Daddy Daddy: MFM Menage Romance

by Demi Donovan

  I’m beginning to understand what Cameron sees in drinking. A stupor would be nice right about now.

  “You mean do I think Cassie played us like two fools? Fuck no,” Sawyer nearly spits, his face a mask of indignation at the mere thought.

  I’m still not convinced.

  “What, you think she did? You think she can play that? Hell, if that was all an act, that girl deserves a fucking Oscar. Two. One for best leading lady, the other for best screenplay. Jesus Christ, Parker, listen to yourself. You’re going to believe anything Cameron told you? He’s a piece of shit and he’s always been one.”

  His rant is pointed and I shrug, looking back out of the window. I wish I was as certain as he is.

  “I mean, why would she?” Sawyer goes on, keeping up with his pacing, like a caged beast. “She had nothing to gain. We already gave her everything, we would give her everything.”

  “She always said she’s her father’s daughter,” I offer lightly, not making it any better.

  “Yeah, well, I’m a direct descendant of the fucking Romans, doesn’t mean I’m going to pillage through most of mainland Europe. Being Cameron’s daughter has nothing to do with it. She has her own brain. He’s barely been in her life, he’s a drunk and a loser and a fucking thief. She’s nothing like he is.”

  We share a look. For someone so unlike her father, she certainly cut and run really fucking fast. I can see the tendrils of doubt begin to form in Sawyer’s mind and I’m almost sorry for planting them there. I know it’s not just my heart that’s breaking, it’s his as well.

  We’ve shared almost everything in life and now we share a love for the same woman. It’s sort of poetic that our hearts would get broken at the same time, too.

  Finally, he sits down, teetering on the edge of an exorbitantly expensive couch. His shoulders are tense and he’s staring in front of himself while I feel like my body might just turn to dust any moment. I think the last time I felt this betrayed was when…

  Well, the last time a Davis left my life abruptly.

  “We’re being pretty fucking useless Daddies right now,” Sawyer comments, defeat in his voice.

  “Can’t lose what you never had,” I say, wishing I believed it.

  It hurts like I’m losing something.

  “I never told you something, you know,” Sawyer starts after a long pause.

  “What, you fucked her in that copy room too or something?” I ask, the humor falling flat.

  I can’t joke about her. Not now, and probably not ever.

  “About Cameron. I was the one who ratted him out.”

  Sawyer meets my gaze as I turn to face him sharply. The punches just keep coming. Cameron got dragged out of our damn graduation for corporate espionage. I always wondered how they knew he was going to be there, if they’d been tailing him for a while. This answers that question, I guess.

  “Why?”

  “Because he was going to take us down with him.” He holds up his hand when I begin to protest – if Cameron wanted to throw dirt on us, he could have at any time during his trial. “I don’t mean directly. He knew as well as we did that he planned his heist on his own and though we talked about it with him once, that didn’t make us accomplices.

  “I let the feds know where he was and that it was he who had done it because I knew it wouldn’t be the last time. Sure, maybe it would be a few years before he did it again, but I knew he’d be cancer. We’d just let him grow until he suffocated both of us. So yeah.

  “I saw the documents. I read them. I never used anything in them. And I ratted him out. Maybe I should have spent time behind bars with him, but I didn’t regret it for a minute. What I do regret is paying him off.”

  “You what?” I ask, the pit of my stomach getting cold.

  We bought Cameron out, it was a joint decision. Both of us paid. But I thought I was the only one who kept paying after that.

  “I doubled the money he got when we bought him out. I gave him the exact sum that we both paid again a couple of weeks later so he’d keep his mouth shut. We agreed it would be the last time. I guess that promise held almost two decades, so that’s something.”

  “Shit,” I hiss, shaking my head.

  “I’m sorry. I-”

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” I laugh, a mirthless sound. “You’re not the only fucking sucker in the room. I did it too. I’ve been paying him off for years. I mean we don’t call it that, we call it something to get by on, but it is what it is, isn’t it? We propped him up together and then I kept doing it because I was so fucking guilty that we cut him out, that he spent time in jail.”

