Page 186 of Volatile Obsessions

On quick feet, I dashed around her and held a hand out in warning, my back now to the door. “You can’t be serious! You can’t keep us here like prisoners!”

“You’re not prisoners—you’re my men, my beautiful, devoted men,” she cooed, advancing toward me again. “We’re going to have such a wonderful life together, Rome. All of us.”

She really had lost it.

Completely fucking lost it.

Had Leo’s death affected her this much? Or was this a result of something else? Her parent’s death?

“You’re fucking insane!” I barked, chest heaving, my eyes scanning every inch over the room for a weapon.

“No, I’m not!” she bellowed.

“Yes, you are! You’ve taken two men hostage for some deranged, twisted fantasy you’ve conjured up in your head! How is that not crazy?!” The veins in my neck bulged from the sheer volume of my voice.

Tears welled in her eyes once more. “Because I love you!” she cried. “I love you both!”

“This isn’t love, Liza! I don’t know what the hell happened to you after we broke up, but you need help—serious help!”

“I don’t need help, goddamit! I just need my boys!”

“Yeah, well, you’ll be down to only one soon because I can assure you I’m walking out that front door right now.”

It was only after I said it that I realized I shouldn’t have uttered a word…

Wiping the wetness clinging to her cheeks with quick hands, she stared at me, tilting her head slowly to one side. “You can try,” she cackled. “But you won’t get very far. There’s guards at every door and they’ve been instructed to drag you down to the basement if either one of you try to leave.”

Of course there are.

“I don’t even want to know what you could possibly have down there.”

I really didn’t.

“That’s right, you don’t,” she agreed, crossing her arms, a satisfied smirk playing on the corners of her mouth.

“Let me go, Liza,” I tried, moving back yet again as she stepped forward. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“I just want you! Jesus Christ, Rome, don’t you get that!”

“And I’ve told you, you can’t have me.”

Silence ensued, but only long enough to fool me.

In a blur of movements, Liza bound up to where I stood and managed to cuff my arms behind my back.

“And yet I already do,” she murmured, running a polished fingernail down my bare chest.

Cringing under her touch, I tried wriggling myself free, but it was useless. These weren’t costume cuffs, they were the real deal. “Let me go!” I demanded, despite knowing it wasn’t going to do a damn thing.

“Shhh—let’s calm you down.”

“I’ll calm down when your psycho ass gets tossed in the looney bin!”

“So cranky.” Another child-like giggle bubbled in her throat. “Don’t worry, baby—we’ll make that better.”

Her hand made contact with my chest.

I stumbled back from the force of her shove, falling right into one of the parlor chairs I’d seen earlier.

---