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Regina
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Outside again, I take the time I hadn’t before to scan the area around us, and my heart sinks. It’s nothing but woods down a long gravel road. Running would get me nowhere but lost. Dominic opens the car, I hesitate, his hand tightens in warning around my arm. I give in and get in. I’m barely in the seat before he leans over me and secures the seat belt. It annoys the hell out of me the way my whole body is tingling from his hands on me. What the fuck is the matter with me?
I lean my head against the window, trying to think of a way out of this. Dominic gets into the car but he doesn’t start it. A heavy sigh comes out of him, filling the car. My eyes are drawn to him against my will. His head is back as if he were staring up at the ceiling. Except I’m pretty sure his eyes are closed.
“Johnny is dying, Regina. The doctors talk in terms of making him comfortable. He gave you to me because he wants to die in peace knowing you are going to be taken care of. That’s what he asked me to do, to protect you from this world and yourself.”
Dying? “He said the chemo and radiation...he said it worked. He’s going to be fine.”
A shake of his head. “They thought so. It was his last checkup before he was going to move back to Chicago, six months ago he found out differently. He refuses to go through it again.” He shrugs. “Johnny has been given last rites. He put our family in order.”
Memories tumble one after another, the weight he’s lost, the priest who came to dinner, the men who came almost daily for a few weeks months ago. I close my eyes as I try to figure out what it is I’m feeling. Sadness, hollow... no pain. I tried, I wanted so badly to have a father, only we never connected. I’m not sure if it was because of the pain and anger I held on to from those long years of never hearing from him or because I still feel even two years later that I don’t know him.
It’s sad he’s dying, but I don’t think I’ll miss him. How could I miss someone I didn’t know and who didn’t know me? Johnny didn’t know my birth date, he didn’t even know my middle name, he knew nothing about me and he didn’t even try to learn. Those hours when I sat with him during his chemo treatments he talked about my mother, his mother, his son. He talked to me, he didn’t talk with me, and never once asked me a question about myself.
“I’m one more thing he put in order.” The words slip out of me, bitter in a way I’ve never tasted before.
“Something like that. I should have known when Pop gave me that smile this morning. In the family there is only one other man around your age suitable for marriage, and he’s not high enough to have pleased your father. With me a Sabatini, even though I am too fucking old for you as far as I’m concerned, Johnny would want our families tied together.”
“Your father, he’s Tony Sabatini. You’re Dom.” I’ve heard Francis and Danny and a few others talk about him. Except they referred to him as Dom, not Dominic, and they never said his last name or even Tony’s last name despite there being more than one Tony in the family. It was as if there was only one Tony that mattered.
Dominic was feared and respected, a good earner, a good killer. He maintained his territory and business with ruthless efficiency. Actually, the words they used were “he was a scary motherfucker that no one dared to go against.” They said he was a master negotiator, an extremely effective torturer, and he knew things, found things and people no one else could. The men around Johnny envied Dom and wanted to be him. There was also talk about how Dom had a steady string of mistresses, each of them more beautiful than the one before. When they talked about him I thought they were exaggerating; seeing him now, I know they were speaking the truth.
“I am a human being who can think for herself. I don’t care what Johnny wants. This is my life, not his. I can take care of myself. I’m in love with Richard. Richard wants me for me.”
He scoffs and the urge to slap him hard across his beautiful face scares me it’s so strong. No, I have no doubt I won’t get away with it again. Can’t believe he let it go the first time.
“Fuck you. I’ve heard of you and all the women you’ve been with. There is no way you could want someone like me when you’re used to gorgeous women. You are so far out of my league we aren’t in the same hemisphere. If even for one insane second I would consider this marriage, I wouldn’t trap myself in a marriage to someone who would feel like he married beneath him.”
Dominic slaps the ceiling and a light goes on. His eyes pierce me with a dark glare. “What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t want to marry anyone. Least of all a twenty-two-year-old girl so desperate for affection she’ll cling to a piece of shit like Richard Taylor despite proof so solid the cases against him are moving forward as we speak.”
His jaw clenches. “I’m thirty-nine years old. In a few months I’ll be forty. Yeah, there are guys into fucking girls young enough to be their daughters, I’m not one of them. I prefer women who know what they want and what the fuck they’re doing. That is my problem with this. Everything else you said is bullshit. I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Almost forty? He doesn’t look that old. There had been men in and out of the condo who were younger yet looked older than Dominic. None of them had a body as big and muscled and powerful as his. Then he admits he doesn’t want to marry me either, which came as no surprise to me. It’s in the same breath he blows my mind, telling me he wants me. It’s marriage he doesn’t want.
