Obsession: The Hollow Universe Read online

  Raking his hand through his shaggy hair, he coughed softly. “We were an at-risk facility. Kids who were expected to end up in jail or drug addicted. I was addicted to meth my mom gave me to keep me quiet. I talked too much.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Your visit changed what I did with myself.” Fidgeting, he said, “You talked about violence against women and children. About the unsolved and unreported cases that leave thousands dead or missing every year.”

  “That was pretty intense for someone your age…”

  “I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was hiding in the chair storage. You woke me up. I-I…” He looked fearfully at my bodyguards. “I’m not a stalker or anything but…I’ve done stalkerish things.”

  “Tell me what you mean.”

  “I followed you. I wanted to be like you. The men who tried to hurt you a couple of years later, I think they hurt a lot of women, Miss Fields. I-I don’t think you were the first one.”

  I glanced at the photos on the table. “You followed them?” He nodded. “You could have been hurt.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been hurt worse than they could have done. Twice, I watched some of them try to take women and I set off an air horn I stole just in case.” He pointed at himself. “I’m not strong or anything but I hoped noise would make them run off.”

  “Did it?”

  “Those times but there were other times when I know they got someone I didn’t see.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ll be eighteen next month, Miss Fields. I’ll tell you honestly that what I did was illegal…”

  “We don’t care about that, Tom. Tell us what happened.”

  Taking a long sip of the fresh water bottle Jonas placed in his hand, he took a deep breath. “I hacked into the driver’s license computers and then the traffic cams.”

  He pointed at the photos. “These women went to the same school you did or worked there. All of them applied for new licenses and reported their old ones as lost. I started tracking the cameras on campus. They didn’t report what happened to them. I doubt they ever told anyone.”

  “You think they were attacked?”

  “The images were fuzzy and it was dark but all of them got new IDs shortly after I found footage of women being jumped, dragged into an SUV, and driven away. I-I think the guys kept the ID’s like trophies. I searched for lost IDs by women in certain age ranges then went backwards on the recordings.”

  I stared at him for a long moment. “It’s thin, Tom.”

  “That’s what the police said when I went to them. I showed them the women but couldn’t tell them about hacking the database. I tried to get them to understand there was a group of men terrorizing women but they wouldn’t listen.”

  He took another long drink and said, “Eight men behaved like a pack of wild dogs and probably destroyed the lives of these women. Maybe others I didn’t find, too. No one would listen so I’m writing a story about it.”

  My heart raced out of control. There was one thing he said that caused a screaming inside my mind.

  “Tom,” I said hoarsely. “What do you mean there were eight men? You’re sure you saw eight in your surveillance?”

  Padme entered my peripheral vision as the Hydes stiffened sharply.

  “Always eight. They worked in teams to box the women in. When I traced their movements through the traffic cameras, sometimes half would abduct the woman but wherever they took her, there were always four others waiting.”

  His frustration was clear. “They moved their sites a lot. Those were the places I tried to find.”

  I stood and paced to the window of my office that overlooked downtown Dallas. I worked to calm my breathing and racing heart as I processed information we never knew.

  In all my dealings with the men who attacked me, we only knew of seven men.

  There was a member of their group unaccounted for.

  “We’ll find him, Ellie,” Jonas said softly.

  “Breathe, Ellie.”

  From behind us, Tom asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

  I turned to him. “No, you didn’t. As a matter of fact, I’m fascinated that you’ve pieced all this together at your age.” I approached him. “Where do you live, Tom?”

  His expression shuttered. “Here and there.”

  “Do you have a home?”

  “I shelter hop. Staying at whatever ones have beds.”

  “Padme, he needs a place to stay.” Turning for the small table on the other side of the room, I added, “Let’s eat and talk about your possible employment, Tom.”

  “My possible…what?” he asked breathlessly.

  “Employment. I bet, with the right training, you could become one of the best mercenaries on the planet.”

  He gestured down at his body. “I doubt that.”

  Padme laughed. “I’m one of the best. Why not you?”

  The brunette’s eyes were as big as saucers.

  We filled his belly then filled his mind. Not unlike a dozen times in my childhood, I took home a stray.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Early March 2015

  We ended up placing Tom in the estate’s security compound so he wouldn’t be alone all the time.

  The main staff for my parents were older and steady. A good influence on someone so young.

  He received one of the single cottages set up like a studio apartment. Unlike most studio apartments, he had top of the line technology at his fingertips.

  The pale youth stood in the middle of his new home and turned in circles. “This is my own space?” I nodded with a smile and he said, “I won’t let you down, Miss Fields.”

  “Call me Ellie…and I know you won’t.”

  My mother walked beside me as I returned to the main house after checking on our new protégé.

  “You changed another life, honey. He’s a sweet boy.”

  “Tom is changing his own life. He made the choice not to be a statistic.”

  Every afternoon, he trained with Padme and other members of my team. He soaked up new material like a sponge.

  Shy around most people, Tom preferred to work alone with headphones in.

  A month into his training, when Padme was certain she pulled every scrap of information available on his past, we brought Tom a little deeper into our circle of trust.

