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Dominic
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When it clicks for her who I am, her disappointment is palpable. Her beautiful face falls, those honey eyes darken. Regina refuses to look up from the glass she’s holding tightly in her hand. The second she remembers Taylor is clear. Tension is in every muscle of her lush, sexy as fuck body.
Anger flares within me all over again, at her, and myself for how not just my cock, but my whole body is hard for her. This is bullshit. My control over my body, my entire fucking world, is complete and absolute. At least it was until I locked eyes on Regina Conti.
I shake my head as I try to get the moment I saw her out of my head. I still don’t know what the fuck happened. One minute I was fine, the next I couldn’t remember my name. Every cell within me was rioting in desperate, aching need to touch her.
Before coming here, in my mind she was some shadowy figure of any woman; in reality she’s a fucking knockout. Her face is a classic oval with high round cheekbones. A smooth straight nose is maybe a tad too big, yet it fits perfectly over a wide, soft mouth. When that mouth made an oh at the sight of me, I knew my cock would fit just right. It’s her eyes I can’t get over, though—amber became gold, honey, then chocolate with a flicker of her thoughts. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
I like that Regina didn’t wear makeup, her golden skin doesn’t need it. The long, silky black hair framing her face is such a stark contrast to her glowing skin, for a moment I couldn’t help but wonder if it was from a bottle. Yet nothing about her is false or fake. Something so rare these days, that alone is appealing about her. Even though I know she’s young, she doesn’t look it. She appears to be in her late twenties, maybe even early thirties. It isn’t a bad thing, she will likely look the same in her mid-fifties.
It was all I could do to tear my eyes off her face. Only to take a city bus to the chest when I took in her body that was all woman. Her large breasts swayed when she took a deep, gasping breath as our eyes met. She’s tall, the way I like my women. Those legs were hidden by the long dress, but I have a feeling they’ll fit around my waist perfectly.
The moment I took her small, soft hand in mine, electricity shot through me and fried my fucking brain. All I wanted was her, all of her. I wanted to devour her, consume her until there was nothing left. She felt it too, her gasp as she tried to snatch her hand back fed my cock. I didn’t let her go, it was too late for that.
Then Johnny spoke up. I tried to remember who the fuck I was and who she was, and that if I touched her the way my body screamed to, then I was damned to hell. Only I can’t shake the thought that if I don’t touch her it’s a different kind of hell, never knowing the feel of her skin or the taste of her mouth.
Christ, Johnny is laughing and I have no idea what the hell he’s laughing about. I can’t fucking focus. Knock it off, Dominic. It was one thing to tease her, to entice her into forgetting Taylor; there would be no follow-through. No body, no matter how hot, is worth the price I would pay if I fucked Johnny Conti’s daughter. It would be marriage. It would be forever. I’m not willing to pay that price. Only my stupid fucking cock won’t listen, it knows what it wants and it wants her, right now.
She’s pulling into herself, those long legs press tightly together as she tilts them to the side, crossing her ankles primly. Regina is sitting like the queen her name means. Her spine is straight, her shoulders back—Conti’s money wasn’t wasted on the school he sent her to. It would, however, be a damn waste if she married Richard Taylor. The guy was filthy as fuck. Valdez followed up his half-complete report with the question of me needing disposal service. I fucking wish. He wasn’t done, and Valdez was sure there was only more horrible shit to come. The idea of the piece of shit’s grubby hands even touching Regina makes me savage.
The lawyer is a pale old man whose name I barely catch as he takes a glass of brandy from Johnny. Thankfully, only a few minutes later the woman who opened the door announces dinner is served. I’ve eaten dinner before with Johnny, he loves formal dining. I’m surprised we aren’t at an expensive restaurant. Johnny prefers them and usually stuck the other person with the bill.
Regina is barely speaking, as she picks at her food. What is it about her? I’ve fucked women who were far more beautiful than she is, only none of them have ever made me this hard, this hungry. I catch Johnny watching me. Ice slides down my spine at his knowing smile.
