Truth or Dare; The Dominator II (34 page)

“Stop.” He was being too loud.

“I can help you get away from him. Come with me right now. I’ll get you hidden. I’ll…” He reached for and caught my wrist.

“No, Nick. I’m good. Seriously.” I shrugged him off and tried to give him a warning look with my expression. If Tommy’d seen him put his hands on me, that would not be good.

He blew out a long breath, “Don’t lose my number. You ever need anything, you call me.”

“Thanks. But I’m good. Have a nice life, Nick. I mean that.”

He left, slamming the door.

I headed back to the dining room. It was quiet and awkward in there and I knew they’d heard everything. Tommy’s expression was hard but he made no moves.  I sat beside him. Rose, Mia, and Beth went to the kitchen to get food. Ruby excused herself and I suspected she was chasing Nick down.

Dinner was weird but Rose tried to make nice. She asked us about our living arrangements.

“We’re staying in the house I grew up in for now. We weren’t planning to be back this soon from our honeymoon so I’m not sure about our long term plans yet. We may travel some more first,” Tommy told her.

Tommy asked Cal about his work and they talked for a bit but the whole meal was forced, uncomfortable. Afterwards, I was in the kitchen with everyone clearing up, and as soon as Rose left the room Beth and Mia cornered me.

“Tia,” Mia whispered, “Are you really okay?”

I nodded, “I really am.”

Beth got right in my face, “We were so worried about you. Don’t ever do that to us again.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “You guys don’t know what I went through and I can’t go there. Let me say now that I’m done apologizing. I’ve done it. If you can’t accept it, there’s nothing more for me to say.”

Beth put her arms around me and so did Mia. Then Ruby bridged the gap by coming over and did the same and we had a group hug and we all started to sniffle and get watery-eyed.

“He
is
fucking gorgeous,” Beth whispered.

“So much,” Mia added.

Ruby butt in, “He usually gives her 2 orgasms each time. Two!”

We all giggled.

“Is that true?” Beth gasped.

“Sometimes even three,” I whispered.

“Holy shit!” Mia squealed.

“And you know what he can do to a cherry stem…” I added.

“Wow!” Ruby said and they all got dreamy-eyed. We all started giggling louder.

Tommy stepped into the kitchen and saw our huddle, heard our girlie cackling, “Baby, sorry, but something’s come up. We’ve gotta go.”

I sobered, wiped my eyes, which were wet from both laughing and crying and hugged the girls. Then I hugged Rose and Cal and thanked them for dinner and promised to see them again soon. Rose made me promise to come or at least call if we had to slip of the grid again. And then she hugged Tommy. Hugged him! He looked shell-shocked. Whatever impression my husband made on Cal had obviously transferred to Rose.

Mia gave Tommy a look and said, “You be good to her!”

He gave her a salute and led me out.

** ** **

“Fucking bullshit,” Tommy said as soon as we were off their street, “If that was any other scene that fucking punk would’ve been toast right then and there.” He picked up the phone and dialed,

“Tino. The punk’s uncle? I want him interrogated. Find out what he thinks he knows.” He ended the call.

“Thanks for keeping your cool,” I said. He’d obviously made up an excuse to get us out of there as, clearly, he was having trouble keeping it cool.

“Fuckin’ guy,” he was getting louder and even more livid and it showed in the erratic way he drove the car, “Tries to get my fucking wife to leave with him with me in the room and after saying he knows who I am. Does he have a death wish?”

“Tommy, please.” I massaged my temples, “Slow down. You’re driving crazy. And shh, I have a wicked migraine. That was seriously awful. I wanted to puke that whole time.”

He reached across the console and gave my leg a loving squeeze and said, “Loved hearing you defend me, baby girl. Every single time you said ‘my husband’ I felt so much pride.” He gave my leg another squeeze and then turned the radio on low.

I slouched in my seat but glanced over and gave him a half a smile.

It’d been too long being out of touch since I’d sent that goodbye letter and although I thought about them often I had been self-absorbed and hadn’t thought about what they’d be thinking all this time. They were the only family I had and I abandoned them, leaving them to worry about me. I had told myself it was better to cut ties and keep them safe from the truth but bottom line, I hurt them. I felt like crap.

