Page 6 of Possessing Her

“They often are, they often are.” She’s looking at Sebastian, but I know she is reminiscing about being in this exact house and it being Johnny where my boy is. “Things will get better. You’ll see. And later, when the big boy goes to sleep at night, Santiago and I would like to sit down and talk to you about everything and what we can do to help.”

“Isla, this is too much. You have Johnny to think about, and he’s not going to like what’s going on, especially if you and Santiago help me behind his back.” A tightness hits me in my chest. Johnny will be livid when everything comes to light. It’s why I prayed he would sign the papers, and then I could leave town, head back to Georgia, have everything in place, and somehow manage to move on.

“Hush, we’ll talk about it later,” Isla says, then goes on to play with Sebastian. My husband’s family, they don’t know how to take no for an answer; it’s not in their vocabulary. I only hope I don’t screw up the relationship they have with their son along the way.

4

JOHNNY

“Yeah?” I answer the phone without thought. After leaving Asher’s, I went back home, wandered around the apartment, looked at everything that’s still exactly the same as when Winnie left. The exception being the bedding that became threadbare, and even then, without thought, I bought basically the exact same thing we had before. The closet still sits empty on one side, and the same goes for her side of the bed in the form of the things she kept on top of the nightstand. The bathroom with its double vanity sits there like a beacon of light, reminding me every time I’m in there that she isn’t. Instead of sticking around at the apartment, I took a quick shower, changed into business attire, and hit the road to the club. Where I’m currently pouring over the quarterly numbers my accountant sent over this afternoon. Undercover Lovers is in the black, has been since after the first year of opening. The addition of what goes on downstairs brings in double what the main floor does; it also has double the expense as well as double the fucking headache.

“I see you haven’t cooled down yet.” I toss the pen away, sit back in my seat, and take a breather. Tysen on the other endof the line is not who I expected. To be honest, I figured it’d be Jagger, calling from his dare devil vacation he takes two to three times a year.

“I’m at the office, if that tells you anything.” It’s not every day Tysen is able to make an appearance at a gathering. Especially when he’s booked back-to-back between the airline and doing his side gig being a private pilot. He makes more money doing the latter but likes the benefits from the big airline. It’s all part of his bigger plan of one day owning his own jet. From there, he can pick and choose what he wants, when he wants.

“You look at the papers?” He doesn’t beat around the bush, that’s for sure. I take a sip of my whisky, forgoing the ice or mixer; that’s how my fucking day is going.

“Yeah.” I don’t elaborate, still trying to digest that my wife would walk away from it all, not asking for a single cent even though she’s entitled to half of the apartment and some of Undercover Lovers. Winnie should take what she’s owed; it was her pushing me on to keep going when I got the offer to sell the night club, saying it’d be dumb when I put all my time, money, and energy into it just to watch someone else enjoy the fruits of my labor. It was also her who didn’t mind my schedule, working nights compared to her days. Others would complain, have complained on the rare occurrences the loneliness crept in and I tried to get over my wife. It didn’t fucking happen. I’d close myself off more, work harder, and while I had no problem watching others have their fun in Night Moves, I don’t mix business with pleasure.

“That bad? We need to call everyone in and figure things out?” Tys asks, thinking the worst.

“She’s walking away with nothing. The car and her rings are all she wants.” I take a sip of the alcohol I poured, trying to soften the blow of the only woman I’ve ever loved who’s willing to throw it all away.

“Man, can’t say I’m surprised. You remember the way she went about talking to Matthew, wanting a pre-nuptial agreement. You fought that, but she would have signed it and taken the same thing she’s asking right now.” Shit, I forgot about that. A month before our wedding, Matthew called telling me Winnie came into his office on her lunch break to talk to him. He doesn’t even work in family law. After college, he interned with several lawyers and found his niche. I can’t say that I’d choose estate law, but whatever floats his boat.

“Damn,” I mutter, thinking about the argument that ensued. Winnie threatened to not go through with the wedding until she signed a pre-nup guaranteeing that I’d be protected from her. I eventually got her to shut up, had to fuck her senseless, tell her that we weren’t putting an end date on a marriage we hadn’t even begun. It took me withholding an orgasm, using my mouth between her legs, watching her rock her hips, begging for me to give in, pressing the heels of her feet into my back as she arched her body, and getting me where she wanted. I held back, only letting her come after we came to an agreement. No fucking contract. Everything is ours, fifty-fucking-fifty.

“Seeing I’m ringing bells. Now, what are you going to do?” He knocks me out of my reverie, asking me the million-dollar question.

