okay?” James asked.

Stephen
nodded. “I’ll get by. Are they all here?”

“Yes,”
James said. Stephen followed the other man out of the room then down the hall.
They were inside a small room with a pool table.
Cadeon
sat at the bar nursing a beer. Tate and Kevin looked worried.

All
the men stood when he entered.

“What’s
going on? We heard you went to see Rebecca. What’s going on?” Kevin asked.

“It
would seem Lloyd Black has other business ventures,” Stephen said. “He was
involved with Dominic in some way, and he’s going to do everything he can to
bring down the two clubs.”

Cadeon
took a long swig of his beer.

“But
he signed one of those forms keeping the club protected,” Sean said as way of
an argument.

“You’ve
met Lloyd. Do you really think he’d give a shit about a piece of paper? He’s in
prison. If he can feed the police or someone any information about this place
then that is his escape clause.”
         

They
all looked shocked. Stephen was past shocked. He had no clues about what to do.
His father would know, but he wasn’t his father.