Saving Each Other (BWWM Romance) (10 page)

“I’m fine I just-I need to ask you something,” I whispered.

“What is it?” He rubbed my hand softly.

“Was it my fault?” I felt the tears fall before I heard them in my voice. He opened his eyes immediately, looking at me sadly.“Tell me the truth, please.” I figured he would try and lie so I begged him to be honest. I need to know from someone else’s opinion.

“Tamara…”

“No, just tell me,” I pleaded.

“Yes.” I had a sudden intake of breath and the tears flowed faster. He held me in his arms as I cried and wiped my tears away as soon as they came. “But you didn’t know about it, Tamara. Yes, things would have been different if you weren’t lobbying for them at every chance…but we both know if you knew the truth, you wouldn’t be supporting them.”

“I should have done more. I should have had more facts.” I always made sure I knew everything about the new deals they were trying to pass. I always looked over the numbers, statistics, and reports. What the hell was I doing?

“It’s not your fault, they were good at hiding it.”

“No.” I refused his attempts to console me.

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be!” Suddenly I left his embrace, jumping to my feet and staring down at him angrily. He looked at me, shocked at my sudden outburst.

“Tamara...”

“No, don’t Tamara me. Why did you have to bring me into this? Why did you have to uproot my life and destroy my health all for your crazy plan of turning over an entire corporation that will probably never work! Rory Corp is an empire, it is responsible for over half of this world’s oil and has been for decades. Dan, I think you’re in way over your head, and I don’t think I’m important enough for an empire such as them to tear themselves down for.” My voice croaked at the end. Dan opened his mouth to say something but I left before he could, shaking my head sadly at all the clatter that just unraveled.

I hadn’t realized I had been holding all of that in for a long time. I escaped to his bedroom, which was probably a bad idea but I wasn’t crazy enough to go back into that hole by my own will. I curled up on his bed and cried like I had the first few days I was there. I was fooling myself the past few days, thinking I could be happy with Dan. I mean I was happy with him, but I was in a state of euphoria and reality just hit me.

When I woke up I wasn’t alone. Dan’s arm was resting over my torso lightly, I turned around to face him, and he looked so peaceful in his sleep. I immediately felt bad for how I yelled at him, but it was the least I could do for him kidnapping me. I ran my fingers across his soft face and smiled. He woke up a few seconds later.

“Hi,” he whispered. His smoldering eyes looked at me softly.

“I’m sorry,” I said back to him.

“I know, I’m sorry too. I never thought about how you felt, I just jumped into things thinking it would be okay. But I just-I don’t know. I’m sorry Tamara.” He smiled at me sadly.

“Yeah, we didn’t really think things through. I don’t regret anything though.”

“Me neither, of course I don’t,” he reassured me.

My stomach growled, interrupting our moment.

“Breakfast?” I nodded. He jumped up from the bed, stopping at the bathroom before he headed for the kitchen.

I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and use the bathroom. I felt a pain in my lower stomach but I was hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was.

“Shit!” I whispered to myself when I saw the blood on the tissue. I wanted to die inside, it was the worst possible thing that could happen. I know there were no tampons or pads there, I was so screwed. I went to the kitchen nervously, not sure how to ask Dan.

“Dan?”

“Yeah, I’m making flapjacks.” He smiled brightly. I would reflect on how cute he looked but I had pain in my stomach and a leaking vagina.

“I need something from the store.”

“I can go after we eat.”

“No, I need it now.”

“Uh…okay why?” He laughed slightly at me.

“Ugghh, damn it, Dan, I need pads.” I grew up and just told him straight up. I was hard to believe I never had to do that all throughout my period-living days.

“Oh…oh. Um, what uh… what size should I get?” He was legitimately asking me.

“Dan, they don’t come in sizes…” I couldn’t help but laugh. His face looked like he was more embarrassed than I was.

“Oh, well uh-”

“Just get the Tampax brand,” I said calmly.

“Okay, I’ll be back. Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine.” He rushed out the door, leaving me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.

There was no food in the house other than what he was cooking so I just waited for him to come back. The hand off was pretty awkward but I think we both shook it off and got over it. I’m human for crying out loud.

“Thanks, that was really good,” I said when I finished the breakfast he made.

“You’re welcome.” He did the dishes and joined me back in the living room.

We sat and watched television together like normal people. It was nice, I again, just wished I could talk to Mallory. She was probably worried sick about me. Would Dan let me call her? I doubted that he would, it might set something off.

“Dan?”

“Mmhm.” He was barely awake.

“I need to talk to Mallory.”

“Mallory?”

“She’s my best friend, she’s probably worried sick about me.” He looked at me sadly.

“I really would but...“

“I’m still a captive right?” I shook my head and moved away from him.

“No, that is not what I meant. It would set off too many flags, and I if I know anything, I know that the police have probably bugged her phone just waiting for you to call her so they can trace it back here.”

“I’m confused, I thought you said you wanted the cops to find me.”

“When the investigation starts on Rory Corp.”

“Dan, don’t get me wrong here, I like being with you, I just wish I could be with you in a normal life. And the truth is, they can just pay off the police force or whatever to drop the investigation and they’ll be scot free and I will be stuck here.”

