Page 20 of Savage Obsession

“Where are you going?” I yell at his retreating back.

“Shopping,” he snarls as the door slams shut behind him.

CHAPTER 5

Baz

My temper is still simmering as I stride across the car park and back into the car. I don’t believe for one moment that Julia was entirely unaware of Debinbski’s interest in Lily. It must have been obvious, glowing like a fucking beacon. She chose to look the other way, I assume because she was so besotted with the bastard herself.

Why she even gave him a second glance is a mystery to me. He was a weasel. A slimy little streak of shite. She should have thrown her coffee over him at that mall, not gone to fucking dinner.

It’s not that I expected her to be alone all this time, Christ knows I haven’t been, but Lily should have come first. Live-in lovers are a no-no when you have a child in the house.

Especially my child.

I drive back to Julia’s home and park behind the nondescript white van outside. Andrzej’s team are in the living room bagging up any items suggesting a male presence. Indeed, any presence apart from Julia’s and Lily. A pen here, a Formula One magazine there, even right down to bagging up a hair comb he must have used. Cutlery and door handles are being wiped for prints, and they are systematically checking every cupboard, every drawer. I’ll say this for Andrzej, he’s thorough.

I introduce myself and pick up Lily’s tablet from where I left it on the kitchen worktop. “I’m going to need this. Have you found a phone?”

A man I vaguely recognise from the old days glances up at me. “No, not yet.”

“Let me know if you do.” I make my way upstairs and start on the room in use as an office. Clearly, this wasn’t used by Debinbski, he’s an architect, not an accountant. Or he was. But I’m going to need a laptop, and I remember seeing one on the desk. I pick it up, along with the charger, and head into Lily’s bedroom. I need to do a thorough sweep for any clues as to her likely plans when she left. Really, this would have been easier with Julia to point out what’s missing, if anything, but I prefer to keep her at a distance for now. There’s too strong a possibility that I might be tempted to throttle her.

Or fuck her until she screams for mercy.

She may be a deceitful bitch and a total let-down as a mother, but one look at her when I first stepped through that door downstairs, and I remembered precisely why I fell for Julia all those years ago. She was a lovely then, but the years have matured her into a stunningly beautiful woman. My dick twitches at the recollection of how things used to be between us.

She was hot, responsive, and I couldn’t get enough of her. I had the impression the feeling was mutual, at least at first.

I give my head a shake. I need to get back in the game, not fantasise about old times.

I check the bookshelves to find the usual crop of teenage literature. Harry Potter is a clear favourite, she has the full set, as well as various adventure and fantasy stories. Witches are writ large, along with sports stories featuring horses. I can relate to that. Maybe my daughter does take after me a bit.

I find nothing in the way of a diary or letters to friends, which was to be expected, really. That would have been just too easy, and in any case, she’d more likely text or use WhatsApp. I make a mental note to follow up with Monika.

The wardrobe is full of Lily’s clothes, and I’ve no way of knowing what she may have taken but I guess it can’t have been much.

I turn to leave, then remember one of the main reasons I came back here.

“Henry? Are you in here?”

There’s a scratching sound from under the desk. I bend to investigate. Two deep-brown eyes peer back at me.

“Are you hiding from those strange men downstairs? Some guard dog you are.”

He gives an apologetic wag of his tail and laps at my hand with his raspy tongue.

“Okay, do you want to come with me?” I pat my knees to tempt him out.

It works. He emerges from his den to circle my legs. I pick him up and carry him downstairs, dog under one arm, laptop under the other. “I’m taking the dog,” I tell the cleanup team as I pass them in the hallway. No one seems to object, least of all Henry.

I put the laptop and tablet in the boot, and the little dog is keen enough to hop into the car. He sits happily next to me on the passenger seat while I manoeuvre through the noisy Warsaw traffic. I get the impression he’s used to it. When I arrive back at the hotel, he peers curiously through the window.

“You need to behave yourself. No raiding the minibar or peeing on the carpets, okay?”

He wags his tail in agreement, so I pick up Lily’s tablet and Julia’s laptop from the boot and let him out. He visits the small rose garden beside the hotel steps and cocks his leg a few times, then he trots happily alongside me into the hotel. A five hundred zlotych note is sufficient to silence any objections from the receptionist, and he follows me into the lift.

I let the pair of us into the room, to find Julia pretty much exactly as I left her. She jumps up at the sight of Henry.

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