Obsession

by Harleigh Beck

“Good,” he breathes, his shoulders tense. “You should fear me. I told you that from the beginning. And yes, I knew about your parents. Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”

don’t understand it myself. Your father, he…” He swallows visibly, and his eyes burn with regret. “He made my life hell. I hated him. Hated everything about him.

Then, one day, I read your column in the newspaper, and it intrigued me. You intrigued me.” My heart clenches. “It was an article about the healthcare system. Remember it?” “I remember.”

hungering for your every word. Every thought.”

“I wanted to meet you because of you.

“Robbie…”

“Yes, baby?” He kisses me again, stealing the last of my oxygen. When he drifts his lips across my cheek toward my earlobe, I choke out, “I’m sorry.” Stiffening, he eases back,

“Savannah?” “I’m sorry,” I rush out, my voice breaking. “I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t know.”

voices shout at him to raise his hands in the air and lower himself to his knees. He complies. “I had to,” I try to explain. “You… Beatrix… She….” A sob rips from my lips, and I clamp my hand over my mouth as he lies down on the snowy ground.

“You did the right thing.” “Then why doesn’t it feel like it?” When they haul Robbie away, Chapman turns me to look him in the eye. “Think about Beatrix. Time is of the essence. We need to find her.”

“What if she’s already dead?” Chapman’s jaw clenches. “We owe it to her family to bring her home.”

“Come on,” a female officer says to my left, guiding me away. “Let’s remove the wires.”

FUCK U SAVANNAH

“Despite the evil in him, he’s still capable of loving you, Savannah. Maybe his demons won this time, and maybe the grain of goodness inside him, the grain you helped water, isn’t strong enough in the light of all that darkness.”

“You’re going to be okay. I know you will.”

“Do you know how many nights I’ve fantasized about this moment, of you watching me like you are now? You’re even more perfect than I could have imagined. Look at you. Your eyes are glassy with fear, and those pretty lips tremble with the effort of trying to remain brave.”

Elliot’s smile is too wide.

I KNEW IT

Fingers braid through my hair, soothing and hurting. His voice is far away. “Sleep well, Savannah.”

“It would never have happened between us. It’s sick, Elliot. Sick!”

“And killing your own dad is not?” His chilling words halt my breath. “You think I don’t know what you did?” Leaning over me, he whispers over my mouth. “I know exactly what you did.” He drops me and rises to his full height. “Besides, it’s not like we grew up together.

“While I would love to catch up with you, Sis, it’s time to make you tomorrow’s headline news. First, you’ll drink this, and then I’ll decide on how to display you when you’re dead.”

“I love a tragedy. Don’t you? The reporter who fell in love with a condemned serial killer was to be The Bridge Killer’s final victim herself. Poetic, don’t you think? The audience will lap that shit right up. A classic take on Romeo and Juliet. And me, well, I will have made it into the history books. Who better to report about it? Who better to write about the insight of a deranged killer’s mind than the artist behind the art himself? The heartbroken brother. It’s a bit like Clark Kent, right?” He laughs, shaking his head with amusement before placing the anti-freeze back down in the snow.

“Stop it!” Elliot growls, growing frustrated, his grip tightening on my hair. “Drink the fucking drink.”

“I won’t fucking tell you twice, bitch. Drink the fucking drink, or I’ll shove the anti-freeze up your cunt.”

looks and shyness. I should have guessed. You needed some fucking backbone to kill your own flesh and blood. Tell me, Sis, what changed? Was it because Robbie stepped onto the scene? He made you feel bolstered?”

“Let. Her. Go.” Elliot stiffens, and his fingers twitch against my sore flesh before he releases me and lifts them up by his head in surrender. “Get up.”

“I should have known you’d find a fucking way to escape again.” Robbie

“It’s a mistake you won’t repeat twice.” “How did you do it this time? Offer the cops blow jobs in turn for your freedom?”

“There are no lengths I won’t go for Savannah. I’ll murder time and time again to keep her at my side.”

TRUE LOVE

“You should know nothing stops us when we set our mind on something. Savannah is mine, and you’re currently in my fucking way.”

“I’m not here to save anyone.” Robbie clucks his tongue. “I’m here to steal.”

“Robbie,” I croak, my voice getting lost in the rustle as he lifts a branch out of the way.

“I love you,” I rasp, and those eyes flash with emotion before he grits his jaw and jumps over a frozen beck of water. His boots sink into the deep snow.

“You’re not a monster,” I try, my throat scratchy. “You’re everything, Robbie.”

“You’re my everything. I’m so glad you reached out to me.”

“You’re running away.”

Noooo

“I will find you, Robbie.”

doesn’t matter where you go,” I whisper, my vision blurred with tears. “I will find you, even if I have to hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

“I’m yours, and you’re mine. Years can pass by, lifetimes even, but our paths will always cross. Mark my words, Robbie Hammond. You can’t run from me.”

don’t care. I don’t care about anything but you.”

“I want to know what you believe. The truth doesn’t matter. All I care about is how you see me.”

My head shakes. “No, you didn’t kill Beatrix.”

I slowly drift to sleep in his arms, with his steady heart beating against my ear. His scent and those of the forest swirl around me as darkness drags me under and steals me from him.

I’m alone in my bed, and Robb...

Savannah betrayed me and gave me up to the cops. I’m not upset about it. I always knew she would. Always knew she was too good for someone as broken as me. I don’t deserve her, nor do I deserve something as good and pure as the love I see reflected in her tear-filled eyes—a look I would kill for.

I try to look behind me one last time, but the officer to my left jerks my arm and huffs, “Eyes forward.” We turn the corner, and the cars come into view.

“You fucking killed him,” Briem chokes out, glancing from Chapman’s dead body to me and back. Surprise is written all over his face, almost as if he can’t believe his eyes. “He’s dead.” Unbothered, I shrug. “Now you have a cover story.” “A cover story?” He blinks at me. “I attacked and killed your colleague before I knocked you out and left you unconscious at the side of the road.”

Briem will be hailed a hero. I exit the vehicle, armed with their weapons and money—a fugitive on the run once more. Another face on the FBI’s most wanted list.

the only thing keeping me. I quit my job after they found out the truth about my brother. Brother. Even now, I can’t wrap my head around how Elliot knew so much about me, yet I knew nothing about him.

“He loves deeply, and that scares him.”

“You must understand, Miss Campbell, that he couldn’t live with himself if he hurt you.” I open my mouth to reply, but he cuts me off. “He’s a dangerous man.” “I know he is.”