by H. Q. Frost
"Because you haven't had sex in almost two weeks?"
"Dom." She shoves my hands out of hers. "You weren't just sex to me. I'm leaving and wanted to start something but knew it'd be stupid. You came back in my life and I had already made the decision to leave so getting deeper just to end it seemed stupid. I shouldn't have let you in at all but you're still my good book, and I'll never stop wanting to write pages with you. I've ruined this book now though and I didn't want to hurt you so I thought I was keeping you at a distance, yet I couldn't stop wanting you." She covers her face and groans.
"Where are you going, Nyla?" I pull her hands down and hold them. "Let me come with you. We'll start somewhere new and I'll prove to you I can be the man you want."
"You are the man I want." She kisses my knuckles. "I've tried to have other men but they were just chapters. You're my entire book, Dom."
"So let me come!" I insist. "Stop closing the fucking book, La."
"I can't." She moves closer and puts her hand to my face before leaning in.
"Nyla." I don't get the rest of my words out because her mouth covers mine and the kiss progresses so quickly that I forget about the fact I don't live alone and shed our clothes right here on the couch.
"Oh, fuck!" CJ screams and I stupidly grab my shirt, trying to cover Nyla as she's straddled butt naked in my lap.
Before CJ exits, he looks back and the grin on his face makes me throw my pants toward the door.
"I forgot about your roommate, Dom." Her face is buried in my neck in humiliation. "I'm used to living alone."
"I forgot about him too because that pussy's too good."
"Dom!" She slaps my arm. "He's gone right?"
"Gone." I stand without disconnecting our bodies and walk to my bedroom, trying to forget about what she was saying before we got carried away in the living room.
There's no way she's just up and moving. I'll make her forget everything she said and hopefully change her fucked up mind.
~~*~~
The light seeping into my room wakes me up but I don't open my eyes. Inhaling heavy, I smell Nyla and grin, reaching out for her. My hand skims empty bed sheet and I crack my eyes to solidarity.
Glancing over my shoulder, the door is closed and I wonder if she got over her fear of seeing CJ after what he walked in on last night. She wouldn't even go get a glass of water last night because she didn't want to bump into him.
I roll to my back and stretch, my eyes catching a piece of paper flopping from my headboard. I grab the paper and something falls onto my face. Picking up her locket from next to my head, my brows scrunch as I open it. It's not my seventeen year old face anymore. It's a picture of us that she snapped on her phone one time after sex. I smirk until I see my name on the folded paper and I open it to few words.
'Everyone deserves the chance to write the pages to their own book. Love's cruel, I'm crueler. You deserve a better ending.'
"No," I blurt flinging to a sitting position.
She wouldn't fucking do this to me. Skip town without telling me where she's going.
"Nyla?" I scream, bolting into the hallway. "Nyla?" I scream, running to the kitchen.
She didn't fucking do this. Why'd she do this? I'm in my bedroom calling her phone and trying to dress at the same time.
Speeding through the streets, I know I need to slow down before I'm pulled over and delayed more, but I can't. I don't see her car in the parking lot of her apartment but I go up anyway. A few more calls just get me to her voicemail and I decide I really don't have much more to lose so I break into her apartment. Losing Nyla again is not an option. All her stuff is still here. Nothing is out of place like she only took what was important.
I show up at her work knowing I shouldn't, but I refuse to let her leave without telling me why. Without explaining why she fucking lied to me all damn night. Is she really that cruel? Did I deserve this sort of payback?
After being told she didn't show up for work, I'm heading to Whitlock Mansion.
"Dom," Rory answers.
"I'm not coming in today," I tell him, watching the red light, contemplating blowing it.
"Why not? I need you at the shop right now, Dom," he says.
"I'm not going to make it in today. I'm sorry, man."
"Where are you?" anger growls his words at me.
"I have to find Nyla." I'm not going to lie to him.
"No, Dom. Go to the shop." Not even the severity in his tone will have me giving up on this.
