His Obsession (23 page)

“Her
neighbour alerted the police. The house was in
Cadeon’s
name, so they called him first,” Kevin said.

“Was
she ... raped?”

“No.
They slapped her around. Someone stopped it. There was an ambulance already on
the way when the neighbour called the police.”

Stephen
frowned. The person had to be Paul. The police came to ask them some questions.
He called his lawyer to begin the deal to get Eugene.

“How
is Isabella?” he asked Lucas.

“She’s
not woken up. Whatever has happened to her, the doctors don’t know if she’ll
wake up. There was the cold, and from the track marks she’d been taking plenty
of drugs.” Lucas stopped talking. Stephen understood. The pain of everything
was too much to deal with.

“Excuse
me, Mr. Knox, Mr.
Sanchez,
there is a phone call for
you. They want Mr.
Castleden
and Mr.
Ashwood
as well,” a nurse said to them. Stephen left Ursula
with Tate and Kevin as all of them went into the doctor’s room. “He told me to
escort you here.”

The
nurse closed the door behind her. The speaker phone beeped on the phone.
Stephen pressed the button waiting for the person on the other end.

“I
see you got my message.” The unmistakable sound of Eugene Black sounded on the
line.

“What
the fuck have you done?” James asked.

“Patience,
James, Patience. I’m surprised you’re not thanking me. Not only have I cured
Rebecca’s problem about getting out of the house, I’ve also given you your
freedom. Possession and Ravage will be no more,” Eugene said.

James
looked angry.

“What
do you want, Eugene?” Stephen said.

“I
want to meet. I think the abandoned warehouse from where Dominic took Violet
would be the best location.”

“Why?
You got what you wanted. The clubs are in tatters. Your message has been
received loud and clear,” Stephen said.

“Actually,
it hasn’t. There is something else I want from you. I paid a pretty penny for
Violet. I want my money back. She would have gotten me so much more where I
would have put her.”

“You’re
not having Violet,”
Cadeon
yelled.

“I
don’t want used goods. Did you know there are a lot of men looking for virgin
women? I mean millions of pounds or dollars for the use of one.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”
Stephen asked.

“Because you have information that connects me to this crap.
My father is in prison. I don’t want the same. Give me what I want, and Ursula
won’t disappear along with all the women connected to the club. You don’t want
to mess with me. I’ll be at the warehouse in one hour. Be there, or lose
everything you’ve ever known.” The call rang off.

“Dane
is not in the country yet. He can’t help us,” James said.

“Suddenly
it’s a good idea?” Stephen asked.

“Sarcasm
won’t get us anywhere.”

“We
have copies of everything. I’m coming with you. I’ve got my contacts in the
police force. They’re already smoothing over the impact of the exposure of the
clubs. The exposure now is based on the media’s attention. They’re not going to
bring us in for questioning. They want answers to the disappearance of women,”
Lucas said.

“Then
get in touch and tell them where we’ll be in an hour.”
          

“Stephen,
without Dane we don’t have much to go on,” Lucas said.

“We’ll
get him to talk. I’ll go in first. I want someone to stay at the hospital with
Ursula and Violet.”

“Tate
and Kevin won’t leave Rebecca. They’ll be safe with them,” Sean said.

Stephen
nodded. “Don’t you two want to stay here with Isabella?”

“She’s
out of it at the moment.
In a coma.
The doctors don’t
know if she’s going to wake up. I want to get this dealt with before she does,”
Lucas said.

They
made arrangements. The men left the room to go and get the people they would
need for a showdown. An hour’s notice wasn’t great, but if they could work it
right, they would get everything they needed.

His
mobile went off.

“It’s
a trap,” Paul said the moment he turned the phone on. “He’s going to try and
kill you, and he’s already trying to kill the man you’ve got travelling here.”

“Why
are you helping me?”

“I
don’t. I’m not like him. His plan is to get rid of all of you and force that
woman to drop the charges against his father. He’s mad, and I want nothing to
do with this. I thought I was supposed to do a couple of messages, and that was
it.”

Stephen
told Paul what was going to happen. By the time he rang off he was pleased to
have been planning for something like this for the past few weeks. He hadn’t
thought Eugene would attempt something this soon, but he had to live with it.

Ursula
sat waiting for them. Sean and Lucas had already left. He didn’t know what they
were doing exactly. He hoped they would get what they needed.

“What’s
going on?” she asked. He stroked her hair then kissed her on the lips.

“I
don’t want you to leave the hospital,” he said. “You’re going to be safe here.”

“No,
something is happening. You can’t keep me in the dark, Stephen.”

“This
is for your safety. I can’t do this if I don’t know you’re okay.” He ran his
thumb over her bottom lip. “I love you.”

“I
love you. Don’t go. There are others who can go. Don’t go.” She begged him. The
tears filling her eyes tightened his gut.

“Don’t
do that, Ursula. I’ll make it back. I love you.”

She
held onto him for as long as possible. James pulled him away from her. She
watched him go.

“We’ve
got a date to set,” he shouted to her.

“What?”

“For when we get
married.
I want
to set a date.”

Chapter Eighteen

She
watched him walk away. Tate and Kevin were sitting staring at the door to
Rebecca’s room. They looked angry. Violet lay on the couch, her head in her
hands. Ursula sat next to the other woman while her heart felt broken. The
hours had passed in a blur. The sun was beginning to rise outside the window.
She should be in bed with Stephen where none of these problems could reach
them.

“How
can you sit there?” Ursula asked the other woman.

“
Cadeon
asked me to.”