“Not sure. I’ve got her phone number. I know I’m not signing these papers until I get down to the reason why she stayed away so long.” I take the last sip of my drink, relishing the burn as it slides down my throat. Trent offered to run a check on her license, but I told him not to. The credit cards linked to my account and her name were never touched. Each time I’d get an alert, hope bloomed in my chest. Turned out it was only the company saying if the card wasn’t used, they’d close it out. I’d get online, input her number in order to keep it active. Jude even offered to dig up what he could on Winnie but more importantlyMelanie. Still, I told him no. Why? Because I’m a fucking dumbass.

“Brother, you gotta figure this out. Either you fix your shit with Winnie, or you cut your ties and move on.” He’s not wrong. He’s also not right. And after today, I’m more confused than fucking ever.

“Thinkin’ I’m gonna swing by my parents’ house tomorrow morning. Maybe they’ll give me some insight. Enough about me. You mentioned earlier you wanted to pick my brain. May as well have at it before I finish this bottle of Macallan.” I stand up from my seat, click the button for speaker phone, and lay the receiver on the desk. A few short steps, cut glass in hand, and I’m at the bar I keep well-stocked in my office. While we don’t always have a meeting of the minds at Undercover Lovers, I’ve spent more than my fair share of nights after the club closes down, and the one thing that keeps my mind off the woman who plagues my every waking thought is the solitude and a stiff fucking drink.

“Think that might be the best idea yet. Shocked your madre didn’t box your ears and tell you to go after her.” Tysen has brought this up before, and like he suggested, she didn’t smack me upside the head. She looked at me, shook her head, and told me I was making a mistake. Dad didn’t say a word, but I could tell he wanted to. The look I gave them both saiddon’t push, and they didn’t.

“Almost did. I’ve got a feeling they won’t have a problem putting me in place now that she’s back.” I pour another couple of fingers of Macallan before walking back to my chair.

“Now that, I don’t doubt for a second. I hate to switch subjects, but you got a minute to talk shop?”

“More than fucking happy to change the subject from my never-ending saga with my wife.” I don’t hesitate for a second. I’ve got the papers and her phone number. When she left Asher’s place in a hurry, I almost hopped in my own car to chase afterher. I thought better of it, though, worried she’d speed away, things would get worse, and Winnie would end up in a car accident. Plus, I didn’t have my goddamn keys on me. I’m not adding another storm to what seems to be the perfect storm of love and hate that we’ve got going on right now.

“Thinkin’ it might be time to bite the bullet. Not sure how much more I can take of this.” He’s talking about his job as a commercial airline pilot.

“I’ve told you. We all have. Do what you gotta do. You want a partnership, any one of us would put money into your private gig as an investment. You don’t like that idea, we can always go the loan route. Gotta say, this is quite the change from you saying you weren’t ready. What gives?” Tysen and I have talked about this more times than I can count. We’ve even had round table meetings with the others, but he’s yet to take us up on our offer.

“You would not believe the new rules and regulations they’re adding on top of the other shit we got goin’ on already.” Tysen is pissed all the way off; the frustration in his voice more than conveys that.

“Well, whatever you need, we’re here. Though, these fuckin’ quarterlies will kill you. You sure you wanna go the business owner route?” Even though we all own a piece of the pie in Jagged Edge, it’s nothing like doing this full time with all the red tape we’ve got going on around here. Not to mention the health department liking to make unexpected appearances. Luckily, Night Moves is always on the up and up. I also vet my employees to the highest degree.

“Beats the fuck out of all this shit I’m doin’ here, man. Tired of this shit and more interested in picking and choosing which flights I want to take and not have to deal with more drama. It’s not even the passengers or the employees I work with; it’s overhead. If I can cut the middle man and make money doing what I love, I’m all for it.” This is why half of our friend groupwent in the direction we did. None of us could stand to not be able to control our businesses. The thought of working for someone else makes my skin crawl.

“Then you gotta figure out how you want to go about it. Whatever you want, we’re there. I’d suggest not going the loan route. The interest will eat you up whole. We all put in a share, and you can buy us out after you’re in the black,” I suggest. My business plan included a loan, though the liquor license about took me the fuck out in the process. That shit is nothing to mess around with; it’s also why I have tight fucking security and watchful bartenders. Any reason for them to revoke that license, they will. I didn’t work this hard to only come this far and to lose it all.

“Fuck, I mean, I’ve got a hefty chunk of change put aside, but I’m thinkin’ we’re going to need a meeting. A loan would have been ideal instead of asking for help, except I see what you’re saying. It’ll take me ten times as long to make a profit even though we know my shit is locked down tight and I’m not going to fail.” I smile; failure isn’t an option in our friend group. We’re there for one another, no matter what.

“Whenever you’re ready, set up a time and place.”

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