His Dark Obsession

Chapter 50: Evil Befalls

Ian and Tara returned to their New York apartment in the dead of the night. Ian had suggested that they arrive late in the hope that if their building was being watched, detecting their arrival would be difficult at night time.
The weekend had been beyond blissful for Tara. Their date at the beach had been truly amazing. She felt like she ought to tell Ian that she was falling in love with him, truly falling in love. He was the kind of man every woman dreamed of being with; the kind of generous, understanding and caring person, who didn't feel like less of a man by uplifting his woman. In fact, Ian had been a firm supporter of Tara's even when she was with Jake and after they got together, his affection and concern for her had only grown. The way he was with her, and the way they talked -- Tara hadn't experienced a connection this astounding before. Tara knew she had lucked out. This was what she had always been looking for, this was what had been absent from her previous relationships, this was how she had wished Jake could have been with her. She hadn't realized the importance of any of this so fully till she had it with Ian.
In her past relationships, she had felt like she deserved less than the man she was with. She had given more of her time and demanded less of theirs, she had been emotionally more available and required very less sentimentality from the men she had been with. She had always given too much of herself and had never been reciprocated in equality - until now, until Ian Blaine. He was a man who had every reason in the world to be vain, to be commanding, to be selfish, to be self-involved -- and he was not. Instead, he lifted her up, supported her, gave her his time, attention, devotion, protection...and she wished to have his love. She wished so badly that he say it to her. She wanted to say it to him. She didn't even want to wait for him to say it first.
"Tired?!" Ian's husky voice startled Tara and a smile touched her lips as she continued stripping out of her jeans and top.
"Not really. Actually I am quite happy. I haven't felt this happy and fulfilled in a very long time. Feels like...I am floating on a cloud!"
Ian looked at her with what she hoped was 'love' in his eyes, "Really?! May I know the reason that has you feeling so uplifted?!"
"You, you are the reason." Tara let him know in the softest of tones.
"Me?" Ian looked happily astonished.
"Yes." And as if those magnetic, hypnotic eyes of his were coaxing truth out of her, Tara continued her honest admission unabashedly, "Ian, you give me confidence. I don't have to be anything but myself with you. You make me feel like I don't fall short...ever! Whatever relationships I have had in the past, I was always nervous, always not completely myself, always trying to fit into the idea of what the other person thought Tara Jones was. And you, you see through me, to the real me and you accept me. You take care of me, you protect me. You don't know how much this means to me, how much you mean to me."
Ian brought his hand to the side of Tara's face. "The moment I saw you, I knew I was never going to be the same. Some people spend their entire lives searching for that one person that they can call their everything. I am glad my search didn't take that long." And with that Ian captured Tara's mouth in his. It was a union of two souls in one as their bodies pressed close to one another in hunger, lust and wonder. They explored and devoured each other to quench their insatiable desire, and made rapturous, beautiful love.

