Obsession (The Talisman series) (27 page)

We stood and stared some more at each other. Gabe’s arms were folded, my hands were behind me, my fingers knotted together, palms sweating. A rattle of hail hitting the window startled us both. I jumped and turned to face the glass. Gabe stepped towards me at the same time.

“The trouble with talking, is that I never know when you’re telling the truth.” His voice was silky. He walked closer, almost near enough to touch. I didn’t move. I couldn’t show him how afraid I was.

“
Are you calling me a liar?”

“
Should I?”

We could have been two gunslingers in an old western movie, neither giving way, each waiting for the other to make a mistake.

“I didn’t tell you I was on the pill. But I didn’t lie about it—you never asked.” I held up my chin and gave him a defiant scowl while I trembled inside. Thoughts of Josh bubbled and rippled through me. I was terrified of saying his name. Being angry might help subdue it.

“
That’s lying by omission.” His dark eyes looked flat, devoid of their usual sparkle. I felt a tremor of fear down my spine. “So what else have you neglected to tell me?” He stepped closer, moving into my space. I took an automatic step backwards, he moved again, I backed up and collided with the wall.
Shit
. Gabe crowded me now, standing directly in front of me.

“
So Suki, what else, eh?” With a speed that made my cry out, he grabbed my chin with one hand, pressing the other flat to the wall beside my head. “You don’t want to have my babies. You don’t want to spend any time with me. You disappear—for a walk—in the pouring fucking rain, when you told me you were staying here.” His voice dripped sarcasm. “So, I ask again.” He jerked at my chin, sawing it left and right. “What else have you forgotten to tell me?”

“
You’re hurting me.” I tried shoving at him with both hands, but it got me nowhere; he was strong and fit, his reflexes lethally fast. I felt like a mouse pinned by a particularly vicious cat.

“
Is that a rash on your face?” He leaned closer for a look and I shoved again, banging on his chest.
Useless
. My heart speeded up and I felt the familiar sickly churning in my stomach.
Please God, don’t let this bring on another panic attack
. He twisted my face, examining my red cheeks, while I cringed some more.

When he released me, I gasped with relief. But the ordeal wasn’t over, I realised. It’d only just started.

“You haven’t taken your pills today.” His hand now fiddled with my hair, twisting one damp lock around his finger, winding it tighter, punctuated with little tugs. “I thought you took them this morning, but I’ll bet you haven’t taken any since.”

“
I don’t need two doses every day.” My voice quavered. “I read the label, it said reduce to one dose daily. And I feel fine.”

“
You know what happened when you got locked in the dressing room.” Another tug at my hair, not hurting, but reminding me of his strength. “You went crazy, Suki.”
Tug
. “I nearly had you committed, you know that?”
Tug
.

My eyes watered, panic searing inside my chest at the thought of being locked up. He carried on talking in a quiet, reasonable voice, the complete opposite of the fury raging in his eyes.
Tug
. “Our doctor has a psychiatrist friend, he’d be happy to take your case.”
Tug
. “If I tell him you’ve not been taking your medication, you know what will happen, don’t you?”
Tug
.

Fuck
, that one
hurt
. An image of Josh filled my mind. His warmth, his fingers tender on my skin, his quiet request for me to leave Gabe. I seemed to step out of my body, standing to the side and watching Gabe tower over me, helpless against the wall. I thought of Josh again, his gentle smile. His insistence that I didn’t need to take these bloody pills. He would never do this to me, he’d never lock me up…

Hang on.

I interrupted. “You just said I was locked in the dressing room. When I
got locked
in the dressing room.” I drew in a shallow breath, my lungs tight and anxious. “I thought the door jammed. Did you
lock
me in there?”

He hesitated. I saw the guilty look flashing across his face.
“You’re being silly. Why would I do that?”

I remembered him warning me the door was sticking. It had never stuck before. Not once. Oh,
God.
I felt sick. My legs began to wobble and, right now, I was glad of the wall behind me. I didn’t even notice the way his hand was fisted tight in my hair. “You locked me in, you...you
bastard
,” I hissed at him, my lungs starting to wheeze. Another thought slammed into me. “And you switched out the lights, didn’t you?” He stood completely still, frozen. Dragging in a deep breath, as much air as I could manage, I screamed at the top of my voice.

“
You fucking did
.”

