The Art of Domination (18 page)

“Kiss it and make it better.”

So
I do. There’s a lovely red scuff mark and I feel my cock twitch looking at it.
Concentrate, Young.
I need to focus on finding out what the fuck is going on.

“Get cleaned up and dressed and come back in
here. You still need to tell Sawyer and me what the woman said on the phone.”

She turns to leave the offic
e, but I grab her hand and pull her back to me. “There’s more we need to talk about and more I need to tell you, and I will, I promise. I love you.”

She looks confused at what I’ve said, but she nods
yes
and leaves to get dressed.

I open the door and let Sawyer
in and he pushes past me in a hurry.

“You have to
fucking see this,” he says as he makes his way to my office. He sits in my desk chair and loads in the surveillance disc. As it’s loading, he glances over at the pictures of Erika and I that are strewn on my desktop. He winces at them and gives me a look of what-the-fuck.

“Don’t ask unless you really want to know,” I tell him. He did pack my bag for me so already knows some of my sexual proclivities and preferences. 

“Your business is your business,” he says flatly.  I pick up the note and carefully hand it over to him to read.

“This is obviously someone you know. Are you sure it’s not Erika?”

“It doesn’t look like Erika’s
handwriting, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was someone she was working with.”

“How many women have you had relationships with that went sour?”
Sawyer asks as he sits on the corner of my desk.

“
Just Erika. The other women I was in consensual contractual relationships with ended amicably. The women that came after that were either just one-night stands or strictly sexual in nature. I really can’t think of anyone else it could be.”

Isa comes in and Sawyer quickly scoops up the pictures and puts them back in the envelope. He’s polite that way and always watching my back. I think he did it for Isabel’s sake, as well, which I immensely appreciate. 

She comes into the room, stands next to me, snuggles into the crook of my arm and wraps her arm around my waist. I kiss the top of her head and she looks up at me and weakly smiles. I can still see concern and distrust in her eyes and I have no one to blame but myself for that. We have things to work out, there’s no doubt about that, but for now I just want to concentrate on our safety.

Sawyer continues his questions despite Isa being in the room.
“Could it be that receptionist you fired several months back? She had a thing for you, didn’t she?”

I look down at
Isa and her eyebrows go up to Sawyer’s question.

“You could say that,” Isa answers sarcastically.

I shake my head. “I doubt it’s her. I heard she moved out of state.”

“
You heard?” Isa asks, folding her arms.

“It’s my job to know these things, Isabel
, so get that look off your face.”

Isa rolls her eyes at me and
walks towards the window. Sawyer is watching us closely. When I look over at him, he raises his eyebrows at me, looks down, shakes his head and smiles.
What the fuck ever.

T
he video finally comes up and we watch it, but we’re unable to make out a face. All I can tell is that it’s a woman, thin and tall. It’s not much to go on since that describes all of the other women I’ve ever dated other than Isabel.

“What are you boys watching?” Isa asks, coming over to me.

“We’re watching the surveillance video from the break in. We can’t see who it is,” I tell her.

“Can I watch it?” s
he asks.

We play it again a few more times, pausing
at crucial points, but still, we’re unable to see anything of value. Isa gets up close to the screen and cocks her head to the side as she scans the video. She looks absolutely adorable when she’s concentrating like this.

“Tell us what t
he woman said on the phone, Isa,” I remind her.

She stands up, tucks her
hair behind her ear and sighs. “She called me a gold-digging cunt and told me to leave you alone or else I’d need plastic surgery when she was done with me.”

Fucking hell.
The thought of someone talking to Isa like that infuriates me off beyond reason. I feel like screaming. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Isa continues.

“I did something
stupid; I challenged her.  I told her I’d meet her anytime, anyplace. I know I shouldn’t have said it now, but at the time, after seeing those photos of you and… she pissed me off so bad. After that, she really lost it and threatened to slash my throat.  I’m sorry, Dylan. I didn’t know she would freak out like that,” she blushes and walks back to the window to look out.

I’m outraged
. Whoever this woman is, she actually threatened to kill Isa. I look at Sawyer and he looks just as distressed as I feel.

“Fuck,
” is the only thing that I can think to say.

“I’ll get the note fingerprinted. I’ve already tried to track the phone call but it was from a throw away cell, so there was no luck there,” Sawyer chimes in. 

“I want someone watching my place at all times,” I tell Sawyer. “Isa, you’re not going to work or leaving this house until we find out who the hell is doing this.”

Isa tur
ns around to look at me. She has a look on her face as though she’s going to argue about my decision, but she can see I’m not fucking around. She simply nods
yes,
folds her arms
and continues to look out the window again.

I grab my phone and dial Erika’s number. I might as well get this over with and there’s no time like the present. I put her on speaker phone so that Sawyer can be witness to our conversation. I probably should ask Isa to leave the room, but our situation is t
oo fragile right now and I don’t want to push her.

Erika picks up after
only a few rings.

“Hey, sweetie,” s
he answers

Isa spins around and
has a heated look on her face. Her hands are fisted at her sides as she starts to say something, but I put my finger up to my mouth to shush her. She clenches her jaw and narrows her eyes at me.

“
Don’t fucking call me that,” I tell Erika and she just laughs. “I’m only going to ask you this once:  Did you call Isabel yesterday and threaten her?”

