OWEN
Sweat pours off my forehead as I push my body as hard as I can.
I need to run off these feelings.
Emotions only get in the way.
Run off the need to think about Emma all the fucking time.
It’s been a few days since she ended up in my trap, since we kissed in a way that felt very different, and it seems like I’ve become unhealthily obsessed with her.
I pause by a tree, trying to catch my breath while I get my head in order.
After all, I shouldn’t just be thinking about Emma all the time.
Not when I know how much trouble it gets me into.
I check my fist, noticing the bruising still there.
No matter what he said about Emma, I shouldn’t have lost my temper with Hudson. I never should have hit him, especially since it would have ended up with us both being arrested.
I wouldn’t have spent long in the drunk tank, though. My NYPD contacts would have gotten me out before things could get out of hand. This is why it’s always good to have people owing me favors.
I just have to make sure I don’t fly off the handle like that again.
At Hudson, or Emma.
But then Emma shouldn’t have tried to escape.
There’s a reason I have her in the ankle monitor and the door that zaps her when she tries to leave. It’s because I want to protect her. She knows that as well, but that doesn’t stop her from acting like a crazy person.
She’s just lucky the moment she got all swept up in that trap, I got a perimeter alert, or who knows how long it would have taken me to find her.
In the morning probably.
Just like Justine.
My head hangs low the moment I think about my first love. My wife, the woman I was supposed to be with forever. I hate thinking about all the bad things that happened to her, but having Emma get in trouble in the middle of the night makes it impossible.
I can’t think of anything else.
I slide down until I’m sitting and pull out my cell phone to watch the one video I’ve managed to save of her. No matter what phone I’ve had over the last decade, this video will always be with me.
Even if it does hurt to open up the video to see Justine’s bright green eyes filling the screen as she steps back, grinning from ear to ear at the screen.
“Owen, I can’t believe you’re leaving me again.” Justine pouts on the screen playfully. “I know you’re being deployed, and it’s your job and everything, but it still sucks.”
I come onto the screen, looking far more youthful and unplagued by life, with my arm snaking around Justine.
“I don’t want to leave you ever.” I lean in and kiss her on the cheek. “But I’ll be back soon, you know I will. I can’t be away from you for too long.”
She grabs my cheeks and kisses me. My heart aches as I see it.
Little did I know then that was the last kiss I would ever get from her. “Come back soon, Owen, my big cuddly bear,” she teases. “Love you.” Fuck.
I don’t know if watching this again was a good idea, but I can’t stop. The video rolls again and again, reminding me of the life I was going to have.
Me and Justine were going to start trying for children as soon as I got back from deployment. We were finally going to move into a bigger home, to have babies, and to really live out our happy ever after.
I couldn’t wait. That was the one thought that would get me through the war. Those dreams, that fantasy, the future that was almost mine… Until I got the dreaded news.
If I think about that, I’m almost back at camp, lying in my little bed, trying to get some sleep.
It was a restless night, and I couldn’t work out why. Usually, every night, we all fell dead asleep because of how busy and active we were during the day. But that night, something was different.
It was almost like there was something in the air.
So being woken up after a fitful sleep by my sergeant, who wasn’t yelling at me for lying in, was weird. It felt surreal, like I was still dreaming.
Only the dream became a nightmare when my sergeant started talking to me.
To this day, I don’t recall the exact words he said to me. It’s almost like my brain has blocked that out… it’s all just a blur.
All I know for sure is that I was very quickly restrained and locked up for my own sake, because I lost the plot. Hearing that Justine was gone, killed in a car accident, that wasn’t something I could handle.
I still haven’t wrapped my head around it fully. I don’t know if I ever will, to be honest. It was just such a shock.
That was the worst day of my life, and it hasn’t been great ever since. Not really.
It killed me.
I went dead inside, and that’s suited me since then.
It’s allowed me to work in the job I do without a care in the world, and to live the lone wolf life. I never planned to fall in love again, my heart is well and truly closed off.
Which only makes this whole mess with Emma even weirder to me.
What am I doing?
I finally manage to shut my phone down, to tuck it away in my pocket so I don’t have to see the video anymore, to be reminded of the past, but I can’t stand just yet.
I need a few more moments to collect myself.
To work out what’s next for me.
If I hadn’t gone to war… if Justine hadn’t been killed in a car accident… I can’t even begin to imagine where my life would be right now.
Let it go Owen.
You need to move on.
Easier said than done.
It would certainly be very different to how it is right now, that’s for sure!