“What could you have done differently?” Tommy said to me later on that night when he saw I was still feeling low, “We had to be careful. You didn’t mean to hurt anyone. You didn’t vanish without a trace; you did what you had to do.  Your safety is way more important than their feelings, Tia. Don’t let them guilt you. If they care about you they’ll get over it. I told your foster dad we were going, told him a lot about what we were dealing with, more than I’d generally care to reveal, but I did that because you care about them. It was up to him and his wife to smooth things out with the girls and all this happened because of how
they
chose to handle things. That’s on them, not you.”

That night it took me a long time to fall asleep despite the fact that my husband had worn me out with a fast hard fucking that was definitely about him being pissed at Nick and needing to show me that I was his. Three times during the sex he demanded that I tell him who I belonged to and was supremely pleased with my response of “You, baby. Only you. Forever you.” as illustrated by his “Fuckin’ right!” But it felt like as soon as I did finally fall asleep I was woken up. Tommy was thrashing in bed beside me, having a bad dream.

I backed out of the bed and started to call his name, seeing it was a bad one and knowing from recent experiences, particularly the one where he grabbed my throat and squeezed until I started to turn blue, that keeping my distance until he was fully awake was important.

He rocketed upright and after a split second he seemed lucid and then apologized for waking me.

“It’s okay. You okay?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“Wanna tell me?”

“Nope, it’s okay; go to sleep.” He got out of bed and left the room.

** ** **

He woke me up at dawn with sweet kisses on my earlobe and warm minty breath whispering my name in a husky voice, “Wake up, wife. We have plans today.”

I stretched, “What plans?”

“We need to see a man about a hog,” he said.

I smiled big, “Are we going to the loft?”

He wiggled his eyebrows, “Even better than that.”

I got up and excitedly dashed for the shower. What could be better than
that
?

Dare

Angel and me were taking a walk after going out for lunch near my building and we were holding hands. She was smiling at me, laughing at a story I was telling her about one of my Viking cousins and how I’d gone over a year ago to be in his wedding and we lost the guy during his bachelor party and wound up finding him only 2 hours before the wedding, still drunk as a skunk, wandering outside in his underwear. Her laughter was gorgeous. Her eyes were lit up and she had a huge smile on her face. She looked carefree.

“Is it beautiful there? I’d love to go. I’ve always wanted to do loads of traveling.”

“It is. We
should
go,” I smiled and squeezed her hand. Suddenly she paled. We were walking by a crowded restaurant patio and she froze in her tracks.

“What’s the matter?” I frowned.

She shook it off and then resumed walking.

“You okay?”

“Uh huh,” she replied but she clearly was not. I was hoping this wasn’t another panic attack coming on in the middle of the street.

“Tell me,” I said, eying her seriously and giving her hand a squeeze.

“I thought I saw someone I used to know. It probably wasn’t them. It’s okay.”

“Where? Who?”

She dared to glance back over her shoulder and then visibly relaxed, “I don’t see them now. I must’ve been mistaken.”

“You sure? You’re alright?”

She took a big breath and beamed at me, “Yes. I’m sure.”

“Who was it?”

She shook her head, not wanting to tell me. I glared.

“Jason,” she replied softly, “The guy who asked me to marry him in Thailand. But it wasn’t him, obviously.” She shrugged.

Angel

I thought I’d seen him at a table for two sitting alone, looking right at me over a menu. I’d been afraid to look back, afraid to find out whether or not it’d really been him. But when I looked back there was no one there. That table was empty. Either it was a lookalike or my mind was playing tricks on me.

I pushed away thoughts of him and just focused on the footsteps Dare and I were taking, heading back toward his building. He didn’t go back to his funny story, instead he was quiet the rest of the walk back and the vibe coming off him was tense.

As we were in the elevator Dare’s phone made a ding sound and he read the text and his expression dropped.

“Awe shit,” he grumbled.

“Everything okay?”

“No. That was Tess. They took Lisa to the hospital. She started bleeding. Had a miscarriage.”

“Oh no.” My stomach dipped and I felt cold envelop me. Lisa would be devastated. Absolutely gutted. My hand covered my mouth.

“Can we go see her?”

“We’ll go tomorrow. Give her today. Okay?” He was replying to the text, his jaw tight.

I nodded.

We got to the apartment and he went to work in his den for a bit. I curled up in bed and watched TV but thought about Lisa. Poor Lisa. She wanted that baby so badly, was already in love with the idea of being a mother before she’d even started to show.

Poor Shayla.

Tommy

I pulled up the driveway at the farm and watched Tia’s face as the house came into view.

“Oh my goodness!” Tia exclaimed, “Holy shit!”

We stopped in front of the house and she threw the car door open, giddy with excitement. She ran toward the front steps.

