Page 85 of Brutal Obsession

I retract my wrist at once, panic and discomfort still clanging around inside me.

“Get dressed.” The resolution in Cian’s rough voice chills me to the bone. “We’re going back to New York.”

Chapter 23

Harper

The pleasure I experienced while at Cian’s mercy in the bedroom has turned to despair. The dark emotion clings to every part of me, my heart thumping painfully in my chest as the distance between us and the Honolulu airport shrinks second by second.

Is Cian speeding? Rushingmy death sentence, like he can’t wait to see me in that electric chair.

All remnants of the man who made love to me last night in sensual silence—tender, deep, and vulnerable—have vanished. Only a stone-cold soldier remains. A man who exists to follow orders. How could I ever have thought anything different?

Everything we’ve been through together these past forty-eight hours was meaningless. The dream is over, and now the nightmare begins.

The four-lane highway stretches before us, parallel to the ocean and horizon beyond. Planes ascend to the sky, cutting through the perfect blue expanse overhead. The experience should be beautiful, but I feel like an animal being brought to slaughter as the reality of returning to my hometown creeps closer.

Signs for the airport pass us by. Cian says nothing. I can’t even breathe as he maneuvers the car onto the exit ramp that leads straight to the airport departures.

My stomach knots so many times, the inside probably resembles a Boy Scout exam. The only remaining vestige of my sanity clings to the thought of Riley. Hearing my sister’s voice did my morale a world of good, even if the call was brief.

I don’t want to go back to New York, but knowing my sister is there and okay, even if…even if I may never see her again…

My vision blurs.

I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.

Am I dissociating? My hands and feet are numb, and instead of gazing out at the road ahead, I’m watching myself ride beside Cian in the passenger seat, like my ghost is spying at us through the sunroof.

We make an odd pair.

Cian as blank and uncaring as a marble statue.

Me, falling apart beside him like the victim I’ve always been.

I don’t want to return to my life of servitude and submission. That road leads to my mother, alone and drunk most of the day just to get through the horror of being married to my father.

My deepest, darkest fear is that I’ll end up like her, a lifelong prisoner trapped in a world she didn’t ask for and never wanted to be a part of. Now that I’ve experienced life away from my father’s toxicity, I’ve never been more certain that I can’t return.

But I may not have a choice.

I never do.

I force myself to wheeze in a deep breath, and Cian’s scent cuts through the congestion in my nose. Desperate and frantic, my imagination lurches toward him, wondering where we’d be and what we’d be doing if we’d met like two normal people anywhere else on Earth. If I were a regular woman, and he was a regular man, how would things have panned out?

Maybe we would have loved each other.

Giving Cian a sidelong glance, I allow myself a moment to admire him. I’ve never wanted someone so much who I trusted so little.

He opened himself up to me, and what did I do?

Run for the hills.

Isn’t that what I’ve always done?

I close my eyes against the truth. My head swims, and I struggle not to hyperventilate.

“Hey.” Cian’s unforgiving tone wades into my warped hearing. “We’re here. Let’s go.”

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