Page 45 of Hidden Obsession

Chapter Twenty

As soon asshe woke her mind went to Mason, and tears welled in her eyes. She hadn’t heard from the team, and seeing no messages on her phone, she glanced at the clock before calling Emme. It was still early. She hadn’t slept for long, but she knew the team would already be in the office and looking for Mason. The phone rang on the other end as she waited for someone to pick up. What she wanted was to go into work and keep busy.

“Hey, Cleo.” Emme sounded fresh-faced and wide awake despite it being six in the morning.

Cleo sat up in bed and swung her legs over the side, swaying as a wave of nausea hit her. “Hey, Emme, any news?”

“Nothing yet, sweetie but we’re looking into a few things.”

Cleo heard the pause in her voice and felt her body go alert. “Tell me.”

“Some of the avenues we’re exploring suggest that Spears may not have taken Mason.”

Cleo’s brain whirred as she tried to make sense of what Emme was saying. “My stalker? But that makes no sense.”

“No, but it is something we need to consider.”

“I need to come into the office. Can someone come get me?” Emme was silent, and she knew her friend was considering if it was wise. “Please, Emme, if this were Shane you’d want to help.”

A sigh came over the line, and she knew she had her. “Fine, I’ll have Nick swing by and get you.”

“Thanks, Emme.”

Cleo hung up and stood, and struggled to keep standing as she was hit with a bout of dizziness. She should be feeling better by now, but if anything, she felt worse. It must be the worry making her feel ill as she hadn’t eaten for hours, except for the hot chocolate Travis had given her.

Cleo shook it off as best she could and headed to the shower, feeling more optimistic. Mason would fight to keep safe until the team found him, she knew he would and when he got free, she was locking them on a deserted island together for a month.

Finding some clean underwear, she pulled on the ones Mason had chosen for her in what seemed a lifetime ago but was in fact only days and chose a cream, floral pencil skirt and pale green sleeveless blouse. She slid her feet into nude pumps and straightened her hair, wanting her game face on for this battle.

She heard the front door open and knew it was Travis. She wondered if he’d been gone all night. She’d slept hard for those few hours. A bomb could have gone off and she probably wouldn’t have heard it. Had he been working with the team to find Mason? More noises came from outside her door. Her belly dipped, not wanting to see him. He would protest her going she knew it. She didn’t want to argue with him or upset him when he was as worried about his friend as she was, but she wasn’t a child to be told what to do either.

Pushing back her shoulders and taking one last look in the mirror, she walked from the bedroom. Travis was at the kitchen counter making a coffee.

He looked up, and his eyes trailed down, noting her outfit. “Going somewhere?”

“Yes, into the office. I can’t just sit around and wait for them to find Mason. I have to help.” She appealed to his can-do need to help too.

He put down the cup he was holding and walked closer to her. “Um, see, that isn’t going to work for me.”

He reached out and gently tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and she felt a shiver go through her. Something felt off. She remembered the uneasy feeling she’d had when she’d first seen him, and took a step back, putting on a confident face. She turned to grab her bag when a hand to her shoulder shoved her to her knees. The shock made her startle as she moved to push up, but he was stronger. His touch turning painful.

“Stupid bitch, did you think I would let you leave?”

Cleo felt fear crawl over her skin at the change in the man before her. He wasn’t a friend, rather the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. A look of intense hatred rippled from his eyes into her and Cleo knew she was looking into the eyes of the man who would kill her.

Her breath froze in her lungs as she tried to make sense of everything she was seeing. The handsome, friendly, enigmatic man she had met had turned into a cold, deadly killer filled with hate. Her mind whirred trying to understand what it was that she had done to elicit such a response from him.

Held on her knees, the hard floor beneath her biting into her skin, she looked up at Travis. “I don’t understand.”

“Of course, you don’t. You could never understand the connection Mason and I have.”

Her eyes snapped to him. “Mason? You know where he is?”

Travis grasped her hair, dragging her to her feet as she gripped his wrist to ease the burn in her scalp. “You don’t speak his name.”

The growl was low and threatening, and Cleo felt the terror spill through her veins unchecked as he hustled her to the bathroom door. Her heart was in her throat with fear, but she couldn’t stop the need for the questions in her brain to get the answers they craved. “Why are you doing this?”

Travis looked down at her and cocked his head, his eyes going almost soft for a second. “Because it is the only way he can love me. With you in the way, he’ll never admit what we have, what we can be together if he acknowledges how he feels.”