Just before we left to go get married I met with a contractor and went over specs with him to fix up the farmhouse. When I planned it I didn’t know when we’d be back here but knew that whenever we did I’d be bringing her up here. She called it our ‘happy place’.

It’d been a small stone farmhouse with a gutted kitchen and walls filled with graffiti as the place had been empty for a few years before I bought it. But now it was covered in a soft grey board and batten with a lilac colored shingled roof and lilac colored shutters flanking each window.  I’d had the roof, siding, and front porch redone and a back deck and gazebo added. Yesterday I had someone come cut the grass and put out pots of colorful fall mums around the front of the house as well as a big vase filled with two dozen pink roses on the kitchen counter. I followed her to the porch and found the key in my pocket and opened the door.

“Wait,” I told her as she went to go in and then I lifted her up and carried her over the threshold. Excitement was written all over her face, especially at the sight of the roses.

Inside, the place had been converted to open plan. It was now one main room with a country kitchen opening to a great room with the big stone fireplace, staircase right up the middle to the second floor. I hadn’t put her down yet when I said, “You can pick out furniture for the place. I just had them move over the bed, sofa, and table and chairs from the loft for now.”

She tightened her arms around my neck and kissed me, kissed me big.

“You’re the best husband ever, my husband.”

“Mmm, Let’s go christen the new bedroom,” I answered and carried her upstairs. Upstairs were two bedrooms and a bathroom. They’d been painted a soft blue and I’d had the pine floors refinished and new walls put in up there. I’d had the bathroom redone, too, adding a big soaker Jacuzzi tub plus a new shower, toilet, and sink.

The smaller room was empty but the larger room just had the brass four poster bed from the loft in it. It wasn’t made but there was a new bed-in-a-bag set with blankets and sheets plus four new pillows, still packaged, on the end. Clearly, my wife didn’t care to stop and make the bed before christening the new room. My text alert went off but since my shirt was getting unbuttoned by her as I put her down on the mattress I decided that the text could wait.

Dare

I called Zack.

“Hey bud, the guy who proposed to her was named Jason. I’ll try to get his last name.”

“Okay, man.”

“She thought she saw him today at the bistro on Canal Street with the big outdoor patio.”

“You get a look?”

“Naw man. She said maybe she didn’t see him after all.”

“Alright, man. I’ll call you back.”

** ** **

He called me back just a half an hour later.

“Man, where are you? Are you with your girl?”

“Yeah, I’m at home. She’s here. Why?”

“You ready for this?” Zack asked me.

“Ready? For what?”

“Gan Chen and a few of his goons are on a plane on the way here and I just got a lock on where Frost is. She did see him today. He’s here.”

“Frost?”

“Jason Frost. The guy your girl was dating before she got pulled in by Kruna.”

“Jason Frost? Connected to Donavan Frost?”

“Jason Frost is Donavan’s nephew. Donavan was another of Gan Chen’s partners before he died. The way it’s looking, Jason Frost was seriously into your girl. See, Kruna scouts spotted her at a nightclub owned by Donavan Frost, managed by Jason Frost. They wanted to bring her in and involved Frost. It’s looking like he worked on the outside with scouting and helping organize bringing people in. Guy’s good-looking, smooth with the ladies. Seems like Jason tried to date her not to lure her in but tried to put the kybosh and keep her for himself. I haven’t figured out yet what transpired between the proposal and her becoming a Kruna slave. Three days after Jason Frost bought an engagement ring your girl was supposed to fly to South Carolina but she never got on the plane and hasn’t been heard from since.”

“Donavan Frost is dead?”

“Yeah, died at 40 years old over a year ago under mysterious circumstances. After his death Jason Frost inherited his money, sold the bar to some other Kruna partner, and moved to Philly. Appears he wasn’t involved in the Kruna world any longer, really, but recently got very involved.”

“Very?”

“I’m assuming so. He’s had phone calls and face-to-face meetings with Gan Chen. He flew to Thailand just a few days after you got her home and was there less than 24 hours. He went home to Philly for a couple days and then he flew here yesterday. I know you’ve got a good security system there but I think you need to grab her and go to your safe house while I dig further. It’s looking dangerous.”

“How’d you get all this info?”

“I have reliable sources. Can’t divulge that right now, Dario.”

“My safe house is out, man. I boobie trapped it when all the shit went down with Jesse Romero. It blew up. I haven’t sorted out another one yet.”

