Beware of Me (Dark Obsession 4)

“But who better to watch my ass? And yours? Especially with trouble closing in around you. Besides…” He rolled back his shoulders. “I think Charles is softening toward me. He’d better watch it, or the guy may even start to like me.”

“He’s FBI…” And they’d just talked about disposing of a body while the guy had been driving the car. To think, Ethan had once been worried about listening devices at her place. Now he didn’t seem to care at all what the FBI learned. What is happening here?

“Don’t worry,” Ethan assured her. “I’ve got this covered.”

She doubted it.

Ethan’s hand lifted and his knuckles skimmed over her jaw. “You know, we could walk away right now. Me and you. I could make us both vanish. We could go to some tropical island. Get naked. And let the rest of the world fall away.”

He wasn’t serious. Wait, was he? Because that offer sounded pretty good to her. With her body aching and fear still surrounding her like a cloak, the idea of going someplace else, of just slipping away, it sure sounded like a prime option. Too tempting.

Ethan bent toward her. “We can do it,” he said. “Just say the word.”

Instead of speaking, she pushed up on her toes and her lips pressed to his. It was a quick kiss. Hot and fast. “Thank you for saving me at Reflections.”

He blinked. His golden eyes seemed to smolder.

“I didn’t miss that whole protecting-me-with-your-body routine,” she said softly and then she kissed him again. “But how about you don’t do that again? Because I rather like it when you’re alive and safe, too.”

He licked her lower lip. “Can’t make a promise like that. I’d take any damn wound, for you.”

That scared her. Parts of Ethan—he could scare her straight to her soul. “And don’t attack again,” she said.

He stilled.

“The way you went after Curtis…it was like something had switched off inside of you.” For an instant, he’d lost control. She knew it. An uncontrolled Ethan was a dangerous thing.

“I thought he’d tried to kill you.” His voice roughened as he added, “And when I stared in his eyes, for just a minute, I was back in that shitty room, looking up at Quincy and waiting for the SOB to kill me. It all came back to me. The hate, the fear, the rage. Something…shit, you’re right, something snapped in me.” His forehead pressed to hers. “Because I could never stand it if someone hurt you that way again. It fucking gutted us both before.”

Yes, it had.

But they were different now. Stronger. They’d survived the fire. Survived hell. They could do it again.

“I don’t trust Curtis,” Ethan said. “Not for an instant, and I’m hoping like hell that Charles and his FBI buddies are tearing apart Curtis’s life right now. Because I’m not the only one with skeletons hiding in my closet.”

No, she didn’t think that he was. She knew now—thanks to bitter, painful experience—that everyone carried around skeletons. Some folks were just better at hiding them.

Worry still pushed at her. “Is it even safe to have this conversation out here?” He’d been so worried about bugs before—

“I’m handling the FBI.”

She really wanted to know more. But that more could happen inside her place, not in the hallway. Her closest neighbor was gone, but other folks were still nearby. She pushed open the door to her place. She flipped on the lights and—

“Help…me…”

Blood was on her floor. Blood and Keith Nelson’s wounded body. He was slumped near her sofa.

“Help…” He gasped once more.

Ethan and Carly ran toward him. But as soon as Keith saw Ethan, he let out a long, horror-filled scream. “No! Stay a-away!”

Ethan just kept going forward. Keith swung at him, fighting hard, but Ethan grabbed his arms and held tightly. “Calm the hell down! I want to help you!” He glanced over at Carly. “Go get Charles. He’ll have backup here faster than either of us will.”

Because help always came faster for the FBI?

She whirled for the door.

“No!” Keith yelled. “Don’t leave me…with him!”

His voice was so desperate that Carly glanced back over her shoulder. Keith appeared utterly terrified. He was thrashing around, twisting and jerking. He was already bleeding so much—Keith had to calm down or his injuries would just be far worse.

“If you leave me…” Keith cried. “He’ll…finish…Kill me…”

“No,” Carly said. “You’re wrong!” Ethan hadn’t been the one to attack Keith.

But Keith was frantic, so wild. Twisting and screaming and mumbling about Ethan killing him.

She stared at him, lost, but in the next moment, Keith collapsed. His eyes sagged closed, and he fell back against the carpet. No more accusations. No more fear.

“Is he dead?” Carly asked. He barely seemed to be breathing.

“Not yet,” Ethan growled. “Go! Get him help!”

She ran as fast as she could. In moments, she was flying out of her building, and, sure enough, Charles was there, waiting near the curb. When he saw her, he immediately leapt forward. “Call for backup!” she yelled at him.

She saw his eyelids flicker. “Back-up?” Charles asked carefully, then shook his head. “You want more of Ethan’s men—”

“I want an ambulance! And if you want the FBI here, get them, too! Keith Nelson is bleeding out on my living room floor!”

He yanked out his phone.

She didn’t

stop to see who he called. She rushed back inside. Keith needed help. The guy had to survive. He’d seen the man who was after her and Ethan. He knew the bomber’s identity.

And despite what Keith had said…the bad guy wasn’t Ethan!

The real attacker was out there. They just had to find him.

She raced back to her room. Her door was still ajar. But when she got inside…

Keith was on the floor. Blood was all around him.

But Ethan—Ethan was gone.

Chapter Eight

“According to Keith Nelson…” Victor said, his voice mild, “he doesn’t remember who attacked him. He doesn’t remember calling you and warning you about the bomb. Hell, the last thing the guy can clearly remember is Ethan Barclay, telling him that if he saw Keith again, then the doc would be getting an ass kicking.”

Carly glanced toward Keith’s hospital room. She’d ridden over with him in the ambulance, and when the doctors had taken him back, she’d waited with Charles.

Charles…who was no longer pretending to be hired muscle for Ethan.

“Is that why he freaked out when he saw Ethan?” Carly asked. “Because he woke up and thought Ethan had kicked his ass?”

Victor shrugged. “Can’t say for sure. It would certainly help matters out if Ethan were here to answer that question for me.”

The suspicion in his voice just made her even angrier. “There’s no way Ethan attacked Keith! Ethan and I were together nearly the whole time and—”

“Why did he vanish, Carly?” Charles asked her softly.

Victor slanted a quick glance his way.

“Why did he abandon you?” Charles pressed. “I thought he actually cared about you. I bought into that act.”

Maybe Ethan was right. Maybe Charles had been softening toward him.

“Then he threw you to the wolves.”

Her spine stiffened. “He knew the FBI was about to swarm. The victim was yelling that Ethan was to blame. Maybe he just didn’t want to get tossed back into interrogation again.”

Charles nodded. “Right. So he abandoned you.”

“No! He didn’t!” She didn’t know what the hell had happened. Going back to her home, seeing that Ethan was gone…it made no sense to her.