There’s silence on the other end and then
she answers, “No. Why would I do that?”

“If you’re lying to me, so help me God, Erika, I’ll ma
ke your life a living hell and I don’t give a shit who you tell about what you know.”

The look on Isa’s face remains the same; one of
extreme anger.

“Listen to me, D. I didn’t threaten your
precious fucking Isabel, okay?”

“Then who the hell did and don’t tell me for one second that you don’t know because I know a liar when I hear one.”

Again, she remains silent for a moment. “Maybe I do know, maybe I don’t. What are you going to give me in return for that kind of information?” she replies sweetly.

Isabe
l folds her arms and raises her eyebrows at me.

“God damn it, Erika, if you have something to do with this and the break in at my office, it’s not just me you’d better be worried about. Do you want to spend the
next half a dozen years in jail?”

“I didn’t break into your office either and for your information, I didn’t have anything to do with the threat to your money hungry little bitch, so don’t threaten me!
Tell me something, how wide did she have to spread her legs to get you to marry her dumb blonde ass?”

Isabel lunges at the pho
ne and starts screaming into it.

“You listen to me you
fuck face, I’m not, nor have I ever been, interested in Dylan’s money. Unlike you, you blackmailing, two-faced snatch! You forget you ever knew him and find your own God damned Dom, because this one belongs to me! If you so much as look his way, you can forget about dealing with Dylan - you’ll have to deal with me, you no cock sucking witch!”

Sawyer quickly jumps up and drags Isa out of the room.

I’m immediately turned on by Isa’s outburst. My little submissive is willing to fight for me.
I like that.
With Isa out of the room, the phone remains silent and for a moment I think Erika’s hung up.

She finally r
esponds with, “I thought Isabel was a submissive.”

“Oh
, she is; when she needs to be.”

“So you told her about us?”

“Yes. She knows everything and she’s seen the photos. I’m not going to risk losing her for anything, do you understand me?
Anything.
Most especially not because of
you
so this thing between us ends today. I don’t want to hear any more of your threats. You do what you want and tell who ever you want about our past. You want to set up interviews - feel free. I have the proof that you were just as willing as I was. I have the photos and videos to prove that. As for what happened to my parents, I’ll make you look like a raving lunatic, stalker ex and no one will believe a word you say. Now you fucking tell me right now who made those threats and who broke into my office or I’ll send Isabel over there to deal with you and trust me when I tell you that Isabel is not someone you want to cross.”

“Go fuck yourself and you can tell your perfect little bitch to go fuck herself, too.”

***

“The nerve of that psychotic whore-bag.
I’m money hungry?
Oh, hell no. I swear to everything holy I’ll kick her ass sideways if she so much as looks Dylan’s way. That man belongs to me.
Me
!” I’m ranting and raving like a maniac as Sawyer drags me out of the office.

He
grabs me by my shoulders and tries to guide me out of the room but I resist, and when I do, he picks me up off my feet and carries me to the other room like I’m some kind of child throwing a tantrum.

He sets me down on the couch and backs away from me. His eyes are wide and he looks thoroughly
appalled at my behavior. He’s scanning me up and down with his hands on his hips and shaking his head at me. His response to me makes me feel embarrassed at my own actions. I try and catch my breath and calm myself.

“Are you done
?” he asks firmly.

“Yes, yes, I’m done
. How dare she call me that. I’m not interested in Dylan’s money,” I snort out.

“He knows that, Isabel, and so does anyone who knows you.
He never would’ve married you if he thought that.”

His
words are comforting and I start to feel a little better as I sit looking out the balcony at the snow starting to fall again.

“Did you know Erika?” I ask Sawyer.

“Yes.”

“What did Dylan see in her?”

He shuffles from foot-to-foot and looks hesitant to answer me, like he’s betraying Dylan by talking about it. 

“Sometimes there are no answers for
the way people act or who they’re attracted to, Isabel. Everyone makes mistakes and bad decisions in life.”

I know Sawyer’s right and deep down I know the reason he was
obsessed
with her. He already admitted it to me. I can’t think about that.
What the hell is taking him so long anyway? Why is he still talking to that woman?
I get irritated and start to head towards the office again, but Sawyer doesn’t allow me to.

“Just give him a moment,” h
e tells me sternly.

No sooner does Sawyer say that and Dylan comes walking out.

“Well?” I ask him impatiently.

“Well, what?” Dyl
an says standing in front of me, pushing my hair out of my eyes.

“You know what. Did you end it with her?”

“I told you I would, didn’t I?” he says holding me squarely by my shoulders.

“And?”

“And
what
, Isa? I ended it. I told her that her threats didn’t mean anything to me anymore. I also told her that if she didn’t tell me who was threatening you, I would send you over to deal with her.”

What the hell?
“What do you mean?”

He smiles s
lyly at me and I feel like caning his ass.

“I mean
, I didn’t know you had it in you to be so possessive of me.”

“Why would you be surprised about that? You’re my husband.
You belong to me. ”

He
smiles wickedly at me, but his happiness turns to concern and his smile disappears as he looks back to Sawyer.

“Erika wouldn’t tell me who the person is. I
’m tempted to let you call those people you know,” Dylan says to Sawyer.