50 Shades of Drake 1 and 2

50SOD II: Chapter Seventy-Eight

    Time seemed to slow down and then stop altogether. Destiny stared down at the paperwork in the file folder, then raised her eyes to meet Aubrey's. "I don't understand what is happening."

    "You will no longer be my submissive," he repeated.

    She held up her hand to silence him. "No...I heard you. I just...I don't understand what is happening right now. So I can consider the contract over, and what? We live together as a normal couple?"

    He licked his lips. "We wouldn't live together at all, actually."

    She narrowed her eyes at him. "So I would live in the condo upstairs and only see you on the weekends?"

    "You would not live in the condo upstairs. We wouldn't see each other at all. Unless it was work related."

    She already knew the answers to these questions before she asked them, but for some reason hearing them was so much worse than coming to the conclusion herself. Her mouth dropped open and she turned away from him. "So..." She shook her head, not even knowing what she wanted to ask him. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she wiped at them with the backs of her hands. "I did something. I made you mad. I messed up, somehow."

    He closed his eyes. "You didn't do anything wrong."

    "Then why?" she demanded. "We were doing so well. We were...happy. Weren't we?"

    "This is less about us and more about everything else going on in my life right now," he said, fighting to keep emotion out of his voice.

    "But when you're in a relationship, bad things happen. You don't break up because they happen. You stay together, you work through them together. Your company is going through a lot right now, but I can help you. You can't expect to take care of everything on your own. I can help you if you let me."

    "You've already done so much to help me," he said, looking at her with kind eyes. "I'm going to specifically ask you to stop researching Palmer. Let my investigator handle him. I have already asked Brian to reassign you to a completely different project. I don't want you involved in the Palmer project at all."

    So that's why you wanted to speak to Brian. You were telling him to put me on a different assignment. You want to break up with me, but you still want to control my life. "Just last night, we were holding each other. And I was telling you that you have me and I have you. Even then...you knew you wanted to end things with me?"

    "I was supposed to do it last night," he confessed. "I was supposed to tell you when you walked in. But..." Emotion crept into his voice and he cleared his throat. "This is something that has to happen, Destiny. I'm sorry."

    "So I don't live here with you. I don't live up in the condo that you offered to give to me, and put in my name. Where am I supposed to go?"

    He lowered his gaze, the muscle in his jaw twitching. "About that..."

    She couldn't take any more bad news. It felt like her body would cave in on itself if he dropped even one more bomb on her. Her entire world was rocked, and she didn't know how to steady it. "Are you sending me back to D.C?"

    "No. I wouldn't do that."

    I can't tell, Sir. "Then what?"

    "I've...I've asked someone to watch over you, for me."

    She frowned. "What?"

    "You and I can't be together, but that doesn't mean I would leave you on your own. I still want to make sure you're watched over. Protected." He looked up at her and must have seen the confusion on her face, because he explained, "For the time being, you will be staying with Brian."

    She stood up so abruptly that her chair was pushed backwards. "Is this a joke?"

    "No."

    "What am I? A hot potato that you and your buddies can toss back and forth?"

    "I understand why you would react this way."

    "You don't want me so it's his turn?" she demanded. "You were so against him being anywhere near me and now you expect me to live with him?"

    "Please sit down and let me explain."

    She shook her head. "No."

    "Destiny-"

    "No, Aubrey." She folded her arms across her chest. "You love me. I love you. And I'm not leaving you. I refuse. You can't make me."

    "Actually, I can," he said softly.

    "But you wouldn't."

    His eyes were sad when they met her gaze. "I would."

    "You want me out of here that badly, that you would force me out?" she whispered.

    He ran a hand over his head. "This is not about me wanting you out."

    "Then what the hell is this?" she shouted. "Speak in English, because I'm lost, Aubrey. What is this? Why are you doing this? Just come out and tell me."

    "It's too dangerous for you to be around me right now."

    Realization dawned on her. "Because of the Palmer thing. So you want me to stay with Brian until the Palmer thing clears up. Why didn't you just say so?"

    He sighed. "It's not that simple, Destiny."

    "Yes, it is," she argued. "Your investigator works his magic, and compiles enough evidence against Palmer. That should take - what? One, two months, tops? Meanwhile, you have me stay with Brian. Then after that period, I come back to you and everything goes back to normal."

    "It's not that simple, Destiny."

    "We can make it that simple."

    He laughed and shook his head.

    "And how can you laugh about this like it's even remotely funny?" she asked him.

    "Because you are not understanding what I am telling you," he said firmly. "And no - it's not that simple. We can't make it that simple."

    "Why not?"

    He stood up from his desk and paced the length of his office. "All right. My investigator finds dirt on Palmer. Right? Enough to bring a case against him. What would happen next is Palmer would go on trial. You can't just throw someone in jail without them confessing to murder. So he would go on trial. And during that entire trial, you would not be safe, Destiny. All right? Even if he is in jail and doesn't make bail, you would not be safe. He is a fucking politician. He can hire whoever he wants to come after you. Do you know how long trials last? Not a month or two. It would probably take longer than that for the trial to even begin. There's no telling how long the trial would actually last. Or if he'd make appeals."

    She frowned. "If you go off of that mentality, then I would never be safe. Because even if he goes to jail, he can call someone and hire them to come after me."

    "Exactly. Yes."

    "So...what...then you and I never get back together?"

    He turned his back to her and stared out of the window behind his desk chair.

    "Answer me." Her voice shook. "When you say that the contract period is over, are you intending on never being with me again?"

    He stared out of the window as he said, "I will stay way from you for as long as it takes to keep you safe." He glanced at her over his shoulder. "And I don't care how long that is."