"No." I laugh whipping around corners. "No offense, Rory, but you're not going to tell me not to do this. Fire me if you have to." I hang up the phone, ignoring when he calls me right back.
My phone starts to ring and I fumble with it when I see mine and Nyla's face on the screen.
"Nyla."
"Where are you?" she asks.
"Where the fuck are you? Don't do this, La. Just fucking talk to me! I'll change. Whatever you need! I'll fucking do it!"
"Dom, calm down," she says. "I'm the one that needs to change. Go to work, Dom."
"How'd you know I'm not at work?" I glance at my phone as a bad feeling comes over me.
"I talked to Rory. Go to work. We'll talk after your shift."
"You're fucking lying," I scream at her, feeling so much pain as panic makes me drive faster. "Nyla, why are you leaving me?"
"I don't have a choice, Dom. I have to go. I love you."
"Nyla," I scream at the phone when she hangs up. "Goddammit." I slam my hands on the steering wheel and whip around the curve that leads to the mansion.
As I approach, there's traffic blocking the gate. There's never traffic on this street. Pulling off to the side, I jump out and walk around the cars, right into the yard that's usually protected by the gate. First recognizable face I see is Rory's, then Tony's, and I open my mouth to call out for him as I pick up my pace. My steps falter when I see Nyla walk out of the house, blood running from her nose and she's being escorted by a man with her hands cuffed behind her back. My gaze shoots to one of the cars I was dodging around and I realize they're all unmarked police vehicles.
"Nyla!" I run for her, but before I get close, I'm stopped by a cop and my eyes lock with Nyla's from a few feet away.
It's a nauseating connection that we've shared once before, minutes before I was shot. This time the roles are reversed. There's apologies in her expression and questions in mine. She's guided into the backseat of a car. Screaming and commotion pull my attention back toward the house and I see Brad being wrestled out the door, screaming obscenities.
"I was set up!" he continues screaming, flailing as they drag him out.
"You can't be here," Tony says, suddenly appearing next to me.
"I don't understand," pathetically comes from me.
"You have to get out of here, right now, Dom. Go home."
"Where're they taking her?"
"She's gone, Dom. Go home now. Before you're arrested." The look on his face is one I know not to question and when the car holding Nyla drives off, I head back for my truck.
"Mom," I blurt when she answers. "What the hell's going on with Nyla?"
"Come over, honey," she calmly says.
"You know?"
"I'll tell you everything I do know."
~~*~~
"Don't talk. Just let me explain what I know," my mom says after I have a breakdown because she didn't spill everything the second I walked in the house. She wants me calm and listening before she begins, and now that I am, I'm losing patience quickly again. "Nyla started some sort of operation. Prescription drugs or something—"
"I know this, mom," I insist, wanting to speed her along.
"Shut up, Dominic. I asked you not to talk," she warns, pointing her angry finger at me. "Her ex-husband took it too far and got them involved in some serious criminal activity. A little over a year ago, Nyla reached out to me."
My brows crunch and she pauses, waiting for me to interrupt but I don't.
"She needed legal help,
but didn't know who to turn to because her ex worked for Seattle PD. I talked to Tony and when he got the details of what was going on, it turned into much more than a simple arrest. It was an opportunity to bring down a big operation."
"Nyla wouldn't do that. She wouldn't be involved in some shit like that."
"Dominic, please just listen." She huffs before sipping her coffee. "Nyla agreed to cooperate until enough evidence was collected to not only arrest Brad but others that were connected to this. It was more people involved in things that a girl like Nyla wouldn't be involved in if Brad hadn't put her there. Well, Tony contacted Rory—"
"Jesus," I groan covering my face as this gets more convoluted than I'd imagined.
This means my mom and Tony knew I accepted that job and I'm starting to wonder what it means for me. When will I be arrested?
"Rory used to work for Seattle Police Department and knew who could be trusted and who couldn't and so they set up a year and half long sting."
"Mom." I look her in the eyes, waiting for her disappointment. "What does this mean? For me?"