After a while, I get up and run back to the cabin, trying to get my head in order as I do.
But all of that flows out the window the moment I spot Emma, standing at the cabin door with her ankle dangerously close to the edge, as if she’s about to bolt free once more.
I don’t think she’s about to make that mistake again.
She knows now that no matter how far she gets, she isn’t going to fully get away from me. I have traps and plans to keep her in the cabin for as long as I need to.
To keep her safe.
And to give me time to plan out what I’m going to do next.
“Oh, you’re back,” she cries out the moment she spots me, her facial expression hardening. “I thought you might have left me again.” I smirk back.
“If you’re never going to be here, then why don’t you just let me go?”
I pass her at the door and head into the kitchen and make myself a protein shake, ignoring all of her questions.
“I don’t see why you need me here anymore, Owen. Since you won’t tell me exactly why you have me here. I guess your goals aren’t being achieved anyway, so what’s the point?”
I meet her eyes, about to shoot back some silly retort to shut her up, but nothing comes out.
When she’s yelling at me like that, she reminds me way too much of Justine.
The hairstyle, the angry line down her forehead… wow.
She’s lovely, and there’s a real perfection to her.
Knowing that there are men out there in the world who want to hurt her makes me feel sick to my stomach.
How can they be so cruel?
Just because of her family connections… it seems mad.
Mind you, I’m not much better, am I?
I was going to kidnap her and hand her right over to Vinnie, her father’s rival. I was going to be a big part of what happened to her, knowing it wouldn’t be good.
My heart twists.
I pause with the protein shake in my hand.
I’m an asshole too, not good enough for Emma.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?” Emma pouts. “Just give me some answers, God…”
“I’m jumping in the shower,” I snap back. But I’m not angry with Emma. I’m annoyed with myself and just taking it out on her. “You know we will talk about this when the time is right.”
“The time is right?” She rolls her eyes in an overdramatic exaggerated fashion. “You are never going to give me anything, are you?”
I slam the bathroom door behind me, effectively ending the conversation for us, but before I can pull myself together, or even think about the shower, there’s a strange noise in my pocket.
Shit, it’s the cloned phone of Hudson’s, finally paying off.
Without wasting any time, I hit the record button and listen to what’s going on.
“Hudson, that you?”
Hearing the name of the man who has now become my enemy makes me feel sick to my stomach.
“Yeah, it’s me. Rickie? Flynn, can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you.”
Who the hell is Rickie Flynn?
I commit that name to memory for later on.
“I just wanted to get some more info from you, Rickie. Tell me everything you know about Emma O’Connell so I can find her.” I knew it.
I fucking knew it.
Asshole.
“I don’t know anything about her, Hudson. Only that she’s O’Connell’s daughter.”
“And you definitely want her alive? Because I think it’d be easier to get her to you dead.”
“Head on a spike.” This Rickie laughs nastily, making my lip curl up in disgust. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that, as long as I get to keep that tight little body of hers. At least until she starts to smell. I could have a good time… but I guess I need the little bitch alive, you know? Or my plan won’t work out.”
What the fuck is this plan?
I need to know everything.
“Yeah, yeah, I know the plan,” Hudson replies, panicking me. I should have made that bastard tell me everything when I was beating the shit out of him. “I know you need her alive, but she’s gone into hiding.”
“I know, her father is going crazy I hear. She doesn’t want to belong to the Flynn’s, I think that much is obvious. But it’s too late for that. The deal has been made. She’s mine and as soon as I get my hands on her, she’ll know that. Oh, she’ll know all right. I’ll make sure she fucking knows that she needs to bow down to me every time I walk into a room.”
It isn’t easy to hold back the vomit as the red mist of rage overcomes me.
These assholes are scum.
Not the sort of people I want anywhere near Emma.
This shit makes me realize I’ll die protecting her.
“I’m getting close though, so don’t worry, Rickie. I’ll have her to you soon enough. Served on a silver platter.”
“Alive. Even if barely. I don’t give a shit what you do to her to get her to me, just make sure she’s breathing.”
This truly is the most disgusting phone call I have ever overheard in my life. I feel dirty even listening to it, but I do need to carry on hearing it because I’m certain knowledge is power in this situation.
“Right, well I will be in touch soon, Rickie. When I have anything for you, you’ll be the first to know.”
“You know the paycheck will be good for this, Hudson. Don’t let me down.”
As the call ends, I click off the recording, but I know those words will stick with me for a very long time.
Those men cannot get anywhere near Emma, and that is the end of it.