by Lisa Bilbrey
“Flora!” Elle gasped.
“I want Daddy. Where’s Daddy?” she cried.
“Daddy isn’t here, so stop and let me help you.” Elle reached for her again, but Flora pulled away. “Flora, stop right now.”
“No, you think I’m lying. Daddy never calls me a liar.”
“Flora Hope, that’s enough,” Sadie said, placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder and gently pushing her onto the couch. She picked up the remaining shoe and knelt in front of the small girl. “Mommy did not call you a liar, but if you had really looked under your bed, and I mean looked really, really hard, you would have found your shoes the first time, wouldn’t you?”
“Guess so,” she mumbled.
“I think you owe Mommy an apology.”
Flora sighed rather dramatically as she tilted her head backward and looked up at Elle. “I’m sorry, Mommy.”
“I forgive you,” she said, quietly. “And I am sorry if I made you feel like I was calling you a liar. That was not my intention.”
“What’s intention mean?” Flora asked, her face crinkling in confusion.
“It means I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was calling you a liar, sweet girl,” Elle explained.
“Oh, okay, then I forgive you, Mommy.”
“Thank you.” Elle gripped her cane tight as she stood up. “Now, we really need to hurry or you’re going to be late to school.”
They pulled up in front of the school just two minutes before the tardy bell was scheduled to ring. Sadie rushed the girls inside and left them in the hands of the hall monitor, who would make sure they got to their classroom.
“Do you think they’ve found him?” Elle asked, biting the inside of her lip as she pulled back into traffic.
“No,” Sadie replied, quietly. “They would have called if they had.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“Cutting it kind of close, weren’t you?” Ivy teased as she, Sadie, and Elle walked out of the building.
Elle tried to smile, but couldn’t find the strength to fake it. “Sorry, long morning. Leigh called from Georgia. Thomas never made it.”
“What?” Ivy gasped. “Where is he?”
“They don’t know,” Sadie said, sliding her arm around Elle’s waist.
From behind Ivy, Elle spied a couple of the other mothers watching them, frowning, gawking with disapproval. She resisted the urge to flip them the finger. Who were they to judge her?
“We know he picked up his ticket and headed toward his gate, but we don’t know where he went from there,” Sadie explained. “It’s odd, isn’t it? He was so excited to be back with her and Ty. I just didn’t think he’d run out on them.”
“Is that what you think happened?” Ivy wondered, placing her hand on her hip.
“No,” Elle said as Sadie replied with an airy, “Who the hell knows.”
“Sadie!” Elle exclaimed. “Thomas won’t have left them, not after spending the last several weeks working his butt off to get the diner and house sold.”
“You’re probably right,” she said, quietly. “But we don’t know anything for sure.”
“I do,” Elle said with more force than intended. “Thomas would not have voluntarily left them, Sadie. He loved them too damn much.”
“Okay, okay, calm down before we get in trouble,” she said, sliding her arm from around her waist and placing her hand on Elle’s shoulder. She turned to Ivy. “We’d better get to the office.”
“Okay. Let me know if you hear anything, all right? Please?” Ivy took a few steps toward her car. “Anything at all.”
“Sure, no problem,” Sadie said before turning to Elle. “I’m sure he’s fine, Elle.”
Though, Elle knew Sadie didn’t believe that any more than she did, she let it go. Thomas had to be okay. He had lovers who needed him.
—FA—
When Elle and Sadie stepped off the elevator on the tenth floor of Davis Architecture and Design, Elle was surprised to find two police detectives waiting for them. Both were under thirty years old. The first a male with dark black hair, just enough facial stubble to make him attractive, and dark brown eyes. His partner was a woman with shortly cropped blond hair, bright blues eyes, and stood a solid two inches taller than him.
“Can I help you?” Elle asked, her fingers tightening around her cane.
“Are you Elle Davis?” the woman asked.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Detective Amelia O’Reilly,” she said, flashing her badge toward them. “This is my partner: Detective Michael Benson.”
“Ma’am, is there somewhere private we can talk?” Detective Benson asked, also flashing them with her badge.
“Of course,” Elle said, sharing a look with Sadie before shifting her attention to Greta. “Hold my calls unless it’s Callum or Derek, please.”
“Okay.”
Elle and Sadie led the detectives down the hallway to Elle’s office, closing the door behind them. “What can I help you with today?”
“We were hoping to speak to you alone, Mrs. Davis,” Detective Benson stated, his eyes shifting to Sadie.
“She stays,” Elle insisted and when he started to argue with her, she held her hand up. “No, Sadie is my wife and she stays. If you don’t like it, I can give you the number of my attorney.”
Which was a lie, of course. Elle didn’t have an attorney, but knew Bruce or Claudia would take the case if needed, or at least direct her to someone who would handle the police.
“Very well.” He sighed and placed his hand on his hip. “We’re looking into the disappearance of Thomas Warner. We understand he was a close friend of yours.”
“There’s still no sign of him?” Elle asked, heartbroken, though she wasn’t surprised. Callum and Derek would have called if they’d found him.
