Page 3 of Saved from Obsession

Then the man takes a breath, and all the air in the stairwell seems to get sucked along with it. In the stillness, time freezes. I’m at the edge of a precipice, and his next move is about to send me falling. How far will I fall? How badly will I be hurt?

Terror is a monster clawing its way out of my chest. Maybe when he makes his inevitable move, that will be the chance I’ve been waiting for. MaybethenI’ll have a chance of escaping.

“It’s time for me to go,Georgia.“ His voice drops, now a sinister warning. “But first, I have to tell you something.” He pauses and presses the tip of the blade into my cheekbone until it pierces the skin.

“You have to pay for your sins, Georgia.” He chuckles, a dark and horrible rumble. “It’s the only way.”

And then he drags the knife down my cheek, this time slicing open my skin. A fiery blaze of pain follows in its wake, and I cry out—both from the shock and pain. He shoves away from me, and I clap my hand to my face, warm blood filling my palm.

He turns and sprints down the stairs while I stand frozen there, all my synapses misfiring. Nothing makes sense. Random thoughts pinball through my head.Is he coming back?I need to run. What did he do to my face?

Run.

My heart exploding in frantic beats, I scramble for the door. After two unsuccessful tries, I manage to push the door open and rush through it. Now that I’m away from my attacker, all my barely controlled panic is breaking over me in waves.

What do I do now? I can’t see my phone, I don’t know how to get into my apartment, and my face is on fire with blood steadily pulsing from it. Is he coming back? I need to get to a hospital—I’m weak with fear and pain and I just need someone to help me.

Forcing my wobbling legs to obey, I stagger down the hallway, banging on each door as I go, shouting at each one, “Help! It’s Georgia, I need help! I live down the hall. Please help me!”

Finally, after what might be a minute or an hour, one door blessedly opens. A twenty-something man who I know only by first name pulls his door open, frowning until he sees me. Then his expression shifts to a mix of concern and horror, and he gasps, “Georgia! What happened?”

“Please.” I’m sobbing by now, all my control completely gone. “The police… Hospital. Someone… cut me.Need help.”

He takes my arm and guides me into his apartment and sits me down at his kitchen table. Then everything starts to go fuzzy. He’s on the phone, there are voices in the hallway talking in sharp, commanding tones, and my face is throbbing. The neighbor—Paul, I think—comes over to me and hands me a large gauze bandage.

“Let’s get this on your face,” he says, as he crouches in front of me. “The ambulance and police are on their way. This will help slow the bleeding.”

Then he pries my hand away from my cheek, hesitating for only a second before placing the gauze firmly over it. And even in the blur of pain and fear and panic, his reaction sears into me. He flinches, shock rippling across his features, and sucks in a hissed breath. “God, Georgia. Yourface.”

CHAPTERONE

LEO

No matter how old you get, mothers always seem to know how to make you feel guilty.

“It’s been a long time since you came back for a visit, Leo.” My mother somehow manages to make her tone both pleading and scolding at the same time. “You know your father would love to see you. Show you some of the new things he’s done to the store.”

“I know, Mom. Work has been really busy lately.” Sinking down into my leather office chair, I click open my email and absently scroll through the messages. When she sighs at me, I add, “I’ll try to get there soon.”

I’m hit with another industrial strength sigh, so heavy I can practically feel it gusting through the phone line. “I hope you’re not workingtoohard. You need to take some time off, Leo, relax a little, too.“ She pauses, her voice shifting from scolding to concerned. “Are you doing Okay? With… everything?”

My chest tightens, the familiar pressure building. She doesn’t know everything about what happened overseas, but she knows enough to worry about me. Even though I’ve reassured my mother at least a hundred times that I’m fine, and there’s nothing to be concerned about.

“Everything is fine, Mom.” I keep my tone light, forcing a smile as I say it. I read a study online that said if you smile when you talk, it makes the words sound better. And hopefully, more reassuring to my worried mother. “Like I said, work has been busy since the company is really taking off, but I still get days off. It’s just tough to take long periods of time off right now.”

I’ve been working for Blade and Arrow Security for the last three years, and each year we’ve gotten more business than the last. Blade and Arrow is a private security company that serves two purposes: one for profit, the other charitable. Our advertised role is providing security services to CEOs, celebrities, and other high-level executives. We train their security teams and provide added help with high-risk events and travel.

Those jobs pay the bills, and also allow us to continue our pro-bono work. People from all over the country contact us for help when they have nowhere else to turn. People who are at risk but don’t have the resources or connections to get the assistance they need. When the police have turned them away, and their finances won’t cover a private investigator or security, that’s when we step in.

The company was founded by my former Green Beret teammate after he saw one too many people slip through the cracks. After my team left the Army, Cole was working as a cop down in Texas, and he had a domestic violence case that went bad. The woman was in danger from her abusive ex-husband, but nothing could be proven, so the police weren’t allowed to arrest him.

When the woman was killed after months of threats, Cole decided he wanted to come up with a different way to help. So he founded Blade and Arrow, and decided to allot half the company’s time to helping people in need, for free. Since the company gets paid well for the high-level security jobs, it ends up covering both our salaries and the cost of the services we provide for free.

The pro-bono work was one of the main reasons I joined the company—to be able to still protect people even though I wasn’t in the Army anymore. And getting to join my five teammates—who all decided to join Cole in building his new company—was the other big reason.

We spent years together in the most treacherous of situations and I’d trust each one of them with my life.Havetrusted them with my life, many times over. Cole, Zane, Rylan, Finn, and Nora—they’re the brothers and sister I never had. And being able to work with them again is a gift I never imagined receiving years ago when I made the painful decision to transition out of the Army.

“Well, I hope you can get a vacation sometime this year.” My mother’s voice is muffled by the sound of running water, and I’m guessing she’s washing the dishes she used to cook breakfast.

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