Brek's Obsession Read online

  Brek’s Obsession

  Rachelle Stevensen

  Copyright © 2020 by Rachelle Stevensen

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Contents

  Brek’s Obsession

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Rachelle Stevensen

  Brek’s Obsession

  Brek McGuire is a small town Sheriff, just living his life and trying to figure out who is responsible for a string of burglaries that has recently plagued their town. One night a call comes in about a break-in in progress. He just expects to do his job and catch the man responsible. But that one call leads him to Sienna. The woman he has searched for his whole life. Will he be able to figure out the puzzle, fall in love and stop the burglar before he escalates into hurting someone? Or will it be too late?

  Sienna Barker lives alone and has for a very long time. When someone tries to break into her house, her past rears its ugly head, but it brings the sexy Sheriff into her life. She falls quickly for him, knowing he is the person she wished would find her. She never expected to have her heart stolen. Sparks fly, but can their love survive the heat as they team up to catch a thief?

  Chapter 1

  Brek

  Going through life with everything handed to you on a silver platter was some people’s definition of a good life. But to Brek, it was boring.

  He had great parents, a lovely home, and a good job. One that he loved and was grateful for.

  He just went through the motions, doing his job, spending time with his friends and seeing his parents. It was the same day after day, feeling as though he's not really living. He had no one special to share his life with. He still never found that spark.

  Growing up in a small town didn’t leave many options for dating. Brek had seen all the women that this town had to offer, and he didn’t want any of it.

  He had dated a little in high school, because his mom set him up on a few. He never went further than a kiss on the cheek, or even a simple, “Have a nice night.” Just to let them down easy, and to avoid making a scene.

  The girls were all the same, and only wanted one thing from him, his bank account. His family had money, coming from old oil money. And everyone in town knew this. It wasn’t a secret.

  Especially since his father was the mayor of their town and had been for many years.

  That in and of itself made the girls flock to him. He didn’t give them the time of day, and most of the girls were not happy about that.

  They just didn’t do anything for him. Though they all had offered. Many had slipped him their numbers over the years, had whispered dirty things in his ears, told him all manner of things they could do to him, and he hated that. Hated knowing that they would do anything to get on his good side. No. Not his good side, to get in his pants. Thinking that would be the quickest way to his money.

  He had saved himself for that reason and several others. But the biggest and most important reason was he wanted to finally feel the spark. To have his body come alive, and so far, not a single woman had made his body react. He never felt anything toward anyone.

  So he threw himself into his job, and volunteer work in town. Anything he could do to keep himself occupied and not dwell on his unhappiness in not finding his one yet.

  In high school, he was the starting pitcher for their baseball team. Many colleges came to scout him, and when he went to college, he also played baseball.

  It helped with his loneliness, with the aching feeling in his chest that only grew with each passing day. But one thing that didn’t help was the girls that threw themselves at him constantly. He didn’t like it in high school, and he didn’t like it now.

  Again, they only saw what he could give them. His father may have lots of money and would have helped pay for his college tuition had he asked, or had he not gotten a scholarship, but he'd gotten there on his own hard work. He, as well as his parents, were proud of his hard work, and not just in baseball. He was also the top of his class and graduated with a bachelor’s in political science. Wanting one day to be like his father.

  He was grateful that his parents were very accepting and let him choose his own path.

  But he wanted to wait until later to follow in his father's footsteps. After college, when he came back home, he still wasn’t happy with his life and he noticed the lack of good policemen in their town. One’s that actually gave a shit.

  Not that there was much to give a shit about, but he still needed to try.

  And it bolstered him. Made him want to change that. So, he did.

  He went to the police academy and graduated at the top of his class once again and with many job offers waiting for him when he left. But he didn’t want just any job. He wanted the job he had worked for. He applied for the police chief’s job here in town, and he had gotten it.

  And that was the end of that. He had been chief of police for two years and he was happy with his job.

  It wasn’t busy all the time. Aside from the normal speeding tickets, or traffic violations, nothing major ever happened in their small town. They did occasionally get noise complaints from some of the older folks or calls from someone needing help to find their lost pet. The citizens always found a reason to call on their police chief and he would do what he could to help.

  But lately, the last few months, they had a string of burglaries that rocked their small town.

  Brek didn’t know what to think, as most of the time no one had known that someone had broken into their house, nor did they realize right away they had been stolen from.

  The burglar was smart. He had a certain M.O. and didn’t deviate. At least so far. He would go into someone’s house right after they left for the day.