Rubbing
her hands over her pants she stared at the window outside. The minutes passed,
and all she thought about was the worst.

“I know where they are,” Violet
said.

“What?”

“I
can’t sit here waiting. They’ll go to see Rebecca in a second. When they do,
we’ll leave out the front.
Cadeon
gave me his car
keys.” Violet made the plans while staring at the clock. On cue, both men stood
to go to Rebecca’s room. Both women removed their shoes and ran to the door of
the hospital. They wanted to make as little sound as possible. Violet ran to
Cadeon’s
car without any footwear. Ursula stumbled putting
her shoes back on. The car was fired up as they pulled out of the hospital.

“What
made you change your mind?” Ursula asked.

“I’m
tired of being left behind.
Cadeon
is the only person
I have left. I don’t want to lose him.”

She
buckled her seat belt as Violet floored it. The speed of the car made her grip
the handle on her door to try to steady herself. She prayed Stephen was okay.
He had to be.

****

Stephen stared at Eugene Black. The
disgust he felt towards the other man couldn’t be disguised. Stephen hated any
man who abused women. A raise was due to Lucas for finding the way to connect
them with his contacts while inside the warehouse. He hoped Isabella and
Rebecca would recover in the hospital. Tate and Kevin had promised to keep his
woman safe. He saw Lucas and Sean at the back of the warehouse. They wanted to
pummel the man who stood in front of him. He hoped everything was in place to
take this bastard down. There was a lot of history with Lucas and Sean. Stephen
didn’t know if he wanted to understand any of it. Right now, he needed to
focus. This fucker could destroy his life and that of his club, the club he’d
come to cherish in more ways than he could imagine.

Possession
was part of him. The club was part of his own history, and in its own way a
part of his father’s. Being part of the club meant he was still with his father
in some kind of way.

“So,
we meet again,” Eugene said.

“If
all you wanted to do was
meet
, why cause all this to
get to me?”

“Fun.
I don’t like you. My father hated you for taking over
Possession. He thought he’d convinced your father to give the club to him. When
that didn’t go according to plan then dad had no choice but to go to Dominic.”

“Why?”

“Money.
Power.
My dad had a
preference for liking them young. Can you imagine how he felt when I came home
with Isabella Sanchez?”

Lucas
and Sean tensed.

“What
does she have to do with this?” Stephen asked.

“Well,
she was so devastated when Sean rejected her. Can you imagine how much fun it
was when she pretty much ran into my arms? I took her home, and then my father
sent her to Dominic. She was the icing on the cake of a very lucrative deal.”

“She
was sold this whole time?”

Eugene
nodded. “Like most women, she was a means to an end.”

“I
don’t get why you let Isabella Sanchez go?” he said.

“She
was so fucking pitiful. Dominic paid a fucking fortune for her virgin cunt, and
what did I get?
Nothing.
She was sold as far as I
could tell. Then I saw her wandering around on the street. I decided to point
her in the direction of her brother. She was useful. While you were looking for
her, Rebecca was being beaten.
The perfect distraction.”
Eugene shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Stephen saw Lucas losing his temper.
“I love the fact I kept her right under their noses for all this time. I
thought about taking her to the club to show off, but my dad told me not to. He
warned me you’d end me.”

“What’s
Lloyd got to do with this?”

“He
wants his wife back. Rebecca was a great piece of ass. After my mother let
herself go, he wanted a woman he could keep to his exacting standards. Rebecca
fit the bill. She was young and had the curves my dad likes. Also, she never
defended herself.
A true submissive according to your friend,
James.
He was the one who introduced them, I believe.”

James
growled in anger.

They
needed to keep him talking.

“What
else do you want?”

“When
Rebecca drops the charges my dad will be free to go. He wants to run the business.
Also, we need some payment to the man who has taken Dominic’s place. We figured
Violet and Ursula would pay that bill,” Eugene said.

Stephen’s
hands tightened to fists at the mention of his woman. The voice in his ear
warned him they were ten minutes away. Sean and Lucas visibly relaxed, but then
Eugene pulled a gun. “But I want you fucking dead.”

****

Violet parked the car, and Ursula
got out. Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was having a heart
attack.

Paul
stood outside the abandoned club. He was smoking a cigarette, and she knew he
was nervous. The moment he saw her, the cigarette was thrown to the floor.

“What
are you doing here?” he asked.

“Stephen
is in there. I’ve got to get to him,” she said. As she spoke she walked towards
the double doors.

“Don’t
be fucking stupid.” Paul blocked her way, stopping her from entering. The man
she loved was putting himself in danger, and she couldn’t sit back and do
nothing while he put himself at risk.

“I
know you hate me, Paul, but I’m getting inside that building. I’m not letting
Stephen get hurt.” She pushed at him. His weight was unmoving no matter how
much she pushed or tried to get him to move.

“I
told you no, Ursula. For once do as you’re told.” He shoved her away. She
stumbled, catching herself at the last moment before she fell on her ass.
Annoyed at being denied access to Stephen, she picked up a stone and hurled it
at Paul. The stone hit him on the chest. Still, he didn’t move out of the way.

“I
should have known you’d be working for that bastard. You don’t have a fucking
clue how to work at all. All you do is
wait
for a
woman to come and serve you.” She grabbed another stone launching it at him. He
dodged the stone, which only made her angrier. “I bet you were the one who got
that woman hurt. You
know,
the one you put in
hospital.” Ursula saw the guilt cross his face and knew she was right. Feeling
angrier she began looking for more stuff to throw at him. “How could you?” She
yelled every word not caring about the attention they got.