Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 14

The Face Behind The Ghost.

‘FUCK!” I hissed, ducking behind the rusted bedfame as a boot crashed through the cheap hotel room door, splinters of wood flying like shrapnel. My hands flew across my keyboard, fingers dancing on muscle memory alone. Nico’s screen flickered, and I saw his face just as I shifted the feed. His brows drew together in confusion, then alarm, he could hear it. The crash. The scream of gunfire. The rasp of my breathing.

“Ghost?” His voice cracked through the feed, sharp, low, terrified.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. A shadow moved at the door, tall, fast, trained. My mark. He found me. I’d been too careful. Too quiet. I’d tracked him, cornered him. But he doubled back. He fucking doubled back. A blade whipped past my shoulder, embedding itself in the mattress. I slammed my palm against the laptop, pivoting the camera as I rolled out of the way, bringing my knee up hard into his gut as he lunged. The laptop toppled, the camera still catching snippets of the fight. Conner’s voice filtered through, words I couldn’t hear as the fight for my life continued… and he would be seeing this in real time, blurry flashes of bodies, of blood, of me. I couldn’t shut the feed. I didn’t want to. He needed to know. The guy was fast, former spec ops, maybe merc turned contractor, but I was faster. Dittier. I didn’t fight pretty. I fought like I meant it. He drove me back against the wall, forearm at my throat, but I jammed a blade into the side of his knee and twisted. He pulled his own blade, ramming the hilt into my face before I twisted his arm brutally and he dropped it right into my palm. I lunged it into his ribcage. He howled. Collapsed. I didn’t wait. I kicked the side of his head so hard he slumped against the bedpost. Not out. Just dazed.

“Fuck!” I swore again, panting, blood dripping from a cut at my temple. My laptop lay open on the floor, camera skewed, but still connected. Conner’s panicked voice filtered through.

“Ghost! Are you…What the hell is going on?!”

I grabbed the laptop, brought it close so he could see my face.

“They’re coming,” I said, breathless. “This guy? He’s not just my mark. He’s a goddamn test. A warning shot. I’m on a burn list, Conner, and now you are

too.”

His eyes widened. “What…what the fuck are you talking about?!”

I didn’t have time to explain.

“You’re not safe. I thought I could clean this up without dragging you in, but it’s too late. Check the drive I sent. Nico, he’s in the server room, right?”

“Wait…stop!”

“I can’t. I have to finish this. But listen to me, they’re watching you. This isn’t just about me anymore.”

The guy groaned behind me, trying to push himself up.

I lifted the laptop again and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Then I ended the feed.

I turned back to the bleeding man. I had questions. And he was going to give me answers, whether he wanted to or not. But all the while, I couldn’t stop thinking of the way Conner’s voice cracked through the static. Not because he was angry. But because he was scared. Because he still cared. And now I had to survive…for him. Because if I didn’t? They’d kill him just to make a point.

Conner

The smell of burnt coffee grounds hit me first. I sighed, pouring the scorched liquid into a mug anyway. It was too early, too late, too something and sleep hadn’t touched me all night. Not with the Ghost rattling around in my head like a phantom itch I couldn’t reach. She’d gotten under my skin. Hell, she’d stitched herself into it. Her voice. That damn mask. The way her eyes held secrets like they were weapons. I’d spent days trying to piece together the files she sent, files too polished for a random stalker. She knew her shit. Scary well.

“Conner!” Nico’s voice cracked from down the hall, sharp and panicked.

The coffee sloshed over the rim of the mug as I sprinted toward the server room, my stomach dropping before I even crossed the threshold. He was standing in front of one of the big monitors, eyes wide.

1/2

“It’s her,” he said, voice tight. “The Ghost, Live feed.”

I shoved past him, hands bracing the edge of the console.

The screen flickered, static dancing across it, and…chaos. The image was tilted, jostled, but clear enough to see the shitty motel room, a busted door barely hanging on the hinge, and there…A man. A killer. Big. Trained. Blade out. Moving like a predator and her. My Ghost. She was in full motion, rolling across the floor, ducking under a punch that split the plaster on the wall. Her hoodie was torn, her mask gone. Blood at her temple and then I saw her face. Her whole goddamn face. Everything stopped. Time bent around the moment like it knew what I was seeing mattered more than anything else in the world. Her mouth set in a grim line. Her jaw tight. Eyes flashing like live wire. She looked exactly like I imagined, and nothing like I imagined. Real. Beautiful, Bruised and alive. My Ghost.

“Jesus Christ,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if Nico heard. I didn’t care.

She was in trouble.

A knife glinted. She ducked too slow. It caught her shoulder and she went down, laptop tumbling with her, but the feed kept running, showing flashes of limbs, of the fight. Her breath rasped through the mic, harsh and shallow. She fought like a demon. No wasted movements. Brutal. Efficient.

“Do something!” I shouted at Nico.

“What do you want me to do, she’s could be on the other side of the fucking country for all I know, man!”

The screen jolted again, and suddenly her face was back. Close now. Bloody. Wide-eyed. She looked right at me.

“They’re coming,” she said, breathless.

And then she told me about the hit list. About me. About how she’d tried to keep me out of it, and how she’d failed.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice cracking at the edges.

Then the screen went black.

I stood frozen, heart hammering. The taste of ash and bad coffee in the back of my throat. Nico didn’t say anything. Not at first.

Then, quietly: “That wasn’t a hit. That was a fucking warning.”

My hand clenched into a fist.

“Get her location,” I growled.

“She ghosted the signal. She didn’t want us following…”

“I don’t care. Find her. And pull the drive she sent. Everything she was trying to show us, it matters now.”

Nico nodded, already typing, already moving. But me? I just stood there. Staring at the blank screen. Because now I’d seen her. The woman behind the voice. Behind the chaos and she was real. Real and in danger…and apparently so was I.