  “They should have just kept him there,” Sawyer says darkly. “It probably would have been better for his family that way.”

  It’s disgusting how right I think Sawyer is on that one. Aside from Callista, I don’t think a single good thing has come out of Cameron Davis since he went to prison.

  We both take a moment to digest that information and when Sawyer looks up, I know what we have to do.

  “Cameron’s lied about everything his entire life,” I start, Sawyer already standing up and going for his keys.

  “If he can fool us, he can definitely fool Cassie. We need to find her.”

  “Just what I was thinking.”

  I guess sometimes it takes a bit of truth to rattle your world back in place.

  Twenty-Seven

  Sawyer

  I’ve spent the whole night driving around and I can barely see straight at this point. I’ve checked every motel and cheap hotel around my apartment building, I’ve gone to the airports, the bus station, checked with hospitals. No signs of Cassie.

  I called in the big guns hours ago, contacts that I shouldn’t really have but I do. There’s a bit of quid pro quo in our business, tech always keeps together and sometimes we play nice with local powers as well. Long story short, I know she turned her phone on in the bus station about an hour after she disappeared, but that’s all the information I have.

  I didn’t find her there. The best I got was that a couple of people, after being shown crisp hundred-dollar bills, remembered seeing someone like her talking to a guy with a black eye. I’ve been nauseous since.

  There was no doubt in my mind that the guy she spoke to was Mark. On one hand, it filled me with dread, thinking what might have happened to her if she ended up in his sphere of influence again. On the other hand, it also made me wonder if it wasn’t too big of a fucking coincidence.

  Fine, I’ll admit it. I’m not entirely sure if Cassie is innocent in all of this. I want to believe it and after my conversation with Parker I wish to believe it, but I have my doubts. Sue me. I’ve been burned enough times in my life to be fucking wary.

  I wasn’t always the kind of guy who spent his time at Club Xes and fucking girls named Vixen. For a period in my late twenties, I thought I was going to settle down. I had the ring all picked out, I was putting a down payment on a huge house in the suburbs and I was even planning on painting the picket fence a particularly garish, pure tone of white.

  She cheated on me. Not only that, she got pregnant by him before I even knew it and six months after I found out, she was married to the guy. So I admit, I’m a little jaded about things like purity of human emotions.

  Which is why it makes me even sicker to think that I might have fallen for someone only out to use me again. I hold onto the hope that I’m wrong, desperately so, as evident from my frantic driving around, calling anyone I could and trying my fucking hardest to find Cassie. Parker called her mother and talked to her sister, as well as any friend Jenna could mention, but there’s still no sign of her.

  The only person we haven’t called again is Cameron.

  It’s seven in the morning when I pull up to the SCP main building and park my car. I look like a mess, getting out of it, and I wave loosely to the security guard. He gives me a long look and I want to ask him if he’s never seen a broken fucking man before.

  The office is bliss
fully empty as I get up to the executive floor. I go into my private bathroom and the sight that greets me is not a good one. Stubble, red eyes, crumpled shirt and suit… I look like I’ve been on a bender all night. Except if I’d been drinking, I’d probably feel better.

  Splashing water on my face, I take a few breaths and try to shake myself out of this indecisive stupor. Do I believe her or don’t I?

  I brush my teeth, change my shirt for one I keep in the office just in case, and go to one of the coffee nooks to brew myself a cup of Joe. I practically cradle it in my hands as I walk back to my office, stopping abruptly as I notice Cassie’s desk from the corner of my eye.

  It’s neat, tidy lines. I count at least three separate notebooks on the corner, all scribbled full of math and physics. Deciding that I could maybe learn something about where she might have gone, I glance around to make sure that I’m still alone and then sit down at the desk, setting my coffee cup down.