13.7 Gabe

There’s a moment in every race where you have to weigh up your main opponent and assess whether they had it in them to take you down. On the track, I maintained an icy concentration at all times, waiting for that moment to come, ready to smash their hopes into dust.

I’d slipped up here. But the beauty of making a mistake is putting it right. And if Suki thought she could use this to her advantage, she had a big lesson to learn.

My ears rang from her hoarse scream. I clapped my free hand across her mouth. Her eyes widened and she struggled against me, pushing at my chest, surprisingly hard.
“It’s your word against mine.” I spoke slowly, made quite clear she understood me. “And I’m not the one with a family history of mental instability.”

Ow
! She bit my hand. I yanked on her hair, saw her eyes fill with tears. “Don’t. Do. That.”

In the blink of an eye, Suki went from frightened to wild. She struggled against me, fighting my body, hands flailing near my face. I jerked my head back as her short nails made contact with my cheek—I hissed as she dug into the flesh.
“
Bitch
!” In desperation, I released her hair, grabbing both wrists and pinning her against the wall.

With her mouth free she yelled again.
“Take your fucking hands
off
me.”

“
Shut. Up.” I ground the words out, trying to hold her still. Next thing, the bitch kneed me in the balls. Hard. I reacted instinctively, bending over as I sucked in my breath, pain radiating across my entire body. I watched through watering eyes as she ran out of the room, the door slamming in her wake.

Seconds later, I stood up, still cupping myself, when I realised someone was pounding on the door. I staggered across, cursing Suki with every swear word I could think of, to find my mum desperate to come in.

“
Gabriel
.” She gasped over me as I tried to fend her off. “What happened? I heard Suki yelling, I thought she was being attacked and then I saw her running down the corridor.” She paused and stared open mouthed at my face. “Did
she
scratch you?” I touched my cheek, looked at my hand, saw fresh blood smeared across my fingertips. Mum fussed some more, fetching tissues, asking questions, getting in my way.

“
I have to go. I’ll see you later.” I grabbed the keys to my rented car, and picked up my phone and wallet. Mum stood beside me, she looked almost scared.

“
Gabriel, don’t you walk out on me, I’m still your mother.”

“
Yeah, and you know what?” I swung round to snarl at her. “As mothers go, you sucked. I’d hoped Suki would do a better job than you.” Her face crumpled, then she pulled herself together.

“
I’ve turned you into a clone of your father, God help me.”

Heading out to the car, I looked for Suki. She’d had a head start of only a minute or so, but she’d vanished. I searched the foyer of the hotel, the bar and café, the taxi rank, but there was no sign of her. Standing in the rain, I glared at the passers-by, wondering how it had ended up like this. Anger pulsed through me along with the need to do
something
, and that’s when I remembered Josh Delaney. Room 107 at the Alexander.

I dumped the car outside his hotel and stormed in, ignoring the doorman and following the signs for Rooms 100—120. It had been raining hard, water dripped from my hair, and when I wiped my face it came away bloody again.
Bitch
. She’d pay for this. I hammered on the door to 107, Delaney answered it quickly, a look of surprise when he saw me.

“
I’m early.” I grinned, adrenalin still surging through my veins. I hoped he’d say something that would give me the excuse to hit him.

“
Yeah.” He stood back to usher me in. I swaggered past him, noting the open laptop on the table.

“
You have something for me?”

“
Yeah.” He eyed me strangely, with luck he felt intimidated. “You might want to sit down.”

“
I’m good standing.” He shrugged and sat at the table.

“
I know you said you didn’t need my last assignment to be completed, but I was so close to cracking Suki, I figured I’d carry on anyway.” He gave me a cocky smile, I gestured for him to continue. “And yeah, I’ve got some footage for you. I think I’ve earned a bonus.”

For a minute, I’d actually forgotten why I hired him. To seduce my wife. Well, why the fuck not, she seemed to want everyone bar me.
“Show me.”

He tapped the keyboard, swivelled the screen and I bent down to watch. The quality was impressive. Suki, snogging the life out of him. Suki thinking of leaving me. It felt like a cold hand gripping inside my chest. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to fall for his corny chat-up lines, snog him and then be humiliated by the truth, but always come grovelling back to me.

I kept my voice icy. “I take it that’s in here, but when?”

He pointed out the time stamp.
“Less than an hour ago.” Right before she came back to the hotel. I felt sick. I couldn’t believe she was actually thinking of leaving me.
Unreal
. After everything I’d done for her.