No. She’s too young, and too clean for me to dirty up. It’s also clear as a fucking bell she doesn’t want anything to do with me. The few times I’ve asked her something, attempting to include her in the discussion, she looks through me. Anger simmers within me. I’m not used to being ignored, not by anyone, least of all a woman.
We make it to after-dinner drinks, and the lawyer asks Regina about a painting on the wall. Johnny uses the moment to step close to me. “You aren’t doing as well as I thought you would.”
“No shit, you didn’t tell me she hates guys like you and me.”
Johnny shrugs. “Yeah, but I saw you two. First time I’ve seen her smile in weeks. Now she’s disappeared into her room. Go.”
I look around and she’s gone. “Where’s her room?”
“Down the hall, the last door on the right.”
Walking down the hall, I pull out my phone. It would be better if I had it in paper, for now my phone will have to do. I don’t bother knocking. Regina is standing in the middle of her room, running her hands through her long, silky hair. She isn’t posing, but fuck me, the sight of her with her arms up high, her hands in her hair, her breasts thrust up has me stone fucking hard in an instant.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing in here?” Her outrage animates her beautiful face. Not helping me get my cock under control.
“The man you think you’re marrying tomorrow is a piece of shit. A coke-addicted, rapist, murderer, and embezzling piece of shit. He’s in debt over three hundred thousand to a bunch of people, one of them Alonzo Bruno. He’s using you.”
I shove my phone in her face. Her eyes darken to melting chocolate. She steps back, shaking her head, doesn’t even look at my phone.
“Take it and look. This was all found in less than three hours of not even deep digging. I can get you the pictures of a prostitute he fucked up so badly she’s had two reconstructive surgeries. There’s a stripper too. She disappeared after she pressed charges, no one can find her. He doesn’t love you, Regina. He loves money and his skin, which is what he’s trying to save by marrying you. The minute he gets a ring on your finger the plan is to hit up your father for five hundred thousand.”
Fuck, she blinks, there are tears glistening in her eyes. Squeezing her eyes shut, she keeps shaking her head. Then she’s opening them and pushes me away, hard. I don’t move an inch. “Get out of here, you lying bastard. Fuck you and fuck Johnny. I’m tired of him trying to control me.”
“He’s not trying to control you. He’s trying to save your damn life. If Taylor doesn’t get what he wants from your father, he will make your life a living hell. Your father cares about you, he’s trying to protect you. Johnny doesn’t even know half the shit I found. Look at it, damn you.”
She smacks the phone out of my hand. “Get the fuck away from me. I don’t believe you. I know Richard, he loves me. He—”
“You don’t know shit. Fine, ask him. Ask him about Katrina Snyder, the stripper who went missing. Ask him about Tory—”
Another shove. “Get out! Get out! Shut up!”
Jesus Christ. “Regina—”
She slaps me across the face, hard. Her eyes go wide, as her hands go up to her mouth. She’s backing away from me, scared.
Yeah, she should be scared. No one has hit me since I was sixteen years old. No one has dared. I force a deep breath and grab my phone, walking away while I still can. I’ve never laid a hand on a woman in anger, and I won’t start now. I’m barely out of her room when I run right into Johnny.
“Where the fuck are you going? Holy shit, she hit you?”
“I need a minute.” I run my hands through my hair, fighting for control. This is bullshit. I’m cool, downright cold, a ruthless sonofabitch. I’ve made grown men cry before I even touched them. Men are afraid of me, and none of it has to do with me carrying a gun. The more pissed I get the colder I get, but right now I feel like I’m a volcano about to blow.
“Make her listen, Dom.” He sighs heavily. “I don’t have five hundred, I don’t even have five Gs. I’m broke. I didn’t have insurance, between the cancer treatments and my mother, I barely have enough for a cup of coffee most days.”
Shock doesn’t cover it. How could he be broke? As the head of the family I send him fifteen percent of the earnings from my business. On average I send him a little more than fifty grand a month, Pop sends him about twenty grand a month. There are six other men in Chicago paying him. Yeah, some of it goes to pay bills, senators, cops, aldermen, and lawyers, but he should still be netting three hundred grand easy. How deep is his debt? “Broke?”
