Arran’s Obsession (Body Count, #1)

The blade slashed towards me, stopping an inch from my throat, the knife owner’s arm around my neck. At the same moment, a second man reeled away, pulling his punch.

“Fucking hell. Ye couldn’t knock?” Jamieson said.

At my back, Shade uttered a laugh and loosened his grip.

I was quicker than him.

Grabbing his arm, I yanked him off balance, then bent forward, squatted, and hauled him over my back in one fluid motion. He flew across my shoulder and crashed to the floor with a startled laugh, his weapon miraculously holstered again.

Then he climbed to his feet and embraced me, smacking my back hard. “Good to see ye back, arsehole.”

Jamieson joined him. “I taught him that move.”

“Then you’re an arsehole too,” Shade grumbled in return.

From the sofa, Cassie sat up and blinked owlishly. “You’re back. Cool beans. I’m going to bed.” She picked up the blanket around her and trotted off down my hallway like she owned the fucking place.

I didn’t care. My focus was fully on Genevieve, relief slamming into me that she was safe. In soft leggings and a sweatshirt, all her makeup removed, and her hair in a messy bun, she was the picture of everything I’d needed to come home to, and the emotion in her eyes told me exactly how she’d felt about my arrest.

Closing in, I collected her into my arms, throwing an instruction to the rest of the room. “Give us a minute.”

“Just a minute?” Jamieson queried.

Shade answered with a laugh, “Give him a break, he’s new to it. Stamina takes time to develop.”

In my bedroom, I kicked the door closed then dropped down against my pillows so Gen could huddle against me. She whimpered, and I just fucking held her. Then I found her mouth with mine and kissed her hello.

“You broke the four-hour rule,” she said against my lips.

“I know, baby. I’m so sorry. It couldn’t be helped.”

“Does it mean our game is over?”

My chest tightened. “No. Not at all. I just have to make it up to you.”

She inched back, examining my face, her fingers brushing over my brow. “Are you okay?”

“Perfectly fine. Were you worried?”

“Of course I was. How would you feel if you saw me taken away like that?”

Savage anger flashed through me. “I’d tear apart the world until I got you back.”

Her throat bobbed under her choker. “That’s how I felt, and I couldn’t do a thing about it other than pretend I wasn’t yours. So much happened after you were just gone. Cassie appeared. My brother came here and Shade locked him in his apartment. I just… I needed you so badly.”

She held my gaze, some weird, messed-up shit surging in me. I wanted to hurt something as recompense for the pain she’d suffered. Remove Kenney’s head from his body. Maim myself for being the cause.

Realisation hit me like a brick. Our bond was stronger than I’d even started to comprehend. I was connecting to her, embedding deep hooks. I fought with her, lost myself in fucking her, and unequivocally intended to keep her.

“At the end of the four weeks, you’re not leaving me,” I said.

Genevieve’s breath stuttered. “Okay.”

“What do you mean okay?”

She gestured between us, her legs either side of my hips, her free hand over my heart. “Things are changing between us. It’s moving so fast I can’t keep up, but even the thought of not being with you for a day is unbearable.”

“Entirely,” I agreed.

For a beat, she just watched me, her lips parted as if ready to say words she couldn’t quite manage. “I need to ask you something.” She took a shuddering inhale. “Do you love me? I mean, could you?”

“No.” The refusal came easy. “That isn’t a word I understand, and I have no place for it.”

Her shocked expression had me sitting up.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m obsessed with you. I intend to possess you for all time. You’re mine, do you understand? Love has no use for us, and we don’t need it.”

I kissed her again, stealing her warmth and finally feeling something was right.

Gen made an angry sound and broke away, shoving me back. She climbed off me. “Then we have a problem, because I’m falling in love with you.”

I stared back. “No you aren’t. Or if you are, you need to stop. It’s just the game.”

“God, Arran. The game? This is a real relationship.”

“Call it whatever you want, just leave love out of the equation.” I threw my hands out, hot under the collar. “I’ll give you everything. My protection, a home with me, the degree you want—I’ll drive you there and back every fucking day, every part of my life. It’s yours.”

“But not your love.”

“I’m not withholding it from you. I don’t have the capacity. I never received it, and any sentiment like that was beaten out of me. Don’t ask for something I can’t give.”

Her chest rose and fell, her scrutiny intense. “That is the most tragic thing I’ve ever heard. Not that it happened, though that’s bad enough, but that you won’t even try.”

She left the room without a backwards glance.

In the living room, I found her on the sofa. She wouldn’t meet my gaze.

After an awkward beat, Shade spoke. “Catch us up with what happened after your arrest.”

“Chief Constable Kenney needed me for show and tell,” I said.

Methodically, I filled them in on the reason for my arrest and the information he’d given me on the sex offenders he hoped we’d hunt. Shade made a note of the names.

Genevieve curled in on herself.

I took her hand, clamping down when she tried to pull away. “He shared something about Cherry. She was pregnant.”

Fresh shock filled Genevieve’s eyes. “That’s awful.”

Completing the explanation, I told them how the man responsible would never be known.

Genevieve excused herself for a moment to use the bathroom, then returned, her cheeks damp. She took a deep inhale. “That’s made me so fucking angry. What right have they got to cover it up like that? I’ve got some information to share. I think I’ve identified who Cherry’s wealthy customer was. The one she expected the night she died and was bringing a friend she was scared of.”

