My Stepfather's Deadly Obsession

MIGUELThe bar smelled like stale beer and desperation, a haze of cigarette smoke curling through the air as laughter and slurred voices bounced off the chipped walls.I wove through the crowd, tray balanced on one hand, while the other itched to shove someone—anyone—who got too close. At 20, I shouldn’t still be here, slinging drinks for tips I’d never see enough of, but life didn’t give a shit about age. My sneakers stuck to the floor with each step, the soles worn thin from nights like this. Endless, loud nights full of assholes who thought I was part of the menu. I adjusted my grip on the tray, four beers sloshing in their glasses as I caught a flicker in the corner of my eye. There, in the dark part of the club, in the shadowed nook where the lights didn’t dare reach, a figure sat still as stone, staring. Always staring.I rolled my eyes, gritting my teeth. Another fucking creep. The men here were predictable. Their eyes would crawl over me like I was some prize to paw at, mouth

SALVATOREI was here again, just as I’d been for the past week, nursing countless hard-ons and watching him do his job. It had taken everything in me not to leap at the drunk bastard that touched him three nights ago. Looked like my sexy interest had it under control though.I sat in the shadows, the dark corner of the bar swallowing me whole, but my eyes were still locked on him. The amber glow of the lamp barely touched him, but it was enough to trace the lean lines of his body as he moved between tables, tray in hand, serving drinks to men who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air. I’d been here almost every night for weeks, whiskey untouched, just watching. That lovely frame of his—wiry, sharp-edged, deceptively soft—hid a fire I couldn’t shake from my mind. Behind those hazel eyes clouded with pain, burned stubbornness and steel resolve that dared anyone to try controlling him. And fuck, I wanted to.I wanted to see him bend beneath me, break, beg, his defiance shattering into

MIGUELI sucked in a sharp breath, the cold air biting my lungs as I moved away from the wall. My body shook, still buzzing from where Salvatore’s fingers grazed my face. I looked around the street which was alive with flickering lights and stumbling drunks. Nobody seemed to notice me.I was just another shadow slipping through the chaos. I forced my legs to move. I needed my bed, my locked door, and something solid to shut out the mess in my head.But as I walked, something pricked at the edge of my vision. A shape, too steady to be drunk, was trailing just out of sight. My gut twisted. I didn’t turn my head or give away my tension. I kept moving, darting my eyes to the corner to avoid a surprise hit.There it was again. A broad form, lurking, sticking to the shadows like a damn ghost. My pulse kicked up. No way I was leading this creep straight to my place. I had enough to deal with at home. I couldn’t add lewd visits from a horny weirdo. I veered left suddenly and ducked into an a

MIGUELI slid out of bed, the thin mattress creaking under me as I grabbed my phone from the floor. The screen glowed '7:13 a.m. It was almost too early for the world to feel real, but I needed to hear a voice that didn’t drip with venom. My thumb hovered over Paul’s name before tapping it. Paul. The only steady thing I had left. He’d gotten me the bar gig two years back. He even helped me talk up the manager when I was desperate and fresh off another fight with Emily about her damn ledger.He’d been there through it all—her screaming fits, the late nights I crashed at his place when her boyfriends got too handsy, and the endless grind to pay her off. And… Paul was one of the few people who didn’t want to get into my pants.Three rings, then his groggy voice crackled through. “Miguel? Shit, man, you alive?” I must have woken him from sleep.I smirked and padded downstairs, my bare feet silent on the warped wood. The house was quiet for once, a rare gift since Emily hadn’t stumbled h

MIGUELI woke up late to sunlight stabbing through the cracked window. The mattress sagged under me as I turned to the edge. The sheets were uncomfortably tangled from a night of tossing and turning.It was one thing to be restless over some creep stalking me at my place of work. It was a whole other thing to have that same man at my doorstep, hands all over my stepmother, shooting me that look of satisfaction. Emily’s giddy announcement twisted my gut all over again. Stepfather. The word tasted like bile. I rubbed my eyes, hard, trying to scrub it all away, but my hands shook. Sleep had dodged me after that knife-to-throat dance with his amber stare burning holes into every inch of my skin. I couldn’t stay at the bar anymore with him showing up at will, watching me do my job while doing god-knows-what in the shadows. And now, if I was to think about the current turn of things, the house wasn’t safe, either. But I couldn’t move now. Not with Emily’s debt still hanging around my nec