The Bed You Make
Chapter 17
~ What We Have is A Failure to Communicate~
It wasn't jilted love that fueled his determination. They hadn't reached that stage in their relationship. They had reached the point where the thought of something more serious between them wasn't totally foreign. At least he thought they both had reached that point. No, what drove him was a very male anger at the thought of her trying to convince him that whatever it was they'd shared had been one-sided.
A part of him should have felt guilty about what he was doing. It was, after all, just past dawn. Simple common decency demanded that- “Oh, hello,” he interrupted his musings. “May I speak to Dara Jensen, please?”
“Who?”
“Dara Jensen.” Detective Alex Garcia glanced down at the slip of paper in his hand. The harsh lights of the break room made the printed black numbers stand out in stark relief against the white paper. Had he somehow dialed the wrong number? “Is this the Cassadine place?”
“You have reached Wyndemere, yes,” the slightly accented masculine voice replied. “How may I help you?”
“I'd like to speak to Dara Jensen.” Alex listened to silence on the other end. His jaw tightened when he suddenly grasped the reason for the man's lack of response. Through clenched teeth, the handsome Port Charles detective rephrased his request. “May I speak to Dara Cassadine , please?”
“The mistress is not in,” the voice said maddeningly. “She and Master Stefan are enjoying the city. Shall I inform Master Stefan you called?”
Alex bit back a curse. Not trusting himself to be polite, he simply hung up the phone.
“Dara won't take your calls?”
Alex spun around. He'd been so engrossed in his dialogue with Stefan's employee that he hadn't heard his partner slip into the room. “The butler says she's not there. She and her husband are enjoying the city.”
Marcus snorted; Alex understood the sound completely. “Yeah,” he scowled. “Like they're just a couple of newlyweds in love. Give me a break!”
“So,” Marcus cocked his bald head to one side, “what were you planning to say if Dara had answered? I mean, considering that it's still dawn and all.”
“I don't know. Something.” Alex realized how weak his response sounded. “I guess I was hoping to catch her off-guard. Maybe get her to agree to meet me alone somewhere. If she's alone with me, looking in my eyes, she'll have to tell me the truth about what's going on.”
“Hmm…”
Alex had no problem translating his partner's response. Marcus' skepticism was plainly written all over his face. It was a look that said ‘fat chance of getting Dara alone. And even fatter chance of getting at the truth.'