“No,” Detective O’Reilly said. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“Yesterday afternoon, around five o’clock. We had driven him to the airport. We said goodbye and waited until he passed through security before we left.”
“And who is we?” Detective Benson asked.
“Me, Sadie,” she said, gesturing to the woman standing next to her. “And our husbands, Callum and Derek Davis.”
“And you never wandered off on your own? To use the ladies’ room, or anything?” Detective O’Reilly pressed.
“Nope,” she said. “I was with them the entire time. Are you asking for my alibi?”
“No,” she responded quickly — a little too quick in fact. “We’re just trying to track Mr. Warner’s footsteps.”
“So why are you talking to her?” Sadie asked. “Shouldn’t you be searching for him?”
“We are, Mrs. Davis,” Detective Benson answered, a sharp tone lacing his words. “We have witnesses that saw Mr. Warner in the presence of a woman matching Elle’s description.”
“Oh, please, there have to be hundreds of women inside that airport with long brown hair,” Sadie scoffed.
“How many of them use a maple cane with a green marble handle?” Detective O’Reilly challenged. “Can’t be too many of them, can there?”
“Maybe not, but Elle never wandered from us,” Sadie argued. “I don’t know who this woman with Thomas was, but I can assure you that it wasn’t Elle. I suggest you go out and search for her and leave my wife alone.”
The two detectives shared a look before they nodded and walked out of Elle’s office, closing the door behind them. The minute they were gone, Elle scrambled around her desk and dropped into her chair, yanking her phone off the cradle and calling Callum, but his phone rang several times before going straight to his voice mail.
“What the hell is going on?” Elle’s voice broke as she shifted her eyes to Sadie, who was seated on the small, black sofa on the far side of the office. “They think I did something to him, don’t they?”
“That’s certainly how it sounded,” Sadie admitted. “Which is ridiculous, of course. You would never hurt Thomas.”
“Or anyone,” Elle muttered mostly to herself. “First, that woman gives me a note calling me a whore and next, Thomas disappears. What the fuck is going on, Sadie?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart,” she whimpered. “But I don’t like it. Not at all.”
Six
One day went by and then two, three, and before Elle knew it, a week had passed, and Thomas still hadn’t been found. Callum and Derek arrived at the office just before lunch. No sign of Thomas had been found at the diner or the house.
Leigh and Tyson had arrived back in the city the night the police questioned Elle. Though they were outraged that the police treated her like a suspect, she caught them looking at her strangely and it didn’t help that they refused her invitation to stay with them until Thomas could be found.
Every news network in the city had picked up his story and it hadn’t taken long before surveillance video from the airport had been leaked showing Thomas in the company of a woman who, from the distance, could have been Elle, as the police were assuming. Down to the cane in her right hand.
It hadn’t appeared that Thomas was being led away against his will, but the quality of the video wasn’t great. Who had Thomas met at the airport and why had he followed her away from his terminal? Elle had a bad feeling that shit was about to get real.
“Oh, fuck, Derek, baby, don’t stop.”
Elle was in the bathroom when she heard Sadie cry out from inside their bedroom. She tightened her grip on her cane and limped back into their room, where she found Sadie lying flat on her back with Derek between her legs.
His ass was sticking up in the air, almost like he was inviting her to fuck him. He probably was, but before she could move, she felt Callum’s arm wrap around her from behind. His lips pressed against the side of her neck, causing her to moan.
“Does watching him eat her pussy make you wet, honey?” he whispered, sending a shiver through her.
“Yes,” Elle admitted, biting the inside of her lip as Callum’s fingers crept inside the pale blue, silk robe she was wearing. His fingers toyed with the edge of her lacy panties, just enough to tease her. “Cal.”
“What do you want, Elle? Hmm? Do you want my fingers inside you? My tongue?” he asked, his lips brushing the outside of her ear. “My cock? Hmm? Do you want my cock inside of you, baby?”
“Yes,” she whimpered, releasing her cane and reaching up behind her and gripping the back of his head. “Please!”
“Hold on.”
And before she could get a hold of the doorjamb, he ripped her panties off, gripped her hips, and thrust himself inside her.
“Oh, fuck,” she cried out, trying to grab onto the wood framing around the door.
“Told you to hold on, baby,” he chuckled, sliding one of his hands around her waist. “You ready for more?”
Elle laughed weakly. “Always, lover, always.”
Callum started thrusting in and out, starting slowly but increasing his pace. On the bed, Sadie and Derek had moved into a sixty-nine with her on top. She was grinding her hips against his mouth while sucking his cock like a champ.
The vision of them on the bed, the feeling of Callum inside her, his fingers digging into her skin as he fucked her, had her on edge, but she fought against the release building. She wanted this moment to last longer, to savor the feeling of being with her lovers.
“Let go, Elle,” Callum ordered. “Come on, baby, let go and come for me.”
“I . . .” Elle whimpered, her chest heaving.
“Now!” he demanded. “Come now!”
Crying out, Elle shuddered, her orgasm overtaking her. Her legs gave out on her, but Callum kept her from falling as he held her, thrusting once, twice, a third time before stilling his hips and coming inside her.
He leaned his head against her shoulder and laughed, the warmth of his breath against her heated skin had goosebumps erupting.
