Page 42 of Taken By Him

“No, Dad. There wasn’t anything in his office, nothing on his computer. He probably doesn’t keep his business here at the house.”

“Then you need to find out what he’s doing some other way. Go with him when he goes into the city. See who he’s talking to.”

I dig my fingernails into my knee.

“Don’t you have...employees that do that sort of thing?” I ask, desperate to get away from this subject.

“I have a daughter that’s sleeping with the man!” I pull the phone slightly away from my ear when he yells. “You should be able to handle this! Be useful, Kasia.”

Be useful. How many times did he bark the same demand at me while I was growing up?

I lean my head back against the cushion of the chair and look up at the leaves blowing in the summer breeze above me. It’s hot today.

“Kasia.”

“I heard you,” I whisper. “He’s not going to tell me anything.” I close my eyes.

“Then make him talk. Make him tell you or show you. You’re a woman, spread those legs of yours and get the information I need.”

My nails go further into my skin, pinching, piercing.

“How did he get you to agree for me to take Diana’s place? What does he have over you? You’ve done something. You’re doing something that is going to get you into trouble. What is it, Dad?”

“Stay out of my business, Kasia and do what you’re told!”

Before I can respond, the phone is taken out of my hand. I open my eyes to find Dominik standing over me with it pushed against his ear.

“Hello?” he says, keeping his eyes fixated on me. His jaw is tight. With one hand in his pocket, he gives the appearance of being causal, but I’m learning him. He’s pissed.

“Don’t call this number again, old man,” he says without waiting for any response from the other side of the call. “You have my direct line; you call that if you need to talk with my wife. I’ll arrange something.” He doesn’t wait for an answer, just clicks the call off.

He looks at me then moves to the empty chair on the other side of the table and sits down. I stare straight ahead, waiting for the punishment to be announced. I spoke to my father when I said I wouldn’t.

“I didn’t know it was him when Margaret gave me the phone,” I say, fixing my attention on the rose garden.

“I know.”

“I couldn’t just hang up on him,” I continue, still not looking at him.

After a long silence he says, “I know.”

Relief floods me. At least he’s being reasonable.

“There are things about your father you don’t know, Kasia,” he speaks in a low volume, but he’s not angry. He’s being straight with me.

“I’m sure there are a lot of things about you that I don’t know, that I don’t want to know.” I recall the night he took me. The woman he had kidnapped in order to make someone pay a debt.

“I’m not a good man. I won’t say I am, but your father...there are things that I won’t do that he has no trouble doing.”

I blink and look past the roses, off into the distance where the brick wall surrounds the estate. Where men walk along the wall while we’re out here, protecting us from the even worse men that are on the other side of it.

“Whatever the problem you have with my father is, it’s your problem. You two can fight like children all you want. Just leave me out of it.” I push out of my chair and start to walk back to the house.

He snatches my hand and yanks me into his lap. My chin is captured by his massive hand and he pulls me to him for a long, deep, passionate kiss that leaves my mind swirling. When he breaks it off, he rubs the tip of his nose over my chin.

“Why can’t I leave you alone?” he whispers, but I don’t think I’m meant to hear it. “I’m going to ask you a question, Kasia, and you have to be honest with me. If you lie, if you bend the truth or try to hide from me, you’ll be very, very sorry.” Any tenderness he may have had a moment ago is gone, replaced with firm demand.

“What do you want now, Dominik?” I ask. Everyone has questions for me, everyone wants answers I don’t have.

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