Page 52 of Tone Deaf
“Yeah, why?”
“You look upset,” Jordan adds. “Did you hear from Dom?”
“Dom?” I frown. “What do you mean?”
They look at each other before Figs says, “Dom left early this morning. Didn’t he tell you?”
“What?” Dom left. And again, he didn’t tell me he was leaving. “Where did he go?”
“We don’t know.” Fig shrugs. “All he said is that he’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“He didn’t say anything else?” I ask, anger clawing at my new-found confidence in our relationship. I can’t believe he’s done it again. They shake their heads. “Thanks.”
I walk away from them and head back inside the house, feeling like my heart is shattering into a million pieces. We were supposed to talk today. Smooth out the wrinkles in our relationship. But here he goes and leaves without a word to me. Again. It’s not like I wasn’t sleeping right fucking next to him. He will probably use the excuse of not wanting to wake me, but that’s bullshit.
I’m done. I can’t be in a relationship with a partner who can’t see and trust me.
“Pen? What’s wrong?” Callum is in my space, eyes wide with worry.
The red haze in my thoughts clears as I look at the beautiful man before me. A poison dart of pain shoots down to my soul, knowing that I have to tell him that this throuple Dom and I proposed to him isn’t happening.
“Where’s Dom?”
“I don’t fucking know where he went,” I say, venom seeping into my words and I immediately regret it. “I’m sorry.”
He leans in, cups my face with both hands. “Tell me, what’s going on between you and Dom.”
I step away from his touch to give myself room to breathe, even though Callum is my solace. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
“What can’t you do?” he asks, but remains where he is to give me the space I need.
“Between Dom and me. He doesn’t trust me and today proves it,” I admit, trying to keep the dam holding back my emotions from bursting.
I can’t cry.
“I don’t understand. What happened today to make you rethink your relationship with him?”
“He keeps secrets from me, and I’m tired of always asking about what or who or even how in his life, and him never answering. I’m sorry, but I thought the three of us could make it work and I now know it can’t.” The strangled feeling around my neck gets tighter as I finally admit my feelings for Callum. “I love you, but I can’t do it anymore.” I walk out of the house, hoping he doesn’t follow me.
“Pen,” Callum calls after me, but I go from striding to a full out run.
I pass Fig and Jordan and tell them to watch over Callum while I go for a run. And without waiting for their agreement, I take off down the small trail I found a few days ago.
The rough terrain isn’t enough to take my mind off of what I just did. I broke up with Callum—even before he agreed to be with us. And I inadvertently splintered any relationship he might have with Dom without him being present.
I’m such a loser.
It’s taking everything in me not to drive out of this place and redo my life without him. Without his secrets. Hide myself away from the world until I know what I want. Hide away from Dom so he can’t find me and sweet talk my fractured heart into forgiving him yet again. Because if I have to go through this one more time, my heart will combust and burn into ashes from the hurt.
Chapter Twenty
Dom
The last place I expected to be this morning was in a hallway of the United States Department of Justice building in Virginia, yet here I am. I was once a Deputy Marshal GS-9, and I’ve walked these halls an umpteenth number of times. I should be comfortable here. But I’m not. I have been battling PTSD since the last case I was on—a case that went horribly wrong, and being here is making my skin crawl.
Twitchy and unbalanced is how I’m feeling as I stand around here like an idiot waiting for someone to take me to see my old boss. Deputy Director Gregory Joust.
When Greg called late last night and left a voicemail with the old code word, X-Acto, my entire body locked up and my mind whirled back to the last time I saw the son of a bitch who fired me.