"What do you mean? You're still employed, Dom. The job was real. Durante is a real lawn maintenance business. But what it does mean is I'm sorry I pushed you to go to that funeral and run into Nyla."
I stare into her face a few minutes and wait for some sign, but she doesn't know. She has no idea I didn't only work for Durante servicing lawns.
"You didn't force me. And I actually ran into Nyla once before and once after that."
"I wasn't sure if you two would end up back together and I'm sorry you did, honey. I thought maybe you were over it. You were so young when you two had those feelings." She shrugs and looks away guiltily. "You started showing up at her old house, the mansion, where her and her ex lived, and I started to worry you were involved, but then we discovered it was because you two were dating again. When I heard, my heart broke. I knew Nyla would never let you get into any trouble, but I also knew that meant more heart break for you. "
"Mom." I realize there's another part of this I haven't gotten an answer to. "What's going to happen to Nyla? Was she really arrested?"
Her gaze drops to the coffee table separating us and she sighs.
"She did the right thing, but what she was involved with prior to that Brad character dragging her good name through the mud is still illegal. She has to pay for her crimes."
"Fuck," I exhale, feeling like my chest is constricting. "She's going away, isn't she?"
Her head slowly nods and I stand up, not sure I can catch my breath.
"Dom, sit," she insists a few times but I ignore her and quickly walk out the back door, needing air.
She knew she'd be going to prison and would leave me. Thinking back to every time we were together versus when we had time apart it all makes sense. She was trying to push me away but I wouldn't let her. She was fighting us and with very good reason. The truth could have changed everything! But I understand why she didn't. This operation was way bigger than I could prepare for, or that she could protect me from.
The less I know.
Some people might think because I went seven years without the girl, three more won't kill me. Well it hasn't, but I've come damn near close. Especially because she refused to see me. Not just me, but anyone. No return letters, not even sure she got mine. She's humiliated and probably regretting her life, like I did. The most unlikely part of all this is I developed a relationship with her mom. She thought I might be able to talk sense into Nyla. Convince her that shutting us all out wouldn't make this easier. If she refuses to have visitors, and isn't reading my letters, I'm not talking much into her.
Denial hit hard after it happened. I eventually got the whole story after awhile. My mom had some details, Tony had more, Rory had the rest, including the important ones that pertained to me. Like should I prepare for jail time.
The law, my mom, Tony, they never found out I was doing the runs. Knowing I'd be on surveillance at the mansion, Nyla made sure to let it be known we were romantically involved and that was my business there. She wasn't lying when she said she was trying to protect me from herself.
The sting wasn't supposed to go down for at least another year. Police wanted to take down as many people connected as possible, but when things started getting dangerous for Rory, and me and CJ were almost killed a few times, Nyla wanted it over with. The guys screwing with Rory were someone that Brad owed a big debt to, and he wasn't paying fast enough. At that point, Nyla agreed to hold out until December, just five more months, but according to Rory, she worried I would get involved again so she pulled the plug on it all.
Immediately.
There was no warning to anyone until she put herself in a position that the police had no choice but to move in. I haven't gotten the details on that, but from what I'm told, I don't want them. She was almost killed, and it was Brad that almost killed her. He found out she'd been setting him up for half a year and, well, those were the only details I got. Rory says he got what he deserved. I say I would have liked to deliver more than just a ten year sentence. Sure she was fully capable of ending this whole thing sooner, but he twisted her bleeding heart, expanding her intent from the start. She deserves a punishment for what she did, and she got it. I'm not sure she deserved a three year sentence in-house, but her cooperation got what it would have been cut a hell of a lot shorter.
My mom tells me another reason Nyla wanted it over with was because she couldn't stay away from me. She'd say one thing, push me away, then do another. Toward the end, my mind was a clusterfuck and I don't know how much more I could take with her denying me then begging me. Say it was over, then she'd call me over or show up to get us close again. With her in my arms or me buried inside her, I knew she didn't mean the shit she kept trying to convince me of.
Nyla's my book. Good or bad. We belong together and there's no-one else I want messing up my pages.
