Page 109 of Truth or Dare

“Dinner is ready,” I told him as he went out.

“One sec.” He kept going with the phone.

I finished getting the table set and waited. And waited.

When he came in, I looked at him. He looked to the table and gave me a smile. “Dinner ready?”

It’d been cooling for nearly half an hour, and I’d already told him it was ready but I didn’t fuss; obviously he had stuff going on. Stuff he wasn’t telling me…

Strange how, this quickly, I could feel like I had a right to know.

“Yep. You ready to eat?”

“Starved, babe.” He opened the fridge and got out a bottle of wine and poured two glasses.

I served up the lasagna and we sat.

His phone kept going off while we ate and he replied to texts while we re-watched the John Candy Summer Rental movie as it had rewound and started playing again.

After dinner, he washed the dishes and I dried them and then he started a fire in the wood stove for us while I picked out a movie for us to watch. I figured after his choosing The Hobbit that first night that he’d like something along those lines so I picked Ewoks, thinking that someone who liked Hobbit movies might also like Star Wars type movies.

I watched it and he was texting and emailing for the most part but had his arm around me, my head on his shoulder, so it was still comforting. I felt taken care of, if confused, but I settled against him and just decided that I was going to let my Master take care of me.

I woke up in Dare’s arms. He was carrying me up the stairs.

“Hi,” I mumbled sleepily.

“Hey sleepy girl,” he said and then he put me down on the big old-fashioned canopy bed with the patchwork quilt. I had admired it earlier when I’d had a look around. There were three bedrooms and another bathroom up here. The one bedroom was half pink and half blue. On the pink side were bunk beds with pink comforters and the blue side had a crib. The other room had a futon and a few air mattresses so I wasn’t surprised Dare put us in the master bedroom as he hated sleeping on futon mattresses. I had an affection for them since that’s where we first connected.

He held me and I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke up, I was alone in bed. I used the bathroom and then went down the stairs and it seemed I was totally alone. There was a note on the kitchen counter.

Angel,

Check your text messages.

XO

Dario.

I found my purse and the phone he’d bought me was inside but it was dead. I’d brought two phone chargers, so I plugged it in and poured some coffee that was already made. I caught something from the corner of my eye. I looked out the window and saw two guys outside. One was Nino. They had holsters over their shoulders. They were armed. I got a sinking feeling.

As the phone powered up, the text message alert went off.

Angel, I have a meeting this morning. I have Nino and Luke here to keep an eye on you. Stay inside. Don’t worry. All is fine. It’s just a precaution. I’ll text if I don’t think I’ll see you by dinner time. XO.

I answered:

Ok. XO.

I sat down with my coffee and tried to not freak out. I had to keep my cool. I was away from my Master and he’d told me Jason was in town. He’d said on the phone to his brother that there were two potential threats. And he had Zack digging around and I didn’t know what Zack would find, but if the digging had to do with Kruna and with me it could put the one person on this planet that I loved, other than Dare, in danger. I said a little prayer.

10

I left early to deal with some stuff at the office and then to meet with my brother and Zack before the Gan Chen meeting. I’d left her in bed, but Nino and another security guy were there. Tommy had dropped Tia off with the girls so we wouldn’t have to worry about security at three places. He asked if I should bring Angel to the girls, but I didn’t know that she could handle that yet. She was fragile and the last time I’d left her alone with Lisa things had obviously not gone well. With Tess and Luc having no clue about Angel’s past, Lisa’s past, and added to that the fact that Lisa was apparently a fuckin’ mess over losing the baby it seemed like a bad idea.

I was concerned about Lisa and therefore glad she was on lockdown. Tommy tried to approach her with condolences when he dropped Tia off and said that Leese had a fucking meltdown when she saw him. Tommy left her there but called me before he left the place and we agreed he’d tell Dex to make sure that Lisa stayed in the house. And then I told Tommy about Lisa’s comments.

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