Stolen & Fractured

by Cee Smith

  Before I met Hailey, I was obsessed. I had a very singular devotion to finding out the truth about my parents’ disappearance. It became a full-time job for me, aside from trying to keep the business afloat while still attending college. My quest for the truth was damn near debilitating. I shunned all relationships, all distractions, anything that would throw me off my path to finding out what really happened to my parents. Everything changed once I found out I had cirrhosis. My search for a donor temporarily trumped my need for answers, and once I found Hailey, everything changed.

  ***

  “Well, well, well, I was wondering when the famous—or should I say infamous—Dominic Callas would call me.” Sampson’s amused voice rang through the phone as I sat watching the crashing waves. Being out in the fresh air and shining sun seemed to make the call more bearable.

  “As I’m sure you know, I’ve been rather busy.”

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure.”

  “To be honest, you sound rather happy for a man whose company may be losing some very important backing.”

  “If you’re calling me then it’s safe to assume that I’m not at a complete loss. Tell me, are you calling to renegotiate our terms?”

  “Such a change of tone from the man that came to my home ready to go to battle.”

  “Don’t be so sensitive, Dominic. You know it was only business. How was I to know this woman meant so much to you? To be honest, I never would have thought you the type.”

  “The type to what?” I asked.

  “The type to steal or marry. For a man so concerned with appearances, you sure do like to get dirty behind the scenes, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I don’t want to end up like you.”

  “Oh! Touché, touché, my friend.” His exuberant laugh was nauseating, and I gritted my teeth at the fact that I needed to rely on Sampson for anything. Sampson was always patronizing, and I could never tell whether it was a personality flaw or an example of cultural differences. I’d been told I was arrogant, but Sampson took the cake.

  “Let me cut to the chase. You know why I’m calling. Your threat no longer holds the same weight—”

  “Yes, it looks like someone beat me to the punch. It appears your secrets aren’t so secret anymore.”

  “Enough,” I said, growing tired of his underhanded insults. He was taunting me, knowing the reason for my call, yet dragging it out like a cat pawing at a yarn of string.

  I am no one’s fucking string.

  “I could cut our deal with one fucking phone call, but I’m willing to renegotiate the terms. Callas Enterprises would still work with JAS Industries. Marketing will still clean up the company’s image, but profits will now be split 70/30, and assuming you meet my terms, I’ll give you a payout of twenty million.”

  “And what is it you need from me? Because from where I’m sitting twenty million would be less than the 30% I’m losing with these new terms.”

  “You lost your bargaining chip, Sampson. And twenty million is more than enough to invest in something else. Fuck, diversify.” I attempt shaking off my irritation. “I’m looking for someone with…how shall I say this? Your expertise? I would need anywhere from 20–40 men.”

  “Ahh, I see now. Are you looking to move up the ladder in my world?”

  “This is a one-and-done kind of deal.”

  “Sure, sure. Tell me, what does your little kitten have to say to the company you’re keeping these days? I never got a chance to properly congratulate you on such a delectable morsel you scrounged up.”

  “That will be the last time you mention my wife, unless you want to be two balls short of a nutsack.”

  “You’re so sensitive, Dominic. OK. I’ll play nice. I’ll take the deal. I suppose it wouldn’t do me any good to haggle?” He laughed.

  “This isn’t some flea market bargain. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it deal. If you’re taking it then I’ll call you once I know more details, but I could need the men in Greece as early as next week.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Great,” I said before slamming my finger on the end button. It didn’t have the same gratification as slamming a phone, but the relief of being off the phone was the same.

  The deal with Sampson was a necessary evil. I knew that Scout could throw together a team, but it wouldn’t have nearly the amount of people that Sampson could gather at a moment’s notice. If Zephyr had a gang that amounted to anywhere near 100 people, we were going to need all the help we could get. Sampson’s men could handle subduing Zephyr’s henchmen, while Scout’s team could assist in capturing Zephyr. Because that was the real goal—Zephyr captured and at my mercy. I’m not sure how long I sat on the beach that day thinking of all the ways I could torture him. Whatever chosen method wouldn’t be enough to exact revenge for everything he’d put my family through.

