by Quigg, CA
She hangs up not giving me a chance to say anything else.
Bile churns in my stomach. “Stop the car.”
The driver glances back at me. “You want me to stop?”
“If you don’t, I’m going to throw up, and I don’t have the money to pay the cleaning fee.”
The driver pulls to the side of the road, and I fall out of the car onto the sidewalk.
****
Ella waits for me at the front door of her apartment building, and the second I get out of the car, I fall into her arms and bawl.
She strokes my hair and back just like a mom would with her baby. “James filled me in on everything. I know this has nothing to do with you.”
Body wrecking sobs fall from me, and I pull in a heavy breath. “How can he think I’m capable of doing that? Of selling secrets?”
Ella guides me into the sitting room, sits me down, and hands me a box of tissues. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out together,” she says.
I pull a handful of tissues from the box and hold them to my streaming eyes and nose. “I’ve lost my scholarship and my job. What am I going to do? My life is a shit show of shittiness.” I grab more tissues and ball them up in my hand. “He’s ruining my life just like he ruined my dad’s. He’s got emails to gossip sites and gossip columnists from my email address. There’s no way I can prove it wasn’t me. No way.”
She pulls me into her arms, and I lay my head on her shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
“Does James think I did it?” I ask, breaking away from her.
Her eyes fill with sympathy. “You have to understand, Callum is James’ oldest friend. They’ve been through a lot together.”
“If James believes I went to gossip blogs, I bet he gave you an ultimatum, didn’t he? I mean he could lose his job over this.”
“I won’t lie, he asked me to choose, and I told him to get the fuck out of my life. Hoes before bros.” She laughs, and despite the tornado ravaging my life, I manage a small smile.
“I’m sorry, I know you really liked him.”
She shrugs. “Liked being the word.” Pain clouds her eyes. She’s lying.
****
Later, I cry myself to sleep and only wake up when Ella comes into my room. She sits on the mattress and takes my hand in hers. “Your dad called.”
“Why didn’t he call my cell?” I ask, my voice still scratchy from sleep.
“Your phone isn’t working.”
“Of course it isn’t. It was a gift from Callum.” I sit up and scrub my hands over my face. “What did my dad say?”
Ella grimaces and flicks her tongue nervously over her lips. “He’s been evicted. He wanted you to know he’s staying with your neighbor Thom for a few days.”
I touch my hand to my cheek. Hitting me is unforgivable and is something I won’t forget, but he doesn’t deserve to get evicted or have anything else go wrong in his already pitiful existence because of something I allegedly did. “I’ll go see him first thing. Can I have your phone for a second?”
“Sure.” She hands it over without question, and I type out a text to Callum.
Call off your dogs and leave my dad out of this.
****
My dad’s hands shake and coffee spills over the rim of his cup and onto the table. I sit on my hands and watch him. Since I arrived at Thom’s, my dad and I have only made small talk about the weather and the upcoming baseball season. Besides booze, The Mets are the only other passion in his life.
Sleep didn’t come easy last night, and when it did, Callum’s angry eyes filled my dreams. I’m drained emotionally and physically, but I can’t stay locked in Ella’s house avoiding the world for the rest of my life.
“So,” I say smoothing my hands along the tabletop. “What happened with the apartment?”
He shrugs. “The landlord showed up with three men I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley and told me I had ten minutes to get out. I grabbed what I could. There’s a box of your stuff from your bedroom by the door.” He pulls out a cigarette from the box on the table, puts it between his lips and lights it. “This is Talbot’s doing, isn’t it?”
“It’s my fault you’re homeless. I should’ve listened to you about him. All of these years, you’ve been warning me, and I didn’t listen.”
“Not your fault.” He takes a deep pull of his cigarette, and as he exhales. “It’s mine. It all goes back to what I did.”
Heaviness fills my heart. “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is now. Callum thinks we’re in this together and that we’ve set him up. He thinks I sent emails to gossip blogs about the club and the members. I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I’m not…” I was about to say I’m not you but I stop myself. “Someone must have hacked my emails, but I’m so careful about my passwords and only using secure networks.”
“We could… we could still blackmail him.” He stubs out his cigarette and lights another one. “What he’s doing. What he’s done to both of us is wrong. I kept everything I found out about him hidden. If we use everything you know about him on top of what I have, we could be millionaires.”
I gasp and jerk back as if he physically hit me again. “Are you serious? Are you actually suggesting we extort money from him?”
“Before he does any more damage to us, we have to strike back.” He plays with the book of matches and the circular design on the back catches my eye. The same emblem was on Callum’s shirt the night I went to see him after my dad hit me. I grab the matches. “Where did you get these?”
He shrugs. “The woman I met the other night at Mason’s must have left them behind.”
“A woman?”
“Met someone at the bar. We were having a good time, so I invited her back to the apartment.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Not once, I mean never ever, had he invited anyone home.
I grin and pretend to be happy for him, but I need to find out more about this mystery woman. “You met someone? That’s great, dad.”
