Fatal Obsession (Black Widow Book 2) (3 page)

Damien looked away, fighting to swallow the guilt that choked him. “Was Derrick here at least?”

“No and you know why.”

Damien nodded, looking everywhere but at Dale. “Yeah, his problems are everyone’s problems.” Such was the life of a CIA operative. Of course, they weren’t supposed to know what Derrick did for a living, but the cousins rarely hid anything from each other.

Dale playfully punched his shoulder. “Hey, your problems are about to become mine and mine are about to become yours.”

Damien looked at him at that. “What do you mean?”

He pointed to multicolored hair girl. “That’s Audrey. There is nothing she can’t find unless it dates before computers and the internet. Give her everything you’ve got on VS to date and she’ll find something for us.”

Damien gave him a bemused look. “Don’t you think I’ve tried that already. I even wrote an entire algorithm on VS and it’s like she doesn’t exist.”

“You’re a tech nerd?” Audrey asked, coming to stand close beside them.

Dale snorted. “He’s a Kevin type nerd. Broke his father’s heart when he chose to become a cop instead of a mad science genius.”

Damien shrugged with a crooked grin. “What can I say; I liked playing cops and robbers better than space aliens.”

“Oh no. Nothing like Kevin, a better version of Kevin,” she grabbed his bicep and squeezed. Her black lips formed an adorable O. “He’s got bigger muscles than you do. He’s you and Kevin combined.”

Dale rolled his eyes. “I don’t spend as much time as I want at the gym. The kids take a lot of my time now.”

Damien’s head snapped to him. “Kids? You’ve got kids!”

He clenched his jaw when Dale gave him a pitying look. “Yeah, I think it’s time your problems became mine and I gave you something else other than VS to concentrate on.”

His jaw tightened so hard his teeth hurt. “Dale, you know I can’t give up. Not now.”

“After five years, what have you got?” Damien looked away. “I thought so. Now let someone else take a look at it. I need fresh eyes as well.”

“Why?”

“Because his psycho sister-in-law escaped from the loony bin a year ago and she’s finally been spotted.” At his shocked look, Audrey went on with more vehemence. “Yup, she’s the one who plugged your cousin twice in the back and we are all afraid she’ll come back and finish the job.”

Damien rubbed his face frustratedly with his free hand. He was exhausted, but there was no way he was going to get any sleep now. Taking a deep breath and loudly exhaling, he looked at the two of them and said, “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

****

Damien emptied his second cup of coffee after an hour of being regaled with a crazy ass story. He would have thought it fiction if not for the hurt and angry expressions on Dale’s face that occasionally slipped his cool ‘all business’ mask. She had really done a number on him if he was this scared. To slice open her own sister to steal her baby… what the fuck?

Wanting to lighten the mood he held his hand out to Dale over his office desk.

His brows furrowed together, Dale looked between his face and his hand, “What?”

He wiggled his fingers. “The kids’ pictures. I know you’re dying to brag.”

Dale laughed sitting up to pull his wallet from his back jeans pocket. He opened it and handed it to Damien. “That’s Stacey-Ann and Dale Jr. His godmother calls him Jamey and the rest of us call him Third. Drives her nuts!”

He smiled back at the large sweet smiles beaming up at him. “Gorgeous kids; must take after their mother,” he teased, which only made Dale laugh harder. “Why Jamey?”

“James, after his grandfather on Ellie’s side. Her parents are both dead so we named the kids after them.”

“Stacey,” Damien nodded. “Aunt Ann must be going bananas over them, especially the girl. She always wished you were a girl.”

Dale glared at him, “And when are you going to make Aunt Alice a grandma?”

Damien’s smile shrunk. He hadn’t really thought about anything much except finding Victoria Secret. He flipped over a flap to see the other pictures and his entire body went cold. He turned the wallet around and held the picture out to Dale. “Who is this?” he hissed.

Dale sat up straight in his seat and stared hard at Damien. “Dude, what’s up? You look like you’re about to blow.”

Damien couldn’t have said it better himself. He was about to blow like a fucking atomic bomb. “Who is this?” he yelled.

“My wife, Ellie, now tell me what’s wrong with you!” Dale yelled back.