Everyone watched her.

“Don’t ask me how I found out, but I’m reasonably certain that councillor Slaughter was that client. I’ve no idea who the friend was, but the counsellor’s a suspect.”

“Slaughter.” I drew my eyebrows in and tracked back to the few previous conversations I’d had with the man. Nothing stood out.

Gen gave an unfunny laugh. “Aptly named, isn’t he?”

“He’s a customer of the brothel. I’ve met him. Can’t say he left an impression, but it’s good to know.” I took up my phone that I’d collected from my office and tapped out a message. “I’m passing a warning on to Alisha so security can stop him coming here.”

She curled her lip. “He was in tonight. What if cutting him off from the brothel means he looks for other street workers?”

“You want me to keep him close?”

“It might be better. Just make sure he’s monitored.”

I considered the choice. “We have a protocol for men like that. Weapons checks and safeguards for the women.”

My gaze lingered on Gen’s choker.

“Originally, I couldn’t work out a motive for him.” She brushed back her blonde hair which was escaping the bun. “If you were going to kill someone, you’d need a really good reason, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. Random murders are extremely rare. People kill for all kinds of reasons, but they’re always specific.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Revenge. To hide secrets. To send a message.”

“Is it safe to assume Cherry could’ve been killed because she was pregnant and that was a secret that needed hiding?”

Shade nodded. “It isn’t a smoking gun, but it’s a motive. A counsellor wouldn’t want it to be known that he’d had a baby outside of a relationship, let alone with a sex worker. What doesn’t make sense is how that tracks back to you, Arran.”

Genevieve looked between us. “Why would it?”

Jamieson lifted his eyebrows at me. “You’re shite at sharing information.”

From the depths of my flat, Cassie called, “I told him that already. Did you clock the choker? Pretty, indestructible, kinda wide.”

My woman squeezed her eyes tight shut for a moment then trained them on me. “Would you please fill me in to what everyone else obviously knows but I don’t?”

I reached for her. She moved away.

“Before the information you discovered about councillor Slaughter, I’d believed that Cherry was killed as a message to me.”

Jamieson rolled his hands. “Because…?”

I kept my gaze on Genevieve. “Because the murder method was exactly the same as how my father killed my mother.”

She stilled, then her fingers crept to the jewellery at her neck.

To save her the trouble, I continued. “He slit her throat with a knife. She was naked and restrained. Then he left her to bleed out on the floor where she fell. I already told you she was a sex worker. The parallels are there.”

Shade spoke. “I had a feeling the Four Milers were behind it. They enticed away Sydney then Convict. They’re taking potshots.”

Genevieve’s gaze shot to him. “What happened with Convict?”

“He betrayed me,” I admitted. “He was there at the Four Milers standoff.”

She stared at me. “My brother came to find me this evening, his girlfriend, too. He said Don, her cousin, had something happen to him and he’s not around anymore. That man was my first suspect because he was on the scene, but that’s another tie-in.”

Shade nodded. “Unless Red is the orchestrator. He leads the gang, and if he’s smart, he has a route into the police where he could have discovered what happened to your ma.”

He and Jamieson started a conversation, Shade recalling all the minor gang interactions we’d had over the past year. Mostly, they were territorial scuffles. Nothing major. I sensed the weight of Gen’s stare on me.

She groaned in annoyance. “I hate what happened to Cherry. Why would someone do that? Why do men have such a problem with caring about others?”

I worked my jaw, but she wasn’t done.

“You, for example. You claim that you’ll never love. What’s up with that? Why would anyone not want something so perfect?”

The two men stopped talking. At the hall entrance, Cassie peeked around.

I lowered my gaze on Gen. She was upset, hurting for her lost friend, but that was no reason to spill shit. “This isn’t the time or place.”

“Isn’t it? When would be? What if I had been the one killed? Would you look back with regret or just move on because love was never on the table? You could walk away and get on with life as normal.”

“Like the good councillor?” I snarled. “Are you comparing me to him?”

She gave a sarcastic laugh. “To a psychopath? No. What could you possibly have in common?”

Deep emotion rose in a wave. This conversation needed to stop, but I needed her happy again, too. I had no fucking clue how to get back to what we had.

In tandem, my and Shade’s phones blared with alerts.

He snatched his up faster than me. “Something’s activated the security system.”

I clicked into our network. On one of the camera feeds, a person scaled the wall of the building, keeping to the shadows but not evading our system as they climbed the bars of a window. They got so far then scrambled and fell, our measures keeping them from getting any higher.

Leaping up, I paced to the window and dialled Tyler whose team were here for a couple of days.

He picked up. “We’re on it.”

“Who?”

“Unknown. One person, I believe. They were around the front then circled. My team converged, but the guy’s gone. Fucking spray paint left on the wall.”

Paint? For fuck’s sake. The camera triggered was on the west end of the warehouse. Whoever did it must have been lurking for a while ahead of making their attempt. Another message to me, undoubtedly.

“On my way down,” I told him.

Shade was already at the door.

I went to Gen. Kissed her. “Keep this door locked.” I switched my gaze to Jamieson.

He held it, no words needed. He’d protect both the women under our care.

Then it was time to hunt down a graffiti artist.