“Tamara, I won’t keep you here forever. I have a time frame, a plan.”

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you, I’m sorry.”

“No, I get it.” I really did get it though.

I had to be there until he could change Rory Corp, until he could help all those people affected by their acts. I was okay with being part of that plan, even if I didn’t know what the master plan really was.

When I woke up Dan was gone again. I assumed he was just out exercising again so I didn’t worry much. I got up and took a hot shower, washing from head to toe. I wished he had a hair dryer then my hair wouldn’t look so much like a bird’s nest, but he didn’t. I managed to find a razor to shave my legs though, so I felt a bit cleaner.

The past few days had done a number on me already. I looked in the mirror to find that my eyes were less sunken in, my skin was brighter and my collarbones weren’t as visible. I ventured into the kitchen to try and find something to eat but there was nothing that I could eat without having to make it from scratch. I honestly never really cooked for myself. Sure in college I made frozen dinners but even in my own house, I either had takeout or Mallory cooked. The easiest thing I could think of was pancakes so I started on that.

I burnt the pancakes.

“What is that smell?” Justin’s deep voice made me scream in terror.

“I tried to make pancakes.” I was backed up against the refrigerator nervously. I didn’t know what it was about men but he was also shirtless in a pair of low hanging sweats. He was a lot bigger than Dan and had more muscle mass. His arms were bigger than both my legs put together, but maybe that’s an over exaggeration. But his six pack was a lot more defined and rigid, I had to tear my eyes away from him.

“How can you burn pancakes?” he asked sarcastically.

“I-I’m not much of a cook.” I stuttered.

“I can see that.” I watched him as he threw the burnt hockey pucks out and started a new batch. I was still standing against the fridge, afraid to move. I never knew what Justin was going to do.

“Why are you stuck against the fridge like that?”

“I, uh,” I couldn’t think of anything to say. Slowly, I made my way to the stool and sat down.

“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” I asked him after a while.

“Why aren’t you wearing pants?” I gasped when I realized I was only wearing one of Dan’s shirts, which practically fit me like a dress. He smirked at me and went back to what he was doing.

“This is weird.” I hadn’t realized I said it aloud.

“What, your captor making breakfast for you or you sleeping with the other one?” he asked me sardonically.

“I’m not sleeping with him…technically.” He laughed.

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m not a liar.” He looked at me sternly and I looked back, as if it was a stare contest.

“What’s going on in here? And what’s that smell?” Dan entered, interrupting our standoff.

“She tried to make pancakes,” Justin said with his eyes still on me.

“How do you burn pancakes?” Dan chuckled. I tore my eyes from Justin and turned to look at him. Like Justin, he was sporting the shirtless look too and sweatpants. If it was cold outside, how could he wear no shirt? Men didn’t make sense to me. Speaking of men, to say that it was weird being in the midst of two half naked men was an understatement.

“I’m going to, uh…I have to…-” I couldn’t think of anything to say so I just left, practically running for the living room.

I wasn’t even hungry anymore, I sat down and watched television for a while before I settled for the news. Immediately, I wished I hadn’t.

“The police are saying that they are very close to finding Tamara Taylor, a lobbyist for D.C. oil company, Rory Corporation, which is now under investigation after a disturbing video was released.” They rolled the footage of the video I filmed, to say I looked horrible would be a white lie.

“The police are not revealing much about the investigation, but this morning an inside source says a team was dispatched, along with bomb squads and EMTs within a thirty mile radius being put on call. Back to you, John.” I stared at the screen aimlessly, shocked and afraid. But why?

If they had found me, and they were on their way, what would happen to Dan? That was where the American government went sideways, someone who was trying to do good ends up in jail for half their life and the people who were doing all the bad get off scot free. Of course I wanted to be back home, but then a part of me didn’t want to leave Dan. This whole thing was so twisted! Even when I go back, what would I do with myself? I was definitely not going back to work for Rory Corp and it would be really hard to explain what happened to Mallory. She would ask me a lot of questions and I didn’t think I could tell her the truth. I couldn’t imagine telling anyone that I ended up sleeping with my captor --technically, not literally. Thinking about it just made me wonder if it would happen. I mean I’d already seen him naked, he’d seen me naked, but sex is a whole different story.

I had to force myself to stop thinking about those kinds of things. The whole situation was making me think more about the present and not so far into the future. I had learned to live in the moment instead of thinking about the next thing. Maybe that’s what got me into this mess, if I had just paid more attention to where stuff was going and what was actually being shipped, I could have stopped it earlier.

“Oh, there you are. Aren’t you hungry?” Dan found me. I turned to look at him, noticing that he had showered. His hair was still slightly wet and he had changed into a pair of jeans and a gray t-shirt.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

“What were you watching?” he asked me when we were in the kitchen.

“Nothing, just whatever was on,” I lied.

“You’re lying.” He laughed a bit.

“I’m not lying, and if I was you wouldn’t be able to tell. I am a lawyer after all.” I was a lawyer before I was a lobbyist, and a damn good one at that.

“I can always tell when someone is lying, especially you.”