His face is red with shame. “I got nothing, I’m barely treading water. Any day they are going to repossess this condo and there’s nothing I can do about it. Dominic, I need you to take care of Gina. I trust you. I’m giving her to you. She’s yours, your moglie.”
I’m shaking my head. I don’t want her. I don’t want any woman for a wife.
“Please, Dominic, this is my last request of you as your Don. As a father who wants to die knowing his daughter is safe. Take her and protect her from this world and herself.”
Goddamnit. For a split second I consider walking away from this whole fucking mess. Only I can’t do that to Johnny, as my Don, as a father who cares about his daughter. And Regina, fuck. Despite what she may think, I have no doubt Taylor would hurt her, and the idea of it... Jesus fucking Christ, savage anger fires through me. Taylor won’t touch her, not now, not ever.
I don’t want her, yet honor demands I take her and do as he asked, keep her safe, even from herself. “You got cuffs?”
He shakes his head.
Mine. Regina is mine. She isn’t going to be any happier than I am about it. I take off my tie, it will have to do.
She’s locked her door, too bad. I’ve done this before, never to a woman, there’s a first time for everything. A well-placed kick and the door swings open. Regina screams.
She aims a punch at me, this time I don’t let her get close. I grab her wrist to bring it around behind her back. Sonofabitch, she fucking bit me. Fuck this, I’m not quite as careful as I was a minute ago. I swipe her feet out from under her to bring her down to the floor, a knee to the middle of her back and it’s only seconds to get her hands tied. Yanking her up onto her feet “Where’s the bag you packed for tomorrow?”
She shakes her head, compressing her mouth. I keep her hands in one of mine as I get her closet door open. I spot a large cloth bag, a quick check tells me this is it. Dropping the bag onto my other shoulder, I haul her after me down the hall.
“Johnny! Daddy, you can’t let him take me. Please! Help me!”
“Dominic is a good man. He’ll take care of you. You belong to him now, be a good moglie and behave for him.”
Aw shit, it’s a match tossed on a stack of dynamite. Regina starts struggling like a demon possessed. “Wife? Have you lost your fucking mind? Fuck you! I hate you! You’re a horrible father, the shittiest father in the Western Hemisphere! When you die, I’ll spit on your grave.”
Damn it, she’s struggling so much she’s going to hurt herself. I bend over and toss her over my shoulder. It has an added benefit of shutting her up. I grab her bag from the floor.
The woman who opened the front door comes running. Her eyes wide, she backs away as I leave.
I hit the elevator button and let Regina down. I’m pretty sure there are cameras covering the elevator as well as the garage I’m going to. The last thing I need is someone seeing this. I had driven the car over to show Johnny, and now I’m glad I did. “You’re going to behave or I’m going to make you behave.”
“You get off on hurting women, throwing them around, showing how big and strong you are? You’re disgusting.”
The elevator opens, it’s empty. Thank fuck. “My dick doesn’t get hard hurting a woman. You were hurting yourself.”
“When I don’t show up tomorrow Richard will know it’s because of my father. He won’t believe I just won’t show up. Richard will go to the police.”
I laugh, I wonder if she still believes in Santa Claus. “There is no way in hell Richard is going to the police.”
As we get to the car she tries to trip me. That’s it. “Are you claustrophobic or afraid of the dark?”
Her brow creases in confusion. “No, why?”
It clicks for her too late. Now she really starts to struggle. I’m done though, she’s getting on my damn nerves. That and she’s making my dick hard with all her panting, which makes her breasts heave and sway. “You could have sat in the front like a normal person. Now you get to ride in the trunk.”
“No, please, Dominic. I’ll be good.”
I ignore her and pop the trunk. At least it’s clean and roomy. Hell, you could fit four or five people in here. I go to pick her up and she tries to kick me. It’s a good thing she annoyed me. I can focus on that instead of how she feels in my arms, because fuck me does she feel good. She lands with a bit of a thump as I let her go quickly. Her eyes go wide when I slam the trunk closed. The second it’s shut she starts kicking the trunk. She’d better not put any dents in it.
