“Please are you going to come and get me?” I couldn’t help it I grabbed onto him until he had to pry my hands off. Still he didn’t answer and I felt like the lowest form of life. What had I done?
***
CALLAN
She’s gone. I sent her away for her own good. If I hadn’t I might’ve done something we’d both regret. A Dom must have great self- control; I kept reminding myself of that fact as I sat there with the glass of cognac in my hand.
How the fuck had the evening come to this? What the fuck had possessed her? Was it a test? Was she trying to see how far she could go?
I would never have expected that from her, shows how the fuck much I knew. The panties were bad enough, and though I would brook no disobedience, that offense in itself was not enough grounds for banishment. The rest of it though, showed very poor judgment on her part and that was a dangerous thing.
Instead of trying to make amends for a mistake on her part, she dug in and reacted badly to my displeasure. Was I at fault? Was this my doing? Maybe, we could both use some time apart apparently, to get back on track.
She knows that I won’t accept anything less than total submission, I’ve told her often enough, and she swore she understood and I saw for myself that she needed it, needed the stringent structure in her daily life.
A perfect match or so I thought, and what the fuck was she doing flirting with that boy? I couldn’t go break his face because he was really just a kid, but I think it was high time I had words with the little prick.
Not tonight though. I was too sick to my stomach to care about anything else right now. I’d failed somehow her failure was my own, her behavior a reflection of me.
She’d be almost home by now, no not home, home is with me. But she’d be almost to her parents place and I was almost tempted to call the pilot and tell him to bring her back.
I knew she must be hurting I’d seen the look of betrayal in her eyes, it had almost changed my mind but in the end this was for the best. It was best she knew now when our union was still relatively new that I had no tolerance whatsoever for disobedience.
It was as much about her safety as it was my need to be in control. Tonight I wanted to hurt her after the way she behaved. Not just a harsh spanking that would redden her ass and leave her bruised for a week.
I wanted to fuck her until she hurt while choking the fuck out of her. That was my fucking no fly zone. I could’ve kept her here I guess and waited until I calmed down to dole out her punishment, but her fuck up was no small thing.
Drinking without permission, flirting openly with other men and almost as bad, getting loud in fucking public. When my baby decided to fuck up she went all the way.
I returned to our home the next day after the worst night of my life since the night I’d got the news of gramps passing. I walked around trying to remember what the place had felt like before she’d come into it but I couldn’t. I stopped myself from calling to check up on her more than once.
When I’d called and spoken to her dad, I hadn’t told him anything more than that the first part of her job was finished and I thought it was a good idea that she came out to spend some time with them before heading off to Europe.
I have no idea what she planned to tell them once she was there that was totally up to her. I’m pretty sure they knew we were involved sexually, there had been times when they’d called early in the morning and I’d just rolled over and handed her the phone.
Then again, maybe that’s why they’d been calling my house phone at the ass crack of dawn to filch out our sleeping arrangements.
By day two, I was pissed as hell at her for making me send her away. I couldn’t concentrate on work, nothing held my interest for more than a couple seconds and I was short with everyone.
That night, I finally decided to go deal with one of my problems. Marion was going to take more work. But Josh yeah, it was more than past time that I dealt with him.
I can’t say that I blame him for anything that happened, she’s the one that was doing all the flirting, but the fucker was always sniffing around her. That’s something I was going to put an end to once and for all.
I could always have him removed from the campaign but for some fucked up reason, I didn’t really want to hurt the kid for doing that comes naturally. Had he been older and more experienced, I would’ve already knocked him on his ass, but I was young once.
I figured I’d go have a little talk with him once and for all. Lay everything out for him so there’s no room for mistakes and if he persisted in the future, I’d have every right to beat the shit out of him kid or not.
He was subletting a walk-up in SoHo. Just a twenty-minute drive this time of the evening so I decided to drive myself.
After this, I was going to deal with Marion once and for all, that’s if she hadn’t decided to move on since I hadn’t heard anything out of her corner since we’d gone to L.A. maybe she had given up and decided to move on.
The place was in a decent enough neighborhood that I didn’t mind leaving my car parked for the ten minutes or so it was going to take me to say what I’d come here to say.
He opened the door on the second knock and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw me. I pushed him back and closed the door behind me. I had no plans to be here longer than was necessary so I just got right the fuck to it.
Wrapping my hand around his throat I pushed him into the wall. “Stay the fuck away from Gabriella, this is your only warning.” I turned to leave the way I came.
“Why should I?”
“Kid are you really in that much of a hurry to die?” I looked back at him and something about him struck me as odd.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something else going on here that was totally lost on me. I wasn’t going to figure that shit out today however and I had shit to do.
I reached for the door handle reminding myself once again that he was just a kid and I couldn’t maim his ass for being stupid, I’m just not wired that way.