If he hadn’t been sitting, he would have been on the floor on his ass by now. She married his cousin? This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t be possible. “I want to see her, I need to see her!”

Dale’s eyes widened. “Calm down man. You’re getting hysterical.”

Damien dropped the wallet and combed his fingers through his long messy hair. Hell, he was losing his mind!

****

As he drove, Dale kept stealing side glances at his cousin. Damien fidgeted in his seat like he had ants in his pants and when he wasn’t doing that his knee bounced incessantly, his fingers drumming in the same fast tempo on the armrest. His jaw clenched and unclenched, his eyes darting around. Add that to his long curly brown hair, the bush on his face and his clothes that looked like they hadn’t seen water in weeks, he looked like a bum high on drugs and nothing like his cousin.

Hero Damien Chan, the genius ladies man that Dale knew, was always particular about his looks. He was always clean shaven or kept a light buzz around his mouth—something he had on good authority from numerous ladies that it made him look even more the heartbreaker when he smiled. His hair was always trimmed short, a closer shave on the sides of his head than the top. His clothes were always neat, straight and pressed that sometimes Dale wondered if he ever moved around especially as a cop. No cop looked as impeccable as he did by the end of a long day. But now he looked like a bum—a junkie bum—and he was sure Ellie was going to flip the second they stepped into the house. The kids were always home with Ellie after she took a sabbatical after Ellsa’s escape from the psych prison. Now, she always had her guard up, more around people they were acquainted with than strangers. She didn’t want to falsely trust someone else again who’ll end up helping Ellsa steal one of the kids, again.

Everything inside Dale told him to stop the car and demand why Damien wanted so badly to see his wife, but he knew his cousin well enough to know he wasn’t going to utter a word until he got what he wanted.
Stubborn ass.

It wasn’t long until Dale pulled into the driveway of his year old home. They had just moved into a two-story five bedroom house when they’d gotten word of Ellsa’s escape. It dampened their new lease on life and turned their new home into just another safe house, a location Ellsa knew nothing about, since she hadn’t shown up yet. But soon Dale would find his crazy sister-in-law and put her back where she belonged and he and his family could go back to living a nightmare free life.

Dale hadn’t even gotten the car to a complete stop when Damien jumped out, running for the house. The locked door kept him from rushing in and he turned around to glare impatiently at Dale. Both Dale’s brows shot up to his hairline.

Fuck! What the hell have I just brought to my home?

He stalled in the car, watching Damien keenly, suddenly not willing to let him near his family. He wasn’t going to have another case of Ellsa in his home. He would drag him back into the car…

The door swung open and Damien turned to face it. Ellie stared at him curiously, shifting a questioning look at Dale before turning back to Damien with a hesitant ‘hi’.

Dale couldn’t see Damien’s face, but he heard him loud and clear from where he sat in the car a few feet away from them.

“I finally found you,” his voice so tender it broke Dale’s heart, right before his anger flared when Damien grabbed Ellie and kissed her on the lips.

“What the fuck!” Dale yelled, jumping out of the car and running to them.

****

Damien sat on the love seat opposite Dale and Ellie on the couch and just stared at the object of his five-year obsession. He couldn’t believe he found her at last and in his cousin’s home no less. The anger of knowing that she shared Dale’s bed almost overshadowed the joy of seeing her again—almost. But how could he be angry as he stared into those lovely brown eyes that were wide with alarm? The pink glossed lips—the lower one being worried between her teeth—that he remembered so vividly kissing until there were swollen. They were red then, full and red and ever so seductive. The chewing of the lower lip was new though. She used to roll it inside her mouth when she was nervous and also when she was thinking. But it had been five years and she was bound to change. He certainly had, though not for the best.

Damien’s gaze dropped to her lap, where her hands lay—the right one palm to palm with Dale’s and the left sitting atop the joined ones, two rings on her third finger, the diamonds glittering against the sun rays coming through the window behind him. It irked him seeing his cousin’s mark of possession on her hand, but he wouldn’t dwell on that. He stared at her face again and noticed her hair, though still in curls, was short, reaching right above her shoulders.

With a shaky smile he said, “You cut your hair.”

She exchanged a frightened look with Dale before she nodded slowly. “Yes. It’s much easier to handle with two toddlers.”

