Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 39

Defending Me.

Conner

I used to think I’d seen everything. War zones. Cartel compounds. Bratva torture dens. But none of that prepared me for watching her in action. Sage moved like smoke and shadows, silent, surgical, without a single wasted breath. She didn’t flinch as we breached the outer wall of the compound. One round from her suppressed rifle dropped the first guard before his brain could register the threat. The second went down without so much as a grunt. I was good. Trained. Efficient. She was… inevitable. We slipped through a broken utility tunnel, darkness curling around us. I had my weapon raised, my heartbeat steady, but my eyes kept tracking her instead of the threat. She tapped her comms twice, signal clear. Then gave me a hand motion. Three guards. Two left, one right. By the time I adjusted my stance, she’d already moved. She went low, slicing around the corner and taking the right side. I heard the crunch of a nose breaking, followed by the gurgle of someone trying to breathe through a collapsed windpipe. Two silenced rounds spat out in rapid succession. I cleared my half just as fast, but I knew I was racing a shadow I’d never catch. We dragged the bodies into a storage closet and moved on. As we reached the top floor, Sage crouched at the door to Mirov’s suite, quickly hacking into the locking mechanism like it was a child’s puzzle.

“You’re terrifying, you know that?” I muttered under my breath.

She glanced up, her smirk quick and unrepentant. “You falling for me?”

I didn’t deny it. Click.The door opened. She moved first, her gun drawn, angles already mapped in that haunted mind of hers. I followed, sweeping the room. The suite was quiet, too quiet. Mirov wasn’t here yet.

“Clear,” she whispered. She didn’t relax. Not for a second. She scanned the walls, noting hidden panels, pressure sensors, exits. A trap, maybe. She liked traps. Said they made things interesting and gods help me, I was so fucking in awe of her. Not because she was beautiful. Not because she was dangerous. But because she never hesitated. This was her battlefield and I got to be by her side. I took one step too far. Just one. The tile beneath my foot gave way with the softest of clicks. I barely heard it over the quiet hum of electricity in the walls, but Sage did. Her head snapped toward me, eyes wide, not with fear.

With calculation.

“Conner, don’t!” Too late. Steel rods slammed up from the floor around me, boxing me in with brutal force. I stumbled back just as the final wall locked into place behind me. It was a reinforced cage, built into the floor, the bars buzzing with a low, deadly current. Electric. Reinforced. A trap. Goddamn it.

My radio flared to life, Nico’s voice distant and staticky. “Sage, Conner’s vitals just spiked. What the hell happened?”

“Trap,” she barked, her gaze locked on the door behind me. “They knew we were coming.” I tried the bars. No give. My weapon clattered to the floor, useless in here. I reached for my belt, but she was already moving.

“No,” she snapped. “Stay still. You’re grounded. One wrong move and you’ll fry yourself.” The lights above us flared red. Then the doors opened. Men poured in. Eight. No…ten. More. Full tactical gear, balaclavas, armored plates. They moved with military precision, weapons raised, and their eyes locked on her. I opened my mouth, but Sage was already gone. Not literally. But she moved so fast it felt like my eyes couldn’t track her. The first three dropped before they even realized she wasn’t where they thought she’d be. One bullet. Two. A knife to the third. Their bodies crumpled like puppets with cut strings. She spun low, using the couch as cover, Rolled. Fired again. Headshot. Headshot. Knee. Then the throat. Blood sprayed the walls in brutal arcs, but Sage didn’t stop. She was a force, feral and fluid, like a predator with nothing left to prove. They started panicking. I saw it in their movements, jerky, erratic. One went to throw a flashbang. She caught it midair and threw it back. The explosion rocked the room, deafening even from behind the bars. Smoke filled the suite, but I could still see her. She emerged like a wraith. One of the last men managed to get close, too close, I shouted her name. She ducked under his strike, caught his wrist, and twisted until I heard bones snap through the haze. She took his knife, used it without hesitation, then kicked him square in the chest hard enough to send him flying. All while keeping herself between me and every single goddamn gun. I pressed my hands against the bars, useless. Caged. Furious. But I wasn’t afraid. Because I’d never seen anyone fight like her. Not in all my years in this world. She stood alone in the aftermath, bloodied, breathing hard, but standing. Surrounded by the bodies of trained killers like they were nothing more than a warmup. The last man choked on the floor behind her. Sage wiped blood from her cheek with the back of her hand and turned to me. Calm. Controlled. Her chest rising and falling with precise rhythm.

“You okay in there, darling?” she asked.

I stared at her, unable to speak for a second. She just saved my life. Again. But more than that… she didn’t hesitate. Didn’t flinch. Not even for me.

“I think I’m in love,” I finally muttered.

She grinned, brushing a smear of blood off her jaw with the back of her hand. “Geeze, I hope it’s me and not one of these guys I just killed or this might get

awkward.”

I gave a short laugh, more exhale than anything, and leaned my forehead against the humming bars. “Definitely you. I’m not into bloodied mercs unless they’re five-foot-five and capable of tactical dismemberment.”

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8:07 pm P P DD PPOO

Defending Me.

“Aw, you flirt.” She crouched near the base of the bars, scanning the setup with narrowed eyes. Her humor faded as her brain kicked in fully. “This cage is old-world tech, reinforced with new wiring. Probably wired into the building’s own defense grid. I’ve seen shit like this before. Reinforced poly-steel with an alternating electric current,” she muttered, eyes scanning every angle. “Of course. Mirov doesn’t do half measures.”

“Can you kill the current?” I asked. She tilted her head, already assessing the room like she was calculating blood and circuitry at the same time.

“Eventually. But they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of building this if it was that easy to break into.” Her eyes flicked back to me. “You good for a few more minutes?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

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3:07 pm PPD D.

Her Obsession.