Page 81 of Total Obsession

"Axe, seriously, is everything okay?" I asked.

"Are we really going to start with this again?" he replied, and I winced.

"I'm just worried about you, that's all. You don't seem at all like yourself."

"Work is just stressful, Zoey," he said.

"Okay," I replied slowly. "Is there some way that I can help?"

He laughed into the phone, and that made me really angry. "Thanks, but no."

"Fine," I replied.

We both sat in silence on the line for several awkward moments. Finally, I heard him breathe out a heavy sigh.

"Look, I'm sorry for how I've been treating you," he replied.

My heart swelled at his words, and I felt my anger fade.

"It's okay," I replied back immediately.

"No, but it's not. I've been taking things out on you, and that's not fair to you."

"Well, I appreciate you acknowledging that," I said. "I really wish there was something that I could do to help you."

"I know," he said. "And I appreciate that you want to help. I do."

"Are they going to keep you traveling forever?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I just have one last thing left to take care of. Then I'll be back."

"Okay," I replied. "I can't wait to see you."

* * *

AXE

I hung up the phone with Zoey and wanted to scream. I knew that I was losing it. My heart just wasn't in anything anymore. I was paranoid, unable to sleep, and completely on edge.

Will and I had set the meeting up between Primo and Beau for this evening. I'd been in the city the entire time. It had been weeks of keeping a low profile, monitoring their messages back and forth that Will was feeding to me until finally, we pulled the trigger and spoofed their numbers.

They'd fallen for the bait and were set to meet one another at a safe house just outside of Boston. I already had hired guns ready to take them both out. The plan was to stage it afterward to make it look like they'd killed each other. That way there were no missing person alerts or usual suspects.

I did not need more heat on me after what had happened in Miami. Thankfully, my name still hadn't cropped up in any of the police reports or interrogation transcripts. Will had been checking for me.

Through all of this, the one person that had been actually concerned for me was Zoey. I could hear the strain in her voice when I called her on the phone. She was worried and sad, and I found myself feeling an incredible sense of guilt over what I'd been planning to do to her over the last...well, decade.

This villain that I'd crafted in my head had turned out to be false. She was actually a kind, caring, and loving person. Yes, I was angry over what she'd done to me in high school, but my conscience started coming at me with all sorts of irritating questions.

She'd hurt me, but did that really justify ruining her entire life?

Was she really the one that had actually ruined my life in the first place, or was that actually my father?

Was she just a 14-year-old girl at the time that had done a bad thing because she didn't know any better?

Had she proven that she regretted her actions?

It was that last question that really had me turning everything I thought I knew upside down. Most people begged for their own lives and claimed they wouldn't repeat their past transgressions, but the reality was that, when given the opportunity to do it all over again, they would display the exact same behavior.