50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter Seventy-Five

    She knows. She took one look at Brian and me and knew that something happened between us. Destiny sat in the passenger seat of Brian's car with her hands folded in her lap. And if it was that easy for her to figure it out, then when Aubrey gets back...

    There were no words to describe the amount of shame she'd felt while sitting in Sandi's living room. When Sandi had asked to speak to her alone, Destiny had known what the conversation would be about. Admittedly, the conversation could have gone a lot worse. Sandi had been extremely understanding, given the circumstances.

    "You guys were in there for quite awhile," Brian remarked while driving.

    His overly nice way of asking what we talked about, Destiny thought. "She...had a lot to say."

    He drummed his fingers on top of the steering wheel while pulling the car to a stop at a red light. "About anything in particular?"

    While walking from Sandi's house to his car, she'd wrestled with whether or not she wanted to tell Brian about the conversation that he'd had. She couldn't imagine how he felt, knowing that Aubrey would most likely soon return to Toronto. "About us."

    Brian nodded. "She knows."

    "Yeah."

    He lapsed into silence.

    "She was...very nice about it. But she was definitely concerned. Concerned that I'd..." She turned her head and looked out of the window.

    "That you'd hurt Aubrey."

    "Or you."

    The traffic light turned green and he pressed his foot on the accelerator. "We're all adults in this situation," he said after a few moments. "Even if Aubrey had gone off for forever, there was always a chance he would change his mind and come back. I was aware of what I was doing, aware of the possible outcome of all of this. I can't speak for you, but I'm sure that you were aware. In the end, we are each responsible for our own actions. If...if things don't work out the way I want them to, I can't blame anyone else for that. I can't blame you for that. I told you that I could make it easy for you, told you that you don't even have to decide between Aubrey and me. Assuming he is somewhere at Palmer's mercy, I wouldn't expect you to stay with me when he returns."

    She bowed her head.

    "No matter what you choose, I'll always be here for you," he vowed, glancing at her. "No matter what you choose, I'll always...feel the same way...about you. I just want you to be happy."

    "I want you to be happy, too," she told him. "You've been through a lot. You deserve to be happy."

    "That's not a reason to stay with me, or a reason to choose me," he told her firmly. "You can't be with me because you feel sorry for me, or because you sympathize with what happened to me in the past. If you stay with me, it should be because you want to be with me."

    "I know," she said sadly, pushing hair out of her eyes. "I just...I don't want to hurt anyone, and I feel like no matter what I decide, I will. You're being nice and saying that we're each responsible for our own actions and that you wouldn't blame me, but I would blame me. This is my fault."

    "Did Sandi say she blamed you for what she did?" Brian asked her, stopping at another red light and turning to face her. "Was she hard on you for what she did?"

    She shook her head. "No."

    "She is the mother of a man who is most likely being held prisoner by Palmer. She is the mother of one of the men that you have feelings for. You were in that house with me, another man she knows you have feelings for. And she didn't blame you. With that text message and what we saw on that news report, we were justified in thinking that Aubrey left. Willingly. Forever."

    "But he didn't, and now I have to deal with that," she told him, tears starting in her eyes. "I have to face him, knowing what I did. Knowing that I didn't have faith in him. I don't know how I'm going to do that. And when it comes to you..." She tilted her head to the side, her eyebrows drawing together. With a single tear cascading down her cheek, she raised a hand and cupped his jaw. "When it comes to you..." She tried to get an entire sentence out, but didn't know how to continue it.

    A car behind them honked and Brian briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. He covered her hand with his own and lowered it. He held her hand above the console and resumed driving through the intersection. "We'll figure it out. Don't worry about it, okay? We'll figure it out. Our first priority is making sure that Aubrey is safe. All of the other stuff is trivial in comparison to that."

    She nodded and sniffled, wiping at her cheeks. "You're right. You're totally right."

"Sandi said that she's calling some of her contacts, but...ultimately, I think she's right. I want to request a meeting with the private investigator. Talk to him face to face. At this point, he's just a voice at the other end of the line. I didn't get any shady vibes from him at all, but I would feel better after meeting him. Talking to him. Maybe we can even help him."

    "If Palmer has him, he probably either has him here in Toronto, or D.C.," Destiny said, thinking out loud. "Things have been quiet on Palmer's end and he hasn't really done anything to us in a while. I mean...he's a politician, right? He can't stay away from D.C. for forever, so maybe he went back."

    Brian nodded. "You're right. We can look to see if he's been spotted in D.C. recently."

    "Then again, he could have hired someone to keep Aubrey here, even if he did go back to D.C.," she muttered, scratching her temple.

    "Let's not overthink it," Brian cautioned. "Palmer is behind all of this. I think we can agree on that at this point. Even if Palmer is hiding Aubrey somewhere here, if we get our hands on Palmer, we can get the truth out of him. For us to get our hands on him, we have to track him down. I'm going to call the P.I. back and set up a meeting like Sandi suggested, but in the meantime our next move is to check for Palmer sightings."

    Destiny nodded in agreement. "Okay." As he drove, her eyes lowered to their joined hands resting on the console. Making sure Aubrey is safe is priority number one, Des. You can worry about what to do about the Brian and Aubrey love triangle once we get Aubrey home. In her heart, she knew that it was likely she wouldn't even have to make a decision. The moment she set her eyes on Aubrey again, she would know...