“
Okay.” I strolled to the window and peered out at the rain. Still pouring down. It would make for some interesting practice on the track tomorrow. I fingered the curtain as I tried to bring my focus back.
Suki leaving me
. I wouldn’t stand for that. “Same as before? You invoice Alan and supply the files on payment?”

“
That’ll do fine.” A tiny pause. “We’ve some other business to discuss while you’re here.”

“
Oh?” I didn’t even look at him, my fingernails suddenly held my interest.

“
Word has it, you’re trying to put me in the frame for that trick you pulled on Jon Craigowan in Paris.”

“
Me?” I looked at him now, conjuring an amused smile. “Where did you hear that?”

“
You
did
set it up? I’m curious how you did it.” I watched a sly smile creep across his face. “I said it was too difficult for one person to do alone.”

Oh, for God’s sake. Did he think I was born yesterday? I laughed.
“Forgive my cynicism, but you’re hoping I’ll tell you? What you think I did? While one of your covert cameras is no doubt filming me as we speak?” I shook my head. “Forget it. Figure it out for yourself.”

“
Ah, well,” —he shrugged, his face relaxing— “it was worth a try. You’re pleased with the footage of Suki, though. I guess you have enough now to cruise through a quick and easy divorce.”

“
Divorce?” I laughed again. Coming here had been worth it; my mood was lifting by the minute. “Why should I divorce her?”

A knock at the door caught our attention. I was interested to see an uneasy look shift across his face when he got up to answer it. I was even more interested when Suki tumbled through the door and into his arms, sobbing and clinging to him like a life raft on a choppy sea.

CHAPTER
14

14.1 Josh

Suki’s tale poured out of her, jerky and rushed, tripping over her words as she sobbed and clung to me, her face buried in my shirt. I knew Gabriel watched us. I wanted to get her out of my room and to a safe place, but she wasn’t paying me any attention.  “He did it, Josh. Gabe did it to me.”

“
He did what, baby?” I whispered in her ear, my arms tight around her, one hand on the back of her head, the other around her waist.

“
L-locked me in the dressing room.
He
did it.” Another sob. “
Not
an accident.”

My blood chilled. I raised my eyes to stare at him over her head. She babbled on.
“Says I’m crazy, wants to l-lock me up.”

I narrowed my eyes. Gabriel smiled broadly as though this was all a huge joke. And he said Suki was crazy? He stood maybe ten feet away from me. Three strides. I could break his neck with one blow. Martial arts training had taught me a myriad of ways to inflict pain and I’d make him hurt first. The prospect of him begging for mercy appealed to me, but first, I had to make sure Suki was safely out of here.

“Hello, darling.”

Suki went deadly still in my arms. I heard her breath catch in her throat. As the hackles rose on the back of my neck, her head lifted, her eyes meeting mine. Disbelief. Her mouth opened, lips moving, but no sound coming out.

I cupped my hands around her face and spoke urgently. “I want you to leave. Go and find Jon. Stay with him and I’ll come and get you later. When this is finished.” Puzzlement crept into her eyes, her brows knitting together as she thought hard.

“
There’s only one way to finish this.” She gave me the most glorious smile and reached up, grabbing my head, pulling it down, kissing me. Her lips were cool and damp, she tasted of salty tears and rain. She felt magnificent. Dazed, I didn’t stop her as she spun around to face her husband. She raised her chin, a defiant gesture if I ever saw one, slipping one arm around my waist at the same time.

“
I’m leaving you, Gabe. I’ve fallen in love with Josh.”
You have?
“I can’t be with you any more, not after what you’ve done.”
She loves me.
I stared at her, speechless, my lungs robbed of air as my brain cheered. She loves me.
Mine
. I could feel a huge, soppy smile breaking out, threatening to swamp me. My fingers danced across her shoulder as I drank her in.
She loves me
. Whatever I’d done, I never thought this could ever happen. Not to me.
Mine
. I bit my lip as I stared at her,
my
Suki. A world of possibilities opened up before me, things I’d never dared to consider.

A strange noise broke into my reverie, it sounded like somebody laughing. Suki looked annoyed. With a huge measure of reluctance I turned to face Gabriel. He roared with laughter, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes.
“Damn it, you’re good, Delaney. This is better than prime time TV.”