I make the drive back to my hotel in less than ten minutes. In the elevator I hit up Valdez and let him know my problem. I’m grateful he only pauses for a heartbeat before giving me what I need. He texts me the address of a safe house not far from the city and lets me know he’ll have someone meet me there with what I need within the hour. It only takes fifteen minutes to pack up and check out.
***
Regina
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I can’t believe this. I cannot fucking believe this. This is a nightmare, a complete fucking nightmare. Johnny not only didn’t try and stop Dominic Sabatini from kidnapping me, he told me to be a good girl, that I belong to Dominic, that I’m to be his wife. What in the actual fuck? Dead, Johnny is dead to me, this is too much, too fucking far. Dominic Sabatini is going to wish he were dead when I’m done with him. I’m going to kick his balls in until he’s choking on them. Stupid, how the hell could I have been so stupid as to let those dimples blind me to the fact he’s a psychopath?
The car brakes hard, damn it, and he’s a crappy driver. I take a deep breath, I’m in the trunk of a car, bound with a silk tie around my wrists. Focus, Regina, try again. It’s only seconds before I give up, the man can tie a knot. The more I try to get out the more it hurts. And my shoulder aches from when I tried to get away in the condo. Dominic’s grip was unforgiving. I just couldn’t believe it, I was sure any second he would let go, Johnny would tell him to let me go.
Another lurching stop, then the car is shut off. The drive didn’t take long. Where are we? I tense, ready to kick up the minute the trunk opens. After a few minutes I give up. We’ve stopped but he’s leaving me in here. He’s leaving me in the trunk. I still can’t wrap my head around it, any of it.
Closing my eyes, I go over the last few hours trying to figure out how and why this happened. I refuse to think about the moment in the hallway, it was stupid and obviously didn’t mean a damn thing. Dinner had gone on forever, with Johnny and Dominic trying to include me in the discussion of local politics and issues. Johnny wasn’t even trying to be subtle about getting me interested in Dominic and vice versa. It was embarrassing having my accomplishments listed as if I was a prized cow for sale.
Escaping to my room, I was congratulating myself on getting through the evening. Then Dominic was there in front of me. He was too close, too big, too gorgeous, too overwhelming.
I couldn’t believe him when he started talking, saying all those horrible things about Richard. None of it made any sense, he was talking about someone else. He didn’t know Richard. How dare he say such awful things? I refused to look at his stupid phone, refused to believe what he was saying.
Angry, I send another hard kick into the metal, needing to do something. This was Johnny trying to control me all over again, and I was done. Except he wouldn’t stop, and he was so close he scared me. When he said my name, those dimples flashing, I forgot everything around me; he was all I saw, and it terrified me. It happened without me even thinking about it. I’ve never hit another person in my life. The moment my palm met his beautiful face, I instantly regretted it. The look in his eyes terrified me, for a heartbeat I was sure he was going to kill me.
When he walked away I don’t know how I stayed standing. The moment he was gone all the fight drained from me. I felt hopeless as I thought of what Johnny was willing to do, how far he was willing to go. It was then I knew I was doing the right thing. Once I left tomorrow, I would never see him again.
I had barely managed to lock the door when it was kicked open, and in seconds I was on the floor being tied up.
The car starts again. Dominic told me Johnny cared about me. Obviously that was a lie or he wouldn’t let me be tied up and tossed into the trunk of a car. Where are we going? How far are Johnny and Dominic willing to go to keep me from Richard, and why does it mean so much to Dominic? Is he trying to make a move up in the mafia by taking me as his wife? Wife...god, I shudder at the idea of Dominic as my husband. Liar, my body whispers, it was a shudder not of distaste, but of desire. No. No, I love Richard. There is no way I will marry Dominic, no way I will let him touch me.
Dominic had laughed when I told him Richard would call the police. It reminds me of a few different times when we were in the vicinity of a police officer. Once when we were in a coffee shop Richard made me leave before I had even finished my coffee. He got anxious, refused to look the cop’s way, made rude comments about them below his breath. I tried to brush it off, in New York city cops didn’t have the best reputation, but now...no, stop it. That’s what Dominic wants. He wants you to doubt Richard.