  He was informed of the fate of the seven men we knew about and I watched him piece together what we didn’t say.

  Though he didn’t comment on it, I could tell he was deeply upset. Then he was given his first assignment as a member of my personal security team. A job he didn’t know he had.

  Identify the eighth man.

  * * *

  On the twelfth day of March, I brushed down my beautiful Sarafina. Though I couldn’t ride her, I found it relaxing to groom her the way I used to.

  It was a bright, pretty day and the Hydes stood on either side of the door inside her stall.

  A shooting pain arced from my low back to my abdomen and I dropped to one knee with a surprised gasp.

  I felt my water break and suddenly I was being carried at a near run for the house. Jonas held me tightly while Jordan texted the go message to everyone who needed to know.

  In the elevator, I whispered, “I weigh a ton. You can put me down, Jonas.”

  He looked down but otherwise ignored me. Then he was striding purposefully toward Theresa’s lab.

  “Wait, I-I need to shower. I’m gross. This is embarrassing.” He clenched his jaw. “Jonas. Please.” With a soft groan, he walked into my apartment.

  Bianca shouted at us the second we cleared the door. “What the hell are you doing here? We were on our way to the medical suite!”

  “I need to shower, Bianca. Stand watch for a few minutes.”

  Jonas put me down in the bathroom and held an obvious internal argument about leaving me alone.

  “Five minutes and I’ll go right to Theresa.”

  He nodded once bris
kly and left. I heard him barking orders at Bianca and she burst through the bathroom door to watch over me.

  After a small scream, I showered fast.

  Wrapping myself in a towel, Padme appeared with my hospital gown and robe. I wasn’t to wear anything under it.

  One glance at the urgent look on her face and I smiled. “It’s weird to see you guys in a panic. I’m ready.”

  “I’ve gotten seven texts from your mother in the last five minutes. Let’s go, buttercup!

  Laughing, I opened my bedroom door and squeaked as Jordan literally swept me off my feet. He carried me down the hall with Jonas at his side clearing the way.

  He set me down long enough for me to remove my robe then lifted me to the bed. They moved to stand at the door and I raised my brows.

  “Um, guys? Can you stand behind me maybe? I’ve heard that’s not a view you can ever erase from your memory.”

  Jaws clenched, they chuckled nervously and took up positions at the top corners of my bed.

  They watched Adam like hawks as he hooked me up to an IV and fetal monitor.

  Padme stood directly across from him and stared him down like a vicious, but incredibly feminine, mama bear.

  Theresa entered clapping her hands. “Let’s do this, people! You ready, Ellie?” I nodded.

  I was so ready to get this over with. I missed being able to see my feet, put on my own pants, and go more than an hour without having to pee.

  She put my feet in stirrups and checked dilation beneath a tented sheet. Looking between the Hydes, she asked, “You guys plan on staying?”

  They must have nodded because she gave them strange looks.

  My parents entered together. They told me later that their driver broke every speed limit getting them back from Dallas.

  Theresa grinned at me. “Things are going to move fairly fast, Ellie. You’re already eight centimeters dilated. She made up her mind and that was it. Sit tight while we prep.”

  Everyone fussed over me, trying to keep my mind off the steadily worsening contractions. I was grateful.

  Mom braided my hair so it didn’t stick to my face. Padme pulled up labor breathing instructions and some sort of soundtrack to help me keep rhythm.

  Bianca handed me crushed ice. “Don’t ask me what this is for. Theresa gave it to me. I’m assuming you suck on it or some damn thing.”

  My father has strong hands and let me squeeze them as hard as I could when the pain would crest.

  “You didn’t have any signs earlier, Ellie?” Theresa asked with a frown. “No contractions? That’s unusual for a first baby.”

  “Weird aches but it’s not like that’s new.”

  She paused and put her hand on her hip. “So…contractions.” I shrugged. “I won’t ask anything else. I’ll have a stroke.”

  Half an hour later, there was a lull in the noise.

  “Theresa, should I push? I really want to push.”

  The doctor pulled a stool between my legs instantly and whispered, “She’s crowning already. You quick and clever girl. Ellie, we’re going to sit you up so you can bear down.”

  My parents put their arms behind my back and held my hands.

  When Adam moved to stand between my spread legs, I kicked him as hard as I could in the face.

  Shocked at myself as his eye began to swell, I gritted out, “Contraction. So sorry, Adam!”

  He put his hand on my bare knee to tell me it was no problem. I could see the words forming but I was going to break his fucking wrist if he didn’t take his hand off me.

  Padme shoved him away with zero politeness and got between us. Bianca took up a position on my other side. They refused to move an inch.

  Theresa, focused on the baby getting impatient, missed the byplay. “Ready, Ellie? I want you to push and keep pushing for five seconds.”

  The next minute was a blur to me as the most awful pressure built and built. “Give me another good one, Ellie.”

  More pressure and then…release.

  I laid back with Dad’s help and panted frantically. A small cry echoed through the room and you could have heard a pin drop.

  “Give Adam a minute to clear her airway, Ellie.”

  I stared upside down at Jordan and he moved to follow the medical assistant across the room with my baby. I knew he’d gut the man where he stood before he let Adam hurt her.