  Tentatively, I pull open drawers and look through her things, feeling both oddly excited to be this close to her hidden little world, and a little bit like I’m trespassing. I’ve never cared much for anyone else’s personal privacy other than my own, but with Cassie, it’s almost like those boundaries exist again for me. I guess I care too much. That might be my downfall here.

  I find a smaller notebook that I’ve seen her carry to meetings before and pick it up. The moment I open it, I have a big stupid grin on my face. It’s just page after page of meeting notes, interspersed with scribbles of her name in combination with mine and Parker’s. Your regular ‘Mrs. Layton’ and ‘Mrs. Cassandra Carlson’ and then a couple of ‘Mrs. Cassandra Carlson-Layton’.

  I stare at them for far too long before finally slamming the notebook shut as I hear footsteps coming toward me. I push the notebook back in the drawer and close it, just barely managing to stand up from her chair when Parker rounds the corner.

  “Shit, I thought you were… Never mind. I don’t know who I thought you were. No luck?” I ask, though I already know the answer.

  We’ve been keeping contact through the night, just two worried boyfriends looking for our girl. Because that’s what I guess we are now.

  “None,” Parker says, looking worse for wear than I am.

  I made him pay a cab driver for the first half of the night as he searched separately, until he sobered up. He’s well and truly hungover now, but I doubt it’s just the alcohol talking. More than anything, it’s the fact that Cassie’s still missing.

  “All right,” I nod, searching my brain for what to do next.

  The idea comes fully formed.

  “I think we should call Cameron back,” I say, taking a sip of my coffee as I usher Parker into his own office.

  “And tell him what?” he asks, shrugging off his jacket.

  “And tell him we won’t pay.”

  Parker looks at me, frowning slightly.

  “Go on.”

  “That’s it. I don’t care if he goes to the press. I’m done. As far as I’m concerned, he can yell that we’re involved with Cassie from the rooftops. If he won’t, I will. Even if she played us, shit, man, love’s complicated. And I love her.”

  I choke up a little as I say that. I don’t think I’ve said that word out loud and meant it in more than a decade. Sure, I have my doubts, but I’m beginning to think they have more to do with my lack of ability to trust anyone than anything else.

  Parker looks at me, stunned, but slowly, his mouth crooks into a smile and I let out a relieved breath.

  “So we’ll call him,” Parker confirms.

  Just like Cameron told me, he called Parker a few hours later, in the middle of the night. If Cassie would have been with him, he would have known that we both already knew the gist of his message. It gave me some hope then that Cassie might have just freaked out but at this point, it’s solid confirmation.

  Parker whips out his phone and dials a number, bringing the phone to his ear. I move to take it from him but he stops me, shaking his head. We’ve both revealed stuff to each other over the last twelve hours that has been hidden for decades, I might as well learn to really trust him if we’re going to do this together.

  Get back our woman. Face whatever consequences might be heading our way.

  “Cameron, this is Parker,” he says, turning the conversation over to speaker again so I can hear the whole thing. “I wanted to call you to tell you that I’ve thought about your offer.”

  “You know my bank account number,” Cameron says, his tone surly.

  It pleases me to no end that he’s having a shit day. Serves him right, if anyone were to ask me.

  “I’m not going to pay you. Neither one of us is. I’ve talked to Sawyer and we both agree. If you want to go to the press, go ahead. We love your daughter and we’re willing to fight for her regardless of public opinion. Do your worst, Cameron, we’ll be waiting.”

  The stunned silence on the other end before Parker hangs up the call makes me grin wide. Fuck yes, that’s exactly what I want Cameron to know – that regardless of his vile ways, we won’t fall for it anymore.

  Parker’s smiling as well as he turns to face me but he looks right past me. His expression morphs and when I look over my shoulder, I see the reason.

  It’s Cassie.