Suki’s voice was haughty.
“It’s not a joke, Gabe. I’m leaving you, do you hear me?”

“
Oh, yes, darling. I hear you. You’re leaving me for Josh Delaney. Right?”

“
Yes.” Her arm squeezed my side. Gabriel shook his head and turned to my laptop, spinning it round on the table.

“
You’ve got your bonus, Delaney. Hell, I might even throw in Grandstand tickets for the rest of the season. Alan said you were good.”

Only three strides away, but with Suki nestled into my side, I couldn’t move quickly enough.
“Don’t listen to him.” I tried to pull her to face me, but she resisted.

“
What the fuck are you talking about, Gabe?”

“
You and your, er, boyfriend.”

She oozed disdain.
“What about Josh? I know you paid him to snoop on Jon and Anita, that’s old news.”

I mentally applauded her courage in facing him, and began to brace myself for what I knew was about to happen.

“Oh, Suki.” His mirth was visible. Smirking, he raised one hand to his mouth in a thoughtful gesture. “Where should I start? Oh, yes.”

I tried again to get her attention.
“
Suki
, don’t listen to him. It’s all a pack of lies.”

She ignored me. Her attention was solely on the man in front of us, watching as he tapped and clicked on the laptop.
“I take it you didn’t know I paid him to, ah, snoop on you, as you so delicately put it?”

She cocked her head slightly to one side.
“That’s crap, Gabe. I don’t have to listen to your lies anymore.”

“
Maybe not.” He shrugged. His eyes sparkled and his grin broadened. “But pictures speak louder than words. Come and have a look.” He waved towards the laptop screen.

I closed my eyes. Beside me, I heard Suki’s gasp of horror as she recognised herself, the film shot an hour ago, in this very room.
“But that’s… me… Josh… I don’t understand.”

“
Better ask your
boyfriend
. I know you think I’m a good liar, but I pale beside this expert. Go on, Delaney. Why don’t you tell her what I hired you for.”

Opening my eyes again, I stared agonized at Suki, hating the look of pain on her face. Knowing my dreams had been just that
—a fantasy. Any chance of Suki loving me now was about as likely as winning the lottery, and since I never bought a ticket, I had one last try. “Please, Suki. Just turn around and walk out of here. I’ll explain everything to you later. If you love me—if you
trust
me—do this for me.
Please
.”

Small white teeth worried at her lower lip. Time hung between us.
“Why were you filming us, Josh? Tell me that, at least.”

14.2 Suki

Gabe sighed happily. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him look so pleased with himself. I glanced at Josh, frightened at the resigned expression on his face. After one pain-filled gaze, he dropped his eyes. I stared back at the laptop, thoughts clamouring for attention. He’d taken pictures of Anita and now he’d taken film of us together. Why?

“He seems to have lost his tongue.” Gabe smirked some more. “Your darling Josh is little better than a male prostitute, Suki. He gets paid to seduce women and then walk away from them.” Ice flooded my veins. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, grinned broadly. “Oh, and he films it as proof.” He pointed towards the screen. “Good, isn’t he? Tell me, darling, has he fucked you yet?”

Josh made a strange noise in his throat and I stared at him, seeing him as if for the first time. Looked back at the laptop, where Gabe had frozen the screen mid-kiss. I was numb. This had to be another trick of Gabe’s.

I turned to face Josh, removing my arm and wrapping them both around myself. Swallowing, I forced myself to speak past the huge lump that had appeared in my throat. “Tell me the truth, Josh.” He hesitated. I raised my voice, hating the hysterical note I heard. “
Tell me the fucking truth.
”

“
He’s telling the truth, Suki.” It sounded as though he was in pain, every word being dragged from his lips. My eyes darted to the laptop again, to Gabe, back to Josh. I still didn’t understand. This didn’t make sense.

Gabe’s voice mocked me.
“How much more evidence d’you want, darling? How about his invoices? Or you could ask him for the file of data I gave him about you.” He wrinkled his nose as though deep in thought. “I think it was pretty detailed. Let’s see. Your favourite music, how long we’ve been together, you were a virgin when I met you…” Each word hit me, hurt me. I began to flinch as he spoke. “And just in case you think you were the first
client
,” —he rolled the word around, apparently enjoying the sound of it—”he also seduced Savannah, Alan Houghton’s ex-wife-to-be.”

