Page 52 of Obsession

I don’t hesitate, picking up the ugly ceramic duck-shaped vase on the table next to the couch and throwing it at his feet, “Get out, you sick pervert!”

He slides his feet out of the way, and his sneer morphs into an ugly look.

“I’m not going anywhere. You girls are always flaunting yourselves in front of me, teasing me. You want this,” he says, grabbing the small package between his legs. “Why else would you bring those men around for me to see?”

The sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach compounds as I realize a couple of things. First, that Mickey is a delusional psychopath, and two, that he’s here to rape me.

In a heartbeat, I rush towards the door, and I’m about to pull it open when he’s on me, grabbing me by my middle and throwing me to the ground as I let out a loud scream.

But I’m a fighter.

I scramble back on all fours and dart behind the couch. Mickey is so focused on my ass that he doesn’t see me grabbing the hot mug of tea that I just made a few minutes ago. I toss the whole thing into his face, and as he screams in pain, I scramble over the couch and dart towards the door, pulling it open and running outside with bare feet and only the blanket around me.

I’m so busy looking over my shoulder to make sure he’s not following me that I run smack dab into a wall of firm male muscle. Fear is rampant within me, my breathing uneven as I try to jump away, but the man grabs me by the waist.

“Leave me–”

Before I can get out the word alone, I look up and see Mr. Middleton staring right back at me. I’m in shock. He’s the last person I thought I’d see again. After a week of no contact, I thought he was finally done with me.

“What’s going on?” he asks, his voice tense. “Why are you running outside with no shoes on and a blanket?”

I look over my shoulder, terrified. “My landlord, Mickey, he came in and tried to; I think he wanted to?—”

I can’t get the words out. I’m shaking so badly.

“I’ve got you.” Mr. Middleton’s arm wraps around my waist, pulling me into his chest, his other hand tightening the blanket around me. “It’s going to be fine.”

“He’s still in there, though.”

My ear is pressed against his chest, and hearing his steady heartbeat calms me down. I don’t understand why I feel so safe in his arms; I’m pretty sure that I’ve gone from one monster straight into the arms of another one.

“Not for long,” he reassures me, his voice calm.

I worry for a moment that Mr. Middleton may kill my landlord, but when Mickey emerges from the apartment building and starts verbally attacking me, I begin not to give a damn.

“You fucking bitch! How fucking dare you?!”

Mr. Middleton’s voice is cool as a cucumber as he whispers into my hair, “I won’t let him touch you.”

I’ve never once relied on another person to protect me because I never had that luxury, even as a child. But why are those six words everything I needed to hear? Why does my body instinctively relax when he says them? All I want to do is to envelope myself inside his embrace, where it feels completely safe... and stay there.

Mickey comes to a stop when his pea brain realizes that I’m not alone. He’s huffing for breath, his face an angry red from where I threw the hot tea at him. “Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck are you doing in front of my building?”

He squints his eyes as if he’s finally getting us into focus.“Wait, you’re that man from last week, aren’t you? You need to get going, man. This bitch is mine tonight.”

As Mickey advances, Mr. Middleton does not so much as move. Part of the reason may be because of a dark shadowed figure which moves past us and then tackles Mickey to the ground.

The front of the building isn’t that well-lit, so it takes me a second to realize that it’s Lars. Parker is right behind him, with a gun in hand. He smiles at Mickey sinisterly, who is struggling under Lar’s chokehold. “You’re an ugly little fucker, aren’t you?”

“Let me go!” Mickey shouts. “This is illegal! You can’t just assault me when I’ve done nothing. I’m going to press charges against all three of you.”

Lars exchanges a look with Parker, who shrugs and brings down the butt of his gun on the back of Mickey’s head. Myperverted landlord collapses onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.

A panic overwhelms me.

“Is he dead?”

Chapter 18

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