  Twenty-Eight

  Cassie

  “I’m sorry,” I start, saying the only thing that comes to mind when I stand there at the doorway, facing both of them

  I’m clutching the strap of my purse and I’m so tired I could curl up on the floor and sleep for twelve hours, but the adrenaline starting to pound through my veins is keeping me up and awake.

  I’ve thought this over the whole night, making plans, trying to figure out what to say. Now that I’m right in front of them, all those rehearsed words seem to be stuck in my throat.

  “Oh my god, Cassie,” Parker says with obvious relief, coming to the door and pulling me into his arms.

  He feels so nice and strong and warm that I want to never let go. But I have to, at least until I say what I came here to say. Gently, I push him off me and the door is closed behind me, the first people starting to filter into the office as the clock gets close to eight.

  I thought they’d be here this early and I’m glad I was right. I don’t want to make a scene and I figured talking to them at the office would be the easiest way. None of us would overreact here, or at least I hope so.

  “Please, I need to say something,” I murmur, having caught the tail-end of their conversation with my father.

  As much as it filled me with hope, I can’t let it cloud my judgment.

  “Give her space,” Sawyer says, his arms crossed over his chest again like he always does when he’s feeling uncertain about something.

  Parker reluctantly steps back from me, worry etched on his features.

  “Just tell me you’re all right, Cassie,” he says.

  “I’m fine, don’t worry,” I nod, smiling. “Honestly, I’m okay.”

  Sawyer nods his head toward a chair, telling me to take a seat, but I decline. I feel like I need to stand when I say this.

  “I know what I did last night was not okay, not by a long shot. I heard the phone call you had with my father and I freaked out. There’s no better explanation for it.

  “First of all, no, I was not ‘in’ on anything. I didn’t know that he’d been having us tailed or that he knew about… well, us. It wasn’t a plan, at least it wasn’t my plan and I can’t believe my father would sink to something like that…”

  I don’t tell them that I doubt my dad actually thought in the beginning that I had anything going with either of them. If I know him the way I think I do now, I’m pretty sure he was just looking to fabricate some kind of story to blackmail them with. It was just his ‘luck’ that I actually happened to fall for these men and they for me.

  “It’s not your fault,” Sawyer starts, but I quiet him.

  “I need to get this out. A lot of it is my fault. I haven�
��t been honest with you guys the whole way. There are things in my past I’m ashamed of. And I have always thought I’m my father’s daughter. I’m like him in a lot of ways. I like the easy option. If stuff gets too rough, I run, as evident by last night. I don’t like facing my own flaws. And I’ve stolen.”

  Sawyer cocks a brow at me and I want to avert my eyes, but I don’t. I decided to be fucking brave so I need to go through with it. I won’t have endless chances in life to make things better and it’s about time I realize that.

  “Petty theft. Convenience stores, my mom’s purse… I’m not proud of it and I don’t do it anymore but what I’m telling you is that I have it in me. I can be that person. But I don’t want to be that person anymore.

  “Everything I’ve told you has been the truth, but I haven’t revealed myself the way I should have. I got into several colleges, including MIT, but I couldn’t afford them and I knew my mom couldn’t either so I stopped going to school altogether. I ran, as I always do.

  “I heard you talking to my father last night and the guilt was too much. I didn’t want to cause any trouble to either of you. But I also need you to know one thing. I love you. I love both of you. You’ve made me the happiest I’ve ever been and I want to hold onto that, even if I can’t hold onto you.”

  I wet my lips, my breathing heavier. My head hums a little. Baring my soul is… hard.

  “I’ve made some bad choices in life but I want that to stop. I want to stop running and I wanted both of you to know that.

  “I got the pictures that my father was talking about. Mark had them, he hadn’t sent them to my father, so he has nothing. It was all a bluff, but I’m sure he would have eventually been able to buy them off of Mark. That’s what Mark was doing yesterday, he came to offer another deal but his ego got in the way, I guess.”

  I shrug at that, feeling guilty for getting everyone into this mess. At the end of the day, had I just said no to coming here in the first place, none of this would have happened.