DANGEROUS OBSESSION

1

LAUREN MOSS

What have I done?

"You didn't do this, Lauren..." says Miriam on the phone as I stare at the blood-stained floor, realizing that I've just shot someone.

And who?

A criminal, as far as I know to be exact.

"I did..." I whisper, with my hand trembling as the phone slips from my fingers and falls onto the cold, gray floor. I crouch down in panic, stunned, placing my hand in front of his nose, trying to feel his breath, while Miriam's unmistakable screams from the other side of the line echo loudly.

"What was that noise, Lauren?" I hear her ask, and I lift my gaze, listening too. That's when my eyes lock onto him, his undeniably powerful and attractive presence entering my field of vision.

It's him.

My heart races, my stomach freezes, and the fear that moments ago made me pale now heats my entire body. I feel my blood run through my veins at a maddening speed, and my heart threatens to break through my chest with how hard it beats.

"Blake..." I murmur, almost in a whisper, magnetised by the powerful aura he exudes when our eyes meet for mere milliseconds.

I messed up!

Well...

I'm Lauren, and as you can see, I made a huge mistake. And lately, this has been happening quite often.

How did I end up in a situation where I clearly wasn't supposed to be, you ask?

Hard to explain, because, to be honest, I shouldn't have been in this story from the very beginning.

Dear God, what was I thinking?

Do you want to know where I am?

I am currently undercover on a secret FBI mission.

I know, I know... I'm crazy—but only sometimes!

And how did I end up here?

Maybe there is an explanation, and that explanation has a name:

Blake Wray.

I saw him only once in my life before now, and he has never left my mind. Mine, and everyone else's who saw him at that charity event my father hosted last time.

It was a huge event, of course. All the wealthy, globally recognized individuals were there. At the beautiful charity event organized by my family.

Which I hate participating in, because the event is boring. If it's supposed to be for charity, then why make a whole ceremony with an auction just to show off who has the most money?

They should simply donate.

The auction, of course, is necessary to raise a good amount of money for the institutions receiving the donations—but they don't care about charity, nor do they even think about those institutions.

The goal isn't to donate—it's to show power. Everything is about power.

You get me?

And I don't like it. I don't like my mother, my sister, or even my father pushing me towards any man at these events.

In fact, I think they do that because they actually want to get rid of me, that's it.

But I'm the youngest of three siblings—shouldn't it be the opposite?

I have two older brothers and an older sister. All three are exactly what my parents always wanted. According to them, I should be more like my siblings.

Eight billion people on planet Earth, and my dear parents want me to be just like the children they disgustingly molded. I know my mother was practically a baby-making machine, but she didn't give birth to a robot who will do whatever insane thing she was programming to.

I don't intend to be like any of them. Not here, not in China. Anyways...

Blake Wray.

When he walked into that ballroom, his presence captured the eyes of absolutely everyone there.

He exudes power.

So much so that no one, absolutely no one, remained indifferent to his presence. Not even my hard to impress father.

His eyes are blue, his hair black. His slender body, highlighted by the tailored tuxedo, made married women want to commit adultery. Simply the most perfect man anyone had ever seen in their lives.

No exaggeration at all.

Handsome men are what I've seen the most in my short life. Very handsome, in fact.

But him...

He is like the personification of perfection; he is so stupidly beautiful and attractive that it borders on absurd.

His physique, his appearance, his way of speaking, walking... everything exudes perfection, attraction, and even sin.

It felt like a sin to even look at him.

No exaggeration, though I wish it was.

Because I kept all my thoughts to myself; none of this came out of my mouth. But from the women who were there, yes.

He didn't stay long, but in that short time I discovered the weak point of everyone present that night, everyone, including the powerful and often disgusting elderly men who apparently aren't impressed by anyone or anything.

They didn't react that way just because of their daughters or the idea of having him as a son- in-law, but for some other reason that messed with my head, that intrigued me tremendously, and led me to where I am now.

