Free Deep Surrendering: Episode Ten by Chelsea M. Cameron

Somehow, I managed to grab the phone before it hit the floor and died an electronic death. Slowly, I raised it to my ear with a shaking hand.
    “H-hello?” I said, my voice stuttering.
    “Yes, this is Fin’s father. I believe we’ve met before.” His voice was ice cold and the tone made my stomach surge with unpleasantness. This was so, so not good.
    “Uh, yes.” I couldn’t seem to sound like a non-idiot. But nothing could have prepared me for talking with Fin’s father.
    “You used a different name though of course I knew what your real name was. I don’t just let my son wander around doing whatever he wants and seeing whoever he wants.” Oh. I’d been afraid of that, but I wasn’t surprised.
    “Uh huh,” I said, sounding worse by the minute. “What do you want?”
    “I want to know where my son is. He’s been hard at work ever since his little visit to you and now he’s up and vanished. And I’m very good at finding people, Marisol.” I didn’t want my name coming out of his mouth. He didn’t own me. But he owned Fin.
    I took a breath and steeled myself to say all the things I’d wanted to say to him. “Listen, I don’t know where he is and it’s none of your business, actually. He’s a grown ass man. He’s not your slave. He can do what he wants and he’s not going to be held hostage by you anymore. Got it? Fin belongs to no one but himself. And if even I knew where he was, you’d have to kill me before I’d tell you. Fuck off.” My voice wavered at the beginning, but got stronger by the end. It felt good and my body surged with something that felt like power. I didn’t even wait for him to respond before I ended the call.
    The phone rang again, but I didn’t answer it. I wasn’t talking to that asshole. Ever again.
    Now I had to figure out my next move.
    “I’m guessing that was Fin’s father. He’s an asshole,” Sapphire said and I nearly bit my tongue in half in surprise. She’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten she was even here.
    “Yeah. He doesn’t know where Fin is either and he’s none too happy about it.” She shivered, as if from a sudden chill.
    “Sorry, I just have a really bad association with his father.” Oh, right. He’d been the one who had “hired” her as a teenage prostitute for his son’s birthday. Bastard.
    “Yeah, I can’t even imagine,” I said. For some reason, I almost wanted to give her a hug. Almost. But that would be crossing some sort of line that I didn’t really want to cross.
    I couldn’t become friends with her. No way. Being nice to her, or helping her was one thing. But being friends was completely out of the question.
    “Soooo,” Sapphire said (even though I knew her real name, I’d probably always think of her as Sapphire), “what now?”
    “I have absolutely no idea. Wait for Carl or Fin to get back to us.” Us? I didn’t mean to say that. Oh well. We were temporary partners in Operation Find Fin.
    “Are you sure you don’t want something? Coffee maybe?” She took a few steps toward my couch like she was going to sit down, but stopped before she followed through.
    “Um, yeah. Coffee would be great. Do you have cream?” I went to go put the coffee on. It might not be the best idea, since the two of us were already jittery and on-edge, but at least it gave me something to do.
    “Yeah, but it’s French vanilla,” I said, going to the fridge and pulling the container out. Having coffee would now always be associated with Fin. On our first date, we discovered we liked it the same way. It felt like fate then.
    “Oh, that’s my favorite,” she said, still staring at the couch. Guess she was waiting for an invitation.
    “It is?” I asked. What were the chances? Of all the ways to take coffee in the world. And all the people who didn’t even like coffee.
    Sapphire turned around and gave me a puzzled look.
    “Yeah, it is.”
    Huh.
    “You can sit down if you want,” I said, pointing to the couch as I took the coffee