On the day after their return from Long Island, Tara and Ian met with Detective Kelly at the precinct. As Ian and the detective conversed, Tara expectantly looked upon him in hopes of hearing some good news about the Brooklyn residence.
"Ian, the investigation has hit a dead end. The house in Brooklyn belongs to a Chinese family with two little kids. The man dealt stocks in China for Jake."
"He got shit scared when the cops showed up...got an asthma attack just talking about the work he did for Jake! Poor sucker thought we were going to arrest him for a fraudulent stock scheme he was a part of some years ago. Anyway, we have checked his alibi and it's iron-clad. He's not our guy."
"Fuck!" Ian blurted out in frustration.
"Yeah, fuck's right! I thought this was going to be an open and shut thing, and I had my money on you, Blaine, but instead, I am going through Jake Cada's past, his family, his friends trying to figure out who could have possibly had a motive to kill him!" Kelly's exasperation was evident as he ran his hand through his hair.
"What about people who are our business rivals?" Ian inquired.
"They have all been checked out..." Kelly informed Ian, "the idea of a hired contract killer seems more and more appealing right now!"
"Doesn't that make everybody a suspect?"
"Yes, Miss Jones. It does. And here I am sitting with two possible suspects delving in sensitive information, I am that fucked right now!"
Tara almost felt sorry for Kelly. The killer had been immaculate up till now. Never leaving a single clue behind. He had everybody stumped. She wished the killer would make one more attempt like the previous one, where he had tried to leave evidence at their apartment door, and she wished that this time, he get caught. This game of cat and mouse had gone on long enough. He was bound to make a sometime, and when he did, she wanted him behind bars.
Ian and Tara left the police station soon after their conversation with Kelly. As they were heading for their car in the lot, Ian paused Tara midstep by putting his arm on her hand. "Tara, is everything alright? You seem a little upset."
"Just this whole thing! The police don't have any leads and the killer's been roaming around free, terrorizing and threatening us! I want him caught, Ian. I want him to rot in jail for the rest of his life!"
Ian took Tara in his arms, "I know all this is insane, but know that I am by your side and you are safe with me. I won't let anything happen to you!"
They held on to each other for a long time before they walked towards their car and got in.
Ian drove through the streets of Manhattan at blazing speed and detoured to the parking garage at his office. "I need to grab some papers from my desk. I will be back in five!"
"Ok." Tara saw Ian walk off to an elevator in the lot. The elevator opened and Ian stepped in. He turned around and their eyes met briefly, Ian winked at Tara and gave her an endearing smile and the elevator door closed.
Tara sighed and began to rummage through her hand bag looking for her phone. She wanted to call her mother to let her know that they had reached back safely. She hadn't been able to make the call yesterday due to the late hour. Tara was about to dial her mother's number when an ear-splitting noise of cracking glass pushed her towards the driver's seat; shards of glass bumped across her face, body and hands. Some of the shards cut at her skin and her face hurt as she tried to open her green eyes to see out of the car window. Her heart pounded wildly. For a second she thought that a car had crashed into their's but then she saw the eyes outside of the broken window, looking in. Ian had said they were amber and he had been correct. The killer's hand reached inside the car, unlocked the door and pushed it open. He got hold of one of Tara's legs and pulled hard.
Tara screamed as loud as her lungs would allow, "Noooo!"
He used his other hand on Tara's other leg. He pulled at her painfully, insistently as his fingers dug into her flesh. "Noooo, please!"
Tara screamed, "Ian, help, Ian! Anybody!"
Nobody came. Tara held on to the steering wheel with all her might and even honked the horn but the lot was completely empty. She could have screamed all she wanted but nobody was going to come to rescue her. The pulling at her legs became violent as the killer retrieved a knife from his pocket and began to cut at her flesh so that she would stop struggling but Tara still kicked and screamed harder.
The killer left Tara's legs alone and jumped inside the car, on top of her. And before Tara could do anything, her mouth was covered with a cloth soaked in cholorofoam. She desperately tried to not breath in the fumes but the cloth was shoved deep into her mouth and it muffled her screams. The last thing Tara saw, before completely losing consciousness, was the triumph in those evil, demonic amber eyes.

When Tara woke up again, it was somewhere in a dark, dusty room, lit by a tiny bulb hanging from the celing with a wire. It looked like the basement of a house because there was a solitary hopper window at a far-off corner which was ill-concealed with torn newspaper. Tara's hands and legs were tied to a chair and here mouth was gagged with a tight piece of cloth, tied in a knot at the back of her head. Her head throbbed with the after effects of all the chlorofoam she had inhaled and her vision was hazy. She blinked her eyes several times to try to bring the room around her into focus. In a corner of the room, there were wooden stairs going up, some broken pieces of furniture were also scattered about and there was a single wrought iron bed close to her chair. Tara tried to make a sound but the cries were muffled against the tight gag. She struggled to wriggle her arms and legs out of the knots but they were too tight. Tara gave up struggling altogether, and hung her head low in defeat.
The door upstairs opened and the light travelled down the stairs to the base of them. Tara saw a silhouette before she saw the person; the shadow below the stairs was of someone climbing down in pants and a shirt. The person finally landed on the last step. And Tara's eyes bulged out of her sockets in horror.
The amber eyes and the blonde hair - she had seen this woman before. The woman came to Tara, expressionless, and untied the gag at her mouth.
"You!...You came into my shop. You wanted to buy flowers for your sister's baby...did you kill Jake? Why? Why?!"
The woman didn't say anything. She had brought along with her a tray of food and she put the spoon up to Tara's mouth and said in a menacing tone, "eat."
She shoved the spoon into Tara's mouth and Tara spit the food out. "Why are you doing all this? Who are you? What the hell do you want from me?!" Tara yelled.
The woman didn't try to feed her again. Instead, she put the gag back over Tara's mouth, picked up the tray and quietly started climbing up the stairs, leaving Tara in isolation again.