  The tension between Dominic and I was thick. We had reached an impasse. Something was definitely going on with him, and yet he chose not to include me. Even after everything that happened in the forest that day, I still wanted nothing more than to have Dominic open up to me. I needed it. Instead of addressing what happened that night or sharing with me what was going on, he chose to spend most of his days at Scout’s house. Some days he left before I even awoke and came back late into the night, once I’d already fallen asleep. It was like being back in the house in South Dakota. After that first time we touched, he’d been absent for weeks while he dealt with his desire for me. I only wished it was the same problem he was having now.

  It was like that night in the forest was a goodbye of sorts. My big send-off. He hadn’t touched me intimately in a week. As each day rolled on, I could see him withdraw even more, until I felt like the phantom that slept in my bed, while I was lost to the world, was no more than a stranger. A man that looked like my husband but was dead inside.

  It wasn’t the lack of sex that frightened me. It was Dominic’s loss of self. I didn’t marry Dominic because of the things he could do to my body. I married him because I loved him, because with him I felt safe and would never have to worry about the truly vile things that happened in the world that he always warned me about. I married him because I couldn’t imagine spending my life without him in it. Dominic may have captured me that day in Queensland, fifty feet underwater, but I was owned the first day he saw me in Mexico. I just didn’t know it at the time.

  I slumped my way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Like the previous days, I woke up to an empty bed, so I was in no hurry to make my way to the kitchen for our usual ritual of breakfast. I missed those mornings in New York, where we caught up with each other before our lives took us in different directions for the day, only to be reunited at night when we were both back in that same exact spot. There was something reassuring in that. Like a boomerang, we kept circling back home where the three of us, and our makeshift family of Scout and Clema, could all catch up.

  Water poured from the nozzle of the tub, drowning out everything except for the drum of water collecting in the bottom of the basin. I tested my hands on the surface. Satisfied, I lowered myself in and stretched out beneath the warmth of the pooling water. My head dropped back against the edge of the bathtub and I closed my eyes as I let the water soothe every ache. Except this wasn’t a muscle pain that would simply dissolve with some hot water and Epsom salt. This was a bone-deep pain that echoed through every cell of my body—from the tips of my hair to the bottoms of my feet—an untreatable pain because it’s origin couldn’t be located. It simply existed everywhere and nowhere.

  I sat in the tub, my attention torn between the water that rocked in the tub and the large window to my right that looked out across the forest on the left and the pathway leading to the beach on the right. Above the treetops was a blinding blue sky with ripples of white threaded across the skyline. The window was one-sided, so anyone passing by wouldn’t be able to see me bathing. I was thankful for this little luxury, but wasn’t too sure if it was even needed anymore. After Dom
inic’s adventure out in the open last week, who knew if any of the others came across me strung up, dripping with a combination of lust and tears while I waited for the one man that would make them both worth it.

  I looked back out the window to watch the trees sway with a slight uptake in wind. Wisps of sand pulled up from the ground as a small funnel of air circled about before dissipating completely. I felt like those grains of sand, my emotions being whipped around in a vacuum. With Dominic, I could never hold onto one feeling for too long before another one would swoop in and dominate me. Even at that moment, I was a confused mess of muddled emotions as I thought about the progression of Dominic’s and my relationship and every moment, every decision that led us to this very place—me, alone in a bathtub, with no idea where my husband was, halfway around the world, hiding from a mass of people intent on burrowing themselves into our private lives.