“It’s not what you think you know.”
“Okay I’ll bite what’s not what I think it is?”
“Me and Gabriella…”
“There is no you and Gabriella kid get that shit out of your head before you lose it.” Was he trying to piss me the fuck off?
“That’s not what I mean. I meant, I’m not interested in her that way and she isn’t either.” He held his hands up and backed away as I walked back into the room.
“If that’s true why the fuck have you been sniffing around her?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He gave a very sinister laugh for one so young. I walked back and sat across from him.
There was a kind of sadness around him that was hard to miss. I wonder why I never noticed it before? I didn’t want to start feeling sorry for this kid. He’s a pain in my ass.
“Spill it kid.”
“It’s my mother, or the woman who gave birth to me anyway. She threw me away, so when I learned that she was so interested in someone else’s kid I decided to get close to that kid. I wasn’t sure what exactly I had planned, I was too angry when I found out the truth, but then I met Gaby and it was kinda hard to hate her.”
“You’ve lost me kid what the fuck are you talking about?”
“Marion, she’s my mother.” I sat back in my chair.
“That can’t be she’d have had to be…
“Fifteen; she was fifteen when she had me and gave me to an aunt to raise.”
“Damn; still, fifteen is kinda young to be a mom and it’s not like she abandoned you or gave you to strangers, you said she gave you to an aunt?”
“Yes but there were stipulations. My aunt and uncle would raise me as theirs giving her the chance to go out in the world and follow her dreams. I was to be told the truth by a certain age and she was supposed to come back for me when she became a success. She never looked back.
When I found out the truth at sixteen I started plotting then
. I did good in school, even went on to her alma mater.
I studied everything there was to know about her so I could one day destroy her. You see, the aunt and uncle grew tired of taking care of the unwanted whelp and they started taking out their frustrations on me.
I blamed her for every kick, every punch, and every time I was sent off to bed without supper.
Then I found out about Gaby, funny we grew up one town apart and never met. I didn’t let on to her that we had anything in common.
I just wanted to get close to her, to see why it was that my own mother who had abandoned me, was wiling to take her in and give her a shot. It was easy enough getting the job, I did some modeling in college and the rest is history.
Only, after meeting Gaby I couldn’t hurt her. Do you know she refuses to say a bad word about that bitch even after everything she tried to do to her?
The girl is one in a million, if she wasn’t so stupid over you I would’ve maybe given it a shot after all.”
He gave me a cheeky grin and I found it hard not to return it. “Does your, does Marion know that you’re here?”
“Nope, and the night of the party at the Plaza I walked right up to her and struck up a conversation and she had no clue who I was.
I almost let the cat out of the bag when she started hitting on me though; that shit creeped me out.”
“How did you find out about Marion and Gabriella?”
“My aunt told me, apparently her mother can’t stop singing my bitch mother’s praise about how she was going to help her little girl become a star. My aunt was not amused as you can imagine.
So I hotfooted it here from Cali to see what was going on. It was way ahead of schedule, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Imagine my surprise when I heard through the grapevine that she was a rank bitch to the girl.
I hadn’t met Gaby yet of course, but from what I’d heard she was a pretty nice girl.”
“And who told you that?”
“I can’t tell you all my secrets now can I?”
“So you came here to what, destroy your mother?”
“Oh please, don’t call that female that. I know dogs that have more mothering instincts.”
“Why not just confront her with the truth once you got here, why all this sneaking around?”
“Because that’s too easy, I want her to pay. Yes she was young when she had me, but she made promises and she made something of herself yet she never once looked back I was a distant memory to her if that.
She didn’t care about me, not one card or a phone call; how do you think that made me feel as a kid? And then to hear that she’s helping someone else, someone not much younger than I, it was a slap in the face.
And my aunt with her twisted self was only too happy to rub it in. I wonder how come I didn’t turn out bat-shit crazy like those two?”
I just raised my brow at that because the jury was still out on that one. He saw my look and laughed.
“I’m not crazy Mr. O’Rourke, just a very determined and very pissed off young man who means to get his pound of flesh.
If she had turned out to be a halfway decent person maybe I would’ve given her a break. But it’s hard to realize that she’s just a mean nasty bird who throws people away like Kleenex.
That’s why she’d obsessed with you, you were the first one to throw her aside must’ve twisted her panties in a knot.”
“How do you know that she wasn’t the one who left me?”
“Hah, like I said I’ve done my homework? I almost wish I hadn’t started this though knowing that I have part of that in me is very scary.
I out grew my aunt and uncle and their abuse, that is to say I rose above it somehow, because I was smart and I had an out, but there’s no way of getting away from genes.
“Did you ever think of finding your dad?”
“Wouldn’t know where to start, the bitch never said who he was and after all my digging I still can’t find a trace.
