Chapter 46 ian
The sun was beginning to come through the crack in the window shade when I finally opened my eyes. I’d passed out working on the computer, then woken up and staggered to the bed.
Rossi wasn’t in the room and I glanced around for a note, but came up with nothing.
It was mid-afternoon and if the clock on the side table was correct; it had been almost four hours since I’d crashed on the bed.
I heard the door open.
“Ian?”
Rossi’s voice called softly.
“Just woke up. Any word?”
“Some. We’ve got a meeting set up with the McGintys. They claim to have a pretty good idea where Colletteis.”
“Where and when?”
I asked, jamming my feet into shoes.
“Slattey’s, down the road, in half an hour.”
When we got the the bar we had to duck as we walked down a few steps. The bartender acknowledged our entrance with a nod.
“What can I get for you? Beer or food?”
He shouted as we approached.
Most of the locals turned to look at us. We approached the bar, so we didn’t have to shout at the bartender.
Rossi leaned forward. “Can we get two of the house beers? You got any of your special stew?”
“Yeah, sure do. Want a bowl for each of you?”
He eyed me with a curious light in his eye. “That booth in the corner is open. I’ll bring the beer over in a minute. Food will be out in a few.”
The back booth he’d indicated was one of the more dimly lit ones and would make meeting our contact much easier.
A man in his early twenties with thick black hair and slight stubble slid our drinks to us as we settled into the booth.
“Hey, I’m Lucas, I hear that yah need of me services.”
His accent was rich, but understandable as he took a seat next to me, leaving the space next to Rossi empty. Not that I blamed him; I wouldn’t have sat next to him if I could help it, either.
“My woman was kidnapped from our hotel room, and we’d only been in the country for about an hour.”
I didn’t give out any more information.
“Oy! Not a very warm welcome to our lovely country, is it? Any ideas why your lady was targeted? Could this be related to those questions you was asking about a friend's death a few months ago?”
Lucas cocked his head as he took a gulp of his brew.
“Yes, we’d gotten a little more information about the incident and were going to see if we could find his girlfriend ourselves. The main problem is that her father is Edmond Kelly.”
“Whoa,”
Lucas whistled. “That’s some pretty heavy shit. You must be talkin’ about Heather. The lass has been seen briefly these past few months. His other daughter disappeared about a year ago and we can’t get a trace on her either. I’ma guessing that your lady is going to take priority for being rescued first? Yeah?”
“Yes. Then the baby and the girlfriend.”
I nodded and took a sip of my beer.
“Baby?”
Lucas looked confused. “There’s no baby that I’m aware of. Nuttin’ of that nature has come through the grapevine.”
“Well, that complicates matters later.”
I smiled. “But I enjoy challenges.”
“Yeah, when dealin’ with our families, nuttin’ ever comes without a price. Ya might have to deal with one problem at a time, though. I’ll do some discreet diggin’, but I think the baby is gone for good. Ya might be able to save the lass, although it’s doubtful.”
Lucas downed his beer as the bartender brought us another round and the stews that Rossi had ordered earlier.
“A car will be around to pick ya up from the hotel this afternoon. Due to the fact that Kelly’s people knew when ya’d landed, we’re going to take ya back to the plane. Then it will fly to London, where ya’ll get on a small puddle jumper while the larger plane goes back to the states without ya. It’ll bring you straight to our private property and away from pryin’ eyes. Once they think ya’re back in America, they’ll start with their asks for money. Either way, it’ll help you to be able to look for him a little easier if there aren’t eyes on your every move.”
He threw down enough money to cover our lunch and beers. “Make sure that ya only have a carry on with the essentials. Pack ya phones and anything else that could be traced on the plane and leave it there.”
He disappeared as quickly as he appeared, and I turned to Rossi.
“Is he as good as he thinks he is?”
Rossi began to eat the stew. “Yes, boss.”
He stood, and I followed suit with a nod to the bartender.
This must be a McGinty owned bar because he acted as if it was normal for people to come in and have a meeting in less than twenty minutes. He hadn’t blinked an eye as if it was all perfectly natural.
Switching a few things into the carry-on didn’t take long.
I started pacing the room.
The phone pinged with a text from an unfamiliar number. A video.
After watching it and talking with Collette, I very much wanted to kill Sergi Pavlov and Edmond Kelly in the most painful way possible.
This was revenge, too. Sergi was the one man that knew about a major mistakes I made when I was younger.
When I’d started having women become submissives for me, his sister had been the third one. She’d been fine while she was with me, but her underlying issues made me decide to release her to seek mental help. She hadn’t gotten the help that I offered to get for her, and Sergi had discovered her dead only a few weeks later.
Certain that I’d probably contributed to her issues, I had felt guilt for years. I hadn’t done my due diligence on her background. She hadn’t been equipped for a sub/dom relationship. I also wasn’t as flexible with my submissives as I should have been. Collette had shown me that, but it was years too late.
Rossi had more than earned his paycheck for keeping me alive in those years. Sergi had come after me a few times, but his anger had made him irrational. Kira had been special to him, and that she’d died after being under my control for six months hadn’t endeared me to him.
Now he could hurt me almost exactly as he’d been hurt.
And there were ugly rumors about how he’d trained his dogs. He was a horrible person.
Was I so different?
Trauma had bled through my entire life. It had affected everything that I touched. I wasn’t just a bad dom, I was a horrible person, Like Sergi.
To think that I’d subjected Colette to my own kind of torture she’d started to love me.
What an idiot I’d been to think that anyone would willingly subject themselves the treatment I’d handed out. Even if they’d signed a contract and it said that they could leave whenever they wanted, it didn’t mean they actually would.
The women that I’d brought into my life were submissives and didn’t know how to tell a dom no. It wasn’t in their nature to say no or even protest when they didn’t like something.
Having their consent didn’t mean that they were okay with all the things that I had done. I’d unknowingly been using the term dom to keep women in slavery to me. Against their common sense, they would let me do anything to them because they considered it part of the submissive process.
When instead I should have been doing check-ins and aftercare for the subs. Maybe even tried to go to therapy again.
I had a god-complex. Everything that I wanted, I got. If I couldn’t just get it, then I made sure to put things into place that would allow me to achieve the end goal.
Until Collette waltzed in with that know it all attitude, I’d forgotten that it wasn’t just about me. It was about the sub as well.
Collette had thrown a wrench in my well thought out system. She was a brat. That was a completely new type of situation. Not only would she talk back, but she would keep me accountable for my actions. The difference between a sub that didn’t know better, and a brat, was that the brat couldn’t help speaking up even when they knew it was going to get them punished.
The relationship between a dom and a sub was a delicately balanced line. I’d forgotten that over the years of being a selfish ass. Collette had been the reminder that I’d needed to pivot and make sure that she wanted to stay. In the future, I wouldn’t let my wants control the needs of the people with me.
That is, if I got her out of this situation.