  The sound of the door opening pulled me from my thoughts and I looked up to find Dominic standing in the doorway, watching me like I imagined all of the other times he’d watched me, unbeknownst to me. My hands swirled across the top of the water, pulling the bubbles lining the surface up higher along my chest and arms. I didn’t really know what possessed me to shield myself from him, maybe it was the way he could see right through me. How he knew everything I was thinking or feeling with just a glance. Whatever the reason, no amount of suds would be able to protect me from his unwavering gaze.

  “Hi,” he said as his body leaned against the frame of the door. He looked larger than life as his body absorbed all of the space separating the bathroom from the bedroom. I couldn’t see beyond his wide chest and muscled arms, hidden behind a long-sleeved black henley. His arms folded across his chiseled pecs, exaggerating the look of every muscle from his waist up. It felt like the water shot up ten degrees at the sight of him waiting, watching. I pulled myself from the fog of lust long enough to respond.

  “Good morning. I didn’t think you were still here,” I replied in a demure voice.

  “I’m checking in with Scout in a little bit, thought I would get in some time with you before I go.”

  I wasn’t so sure that we were still talking about him leaving to Scout’s house for the day or somewhere else entirely. I never got past that conversation he had with Clema about leaving again, but they never brought it up around me, and I was too afraid to ask for fear that Dominic would tell me a blatant lie. I wasn’t ready to face him head-on yet.

  “Well there’s enough room for the both of us.” I scooted forward allowing him a glimpse of the space he could occupy as soon as he stripped himself down and climbed in.

  “That’s all right. I don’t mind just sitting with you. Would you like the company?”

  “Always,” I said with a faint smile. He pulled up the sleeves of his shirt until they bunched around his elbows. His forearms looked smooth, even beneath the fine hairs that curved around the slab of muscle that tightened and flexed with every pull of his sleeves.

  He pulled up a small footstool and sat down just outside of where I sat in the bathtub.

  “Did you just get in?” he asked, dipping his hand beneath the surface of the water. He didn’t make any sudden move to touch me, but the look in his eyes did enough. His eyes flashed a hunger I was all too familiar with as my nipples peeked through the white foam that was now randomly splattered across my breasts and torso.

  “Yes,” I hissed, that familiar need coiling within my body until only the exhale of that word would make me feel relieved. I thought I felt the lust mirrored in his own body, but he just leaned forward and politely asked for the soap as if I wasn’t naked and dripping with want. I handed him the bar, somewhat confused, and watched as he glided the soap between his hands, working up a lather between those large palms that were filling up with suds. Soap bubbles slid down his forearm, reminiscent of the come that dripped out of me after a good fucking.

  “Head back, chest up,” he said as he put the soap on the side of the tub. It wasn’t until I met his eyes that it clicked that he planned on washing me. I did as he said, letting my head fall back against the rim of the tub while I thrust my breasts forward until they were lifted above the waterline. His hands touched down behind my ears, swooping slow circles around the column of my neck and across my shoulders.

  “What did you have planned today?”

  I tried to focus on his question more than the feel of his strong hands gripping and pulling, kneading and rubbing across my breasts. My nipples sprung up like a cranked jack-in-the-box, but he continued washing me as innocently as one would a child. The only sexual tension that existed lay in the depths of his eyes.

  “Nothing much. I’m probably going to go down to the beach with Jessa and Ellie. Although, it’s looking like the wind has picked up, so I don’t know yet.”

  “The weather should even out in an hour or so,” he said lifting his head to glance outside the window as if to affirm his statement.

  “What’s the deal with Jessa and Scout?” he asked out of left field. Dominic wasn’t one to meddle around in others’ relationships, especially gossip, so I was a bit surprised that he voiced his curiosity.

  “I’m not too sure. I’ve been meaning to ask her myself. I know they grew close after your surgery—”

  “How did that happen?”

  “I mean, I don’t know how close, but I noticed that he kind of went out of his way to visit her while she was recovering. At first I thought he was doing it to, you know, say thank you, but after she visited around Christmas, I caught some looks. I even saw him smiling at her. I don’t think I’d ever seen Scout smile. At least not in the couple months we were at the cabin.”

