Arran's Obsession (Body Count, #1)

by Jolie Vines

Solid, hot metal smacked into me and sent me skidding across the tarmac road.

Beep beep bitch 🎀

The city was full of university students as well as young professionals who lived in expensive waterside apartments and enjoyed the nightlife. Then there was the underbelly of the gangs and their hangers-on. It made for a rich after-dark industry.

Riordan. Not that my brother had read his messages.

Moniqua but I was glad Rio was a good boyfriend to her dumb ass.

Don, her cousin. He was a gang member through and through, from the tattoo of a spiderweb on his face to the violence built into his every move.

“Okay. It’s actually our dad I need to find. He hasn’t been home in a week.” “So? Why does that matter? He does this all the time.”

“I saw your dad a few days ago. He’s with Sydney.” “Who’s that?” I’d never heard the name before. “A stripper.” She smiled, clearly loving this.

“There’s only one strip club in Deadwater,

Since Mum died, and he’d been forced to take me and Rio in, he’d had a series of girlfriends, none lasting long, so this new woman wasn’t much of a surprise.

The hot-pink sign over the door read DIVINE. That was the strip club side.

nightclub, that side named DIVIDE.

“Hunting you down, little maniac. My best guess was the same place at the same time as yesterday,” he called up.

“My name’s Arran. I wanted to see you⁠—”

His mouth curved in amusement. “I don’t give a fuck about being sued. That hit was hard. I smacked the steering wheel with my shoulder and bruised from it. You came off a lot worse. I needed to see you were still walking.”

Raw. Next question.

I could probably see Cherry on the church steps, getting abused for cash by some grimy piece-of-shit guy. No one could think that a great career choice, regardless of the right for women to choose.

Let’s not be a judgmental little bitch, Gen

“Yes, there is. It’s a shitty job, if you can even call it that.”

Oh fuck you, Gen

Arran sat back, the haziness in his eyes clearing. The air between us cooled, and he stood from his crouch and shrugged his shirt back on. All business again.

I got the ick too bb

“Not as sweet as I expected.”

Is it as bitter as Gen?

Shade

“Problem?” I dropped into my leather chair, the manager’s seat for both Divine and Divide.

I’m in love with this man

North Town was the part of the city I’d visited earlier this evening. The place Genevieve lived. It wasn’t all that nice but it was outside of the gang territories and above the worst of the city’s dangers.

DetD was Detective Dickhead, the name I’d once heard for my police contact

He was Chief Constable Kenney to everyone else

Dixie, one of the strippers,

“There’s nothing wrong with my dick,” I said into the quiet of the office.

You could never make me hate you bb

At my father’s knee, I’d learned that terrorising the people around you guaranteed results. I hated everything he’d taught me, but that tactic had proved useful when it came to the world I lived in. The one I’d carved out for myself and bled for.

Convict

another member of my crew.

Cherry had been murdered.

Shade pulled a needle from the neck of the rapist piece of shit we’d picked up this evening, who dangled from his chained hands over the drop in the floor.

😍😍😍

Shade and I had been practising our art of cleansing the community for years now, and we didn’t miss.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.”

I love them so so much

“That murder up in North Town. The identity of the woman is now known. Her name was Chelsea Gains, known as Cherry. He said her throat was slit and she was handcuffed and gagged.”

“Were you a virgin until I fucked you?” “No,” I breathed. His lip curled in strong emotion. “I was.”

YOU FOOLED ME JFC

Jamieson,

Jamieson and his brother, Camden,

Over all of it, I just wanted a family.

I can get Sin and Struan back by morning.” The two older brothers were off site, then.

“Ye think it’s to do with your ma,” Jamieson breathed.

Audrey?”

Audrey, my mother.

“Everyone in that damn room ten years ago.” “Us, our fathers, a lawyer. Outside of that, no one else knows what she was to ye,” Camden said. “I screamed out that she was my mother. It’s on a recording. I’ve never told anyone since, but that’s—” My throat choked, and I tried again. “I’ve never mentioned her name to a single person, but the cops know. My father’s long list ...

“your father, Adam Walker,