Page 6 of Relentless Surrender

“Look sweetie, I don’t know what kind of Freudian, daddy-issue crap you got going on that makes you choose winners like the Lying Latin Lover back there but you are going to get yourself in real trouble one day…or me!” lectured Sage.

“You didn’t have to come with me,” sulked Melissa.

Sage reached over and stroked her friend’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t last two minutes in prison without me.”

“Not true! I watch Orange is the New Black!” laughed Melissa.

Sage laughed with her then quickly sobered. “You know you’re going to have to tell your father about this.”

“No! Why?”

“Melly! It might not have been by the police but we still got caught. What if that guy reports us? What if Ricardo does?”

“Ricardo isn’t going anywhere near a police station and that big, hunky marine could care less about reporting you to the cops. He would much rather get in your pants,” said Melissa with a suggestive wink.

“Nice. Real nice,” smirked Sage. “I still think you should tell your father.”

“Trust me. The last thing Senator Taylor cares about is his disappointing daughter’s latest boyfriend troubles,” responded Melissa with a self-deprecating smile.

Sage gave her close friend a sympathetic look. Melissa’s story was so stereotypical it was practically a Lifetime move. Rich senator’s daughter acts out because she never gets enough love or attention from her powerful daddy. It has all the required elements. A deceased mother. A beautiful daughter whose poor taste in boyfriends exacerbates her father and causes no end of trouble. A cold, unfeeling father.

Usually this is the part in the movie where you see what a spoiled brat the daughter is and how she deliberately sets out to make her father miserable. Nothing could be further from the truth. Melissa was sweet and kind. She worked hard and didn’t take a penny of her father’s money. She also went out of her way to make sure that none of her scrapes or poor choices wound up in the press so as to avoid embarrassing her politician father.

Melissa was a great girl…if only Sage could fix her taste in men!

Not that Sage was an expert…far from it. At twenty-five, her longest relationship had been her high school boyfriend, Timmy. Did it even count as a relationship if you both had your braces on and never got past “second base”, Sage wondered.

If not, well then, she was really pathetic. She couldn’t even use work as an excuse. She loved her job, loved knowing she made a difference in the world. Helping schools retain their art and music programs with grant money might not rate as high as curing cancer or fixing world hunger but she knew it made a difference in the quality of the education those children received and she knew that made a difference in the long run. But even so, one would hardly call her a workaholic.

Although far from vain, Sage knew she was pretty enough to get a date if she wanted. She just wasn’t interested. It wasn’t worth the free meal to put up with some random guy talking only about himself or his current ranking in Call of Duty. Or worse, showing only just enough interest in her to get her into bed. All the men she met were just so tiresome and boring.

Well not all the men she met.

Somehow Sage knew the very last thing Conner would be is boring. Hell, he didn’t have to play Call of Duty, he lived it! He also didn’t strike her as the useless small talk type. No, a man like Conner was a man of action. The type who took what he wanted. Sage felt a small thrilling flip deep in her stomach at the thought. That was so bad! She should be ashamed of herself. Getting excited at the thought of a man like Conner grabbing her by the shoulders…pushing her against a wall…. forcing his tongue into her mouth…. thrusting his….NO! Bad modern female! Bad! Actions like that went out with the fifties. Next thing you know, she would be daydreaming of meeting the arrogant man at the door in an apron with a martini!

Besides, the whole thing was pointless. She was never going to lay eyes on him again.

* * *

Ricardo stormed into his apartment. Ignoring the chaotic mess, he marched straight to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. Popping the tab, he slugged half the contents back.

“Fucking bitch,” he muttered as he scanned the living room, taking in the scattered cushions and overturned storage bins.

At least the crazy bitch didn’t smash his PlayStation he thought with a wry smile as he saw the console tossed aside on the dining room table. None of this mattered anyway. The bitch would get hers in the end. He had all the dirt on her he needed anyway.

Strolling down the narrow hallway to his bedroom, Ricardo smirked at the thought of how Melissa was going to react when he showed up on her doorstep with his demands. Oh, the bitch was going to pay all right. More to the point, her precious daddy was going to pay…and pay big.

Avoiding the over-turned drawer near the doorway, Ricardo crossed to the bureau.

It was gone.

“Fuck!” he yelled as he fell to his knees not caring about the beer spilling onto the carpet.

Scrambling through the pile of discarded clothes, he searched in vain. Crawling on his knees he looked under the bed. In a desperate last-ditch effort, he tossed through all the pillows and blankets on the bed. It was no use.

The teddy bear was gone.

The bitch had taken the teddy bear…along with the SD card from the hidden nanny cam inside. Hours of blackmail material…gone. He had to get it back.

---