  He picked the soap back up with a slight grimace marring his face.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I thought I saw her leaving his bungalow the other morning.” His statement had me forgetting all about his hands crisscrossing over my stomach.

  “Wait. You mean? Like, did she just pop over for coffee, or…”

  “Well they may have had coffee. I didn’t ask. It makes me uncomfortable enough as it is.”

  “I can’t believe she hasn’t said anything to me.” What else was I missing because I was too wrapped up in my own problems?

  “Maybe there isn’t anything to say.”

  “Well if she’s leaving his house at any time of day, there’s something to say. What about that makes you ‘uncomfortable’?”

  “You mean besides the fact that she’s my sister-in-law and he’s…like family?”

  “Family? You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you refer to Scout that way.” He grabbed my foot and twisted my body around until my feet were dangling between his legs over the side of the tub. He massaged his lathered hands between my toes and across the bottom of my feet and I fought every ounce of need pounding through my veins at the feel of his hands rubbing the tension from my heels.

  “Is it really something that needs to be said? We’ve worked together over ten years, day in and day out. Of course, we’re going to be close.”

  “Stand up,” he ordered, shutting down any reply I had in response to his declaration of his and Scout’s closeness. I found it endearing. I knew how he felt about me and Ellie and even Clema, but I thought that had more to do with the fact that we actually were family and we were women so it made it easier for him to feel like we needed him, but I thought it was sweet that Dominic felt that way about Scout, too.

  I didn’t know much about Scout. He had always been pretty closed off, choosing not to share too much of his life before Dominic. Aside from him also being an only child and that he once served in the military, I knew far less than anyone else in that household. Then again, Scout wasn’t the soft and cuddly type that liked hanging out and sharing details of his life. I wondered if he was the same way with Jessa. I couldn’t imagine that she would go for that. Jessa was too nosy. Nothing was off-limits for her, so at the first sign of him shutting down the conversation, she would pounce like a
lion on a gazelle. Good riddance to them both. That seemed like a relationship that would frustrate the hell out of me—too much back and forth.

  Standing, I fought the urge to hide the apex of my thighs behind my pruning hands. Dominic’s face was eye-level with my mound, and while he was just bathing me, I felt like that didn’t stop my body from signaling my need for more. Could he smell my desire lingering in the air? Perhaps that was the reason for his tense hands sliding up my legs. He stopped right outside my folds.

  “That area’s got to get cleaned, too,” I said as I bit my lip, waiting for his reply. He didn’t say anything as his eyes met mine. My lower back tightened and my thighs clenched with expectancy. He was right there, with eyes and hands primed for more. All he would need to do would be to spread me open and take his fill. I even felt my hips shift forward, in a not so subtle attempt to sway him to partake in the one thing that I knew he really wanted.

  “I’ve missed that saucy mouth of yours,” he said with a wry smile. His hands moved robotically through my folds, washing me without lust, without lingering.

  “You wouldn’t miss it if you’d come around more often.” I couldn’t hold back the truth of those bitter words that I held clutched to my chest every time I awoke alone.

  “Turn around.” He slapped my hip twice, prompting me to follow his directive, and that was the end to the question portion of my bath time. I pivoted, facing the direction of the window. I stood staring beyond the window to the wisp of clouds passing the sky as Dominic finished washing me. When I was completely soaped down, he rinsed me off with the shower hose, washed my hair, and helped me out of the tub. He wrapped me in a fluffy towel, drying me down, even going so far as to towel dry my hair.

  Dominic sat on the bed watching me as I moved around the room. I grabbed my underwear from the drawer, putting them on, before I moved to the closet to pull on some jeans, a shirt, and a cardigan. I dragged my clothes on. All the while, Dominic watched. He watched me like I remembered watching my mom get ready for work when I was a little girl—taking in the way her fingers danced across rows of jewelry until she found the perfect necklace to match the neckline of her dress.