Without A Trace

Twenty-Five

"Tell me Cora, what in the FUCK was that?" He asks angrily walking over to the desk.

"I had some business to do Thomas," I say taking another puff of my cigarette, keeping my eyes on his icy blue ones.

"Business? THIS IS NOT A FUCKING GAME CORA. YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN KILLED OR THE GIRLS KILLED. What the FUCK were you thinking doing that alone?" He asks turning away running his hand over his face.

"You have your business, I have mine," I say coldly.

Thomas stops and walks over to the chair, "Your business, is my business. Thats how this fuckin marriage works."

I look up at him and lean back in the chair, setting my cigarette down in the ashtray, "Is it Thomas?" I ask getting up and getting in his face, "I'll start telling you my business when you start telling me yours." I say looking him. "Take your fuckin ego and shove it up your ass Thomas."

Tom grabs ahold of me and slams me against the wall, knocking down one of his paintings. I grab ahold of him and bring him closer to me looking in his eyes,  "You want to fuckin fight Tom? Lets fuckin fight because you don't fuckin scare me." I say angrily. "Go on Thomas, HIT ME FUCKER."

Thomas slaps me across the face before I look at him and punch him across the jaw and push him off me. I walk up to him and grab his jaw turning his head to make him look at me, "You forget. I'm not Grace Shelby. I'm fuckin Cora Shelby. I go down fuckin swinging. Not curled up in the corner like a bitch."

I look at his lip thats bleeding and look back up at his eyes, "Keep testing me Thomas and it wont be pretty. I'm getting worn thin and I will snap soon if you dont fuckin leave up."

Thomas clenches his jaw looking down at me, "You will not ever do that again without telling me where you are. You forget theres people out to fuckin kill you Cora. But if you want to die that death wish is on you, not me." He says coldly. "Now get the fuck out of my office before I lose my temper."

My eyes grow dark and I inch closer to his face, "Go ahead. Because I'm about to lose mine too."

He sits there for a moment before shoving me away from him causing me to fall against the bookshelf. I pick up the fallen books and chuck them across the room at him as anger rages inside of me. "You think you own this fucking thing but guess what THOMAS?" I yell picking up the whiskey glasses and chuck them at him. They hit the wall next to him and shatter into pieces. "You think you can do whatever the fuck you want without any consequences but I cant even do something that benefits the whole fuckin family. You go out and kill people left and right but heaven forbid the girls and I go and ROUGH SOMEONE UP," I yell throwing one of the desk chairs behind me causing it to smash against the wall. I walk up to him and get in his face, pressing my nose against his.

"You wouldn't have half your SHIT if it wasnt for me," I say in his face. He pauses for a few moments before grabs me and slamms me against the desk. I cough slighly and try to ignore the shooting pain thats now in my back from slamming against the big mahogany desk.

He reaches up and grabs my face, digging his fingers into my skin as he makes his grip tighter and tighter causing me to wince in pain and pull on his wrist, "Well Cora. Just brief reminder, I could've fucked you and threw you out on the fuckin street with nothing when I was done with you like I originally planned."

I sit there taken aback from his comment. I push him off of me and meet his gaze again. My heart broke a little bit at the sting of his words. A tear falls down my face before I walk towards the door and turn to face him again, "Don't fuckin worry about it. I'll see myself out your fuckin majesty." I say. I take my ring off and chuck it at his face before walking down the hallway and grabbing every picture of us and slamming it into the ground causing the glass to shatter. The boys jump and look over at me and the girls meet me at the end of the hallway.

"Cor whats wrong?" Anna asks worryingly.

"Get out of my face. I need to fucking leave before I burn this fucking house down with everyone in it." I say coldly wiping the tears away from my eyes.

"We'll go with you. Come on," Ivy says turning to the side.

I walk up to the table and pick up the heavy whiskey container and haul it across the room, smashing it against Thomas's office door. I look at the boys briefly, "Any fuckin one of you tells him where I am, and I'll kill you in your fuckin sleep," I say storming out of the door into the car.

The girls get in with me before shutting the doors behind them, "Where are we going Cora?" Ivy asks.

"The only place I dont want to fucking burn down," I say hitting the gas and speeding away.

"We're going to have a chat about what happened when we get there," Anna says leaning back in her seat.

"Im done talking," I say rudely.

Ivy leans up, "I dont give a fuck if you sit there with your head up your ass. We're gonna fuckin talk whether you fuckin like it or not." She says coldly before leaning back in her seat.

I blink the tears out of my eyes gripping the steering wheel as we make out way out of Birmingham. Once we get on the highway I step on the gas even more. "Fine," I finally say after quite a few minutes of silence. "But until then both of you just leave me the fuck alone," I say driving towards the one place I knew I would feel better in. The cottage.