  “One more push, honey. That’s it.”

  I may have passed out. The next thing I remember is Theresa beside me, putting a pink wrapped bundle in my arms which were shaking too hard to support the weight.

  Mom helped so I didn’t drop her during our first meeting.

  “Hello, my little Katherine. How perfect you are. I’m Ellie but you can call me Mommy.”

  There was more hustle and bustle as I was cleaned up.

  Hands touched me, touched the baby. My mom cried and so did my dad but he tried to hide it.

  My team murmured about the baby, how well I’d done, and how happy everyone was that things went smoothly.

  Padme and Bianca kept a block between the annoying assistant and me. He iced his eye to bring down the swelling.

  Theresa murmured, “I’m giving her something for pain. Her milk never came in so I don’t think she’ll breastfeed.”

  Mom answered, “No, she knows she can’t…”

  I let myself drift, my eyes felt too heavy. Large hands cupped either side of my face and firm lips on faces with a trace of beard stubble kissed my cheeks at the same time.

  Out of my mind with drugs and exhaustion, I imagined it was Jordan and Jonas. To be fair, where they’re concerned, I’m never in my right mind.

  “I love…stubble.”

  Even exhausted, I managed to catch myself and pretend I didn’t love them with all of myself.

  It was a lie I grew increasingly tired of telling.

  * * *

  Having a baby was both exhausting and exhilarating.

  It’s also one of the most frightening experiences I’ve ever had. I ended up agreeing to hiring a nanny because when Katie was two weeks old, the shriveled bit of her umbilical cord fell off and I ran screaming to Theresa.

  For a while it was touch and go on whether I’d have to be sedated.

  Mom summed it up. “Except for much older children, close to school age, you’ve never been around infants. It isn’t surprising you’d worry when a little bit of baby falls off.”

  I swayed on my feet and Jonas put a steady hand on my back.

  She rushed on. “Bad choice of words, honey. Getting a nanny will stop your slow descent into madness.”

  I worried constantly something would happen to my daughter. That I wasn’t going to be allowed to keep anything good and clean from that horrible day filled with degradation and pain.

  My staff was enthralled with her.

  Bianca and Padme changed her clothes several times a day. Since I was constantly putting her in new outfits myself, we bought a lot of spares.

  Katie didn’t cry. I don’t mean she rarely cried. She did not cry. I set timers to check her diaper so she never sat wet and to remind myself to give her a bottle.

  Si and Fiaaz sang silly songs they made up to describe what they were doing. She stared at them with wide eyes and I wondered what she comprehended.

  The biggest surprise was how Jordan and Jonas were with her.

  They held her constantly and talked as if she could understand them. Since she stared at them in rapt fascination, maybe she did. When I saw them with her, my heart clenched painfully.

  Distractedly rubbing the heel of my hand over my sternum, I met Jordan’s gaze accidentally. The intensity on his face held me still. I felt like a gazelle faced with a lion.

  I quickly dismissed my reaction as juvenile and misplaced.

  In the solarium, I sat at my writing desk with Katie in a bassinet beside me. Typing away, I rocked it with my foot.

  Sometimes, I’d glance down and forget everything in my desire to pick her up…just becau
se.

  Holding her close to me, I’d stand up and stare out at the estate. Swaying gently and murmuring to her, I watched her fall asleep.

  Katie was my little girl and worth every moment of pain I experienced to have her with me.

  I regretted nothing. I couldn’t. She filled up a heart that too often felt empty.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Late March 2015

  Mom was interviewing nannies with Padme and until the right person was found, my parents insisted on taking their granddaughter every afternoon to give me a break.

  I used the time to swim and then relaxed outside until I missed her too much to stay away.

  The Hyde brothers were my constant companions.

  Some days, I visited Sarafina’s stable and gave her treats or groomed her. Other days, I strolled the gardens.

  I was almost always lost in thought as if I was holding my breath. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  On a day I chose to sit in the garden, the book I brought remained open and untouched on my lap. I hadn’t read a single line in twenty minutes.

  Something was off and I couldn’t place what it was. I thought I might crawl out of my skin from the sudden but inexplicable stress.

  “Ellie. What is it?” Jordan asked quietly.

  I shook my head because I didn’t know, couldn’t place, what it was that had me off-balance and shaking.

  I looked around, listened, and then took a deep breath.

  The answer hit me hard and I wanted out of the gardens and as far away as I could get. I jumped up, my book falling to the paved walkway, and started to run for the house.

  “Ellie!”

  At the covered back patio, the Hyde brothers pulled me carefully to a stop, surrounded me in protection mode, and held me still.

  I couldn’t look at them. I couldn’t breathe around my panic.

  “What is it? Tell us, Ellie.” I didn’t know which of them spoke. “You can tell us. It’s alright.”

  “M-mulch and dirt. I can’t…”

  I turned away, dropped to my knees, and vomited in the bushes along the cobblestones.

  Gentle hands stroked my hair, rubbed my back, and whispered soothingly to me. I was mortified as I lost everything in my stomach and couldn’t stop the dry heaves.