She has taken our relationship and turned it against me. The relationship she pursued, that she instigated with her kiss on the plane, and is now attempting to ruin me with it.That gold-digging, money-hungry, lying, conniving whore!
In an uncharacteristic display of emotion, Tucker leaps to his feet and vehemently declares, “Bullshit! That’s all lies!”
“Well, I’ll just tell the court you said so and I’m sure this will just go away,” Cheryl pins him with her glare.
“What Tucker is trying to say, Cheryl, is that Miss Vasco and I were in a committed, consensual relationship up until about ten minutes ago or so,” I explain much calmer than I actually feel.
“Mr. Powers, I think it’s time I share all the information I’ve found with your lawyer. Most of it will be pertinent to this sexual harassment claim,” Shadow interjects.
“By all means,” I reply with a wave of my hand.
While listening to Shadow reiterate the entire sordid story, along with a few additional pieces he didn’t tell me before, my mind drifts back through all the time I’ve spent with Sophia. The very first time she walked into my office, our ocean lovemaking session that marked our first time together, introducing her to my parents, and collaring her as mine—all these scenes play over like a movie in my mind.
She ran back into a burning house to save me with no regard to her own safety.
Was that just to make sure that she could get to my money? Is that the only reason I’m still alive?
That can’t be it—it doesn’t add up. Why put the assassination device on my car then? That was an overt attempt to kill me.
“Dominic, do you agree?” Cheryl asks, obviously not for the first time.
“With what?” I ask, my tone revealing my boredom with this whole conversation. I’ve checked out.
Cheryl sighs disapprovingly, but restates the pertinent parts I’ve missed. “Since you’ve publicly named Miss Vasco as your ‘right-hand person,’ it makes it difficult for the two of you to continue to work together.”
“You think?” I snap.
Cheryl ignores my outburst, “The law is clear that you can’t retaliate against someone for claiming sexual harassment. The best course of action is for you to take an extended vacation while your security professionals continue to investigate and gather evidence against her. If you take a leave of absence, it will make you look guilty. However, with your recent wreck, then the house fire, it would make sense for you to take some time off.
“You are not to have any contact with her during that time, Dominic. I don’t care what she wants. I will talk to her and she will begin reporting to Darren Hardy while you’re away. Whatever work requests she submits will have to be approved by him. Legally, she can’t keep you from your own business, this is your livelihood, but this plan keeps everything as uncomplicated as possible. I’m filing a request for a gag order with the judge as soon as I get back to my office.”
Cheryl raises her eyebrows at me, clearly expecting a verbal agreement to abide by her rules.
“Fine. I’ll take two weeks off and then the third week I will be back onsite in Tennessee. Tucker, call Christine and have her pack all of Miss Vasco’s things and have them delivered to her executive condo. If I find anything of hers in my lake house, I will have to burnitto the ground, too.”
The three of them file out of my office, leaving me alone with my thoughts and my own turmoil. I feel like I’m back in that same spot of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole—the pieces are just not fitting together. All the events are not adding up. There has to be more to this mystery, though I have no doubt that she’s intimately involved in it.
I call Dana into my office with a new resolve—a new spring in my step.
“Yes, sir?” she asks as she enters.
“Dana, I need you to book me a two-week vacation. Have the yacht readied—I’m taking a cruise to Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands. I want to leave right away, so have Christine pack my things,” I instruct and Dana hurries back to her desk to make the preparations.
Moving over to the floor to ceiling window, I continue to mull it over, turning it and examining it from every angle. The only thing that keeps coming back to my mind is howHarry Dick-manthinks he’s a Dominant. That is laughable—if I wasn’t pissed off enough to choke the life out of him. He’s only playing at being a Dom, pretending to be something he wasn’t born to be.
He accused me of controlling his sister, of abusing her for my own pleasure, and for her death. So he took Sophia, who was young and lost, and made her his sub. But he was wrong about one major point.
He was never her Dom.
If they want to see a real Dom, I will show them a real fucking Dom. Like they’ve never seen before. Run and hide if you can—therealDom is back.
