Page 61 of Echoes of Obsession
“It better be a boy,” Venom says. “We already have three little girls. They need a boy to grow alongside them and keep them safe.”
“Hey, our girls and Dove are going to grow up to be the most kick-assiest girls that ever lived.”
“Kick-assiest?” Venom smiles. “Really?”
“Oh, you know what I mean.”
“Shit,” Knox cries. “Another fax is coming in.”
King walks over and grabs the papers when the machine spits them out. He looks at both papers before looking up at me, his face grim.
“What is it, King?” I ask, not able to move forward. “What does it say?”
“Nothing,” he answers. “It doesn’t say anything.”
“Then what is it?” I ask. Finally, my feet listen to my brain, and they move forward. I hold out my hand, waiting for him to give me the damn fax.
He hands me a paper, and my heart skips a beat. My frightened woman is standing in the middle of an empty, dimly lit room. Her eyes are squinted, she’s dirty, and her hair isa mess, but she’s never looked more beautiful. She’s standing there, alive.
“Let me have the other one,” I say desperately. I need to see more evidence that she’s okay.
“Might not be a good idea, Ghost,” King says, the paper folded and clinched in his hand.
“King,” I warn.
“Trust me, brother. You don’t want to see this one.”
“Give me the fucking paper, King,” I order. “I’m speaking as your fucking President. Paper. Now.”
My threat doesn’t seem to scare the fucker as well as it should have.
Without looking away from my eyes, he says, “Get Knox and Sophie out of this room.”
He’s removing them for their safety. What the fuck am I about to see?
“I’m right here, brother,” King says. “We’re all right here. We’re going to find her.”
“Now, King.”
With another moment of hesitation, King hands over the crinkled paper. I open it up and then look down.
My heart drops to the floor as I process what I’m seeing.
“It might not be her,” King rushes to say.
But he’s wrong. It is her. You can’t see her face, but I know without a doubt that it’s her.
“Her wrist still has the hospital band on it,” I say numbly.
I take in the image as I let the rage boil. My woman is face down on the ground, her arms at her side, while some fucker’s cock is in her ass. Agony unlike any I’ve ever felt before bursts forth. A loud roar fills my ears, drowning out everything else.
The room blurs as I crumple the photo in my fist. Rage and grief mingle into a white-hot fury. My brothers look at me with a mix of concern and shared anger, but none of them dare speak.
“I’m going to kill him,” I growl, my voice trembling with barely contained rage. “I’m going to rip him apart with my bare hands.”
King places a hand on my shoulder, trying to ground me. “We need to find him first, Ghost. We need a plan.”
I shake off his hand, my mind racing. “We know who he is. We know what he’s done. We need to move now.”