Even my mother didn't bother trying to push me towards him, as she always does with any man at these events; this time, she went straight for my beautiful sister.

After all, the best things are for her beloved daughter, aren't they?

Continuing...

I also found out that at that event, he donated more than seventy percent of everything that was raised, and hundreds of millions were collected just from the auction.

In other words, a lot, but a lot of money.

And all of that coming from a man who is only twenty-seven years old.

This event gathers billionaires who donate just to show off. But him?

He added seventy percent of everything they'd raised and simply vanished.

And where did all this lead me?

To the brink of madness!

That is exactly why I'm in this mess I've gotten myself into.

I didn't talk to him.

I didn't even get close to him that night, and I doubt he even looked at me or has any idea that I, a humble mortal, exist.

But he didn't leave my mind.

I wanted to play detective, and ever since then, my curiosity has been screwing me over like never before.

Think with me, the way I thought: an extremely powerful man, absurdly attractive, with the potential of being a possible billionaire...

And I had never heard of him?

Impossible.

Even though I couldn't care less about these things, my family does. And surely, I would've heard something about him.

So what did I do that day, right after the chemistry of my brain suddenly shifted?

I got home and tried to collect information about him. But, as I said, in this family I only matter when it's convenient, so I had to resort to searching for him online.

Because, let's be honest, with all those attributes we mentioned above, he should definitely be on the internet.

The internet has everything!

That's what I thought.

I searched, and nothing, absolutely nothing, about him appeared.

A mystery, and a big one.

That charity event shows up everywhere, in every headline. With the amount he donated, his name should have appeared in at least one of those articles. But no, absolutely no trace of a human being like him anywhere on the internet.

A challenge. A mystery.

I've always found mysteries exciting, but this one was so much more exciting that, before I realised it, I was on another side of the internet—the dark and dangerous side—searching for a man who doesn't even know I exist.

That was the mistake!

I had never even left my house to know my neighbor, and from one day to the next, without realizing it, I was literally with an entire board set up, trying to find the blessed and mysterious Blake Wray on the internet.

Who, in the twenty-first century, doesn't have a single social media account?

And even more... someone like him?

That's when I discovered a tiny detail—tiny but big enough. He had some sort of connection to the FBI.

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Up to that point, the mess was mild. It wasn't even a real mess yet.

I was calm. I had decided to mind my own business after that little discovery. After all, why on earth was I killing myself like that to find one person?

Where did such determination even come from?

I relaxed.

Or I thought I had relaxed, because when I came back to my senses again, I had simply signed up for something from the FBI.

How exactly?

I have no idea. Because, looking now at this bloodied man on the floor, I can't even

remember properly how all of this happened.

I signed up, and I simply received an email saying I would participate in a training.

Training for what and for what purpose?

I had no idea.

I had no notion of what I was doing.

Mistake after mistake.

But let me finish telling you this so you can better understand the situation I've gotten myself into.

Everything happened strangely and extremely fast, and guess what? No one except Miriam, my best friend, knows about the mess I'm in.

The next day, a bulletproof car, completely dark, stopped near the university. And when I realized it, I had been shoved inside it.

Kidnapped?

That's what I thought.

But no.

Where was I being taken?

Nothing more, nothing less, than to the FBI training base.

And guess what?

It hasn't even been twenty-four hours since I've been here, and look where I ended up, and what kind of s**t I got myself into.

I can't even explain what's happening. If you can tell me from where you are, I'd appreciate it.

But I arrived at the base, and in the middle of my fascination, and my questioning of how the hell I ended up there, I simply got lost in the immensity of it all.

Till I heard his name, and without thinking twice, I approached where they were talking. And that's how I discovered that he was going to participate in an important mission.

And what did I do?

I listened to the voice in my head that always makes me mess things up.

I decided, in my brilliant genius mind, that I could simply infiltrate an FBI mission, a mission belonging to an organization that deals with the biggest and most dangerous criminals, criminals who want to destroy the world. And now...

I ended up and am in the middle of nowhere...

And I think I just killed someone.