I blinked back the threatening tears. I had more dignity than this. I would not give either of them the satisfaction of seeing me crying again. I dragged my gaze back to Gabe, his glittering eyes, the intense satisfaction on his face. Why had I never noticed how cruel he was? How he enjoyed humiliating people? How he enjoyed hurting me?

I missed what he was saying, and then saw he held out his mobile phone. “I’ve no idea if Joshy-boy has the footage on this laptop, so take a look on my phone. It’s been posted on YouTube you know.” I didn’t want to look. I did
not
want to see Josh with another woman. He made a disgusted noise and turned away from me, so I looked.

There was Savannah, reclining on a bank of pillows, wearing just a teeny tiny thong.
God
her boobs were enormous! And Josh, touching her, kissing her. I covered my face with my hands. I’d seen enough.

Anita said Josh had been asking questions about me. He’d kissed me. He’d made me believe he wanted me. The humiliation I’d felt when I cried on his shirt, when I thought I’d dreamed him, that was nothing compared to this. I didn’t know where to begin, how to assimilate this information. Josh had his back to me, hunched over. I drew in a breath and tried to speak, it came out as a croak.

“Tell me it’s not true.”

He shuffled round to look at me, his face tense and in pain. I saw such agony in the depths of his eyes. He licked his lips.
“Which part?”

“
Any of it. Did Gabe pay you to sleep with me?”

Please say no. Please say no. Please…

He nodded.
Oh God
. I took a step backwards. I had to move away or I would surely hit him. “You lied to me.”
And I told you I loved you.

The look he shot Gabe was pure venom, then another sad look at me.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t—”

Rage took over. I’d already scratched Gabe—it looked nice and bloody—and kneed him in the balls. That was nothing compared to what I wanted to do to Josh.

“Didn’t what? Use me? Trick me? I trusted you, Josh. I thought I knew you, but I didn’t know anything, did I?” I stuffed my fist into my mouth. The love I’d felt had been an illusion. I wanted to bend down and scoop up the pieces of my shattered heart before Gabe stomped on them some more.

“
Suki…” Josh pleaded with me. I stared into his eyes, his beautiful, unusual eyes, seeing them for the last time, committing him to memory. Nothing could ever hurt as much as this. Even Gabe with his sadistic treatment paled into insignificance. I shook my head, there weren’t any words left in me. I had to get away, hole up somewhere and lick my wounds. I took another step backwards, turning to see how far away I was from the door.

Gabe abandoned the laptop and strolled towards me. He alone looked relaxed and comfortable.
“Shall we go?”

Tearing my eyes away from Josh, I turned to Gabe, finding my voice at last.
“If you think I’m going anywhere with you,
ever again
, you’re mistaken. Stay the fuck away from me, Gabe, or next time, I swear to God, I’ll cut you with something sharper than my nails.”

I staggered to the door and for the second time that day, I just ran.

The difference was, this time, I had nowhere to go.

14.3 Josh

Gabriel turned to me with a cold smile.
“Nice work, Joshy-boy. I’ll see you around.”

“
Don’t. Call. Me. That.” I bit out the words, a feeling of icy calm descending across me. The one good thing in my miserable life had just walked out. I had nothing left—and nothing to lose. Adrenaline surged and pulsed, flooding my veins and slowing everything down. I seemed to have all the time in the world as I stepped towards him, grabbed his jacket with one hand and ploughed my right fist into his model good looks. There, a smashed nose to go with the scratch Suki had given him.

I almost laughed at the look of total shock on his face, his eyes widening as he saw the punch coming. He jerked his head, tried to dodge, but I had speed and surprise on my side. There was a sickening crunch as fist hit cartilage. Blood sprayed and fountained over me. He groaned, rocked backwards by the force of the blow, staggering as he tried to stay upright, failing. He stumbled, bumped into the coffee table, dropped down to the floor.

There was a noise buzzing in my ears and I dimly recognised it. My voice, yelling, “You
fucker
. You absolute
fucker
.” Gabriel sprawled on the floor, one hand across his broken face, the other flailing, scrabbling beside him. I leaned over—he wasn’t so high and mighty now—and dragged him to his feet, hauling him up with one hand, preparing to smash him into a bloody pulp.

Something snagged on my arm. Another voice buzzed around me, a hand on my collar, yanking me back. Had he brought reinforcements? I tried to spin around, did a neat side kick and brought the new fucker to his knees while I turned back to see Gabriel trying to crawl away.