Ice – Cold Obsession – Talia Ellison

Gabriel’s on his hands and knees, tearing through the grass like a man possessed, and his breathing is all wrong. He’s having a panic attack, I think. I crouch beside him and put my hand on his shoulder. “Hey, breathe.” He doesn’t seem to hear me. His hands keep moving, frantic and desperate. “Listen to me. You need to breathe.” Nothing. His breaths are coming in short, sharp gasps, and his whole body is trembling.

I shift closer and wrap my arms around him, pulling him toward me. He resists for a second, his muscles rigid, then collapses against me. He buries his face in my neck. I feel something wet against my skin. He’s crying. I freeze, my arms still around him, unsure what to do. This isn’t the arrogant hockey player everyone knows. It’s not the guy who made my sister’s life hell. But it’s… I don’t know, but I hold him tighter anyway. “It’s okay,” I say quietly, even though I don’t know if it is.

“Just breathe with me. In and out.” His breaths are ragged against my neck, and I feel his fingers clutch at my jacket. I keep my arm around him and rub slow circles on his back with the other. “Breathe in through your nose,” I say. “Hold it. Now out through your mouth.”

He tries, but it comes out choppy and uneven. “That’s good. Try again.” I keep talking to him, and slowly, his breathing starts to even out. The shaking doesn’t stop, but it lessens, and his grip on my jacket loosens slightly. Movement catches my eye. Someone’s near the edge of the trees, looking at us. I can’t make out who it is from the distance, but they’re definitely watching. Then they turn and disappear into the shadows. I glance down at the grass near Gabriel’s knee, and I know immediately what it is.

The bracelet. I reach for it and pick it up, then pull back slightly. “Gabriel.” He doesn’t move. “I found it.” He lifts his head and looks at the bracelet in my hand. He takes it from me with trembling fingers and clutches it like it’s the most precious thing in the world. “Thank you,” he whispers, his face still wet with tears. I nod and sit back, giving him space. He slips the bracelet back on his wrist and stares at it for a long moment, his breathing still uneven but slower now.

“Your brother?” I ask carefully. He nods but doesn’t look at me. “What happened to him?” He’s quiet for so long I think he won’t answer. “Shooting.” I stare at him. A shooting? His brother was killed in a shooting? Oh shit! “I’m sorry. My sister died not too long ago. Life’s been hell without her.”

Copyright © 2025 Talia Ellison All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. For more information about the author, go to: http://taliaellison.weebly.com Table of Contents Copyright Page 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 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Epilogue Also By Talia Ellison Chapter 1 SCARLETT I PUSH THE DOOR TO my new dorm room open and let out a breath.

No one else is here. The space only belongs to me, and that’s exactly what I need. It took some cash and a carefully worded email to make it happen. I framed it as needing privacy for personal reasons, and the housing coordinator didn’t mind. Mistakes happen all the time in student housing, and, apparently, I’m one of them. I drop my bags and move straight to the closet.

The lockbox comes out of my backpack first, and I set it on the floor before crouching down to open it. The photo of my sister is on top. Carla stares back at me, frozen in a moment I can barely remember now. Her smile is wide and genuine, like it was before Gabriel Santelli destroyed her.

I run my fingers over her face and lean closer to the image. “I’m going to make him pay,” I whisper. “I promise.” My throat tightens, but I don’t let myself cry. Crying won’t bring her back. It won’t undo the night she jumped into the ocean from a cliff. When they found her body later, everyone called it suicide because that’s what it looked like. But I know better. I know who pushed her to do it.

I pull out the stack of papers underneath the photo. Everything I’ve gathered about Gabriel over the past year lives in these pages. I’ve studied him like an enemy in war, and I know exactly how to get close to him. His picture is in the center of the first sheet. He has dark hair and blue eyes that probably make every girl on campus forget how to think straight.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 720ee43f8c1bf310
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,088,932 bytes (1.038 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 115
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 197.34 minutes
• Total Words: 39,468
• Total Characters: 210,491
• Average Words per Page: 343.2
• Average Characters per Page: 1830.36

Most Frequent Words

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