Page 35 of Captured Obsession

She glares up at me as she swipes her hair from her face. “I told you to leave me alone.”

Her eyes are puffy, and my jaw tics in fury at the piece of shit who made her cry. What right does he have to hurt her like this? Even after breaking her trust, why does he still have such a hold over her? He never should’ve been able to breathe the same air as her. It puts me in a bloody, murderous rage.

“Just tell me in detail how you want me to kill him,mishka, and I'll make it happen.”

“No, Nikolai, you psychopath. You can't just kill everyone because they piss you off.”

“Of course I can.”

She shoves me hard, and I allow her to. She’s an angry little minx who's used to containing the fire within her, and I'm a selfish asshole for wanting to bring out her worst. “I'm so over men. I'm so over you and your asshole ways.”

“That’s good,mishka, let it all out.” She shoves me again. “And tell me, how are you accountable in all of this?”

Her eyes go wide, and if I thought I saw her in a fury before, it has nothing on this.

“You think I deserve to be cheated on? You think I wanted any of this pain that I have nowhere to put?” She’s screaming now, so loud it pierces my ears, and the hollow agony in her voice bubbles to the surface. Tears prick her eyes. “You think because I'm some spoiled princess that I should've known what was coming for me? That, what, no one can love me because I'm defective?”

Suddenly, I realize this list is going to take a while, and so I grab my pack of cigarettes from my back pocket and light one up. That only intensifies her anger.

“Do you find this amusing? Is this why you dragged me out here? So you could be entertained by my pain?”

I exhale and shake my head. “No. I do enjoy your pain,mishka, but only when I’m inflicting it onto your body. But I’m growing tired of the pity party you seem to be throwing for yourself.”

Her eyes narrow, and her voice is venomous when she hisses, “How fuckingdareyou.”

I shrug. “Your ex is a douchebag. Nobody deserves to be betrayed, but it happens. And yet, you continue whining like a victim. When will you take your power back and move on? I never thought of you as a coward.”

She opens her mouth to respond but nothing comesout. There we go. If I knew all I had to do was speak more directly to shut her up, perhaps I would have done so from the get-go. “All of these things you're telling yourself, are they your voice or someone else’s? Are they tabloids or truth? Or are you using them as an excuse to hold you back because you don't know how to move forward?”

She chokes. “Those are some big fucking words coming from a man who has no moral compass.”

“Don't confuse that with not having direction. You can try and turn this on me as much as you want, but I know who I am. The question is, do you know who you are?”

She grows quiet. I’ve never used my skills of manipulation and mind fuckery in a positive way. Usually when people irritate me with their own inadequacies or lack of vision, I kill them.

Sienna Falcone, I will not kill.

I pull out six pieces of paper from my back pocket and unfold them. When she catches a glimpse of what’s on them, she sucks in a harsh breath.

“Why do you have photos of Michael?”

I shrug as I let the cigarette dangle loosely from my lips, then I remove the folded sleeve from my other back pocket.

“Because the only way I know how to solve anything is by killing it. Since I assume you don't have the stomach for it, I thought the next best thing was using these for target practice.” I flick out the foldedsleeve that unrolls to show the six throwing knives carefully strapped inside.

She gapes at me as I walk across to the line of trees highlighted in the light of the setting sun. “You want me to throw knives at photos of my ex-fiancé?”

“No, Iwantto kill him,” I reply. “But since we're both stuck here until we figure out what the fuck is taking your friends so long, this will do.”

When I turn around, she’s glaring at me with one haughty brow raised. “And they say chivalry is dead.”

I smirk. “Oh, don’t worry, sweetheart, men like me are definitely the ones who kill the gentlemen. But we're also the ones who know how to have a lot of fun. Try it. You might pull that pole out of your pretty ass for once and feel like you can breathe.”

15

SIENNA

He's out of his goddamn fucking mind. Why won’t he just leave me be and let me sort out my thoughts? Then again, I haven't been able to do that for the last three months. And while the idea of throwing knives at printed, less-than-flattering photos of my ex feels silly … I'm itching to do it.