  He wouldn’t take big things from their houses, in fact, only took small things. Stuff that would inconvenience the homeowners.

  Brek was always puzzled when he would leave the laptops, the T.V. or the I pads and grab a pot or pan, some towels, or once he took someone’s bed sheets, right off the bed.

  Brek and his deputy, Trace, hadn't known what to think then. And since they were such a small town, they didn’t have a lab to run fingerprints or the equipment for it.

  Not that any fingerprints had been left. It was strange, but he was always very careful, never breaking anything, not even the doorknob.

  He would pick the lock, take inexpensive items and then leave. So far he hadn’t done anything to anyone.

  But with the last break-in with the bed sheets, it seemed more sinister. He had taken it one step further than just taking personal belongings. He had actually ripped the mattress to shreds with what looked like a chainsaw and then left.

  It was such a shock to have it change like that, and so violently, that Brek didn’t understand it. He had gone from mildly inconveniencing someone to completely sinister, and Brek was afraid to see what would happen next.

  And no matter what they tried, each and every lead he and Trace went to find was a dead end.

  They didn’t like the questions. It was really frustrating to them both.

  Brek had met Trace at the police academy and when he applied for the chief position, had asked Trace to sign on as his deputy.

  Trace hadn’t had much going on in life, so he followed Brek to his small town and the two had become best friends.

  Trace was a lot like Brek himself. Aside from the parents. Trace’s parents had been drug addicts and were never in the picture much. He left when he was 18 and never looked back.

  Brek’s parents had pretty much adopted Trace as their own and he was kind to his parents, but still reserved and Brek didn’t know why.

  Brek grinned, thinking of his best friend and how grateful he was for him.

  Trace walked into Brek’s office with a cup of coffee in each of his hands.

  He handed one cup to Brek, which he took with a smile.

  “Thanks.”

  Trace nodded, “You’re welcome. You gonna come with me today to look at the lead we got on the burglaries?”

  Brek shook his head, “I think I'm going to stick around. I have a weird feeling that I'm needed here.”

  Trace raised an eyebrow but didn’t question him.

  Brek couldn’t put his finger on the feeling he had growing in the pit of his stomach.

  They drank their coffee in silence and Trace stood. Putting his hat on his head of dark brown hair.

  “Well, I'll go see about that lead.”

  Brek nodded, “Who called it in this time? Is it a real lead?”

  Trace sighed, “Polly. And you know we have to check out all calls.”

  Brek barked out a laugh. Polly was one of the women in the town desperate to be noticed by
one of the eligible bachelors.

  She was 40, if not a day, but dressed and acted as if she was 18. She always had her hair dyed platinum blonde, had the latest makeup trend on her face and her nails perfectly manicured.

  It helped that she owned the small salon in town to keep her up on the latest trends, but Brek hated going over there mainly because Polly was inappropriate to say the least. One time when Brek was helping her ‘find’ something she assured was stolen, he had turned to find her on the couch with her boobs out.

  He had quickly looked up at the ceiling as soon as he saw what she was trying to do and left without a second glance.

  Trace cursed, “Do I have to go?”

  Brek nodded, trying to hide his smile. He knew without a doubt that Polly would try something with Trace and though it was wrong, they had to see about every possible lead and at this moment, Polly was the only one who had one.

  She wasn’t picky about who she came onto, or who she slept with.

  “Fine, but if she pulls her boobs out, I am gone. Lead or no lead.”

  Brek grinned, “Fine with me. Don’t turn your back on her, and she won’t have the chance.”

  Trace gave a sour face as he turned towards the door, “I will keep that in mind.”

  Brek looked at the paperwork on his desk, trying not to laugh at Trace’s misfortune of having to deal with Polly.

  It wasn’t much. But it would keep him occupied today.

  Chapter 2

  Sienna

  For most, growing up without a voice would be the worst thing anyone could imagine. Especially when you had one to start out with.

  Sienna Barker remembered singing, talking, and laughing. But could do none of those things now.

  When she was 9 years old, she and her family were on a road trip. They had been gone for over a week, seeing a lot of beautiful things and making so many wonderful memories as a family.

  They had stopped for the night in a dirty, old cabin situated far from the road, with a long, overgrown driveway.

  After cleaning it out for a bit, with her mom giving her dad a lecture on how they should have spent more on a hotel and not staying in this nasty place, they finally got situated for the night.

  Sienna had a hard time going to sleep, not liking how the wind made the trees scratch the side of the cabin and wishing she could sleep in the room with her brother.