“I wouldn’t say met someone. I can’t remember much after we came back. I must have passed out. She was gone when I woke up.”
Perhaps I’m looking for something that isn’t there, but him having a book of matches with the club’s logo on it seems suspicious. “You going to see her again?”
“Nah. I’d never seen her before. She was probably just passing through.”
“You didn’t get her number? What was her name?”
He shakes his head. “Can’t remember her name. Didn’t get her number.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. My old phone was on my bedside cabinet. The other morning it came to life which means it still works which means it has access to everything. Every social media account. Every email account. Everything. And I can’t remember if I logged out of my apps after Callum gave me the new phone. “Where’s the box of my stuff?”
He looks over his shoulder. “By the door.”
I go to the box and rummage through it. Phone. Where’s my phone? “Dad, my old phone was by my bed. Did you take it when you packed my stuff?”
“There was nothing by your bed but a few books and some dusty CDs. They’re in there.”
I tip the contents of the box onto the floor and frantically search hoping my phone will miraculously appear. “The phone isn’t here. I set it by my bed. I know I did.” I have to find my phone or whoever took my phone because when I do, I’m convinced I’ll find the person who sent the emails
Chapter Eighteen
Callum
EDM pumps from the speakers, but it’s not loud enough to drown out my thoughts, and none of the scenes taking place around me hold my attention.
For the past two days, I’ve lived in a fog and haven’t been able to bring myself to focus on anything but the memory of Aubree’s distraught face when she left the office.
Joann sits by my feet naked and willing, but her eagerness to submit to my every whim holds no attraction.
She slinks up beside me and lays her head
on my shoulder. She’s looking for reassurance. Something to let her know she pleases me and is safe with me, but I’m unable to give that to her. I place my hand on her head and stroke her hair. She takes this as an invitation and straddles my lap.
“Master, have I displeased you in any way?”
“No. The problem is mine, not yours.”
She wriggles her hips and presses herself against my un responsive crotch. “Would you like me to please you now? You haven't had me do anything since you asked me to be your sub.”
I shake my head. “You please me by being here.” It’s a lie but telling her the truth will hurt her and I’ve hurt enough people this week. It isn’t Joann’s fault I’m no longer attracted to her, it’s mine. It’ll be a while before someone ever pleases me again. Physical satisfaction is something I can take care of myself, but emotional satisfaction is an entirely different beast.
She crosses her arms and gives a petulant pout. “I thought when she was out of the way that you’d at least pretend to be interested in me.”
The way she says ‘she’ sets my hair on edge. “What do you mean out of the way?” I ask lifting her off my lap.
“When she was around you weren’t yourself, Master. I think it’s better for everyone she’s gone.”
“Is that so?” The way Joann’s eyes dart from side to side tells me there’s something the sub is keeping from me. “And why do you say that?”
“You were always so preoccupied and never present when she was here. You've barely been at the club. And you even walked out half-way through a training scene with me last week.”
Her words rush out as she warms to her subject and I don’t stop her babbling. “She seems really ungrateful and spoiled. Her father hates you.” Joann’s lips part as if to say oh, shit. “Or at least that’s what I heard. I’m not sure if it’s true or not.”
Icy anger douses me. “How do you know so much about Aubree?
“We, um, we met for coffee. Last week. Had a girly heart-to-heart.”
I keep my voice level and ask. “What day?”
“Monday, or was it Tuesday? I can’t remember.” Her eyes widen, and she stands. “I’m running to the little girl’s room, excuse me, Master.”
I grab onto her wrist. She’s not going anywhere. “If you don’t explain yourself, I’m going to make things very difficult for you.”
She blinks rapidly. “I did what I had to get her out of our lives. You were supposed to be my master, but then she came along and took you from me.”
Realization at Joann’s actions kicks my gut. “You were the one who sent the emails, weren’t you? How did you do it? How did you get into her emails?”
Color flushes her cheeks, and she drops her chin to her chest. “Her old phone. I got it from her dad’s apartment.”
Anger flares though me causing the veins in my neck pulse. “You went to her father’s apartment and stole from her, and if that wasn’t bad enough, you pretended to be her by sending emails from her school account.”
“I’m sorry, Master.”
“Sorry isn’t enough. Tell me everything you did, or you’ll live to regret it.”
I release her wrist, and she falls to her knees. “Please forgive me. I got her father drunk and drugged him. When we got back to his apartment after he’d passed out, I searched through her belongings. A phone was beside her bed. I didn’t think it would work because the screen was cracked, but it did, and the temptation was too much. I’m weak, and I need punished.”
“Who made the phone call? The one telling me to stay away from Aubree?”
“My brother. He said he could make it so you wouldn’t be able to trace the call.”
I yank her to her feet. The other members stop what they’re doing and watch, but I don’t care. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done you foolish, foolish, foolish girl? Do you understand how much danger you’ve put her into? How many enemies you’ve created for her? How much danger you’ve put yourself into?”
Tears well in her eyes and she shakes her head. “I didn’t mean to. I wanted to get her away from you.”