I shake my head, I love Richard, he loves me, and he cares about me. Nothing Dominic Sabatini says is going to change that.
It feels like we’re driving forever when the car finally stops. Okay, knees tight against my chest, when he opens the trunk, kick out hard against his chest.
The trunk opens and nothing goes to plan. He brushes my legs away as if he were waving off a fly. As he sets me down I take the opening and bring my knee up to his groin. Yes! He growls, oh shit. His hand turns into a vice around the back of my neck as he growls again. “It’s obvious you were never spanked, little girl. Don’t think I have forgotten that slap. You’ll pay for it...soon.”
Oh god, I should be afraid of him, but no, my stupid body comes to life all over again at his touch, at the way he purrs the word soon. Why the hell did that one word make my nipples hard?
A motorcycle roars up beside us. It’s dark, I can’t see much of the figure beside us except he’s big, maybe an inch shorter than Dominic but as wide, maybe even wider. Hope dies out when the guy nods to Dominic.
“Sabatini?”
Dominic nods.
“Kane Morgan, Valdez sent me.”
“Thanks for coming.” Dominic marches me in front of him. It’s a small house, with a wide porch. Kane presses his hand where the doorknob should be, and a scanner comes on. A click sounds loud and the door swings open. He raises his hand to keep us where we are, and keys in a code into a large box beside the door.
“Name and access, please,” a woman asks.
“Kane Morgan, wildflower.”
Kane hits a button and the place lights up. We’re in a living room with a leather sofa and a recliner in the corner. In the light Kane is any guy you would see on the back of a motorcycle with long brown hair, beard, leather jacket and chaps. He moves like Dominic though, smooth, lithe, muscles rippling beneath his clothes. Dominic pushes me forward after Kane. Kane unzips his leather jacket and pulls out a thick blue file folder. He tosses it with a smack onto the small table with four chairs in an eat-in kitchen. Pulling out a chair, he turns it around and sits down.
Dominic unties me, pressing me down into a chair. It’s hard plastic and uncomfortable. I focus on trying to get blood back into my hands, doing my damnedest to ignore the frissons of electricity still running through me at his touch. Bruises are forming around my wrists.
Without a word Dominic opens the file, then turns it around for me to see. I blink at the sight of a woman beaten so badly in the face and upper body there is barely any skin not darkened from the bruising.
“This is what Richard Taylor did to Katrina, the missing stripper. He’s a regular at the club so she thought she was safe making some extra money hooking for him at a party at his place. Taylor is into pain. Six BDSM clubs in the city and into New Jersey have barred him from entering because he doesn’t respect safe words or women.”
Dominic fans out pictures, oh my god, a woman’s breast has—oh god, my stomach revolts.
“These are the women who have come forward,” Dominic growls.
“There are at least four other women who refuse to go on the record because they are scared of him. He tells anyone who will listen he’s mobbed up and can get to anyone who crosses him.” Morgan’s face is filled with disgust.
I can’t believe this. This isn’t Richard, not the Richard I know.
Dominic flips a page, it’s a mug shot of Richard. “He’s coming undone, he was picked up on a drug charge two months ago. He lost his job and he’s about to be evicted.”
“No, he owns his condo.” Richard assured me his condo was all but paid off. How when it was time we would sell the condo, and the profit would be more than enough for a significant down payment on a big home in the suburbs where we could raise our children. I’ve met Richard across the street from his office, the last time just two weeks ago. This doesn’t make any sense.
Dominic lifts an eyebrow, doesn’t say a word, just turns the page. It’s another mug shot and the charges listed are stark, simple, brutal. Shaking my head, the words swim in front of me. He turns the page again, holy shit. It’s a bank statement and the numbers are insane, negative balance after negative balance. They can’t be real. A bank would have closed the account—then there’s a massive deposit...from Lusso Imports. I know what Lusso Imports is, it’s a front for Benny Bruno. No, no, Richard was Benny’s friend, but they didn’t do business together.