“Find another safe place and wait to hear from me. Just go to ground a few days so I can watch these guys while we see if they reach out or make moves. If Gan Chen gets ahold of you let me know before you meet with him.”

“I’ll call you back,” I said and hung up. I left the den and went to the bedroom where Angel was watching Bambi on TV, tears in her eyes.

She smiled nervously at me and wiped the tears away with her sleeve, “I’m such a sap.”

“Hey, can you pack a bag for you and me for a couple days? We’ve gotta take a little trip.”

She got out of the bed, “Okay.”

I kissed her on the forehead and wiped a stray tear from her cheek away, “We’re going to a cabin so bring jeans, warm clothes, bathroom stuff and phone chargers for both of us. But I also need a suit, shirt, tie, and dress shoes in case I have to leave for a meeting while we’re gone. Maybe a grey 3-piece suit, white shirt, black tie. Okay? Gotta make a few calls. Can you manage? Can you do it quick, please?”

“Yes, no problem,” she dashed toward the closet, looking a bit tweaked, probably picking up on my mood. I phoned Eddy. I couldn’t get him. I left him a voicemail.

“Shit has heated up, bro. Can I use your cabin for a few days? Call me. I’m heading toward the restaurant now if I don’t hear from you. If you get this, call me and tell me if you can meet me at the storage unit.”

Angel

Dare was on the phone in his SUV,

“Hey man. Yeah, can you meet me at the unit? Cool. Okay, bye.”

Then he dialed another number and said “Bro, some shit has hit the fan. You and Tia stay at the farm tonight. Call me and I’ll fill you in. We’ve got some unwanted company. Two potential threats. Ciao, brother.”

He dialed again.

“Nino, me and Angel are heading to Ed’s family cabin as a precaution on some stuff I have to fill you in about. I’m gonna get Sarah or one of the girls to shop for food for a few days for us for there. Can you or Dex drive it up? Quietly. Make sure no tail. I’ll call you back. Right. Bye.”

He hit buttons on his phone and then started talking again.

“Hey, me and Angel are heading to a safe house for a few days. You got time to shop for us for 3-4 days? Now.  Okay good. Nino or Dex will come by in about 2 hours if you can hurry. Text me when you’re back and I’ll send one of them.”

He put the phone down, lit a cigarette and opened the window, “Sorry, baby, I can’t wait till we get there. Having a nic fit.”

I opened my window wide and watched him, chewing my cheek.

He turned the music up. It was “Send me an Angel” by the Scorpions. I chewed my cheek harder.

I kept watching him. He knew my eyes were on him but he wasn’t enlightening me. I didn’t ask. I stared straight ahead and got lost in the song.

A few minutes passed and then he pulled into a gas station and got out and started pumping gas, “Grab my wallet and go pay?” he said to me through the window and I was sort of surprised. I saw his wallet on the console between us so I picked it up and went into the gas station.

I was feeling on edge not knowing what was happening. Maybe he was keeping it from me so I wouldn’t have an anxiety attack.

I found cash in his wallet so paid for the gas and when I got back out to the car he was ending a phone call saying, “Yeah, man. See you in about fifteen.”

I got in and he pulled out and we were back on the road.

The vibe coming off him was setting my teeth on edge. Finally, I worked up the nerve to ask, “Dare?”

“Yeah, baby?” He didn’t look at me. He was focused on the road and smoking another cigarette.

“Everything’s not okay,” I said simply because it was obvious and therefore it’d be silly of me to ask, “Is everything okay?” What was not obvious was why but what was kind of obvious to me was that he probably wasn’t filling me in because it was bad. Real bad. But it wasn’t me to demand answers, at least not anymore.

“No, my baby. It’s not. I will fill you in later. No stress, though. I’ve got you.”

Uh oh. Me of two years ago would’ve demanded answers. Me of today just sat and stared straight ahead. I felt his palm on my cheek. I closed my eyes and leaned into it. It always brought my anxiety levels down when he did that and I think he knew it too, because he often did that, ever since the second day he was in Thailand.

We pulled into an industrial plaza with mini storage up beside a blue pickup truck. Dare got out of his SUV and approached the truck. I saw him talking to someone who handed him something. They talked for a minute or two and then Dare approached an orange garage door and unlocked a padlock on it and then went inside. The blue pickup truck stayed put. I started to feel vulnerable. Out of Dare’s sight out in public, someone could swoop in. I hit the lock button on the door to lock all four doors. “Roxanne” by The Police came on the radio. Oh, the irony.