Chapter 21
The circle changed us, or maybe it only changed me.
I’d found the experience empowering. Accepting Gage’s dominion in the trenches of the Davenport Estate, while ten other people watched, had not only been kinky as hell but liberating.
That night bound us together more tightly than the day we’d said “I do” in front of hundreds of people.
It was magical how my doubts faded to nothing, almost as if they hadn’t existed in the first place.
But insecurities have a way of camouflaging themselves in the absence of trials, and life threw me a mean curveball the day before Thanksgiving.
As I pulled out a pumpkin pie from the oven, I heard the front door burst open before banging against the wall.
Tossing the pot holders onto the counter, I wondered if Gage had come home early.
Eve had gone to Seattle to visit her paternal grandparents for the holiday, so I knew she hadn’t made the ruckus, though she’d normally get off the bus at this time.
I rushed from the kitchen and slid to a quick stop upon the sight of Katherine seething in the foyer. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, planting my hands on my hips. “Get out of my house.”
“This is your fault,” she said, taking a menacing step toward me. “You’ve done nothing but ruin my life since the day Gage set eyes on you.”
I held my ground, refusing to give her an inch, especially in my own home. “Are you on drugs or something?” She didn’t appear to be under the influence of anything other than pure hatred, but the unmistakable odor of whiskey assaulted my nose, and I gave that assessment a second glance.
She backed me into a wall before I saw it coming, and that’s when I got scared.
For all the things Gage had done to me, this was the first time in over a year that someone managed to transport me back to the days of my first marriage, when Rick had lost his temper while drunk off whatever bottle he’d gotten his hands onto for the day.
“Katherine, what are you doing?” My voice shook with the fear I couldn’t hide, and I despised myself for the weakness.
“If he thinks he can fuck with my child, he’s wrong.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re—”
“Of course you don’t,” she spat. “Anything to protect the little wife. He wouldn’t dare subject you to an unpleasant court battle.”
Oh. The court date had arrived. Maybe it was due to pregnancy brain or preoccupation with the upcoming holiday, but I’d forgotten today was the day Gage had court over Conner’s parenting plan.
“If you cared about your son at all, you wouldn’t try to interfere with visitation.”
“Visitation?” she shouted, pounding the wall to the left of my head. I closed my eyes, body tensing as my heart thundered in my chest. “He’s going for full custody,” she said, breath hot on my face. “Look at me, you bitch!”
Jumping, I opened my eyes, but I was frozen to the spot. I’d never seen her so unhinged. She’d always had a nasty, catty way about her when it came to me, but this was the woman who’d had my daughter over for play dates because Gage had demanded it.
This was the psycho he’d entrusted Eve with when he’d kidnapped me from my own bed in Texas. Letting my mind go back there for even a moment made me question my mental health because I’d married him.
And right then I wanted to strangle him for allowing Eve anywhere near this woman, not to mention for putting me in the position of needing to defend myself against her now.
“Get the fuck away from me.” I shoved her, and she stumbled back a couple of steps. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Full custody?” Last I’d heard, he’d only wanted visitation.
Katherine gave a snide arch of her brow. “Didn’t he tell you? Obviously, you convinced him I’m not fit to be a parent.”
“You’re giving me too much credit. You did that all on your own.”
Her laughter grated, like a screeching cat at midnight, or the squeal of a braking train. “Wow, you really are dense. Things were fine before you came along. But he traded his old obsession for a new one, so I guess that leaves me in the dust.”
“What are you babbling about now?”
“I’m talking about Liz and Ian.”
My eyes widened, and she laughed again.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you?
But I’d bet money he didn’t give you the really juicy details.
” She folded her arms. “Well, he wants to play hardball? He’s got it.
I bet he didn’t tell you how Liz and I were besties in high school, or how he turned to me for comfort after she died. ”
“You’re lying.”
I knew she wasn’t. Her words impacted me in the gut, stinking to fucking high heaven of truth—the sort I didn’t want to face.
I tried clinging to a mask of I don’t believe you, bitch…
but tears of betrayal dripped down my cheeks, giving me away.
I swiped at them, angry at myself for letting her witness yet another episode of me falling short when it came to trusting Gage.
“He told me everything I need to know about you,” I insisted, my words little more than a script my heart wished were true. “He was only involved with you for a few months.”
“Oh my God—” She cut off and doubled over, laughing and laughing and laughing some more.
“You’re so fucking naive. Is that what he told you?
A few months? We’ve been wrapped around each other for over a decade.
” Her expression sobered, and she straightened until she stood taller than my average height.
“But then you came along, and suddenly I couldn’t even get him to fuck me anymore.
It’s like he let go of a decade-long grudge to marry Susie-Fucking-Homemaker.
How the fuck did you get him to do that? ”
Maybe I was naive because I should tell her to leave, and threaten to call the police if she refused.
But she’d obviously been drinking, and in my experience, people had loose lips when inebriated.
They also tended to be dangerous, but I squashed the warning that buzzed through my head before it had a chance to take flight.
“Enlighten me then. Since I’m so naive as to believe what my husband tells me,” I said, experiencing a small thrill at how her lips flattened upon my use of the word husband, “then why don’t you set me straight?”
“You have no idea how happy I am to knock you off your high horse finally.” She pushed past me and headed toward the kitchen. “Pour me a fucking drink, and I’ll talk about Gage’s sordid past all you want.”
This was a bad idea. She’d barged into my home and put her hands on me, and I wasn’t stupid enough to believe for a moment that she was trustworthy.
But I was powerless to turn back now. Unlike the first time she’d duped me—when my instincts had screamed that she was lying—this time they hummed.
Something was different about Katherine.
She was a woman at the end of her rope, all hope lost with nothing to lose, and a woman like Katherine…
she didn’t go down without dragging someone else with her.
She knew things about Gage. Things I wished more than anything he’d tell me, but I knew he never would. Despite his grandstanding about coming to him with my concerns or questions, he remained closed-off to discussions of the past.
For someone who lived to inflict pain, he sure avoided the emotional kind at all cost.
I pulled down a bottle of rum and poured a small amount into a glass before adding cola.
She’d taken a seat at the bar, so I leaned against the opposite side, feeling safer with the counter between us.
But the position also put me at an advantage.
While she cast her attention on the drink between her manicured hands, I carefully slid my cell off the countertop and hit the record button.
After what happened the last time we’d spoken alone, I wasn’t taking any chances.
If the bitch said or did anything wrong, I’d have it on audio.
“Start talking.”