Richard told me although he was friends with Benny, it was only because they had gone to NYU together. How they became friends before Richard knew what Benny did. Richard swore he wanted nothing to do with the mafia. He said he had doubts he needed to overcome about us because of who my father is. I blink fast at the tears that rise at the mere memory of that long week Richard took to consider if we should continue. I had been so relieved when he told me he loved me so much he couldn’t stay away. I didn’t want anything to do with the life, so he felt he could be with me.
Another page turned, more bank statements, more deposits from Lusso Imports, another page, more deposits, charges at hotels, charges at clubs. No, Richard is a workaholic. He was always at work or at home working. He’s apologized dozens of times for it. Once we are married he promised he would cut back his hours.
A flick of Dominic’s wrist turns over pictures now. Screenshots of Richard with a woman on her social media, dated from a month ago. She’s beautiful, blonde, thin, blue eyes. Another screenshot of a different woman who could be the twin of the first woman, but her breasts are huge. This one is dated three weeks ago, another screenshot of another woman, it’s too much. Fake, these pictures have to be fake. I push them away.
But all of it? How could all of it be fake? Why? I want to scream. I want to cry but I can’t, not in front of these men. My thoughts are frantic, ping-ponging around my head at a thousand miles an hour. At the base of my skull pain is building and spreading. “I need to talk to Richard. I have to see his face, if I can just talk to him...I can know for sure. I want to talk to Richard.”
Dominic’s jaw works. “Richard Taylor is an evil, dangerous piece of shit. You aren’t getting anywhere near him, not now, not ever again.”
Doesn’t he get it? I have to talk to Richard. “Richard won’t hurt me. He would never hurt me.”
Shaking his head, Dominic looks to Kane. “Do you have cuffs or something? No zip ties, they cut into the skin.”
Kane nods. “Be right back.”
I push away from the table. Dominic’s hand is around my arm before I can blink. God, it would help if every time he touches me my stupid body wouldn’t come alive with electricity. Fear of what he does to me kicks my tongue into action. “Please let me go, let me talk to Richard. I need to talk to him.”
He doesn’t say a word; his eyes are on Kane.
Kane hands Dominic the cuffs. They don’t look like normal handcuffs. I’m grateful he doesn’t put my hands behind my back. I still hate him for using them at all.
They are a thick rubber or silicone, and even though I know it’s a waste of time I test them. There is no give, at least they don’t hurt. “Fuck you. I won’t marry you. I love Richard, you can’t make me stop loving him by showing me faked pictures and bogus bank statements.”
Dominic nods at Kane. “How about a gag?”
Kane laughs. “No gag. I have something to put her to sleep.”
I shake my head frantically. “Please, Dominic, no. I promise I’ll be good.” I’m terrified of being drugged and unaware of what’s happening.
He sighs as he looks down at me. “If you behave. Can you do that?”
I nod, fear closing my throat.
Kane reaches into his inner pocket and pulls out a wicked-looking gun. “Here’s the Sig P226 Diego said you wanted. Fifteen in the mag and one chambered, we included a suppressor as well as the ankle holster you asked for.”
I can’t tear my eyes away from the gun or the way Dominic handles it. He presses a button and the magazine slides out easily; he runs his hand down the bullets, reading it like braille. Then he slams it back into the gun. His movements are easy, practiced without a hint of showmanship the way some of the men who came to the condo were. It’s obvious he has handled a gun often.
He puts his foot on the chair he had been sitting in, straps on the holster, sliding the gun in, then adds the thin suppressor beside it. Once he lowers his pant leg, if I hadn’t known it was there I would never guess it.
Dominic nods at Kane. “Thanks, tell Valdez to extend coverage beyond a week. I’ll let him know when to stop.” His eyes meet mine. “With the way she’s been acting I don’t think a week is enough. Ears as well as eyes.”
“Done, he wasn’t thinking a week was long enough either. Good luck with her, she’s got some fire. I wouldn’t turn my back on her.”
“I figured that out already.” Dominic pushes me ahead of him.