  She had finally shut her eyes and fallen into a fitful sleep out on the couch, with her mom and dad in their small room down the hall and her brother in another, when she heard a very distinct scraping noise outside of the door.

  Sitting bolt upright on the couch, clutching her sleeping bag to her chest, she watched as the doorknob on the front door turned this way and that.

  She started breathing hard, and stood up, backing away from the door and toward her parent’s room.

  The door creaked open, and to Sienna’s dread and revulsion, a tall, skinny, and extremely dirty man walked in the cabin.

  He looked around the room, noticing their belongings all around and finally saw her standing by the hallway and grinned at her. Showing off his dirty and rotting teeth in his mouth.

  She could smell him from where he stood and when he took another step inside, she said in a shaky voice, “Why are you in our cabin?”

  He took another step toward her and she backed up again, “Little girl, this is my cabin. And I didn’t want anyone here and certainly didn’t allow anyone to rent it out. But here you are. So, you see, you all need to be punished for trespassing. I have the right to do as I see fit to anyone on my property.”

  She gasped and stepped back again, “I will wake up my mommy and daddy and we will leave.”

  He shook his head, “It’s already too late for that. You should know better than to trespass on someone's property.”

  Then he lunged at her, his age and how frail he looked, not at all an issue with his speed.

  She screamed and tried her best to run to her parents’ room, but he caught her, making her leg twist wrong, falling to the floor and hitting her head on the wood.

  She cried out at the pain and he sat on top of her, spinning her around and putting his hands around her throat, cutting off her air.

  Sienna scratched and clawed at his hands, trying to get him to let go, but he was much bigger than she was, and she felt her strength leave her.

  With his weight on her weirdly bent leg, she felt it snap, and she tried to scream, to cry out at the pain of it, but his hands held her down too tightly, and everything went black and she slumped to the floor.

  When she came to, she heard her mother screaming, and her dad pleading with the man to leave them be.

  To let them take her body and go. She could see only shapes and could barely hear what was happening, but it was enough. As she also saw enough. Saw too much in fact.

  While she watched and tried to get her body to move, to respond to her brain, she watched as the man lunged at her father, and this time a long, shiny thing winked through the air and it disappeared in her dad's stomach.

  He let out a strangled gasp and dropped to his knees and her mother screamed.

  Then her dad fell back, and the silver thing was now dripping red, and it flew again, and her dad let out another groan.

  Then he lay still. Her mother was screaming, and she saw her brother run out of his room.

  Her mother tried to shield him from the man, but the man had the-what she now knew as a knife- swish through the air and a horrible wet noise sounded and her mother dropped to the floor, red flowing free from her body.

  Her brother grunted and tried to wrestle with the man, and she could hear him screaming, and crying.

  And then her brother fell to the side, his cries going silent, and the man stood.

  Then he turned and walked out of the house and Sienna felt a tear fall down her face, and she tried to move again.

  It took several tries, but she was able to move. It was slow going, but she crawled the best she could over to her mom, and her leg dragging along behind her. Making her cry out and sob at the pain. Her throat hurt, her leg hurt, and another sob fell from her mouth.

  Her mom was staring at the ceiling, unseeing eyes looking at nothing and Sienna screamed, she was covered in red from everywhere.

  And seeing her mother not moving, her body slowly going cold as Sienna sobbed over her, made her scream as loud as her throat allowed and sob until there was nothing left to scream.

  Nothing left to sob. She finally fell to the side on the floor, her eyes shutting. She felt nothing and heard nothing.

  She didn’t know how long she lay there, her throat feeling as if there was a hot poker down it, her leg hurting and making her whimper silently in the cabin, covered in her mom's dried blood and shivering with shock.

  She lost track of the hours that she lay beside her mom, knowing that she was hungry, cold, tired, and thirsty. She had watched the sun move across the sky and tried her best not to look at the devastation that the man had left.

  She didn’t want those memories of her dad, and her brother dead on the floor etched into her brain. It was too much for her young mind and she hated that she had seen it in the first place.

  She knew deep inside that it was something that would haunt her for a long time to come.

  Sienna spent that day trying to move in small increments so she could get a drink, or something, but each time she moved, it would jar her broken leg, and she would try to cry out, but nothing came.

  She finally gave up, just staying in place, breathing hard and exhausted to the bone.

  Shutting her eyes, she blocked out everything in the cabin and tried to sleep. It was a restless, half sleep that was more just shutting her eyes, than actual sleep, when she heard a noise coming from the front of the cabin.

  She didn’t know who it was, and lay completely still, not wanting the man who killed her family to know she was still alive.