His body went rigid and he bit down on his jaw in an effort to calm himself. Exploding in a jealous rage would be the wrong way to handle this situation. He needed to be patient. To get her alone and…
and what?
He hadn’t really thought past finding her and now that he had her right in front of him… He sat up straight with a new resolve. Now that he had her he was determined to have her back in his arms. She was his first!

He caught Dale’s eyes, narrowed in warning. Damien could practically feel his rage radiate off him in large waves toward him, but he didn’t care. He’d searched for so long, lost so much along the way, including part of his sanity, to just wish them a happy life and walk away.

Turning fully to Ellie, he asked, “How old are they?”

Swiping her lips twice with her tongue—another new nervous habit—she answered, “Stacey-Ann is two and a half and Third—Dale James—is one and a half. Their birthdays are two weeks apart.”

Though she was smiling, Damien caught a spark of hurt in her eyes. Why would the dates of their birth cause her pain? Dale, too, had that look for only a second before he drew his wife closer for a comforting hug. It took all that was inside Damien not to rip them apart.

“Ellie, could I speak to you for a minute—in private?” Damien stressed the last part.

Dale slowly pulled away from her and rose off the couch, seething. “No way in hell is that happening!”

Damien stood too, his anger getting the best of him. “What’s the matter Little D? Scared she’ll come back to me?”

“I was never with you,” her voice, though soft, was strong. She stood, taking Dale’s hand in hers in a show of solidarity as she stared at him with pity in her eyes. “I’m sorry but I think you have me confused with someone else.”

He slashed his hand through the air. “No, I’m not confusing you with anyone else!”

With sad eyes, Ellie looked up at Dale before turning back to him. “I do have an identical twin sister. People were confusing us for each other all the time. You’re probably—probably thinking about Ellsa.”

“Hell no! I’ve heard what Ellsa is like and she’s definitely not my Victoria Secret. But you are. I know I’m not wrong!”

He took a desperate step towards her, but Dale quickly shifted her behind him, shielding her with his body. He then held his hand up to Damien to keep him from moving any closer.

“Listen Middle D, we’ve already gone through and survived one psycho relative and it’s not an experience I’m willing to repeat. Nor is it one I’m willing to permit my family to endure again. Do you understand me?”

Damien stared down his cousin, the threat and the outstretched arm the only things keeping him where he stood. He understood alright and he couldn’t say he blamed Dale. If it were his family, he would do the same, but…

“She’s mine—”

“No, she’s not!” Dale cut him off sternly. Then gently, without taking his eyes off Damien, he said, “Honey, when was the last time you were in Miami?”

Ellie didn’t bother stepping out from behind Dale when she answered, “Right before college graduation, we both went, including Kris—my best friend—and some of Ellsa’s girlfriends.”

“And six years ago?” Damien asked frantically.

“No. I was in Rome with my first art class that summer. The rest of the year I was here teaching.”

“Teaching?” Damien echoed. He thought she was an escort? “Have you ever worked as an escort?”

“What?” she stepped out then, clearly offended by the look on her face. Her fists on her hips, she exclaimed, “I am not a prostitute! Never have been one in my life. My parents left us enough money to stay on our feet until we could support ourselves. I still have some left.”

That also didn’t make any sense. VS was an escort—not the prostitute type, she made that clear—for money. None of this made any sense. Even her eyes didn’t have that spark when she was angry. Yes, it was there just not the same as VS. Then this dread filled him as he stared at Ellie and he suddenly began to see the little differences between her and VS.

“Your—your sister, what exactly did she do before—before—”

Ellis shrugged slightly. “She was a stylist of some sort. She travelled all over the world buying clothes for the boutiques here in the States and also for some wealthy women who she referred to as having the money but no sense of style. And that it was a good thing they could afford someone who had it aplenty,” she smiled sadly as her eyes flooded. “She always got herself, me and even Kris clothes on her clients.”

“Did she ever tell you where she went?”

She shook her head. “No. But she always called or texted right before she jetted off, then dropped by when she came back. She would be gone weeks, even months at a time. Once she was gone a full year, I missed her. I miss her now.” A tear rolled down her cheek unchecked and Dale quickly gathered her to him in a fierce hug—exactly what Damien wanted to do.