Nadine catches my eye, and I gesture my head towards the office. “Come with me.”
What have I done? I’ll never forgive myself for not trusting Aubree, and she’ll never forgive me for the way I treated her, and I don’t blame her. Not every woman will betray me the way Rachel had, but I treated Aubree as if she would and didn’t even ask for her side of the story. If anyone deserves to be punished, it’s me.
I want to punch a wall and tear the place apart. I’ve probably ruined the one relationship that would have lasted for the rest of my life.
Once inside the office, I throw a robe towards Joann, and say, “Get dressed.”
Without complaint, the now openly weeping sub does as I ask. A few seconds later, Nadine strides into the room in full Dominatrix mode.
“Care to explain what that was about?” she asks.
I flick my eyes towards Joann who stands with hunched over shoulders and a rounded back. She looks as if she wants to disappear inside herself.
“Would you like to tell Nadine what you’ve done?” I ask shaking with anger. “Would you like to tell her how you broke every rule in the NDA you signed? How you betrayed another member of your sisterhood? How you lied and stole, and drugged someone?”
“Joann! What have you done?” Nadine plants her hands on her hips, her eyes wide with disbelief.
Fat tears fall down Joann’s face. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think. I only wanted Master to want me the way he wanted her.”
I’m unmoved by her tears, and I turn to address Nadine. “Alert the other board members. We’ll have to set up an internal hearing. Joann’s behavior is much worse than revealing the club secrets to outsiders. She stole from another member. She framed an innocent person. And on top of that, she drugged someone. This kind of betrayal and behavior isn’t acceptable.”
“Of course.” Nadine’s expression returns to neutral, but I can tell by the way the muscles in her neck cord, she’s beyond angry.
“My first reaction is to turn you over to the board and have you thrown in jail,” I say.
Joann falls to the floor and lies on her stomach. “Please, Master. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I love you. What I did was wrong. So wrong. I’ll spend forever making it up to you. I’m sorry. So, so sorry.”
“I’m not the one you need to make it up to. I’ll let an internal jury decide what to do with you, because if I have my way I’d throw you onto the streets.”
“Come,” Nadine says. “You, my girl, will rue the day you did this, and it doesn’t matter who your daddy is our how much money you have. You broke some cardinal rules, and now you have to pay.”
Alone in my office, I clench my fists and turn my anger inwards. This is my fault. Yes, Joann leaked the information. But I’m the one who believed Aubree capable of betraying me. I refused to listen to her pleas of innocence choosing to condemn her without conducting a proper investigation.
There’s no way I’ll be able to make this up to her, but I need to talk to her and beg for her forgiveness.
Chapter Nineteen
Aubree
For a Thursday night, Mason’s is empty, and I sit at the sticky bar.
Mike, the owner, comes over and says, “It’s against the law to serve alcohol to anyone under age, but I’ll make an exception for you. I heard about your dad’s troubles. Us guys at the bar are here to help. We got a collection going for him.”
“Thanks, Mike, I appreciate that.”
“What can I get you. Beer?”
“I’m not here to get a drink, although that sounds like a fucking great idea. A few nights ago, my dad said he met a woman here? Do you have any surveillance tapes or do you know anything about her?”
He shrugs and wipes the bar top with a gray dish rag. “Do we look like the kind of place that has cameras? You know how much trouble I’d get into with my customers if they thought I was videoing them.�
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Coming here was a long shot, but it was worth a try. “I figured I’d ask. I think he was cat fished. A few things went missing, and I want to get them back.”
“That sucks.”
“Are you sure you can’t tell me anything about her? Anything at all?”
“Sorry, babe. Thought about going to the police?”
“Nah. This isn’t something for the police, but thanks.”
“Sorry I couldn’t be any more help.” He moves down the bar to serve a customer.
What was I thinking? That I’d come to the bar and Mike would shed some light onto the mystery woman. I slide off the barstool and make my way to the door. I’m all out of options. None of the buildings in this street have surveillance cameras, and even if they did, they wouldn’t share that kind of information with me. Dejected, I go outside and get into Ella’s car.
“Anything?” she asks.
“Nothing.”
She turns over the engine. “I’m going to take you somewhere to cheer you up.”
“Can we go home?”
“We’re going somewhere you can be yourself for a few hours and forget about the real world.”
Exhaustion weighs on my bones. But Ella has been my savior for the past few days, so I reluctantly agree. “Okay, fine. As long as it involves ice cream and no men. Not even Zac Efron.”
Soothing rain beats against the car, I close my eyes and doze off and wake when the car stops moving. We’re in the garage beneath the club. “No way. No way, Ella. Why are we here? If he sees me, I could end up in prison or worse.”
“James called me when you were in the bar. He said Callum wants to talk to you.”
“Are you fucking crazy? There’s nothing else to say. He hates me. He thinks I betrayed him and his precious club.”
“James begged me. He said Callum needs to see you.”
I’m sick to my stomach. I don’t want to listen to anything he has to say. The car door opens, and I look up to see James. He tilts his head in my direction.