~~*~~
"You sure you don't mind picking her up?" Her mother's playing with her fingernails like Nyla used to when she got anxious.
"Miranda, I'm picking up Nyla. If you want to come, you're more than welcome. Or I'll ride with you. But I'm going to be there when she walks out of that place."
"I'm just nervous she's going to be…"
"Fine. She'll be fine."
Or broken. Or jaded. Or a lesbian. But none of those things would keep me away.
"You didn't hear her on the phone, Dom. She was not happy talking to me."
Maybe because you testified against her so your husband wouldn't get in any hot water being he had a relation to the pharmacy she stole from.
"But she called you for a ride. She could have just gotten on a bus and never spoke to you again."
And then I'd track her down because she's not getting rid of me. Three years is too long. Seven years is even longer. Add them together and with the exception of the couple months we had together, I've had ten years without ink to my pages. My book ends here. As long as she lets me back in.
"Just go." She gives me a little shove but her fingers grab my shirt again. "Wait. So you promise you'll get her over for dinner? If not today, tomorrow?"
"Yes. Don't forget she hasn't wanted to see me for the past three years either though."
"I don't think she'll mind." That's probably the nicest thing the woman's said to me.
I partially think she blames me for the path Nyla took in life. To say she didn't care when I got arrested at eighteen is an understatement. Not that I cared. I didn't, until she reached out to me, and the woman's such a snob I wonder if Nyla is really her child. She's tolerable. She's Nyla's mom. And she was desperate for my help, and I just liked the fact she realized I'd sooner get through to Nyla than she would. She's had a few shitty comments, but she always manages to redeem herself so I've been tolerating her for the past two years.
"Did you tell her to look for my truck?" I ask before I walk away.
"Dom." She covers her mouth before dropping her hands and inhaling
a deep breath with eyes closed. "I didn't tell her you'd be coming for her. I didn't even tell her we've been in contact. I didn't know what you wanted me to say."
I stare at her a minute, wondering how bad this will go over with Nyla, then I smirk. "I'll send you a text and let you know how it goes."
"Tell her I love her no matter what."
"You can tell her that when you see her later or in the morning." I leave because I can't take the worry on her face anymore.
My palms are sweaty and I'm fighting with a queasy stomach. If she's pissed because I'm here, I'm going to be pissed. I want to be everything to her and if I'm not, I don't know how to deal with that.
I circle the parking lot for almost thirty minutes, waiting for a spot up close because I don't want to go in. It's easier to breathe out here. Her release is at two, but that means she won't actually be walking out until closer to three.
On edge, I jump when my phone rings. "Hey, mom."
"Are you there?" she asks with her smile beaming in her words.
"Yeah. She'll be out soon."
"I'm so happy, honey."
"Me too, mom. I just hope she will be too."
"She will, Dominic. Don't doubt yourself now. You're a catch and she'll be shocked by your changes."
"There were no changes, mom." I chuckle and get out of the truck. "Improvements, goals met, not changes. I've always been this guy, it just took a few reality checks to get here."
"I know, sweetheart. I know better than anyone. You're an amazing man and I'm proud you're my son."
"Thanks, ma. Your support helped me get my shit together." I chuckle.
These are things I should have told my mom sooner because it's the damn truth. Without her, I'd probably be a mess still, digging my hole deeper and deeper. I wouldn't be the man Nyla needs.
"All I did was give you a few dollars, you got the rest."
I stopped mowing lawns for Rory, but not until I had MFW foundation rolling legally, and it wouldn't have happened without a loan from my mom and Tony. It's still a small organization based around helping underprivileged kids and families in need, but I think if Nyla will help me, the foundation will expand. It's not something I'm going to present to her right away. First I have to tell her I emptied her apartment and put everything in the house I bought. It was her mom's idea, and only because she didn't want to hold Nyla's things until she was released. So I first need to present her with the house I bought us. It's no Whitlock Mansion, but there's room for a dog and a new Sestak or two. I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but I've been waiting to start my life with Nyla for ten years now.