It seems the prim and proper Marion was a bit of a slut in high school. Only she kept her slutty ways well hidden from the people in her own small community. She preferred to spread her legs and her charms a few towns over.”
“There are still ways, I’m sure I can dig something out.”
“Why would you?’
“Fuck if I know, for some fucked up reason I like you kid.
So what are your plans after the campaign is over?”
He shrugged his shoulder. “I don’t know, look for an entry level position in my chosen field I guess. I kinda like New York.”
“And what might that be?”
“Magazine editor.” The laugh was the first I’d had in a long time. He looked at me like I’d lost my shit and I very well might have from the thoughts going through my head.
I pulled a card from my wallet and passed it to him.
“Come see me tomorrow.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s my card what the hell does it look like?”
“Yes, I know, but why are you giving it to me?”
“I might have a job for you.” I laughed again because I think a bit of his craziness might’ve rubbed off.
“What’s so funny?”
“Do you know what your mother’s last job was before I fired her?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So don’t you find it strange that you’ve followed the same career path?”
“I happen to be very good at what I do, I’ll have you know I was the editor on the school paper and chief student editor at Berkeley thank you very much.”
“I’ll be checking out those credentials so they better be on the up and up.”
“I don’t understand; you don’t mean, you can’t be serious.” Now he was the one howling with laughter.
“She’d kill us both, oh damn, I’d like to be a fly on the wall when that happens oh…but wait, it’s no fun if she doesn’t know why I’m doing it, fuck that we need a plan.”
And just like that I got drawn into his shit. Why the fuck didn’t I stay in my house that night?
Chapter 30
CALLAN
“I think you need to go get Gaby.”
“Kid I told you already I’ll go get her when I’m damn good and ready, now leave it alone.
“Stubborn as a two headed mule that’s your problem.”
“You want help with this or not?”
“Fine, fine be that way but I’m telling you you’re being a dick.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“I don’t know what that sweet girl sees in you anyway. I mean apart from the good looks, the money, the flashy cars, oh yeah maybe that’s it.
No that’s not her style¸ there must’ve been something else that she saw that’s long gone now because I sure the hell don’t see it. You’re mean ornery and just plain…”
“Joshua shut up and let’s finish this.” I was trying to help him get ready to go before the board. It was just a formality because I’d already made up my mind, but I wanted him to go trough the whole spiel.
His little plot against Marion was coming to a head and it was soon time for me to go get my girl. I hadn’t spoken to her in all this time, though I thought of her everyday since she’d been gone.
I woke up in the morning reaching for her and spent the first half hour or so of each day fighting the bitter disappointment that she wasn’t here with me.
I spoke to her dad regularly though, making sure that she had everything she needed and not letting the other man know that her being back there was not a permanent situation.
What, if anything of our conversations he shared with his daughter, I couldn’t be sure, but I’d worded my first approach in such a way that he understood I didn’t want her aware of our continued contact.
I had certainly planned on retrieving her sooner than this; it was now a little more than a week and a half since she’d been gone.
I’d only planned on a week at the most, but with everything
involving Marion now taking place I thought it wise to bring her back to the city after all was said and done. Who knew how the other woman was going to react to her outing.
Josh had come up with a brilliant plan, one in which he’d scoured the city and surrounding areas, or so it seemed, looking for any and everyone his dear mother had spurned, rejected, humiliated or just plain dismissed in her life up to that point.
Not really, but it sure looked that way. And there were more than a few, most if not all more than willing to play a part in giving the woman her just desserts.
Me personally, I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble, just destroyed the bitch’s life with a few well-placed calls and that was that. But these young people nowadays were a bloodthirsty lot.
And after I got the whole story of his upbringing from Josh I can’t say that I blame him. Apparently he had tried to contact his mother once during his early teens when the truth had been revealed and the beatings had taken a particularly bad turn.
Marion had chastised him, denied having ever given birth and left him at the mercy of the sadistic couple, who had gone on to torture the poor boy for the next five years until he escaped to college.
I’d checked out his credentials like I’d said, as much as I had grown to like the little pain in the ass I was still a businessman and I wasn’t about to hand over the reigns of one of my businesses to just anyone.
I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to find that though he needed a little more experience, he was more than qualified academically for the job.
There were already quite a few well-known names clamoring for the position, but I felt confident about giving him the shot. Plus there was the added bonus of sticking it to Marion once and for all.
***
GABRIELLA
He wasn’t coming back for me. That was my first thought every morning and my last thought at night. I moped around my family’s farm lost in a daze, feeling bereft and out of touch.
The place that once offered so much solace now seemed desolate and isolated. I could find no joy in the surrounding fields, or the sound of the animals as they moved around in their stalls.
My Little Farm Girl Page 27