Cruel Intoxication (Underground Kings 4)

“What the hell is this?” Jaxon steals the file away and flips it open again. “What the fuck, Howard? Are you saying that this guy could be the guy who killed Owen’s wife and child and kidnapped and abused Jolie? Is that what you’re are insinuating?”

“I don’t know for certain. He could have done his research, but going with my gut? Yes, it is the same guy. He is baiting you with what he’s done. He’s replaced Jolie with someone else, but he hasn’t shown, what he considers, his work before. It’s coincidence that the objects of his obsession are now in the same vicinity.”

“He hasn’t come up for air when it comes to me since he killed Annabeth. I haven’t been able to find him, and you’re telling me…” I choke up a bit when the rage becomes too much. “You’re telling me he has been near me, somewhere in the woods, this entire time, torturing innocent women? And what… Jolie is with me and he is what … triggered? He is fucking triggered!” I slam my fist on the counter so hard that a crack forms in the expensive marble. “What, he waited for me to move on? Are you fucking kidding me? Has he been watching me this entire time, and I haven’t known?” I look at Howard, then Jaxon, Sebastian, Grayson, and all of them have that look on their face.

The look that says more than what words can.

“Fucking perfect.” I turn around and see Jolie glancing at the picture of the woman who’s replaced her hell. I gather her in my arms and hold her close. “Don’t think for a second that this is your fault. It isn’t, you hear me?”

“If I wouldn’t have left, she wouldn’t have been there,” her words are muddled against my chest.

I pull away and cup her face, staring directly into her eyes. “And you would have died, and he would have found a new woman to take anyway. This is not your fault. We will find him. We will comb every fucking inch of these woods until we find him. And I swear to you, I swear, Jolie, this time, I will kill him.”

“Can you not say that around me?” Officer Howard says in exasperation.

“Just pretend you didn’t hear it like you do all the other times.” Heaven stuffs his mouth with an apple cinnamon muffin.

Jaxon smacks him on the head. “You can’t say shit like that without Zeke around.”

“Where is that annoying lawyer anyway?” Howard asks, helping himself to a cup of coffee.

“Doing things you don’t want to know about,” Heaven says, which earns him another slap from Jaxon. “Ow. Will you stop hitting me? I’m not doing anything. Howard is on our side no matter how much breaking the law twists his underpants.”

Jaxon lifts his hand again to hit Heaven, and Heaven dodges out of the way.

“He’s right,” Howard shrugs.

“Can we get back to the fucking point?” I grump, holding Jolie as our worst nightmares crash together in an unbelievable wreck. “What do we do?”

Everyone in the room is silent.

“You don’t know?” I scoff and lick my lips, pressing them together before I do something I’ll regret.

Like punch Howard in the face.

“All we can do is be on the lookout right now. There are no fingerprints, no return address, nothing. We don’t know how to track him. The best way is to lure him, I think,” Howard suggests the most stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.

“Bait him … that’s your suggestion? That’s your suggestion!” I shout at him, and Quinn groans, holding her stomach as a baby kicks her again. I need to calm down. The stress isn’t good for Quinn or Jolie. “No,” I say. “I’m not putting Jolie in harm’s way again. You can fucking forget it. The way he wants to get to me is her, just like he did with my wife. He’s always going to try to take away my happiness whenever I find it. I won’t let him hurt her. You can forget it.”

“We don’t have to talk about it now—”

“No, Howard, you don’t get it. There will be no talking about it ever because no one is going to risk their life. No one. It isn’t going to happen.”

“Owen, maybe we should talk about it,” Jolie says out of the blue. “He needs to be stopped. That innocent girl doesn’t deserve this punishment. Look at her.” Jolie grabs a picture and holds it in the air so I can see the full view. The girl reminds me so much of Jolie. She’s bound to a bed, crying, gagged, bruises all over her body along with cuts and dried blood. Her eyes are screaming for help, but how without putting Jolie in danger?

Without putting everyone here in danger?

“Jolie, he wants you to get to me now.”

“He wanted me before I had a connection with you.” Jolie places her hand on my cheek, and I lean into it, laying my own hand against hers. I want to lose myself in her touch and forget this day ever happened. I want us to lay in bed for hours and kiss until we fall asleep again because we literally kissed ourselves to sleep. “He’ll want me again if I offer—”

“No, we aren’t talking about this. No. The answer is no.” I turn around and slam each folder closed and then shove them onto Howard’s chest. “Get out.”

“Owen, you can’t be serious,” Jaxon says. “He’s here to help. He’s here to warn us. This is a bigger deal than what you’re making of it.”

“What I am making of it? What I am…” I place my hands on my hips and suck my tongue over my teeth as I try, in some capacity, to not flip the fuck out. “You don’t think I know this is a big deal? You don’t think this scares the hell out of me? I don’t even know this man and he has haunted me for twenty fucking years and finally, finally!” I hit the counter again and then point a finger at him. “Finally, I wake up after being asleep for a quarter of my life, and he’s back? I finally find love again, and he wants to take it from me? He wants to bait us, torment us, with fucking pictures? He wants Jolie again. He wants me to fall asleep. Again. Don’t you fucking dare sit there and tell me I’m not taking this seriously. I’m scared out of my mind! Again! So fuck you for thinking I’m not taking this seriously. I’m being thrust back into my past, and I’m still where I was twenty years ago. We don’t know what to fucking do.” I swing my arm over the counter and send the muffins flying just as Heaven goes to reach for one.

“I was eating those,” Heaven grumbles.