“You’re so damn responsive, Elle,” he murmured, kissing her shoulder. “Let’s go shower while they finish each other off.”
“Okay,” Elle whispered, bracing herself before he released her.
Callum grabbed her cane off the floor and helped her back into the bathroom. She stripped off her robe while he turned on the water, making sure the temperature was perfect. Sliding his arm around her waist, he held onto her as she stepped inside, sighing when the warmth caressed her skin.
“Don’t start making those sounds, or we’ll never get to work,” Callum teased before kissing her passionately. “I love you.”
Elle felt her cheeks warm as she bit the inside of her lip and leaned against him. “I love you more.”
“Not possible.”
“Very possible.”
“Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree,” he laughed, placing his hand on the back of her head and gently tugging her head backward.
—FA—
“Willow, stop playing with your pancakes and eat,” Callum said, giving his daughter, a look before shifting his attention to Elle, who was perched behind her laptop. “Babe, eat.”
“Huh? Oh, I am,” she mumbled, embarrassment filling her cheeks as she popped a bite of her own pancakes into her mouth. “Sorry, I just need to read through this report again before I submit it.”
“Didn’t you do that last night?” Sadie asked, sipping on her coffee.
She and Derek had stumbled into the bathroom just as Elle and Callum finished their shower. Now, she was seated at the breakfast table with them and Derek was getting ready to leave for a meeting across town.
“Yeah, but you know how I am,” Elle quipped. They often teased her for her OCD ways when it came to her work. She not only doubled and tripled check her reports, but she always reviewed them a fourth time before she hit send. All it would take was one mistake and her employees would question her ability to run the company.
“I do.” Sadie shook her head and took one more sip of her coffee. “You’ve wasted enough time, girls. Put your plates in the dishwasher and go brush your teeth. We’ve got to hurry.”
Flora and Willow groaned, but did as Sadie told them. Five minutes later, she and Callum had them loaded into his car and left to take them to school while Elle headed to the office. She had a meeting with Samuel over one of his new projects.
Ever since the police questioned her over Thomas’s disappearance, things at the office had been tense. She wanted to believe that her employees knew better than to think she actually had something to do with his disappearance, but she couldn’t be sure. People were funny when they thought their jobs were in danger.
Samuel was waiting for her inside her office when she arrived. It still struck her as odd when she saw him on the guest side of the desk instead of the in the boss’s seat.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “It’s not even half past seven yet.”
“Lydia suggested that I should start every morning with a nice protein shake. You know, since I’m getting older and everything. Except, it tastes like ass and makes me want to gag, so I left before she got up.”
Elle laughed. “How do you know what ass tastes like?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Samuel wiggled his eyebrows.
“Ew,” she grimaced. “No, thank you.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“So, why are you in my office and not, say, in yours?”
“Just remembering the good ole days when I ran this place.”
“Aw, do you miss being the boss?” Elle teased.
“Hell no,” he laughed. “I honestly don’t know how you do it all.”
“What? You did it before me.”
“Not even close,” he scoffed. “We had maybe three-fourths of the accounts we have now, and I could barely keep up then.”
“Whatever.” Elle snorted and dropped her briefcase onto her desk. “I’m going to grab a quick cup of coffee and then we can get started, okay?”
“Sure, no rush, Elle.”
Elle always thought the office was eeril
y quiet when nobody else was there. She hurried down to the breakroom and started a pot of coffee, straightening the counter and refilling the sugar and sweeteners while she waited for the coffee to brew. It was well-known around the office that Elle didn’t like anyone else making the coffee, at least not until she’d gotten her first cup.
With two sugars and a splash of honey, she stirred her coffee and tossed the straw in the trash before picking up the cup Samuel had given her last year for Christmas. The navy-blue ceramic cup had the words “Head Bitch” written in large, white block letters. He had had to put a dollar into the swear jar and Elle had to pay ten dollars after she let out a string of vulgarities that had the girls both shocked and in fits of hysterical laughter.
Samuel was still seated in the same chair when she reentered her office, but he had his cell phone out and was smiling.
“Let me guess? Lydia texted you a picture of the shake you didn’t drink this morning?”
Samuel smirked, his eyes shifting up to her. “More like the shake I can have tonight, if you catch my drift.”
Elle grimaced for the second time in his presence. “I thought men were supposed to lose their sex drive when they became elderly?”
“I’m hardly elderly,” he groused. “And if you had a wife as hot and sexy as mine, you’d never lose your sex drive.”
“Are you saying Sadie isn’t hot and sexy?”
“No, of course not,” he stammered.
“So, you do think she is hot and sexy?”
“Well, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t,” he rambled before huffing. “Stop trying to get me in trouble!”
“Like you need help,” she laughed.
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Can I pitch you my project now?”
Elle placed her coffee on her desk before sitting down and leaning her cane against the edge. She leaned back in her chair and waved at him. “Go ahead.”
“Thank you,” he replied curtly. “A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Neil Harris from The Bridge Foundation. He has just received an anonymous donation to be used to build a children’s home down in Big Sur. He would like for us to design it.”