Even though I want to call him a liar, I can’t—there’s too much heat in his eyes when he says it. Instantly, I’m wet between my legs. No. I don’t want him, want this. And fuck him, I’m not a girl or desperate for affection...am I?
He hits the ceiling again and the car goes dark. “I’m going to warn you right now. If you really love Richard Taylor then you’ll forget him, for his sake. Because if you don’t, I’m going to have to kill him.”
My blood runs cold as Dominic starts the car. His words were brutal, final; he meant them.
***
Regina
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Almost an hour later he pulls into a gas station. It’s well-lit. I scan the parking lot; it’s also empty.
“Don’t. You won’t get far. I told you I don’t want to hurt you but if you don’t leave me a choice, I will.”
I shiver, he’s so damn cold. Defeated, I sag against the door. He gets out and I wonder if there’s any escape at all. If I ran, I know I won’t get far. I don’t even know where I could run to. Richard isn’t an option. I love him and I won’t put him in danger.
If I tried to go back to Italy, they would find me in a matter of days. So...don’t go back to Italy. I have over twenty thousand in my checking account. From all the stuff they found electronically, my guess is they would be able to track me easily if I relied on it, but if I went in and pulled all my cash out then I could maybe find somewhere to disappear to. But where?
***
Dominic
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As I fill the tank, I fight the anger threatening to consume me. Regina really fucking believes she loves that moron. At least all her talk of loving another man, a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her, has helped get my cock firmly under control. The only thing worse than being forced to marry any woman is marrying one who thinks she’s in love with someone else. How the fuck is this my life? I take a deep breath, then another. It doesn’t help.
I make a call. Mary answers, her surprise clear. “I need you to go make the spare room guest proof. I’ll be home tomorrow with a woman, my fiancée.” The word doesn’t come easily.
Mary gasps.
“Exactly, not interested in talking about it, both of us are less than thrilled. I mean guest proof. The lock on the outside, the cameras on and air out the extra room on the second floor. I’m going to need someone there to watch her at all times. I’ll be making use of Dario and Marco. So stock the kitchen as well.”
“I’ll take care of everything. Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’m driving back, it’s the safest way to get her there. I’ll drive through the night—”
“No, you won’t, young man. You need to stop and sleep. If you drive straight through you’ll enter the worst traffic half asleep.”
I shake my head. Mary was my babysitter and one-time lover of my father, a long time ago. She’s never gotten over taking care of me. Once when we were both deep into a bottle of scotch, she admitted she only stayed with my father because she had hopes of becoming a mother to Anthony Junior and me. There were medical reasons she couldn’t have kids. She wished we were hers, but Pop refused to leave our mother so after five years she gave up.
“I mean it, Dominic. You drive straight through and I use too much starch on your boxers for a month.”
The last damn thing I want to do is be stuck any longer in a confined space with Regina than I have to. Mary is right though, I’m not used to driving as it is. “Fine. It’s after eleven now. I’ll stop around six in the morning and try to get some sleep.”
“That should put you in... Youngstown is right about there. Would you like me to make you reservations at a hotel?”
“Find one with the rooms out onto the parking lot. Something where I don’t have to go into the building with her. She might run on me.”
“Hmm, will do. I’ll call you with the details as soon as it’s done.”
Getting back into the car, I see Regina is pretending to sleep, or plotting her escape. Her breathing catches when I start the car—plotting her escape it is.
I plug in my phone to the setup of the car stereo. Damn I love technology. The car might look like it just came off the line in 1970, but updates are everywhere on the dash. I scan my playlists and go with blues. Blues feels right for this drive.
We aren’t ten minutes from the gas station when she breaks the silence. “I have to pee.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you say anything before we left the gas station?”
“I didn’t have to go at the gas station.”
A sign flashes for an exit for restaurants in forty miles. I nod at the sign. “You can wait until we get to that exit. We’ll find a restaurant and you’ll be a good girl. Remember, I have Taylor under surveillance. I’d rather be the one to pull the trigger, but all I need to do is make a phone call and he’s dead.”
Her gasp is loud over the wail of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar. “Why can’t you let me go and tell Johnny I escaped? I’ll disappear. I promise you won’t be able to find me, no one will.”
I shake my head. “It’s too late for that. You’re mine. I keep what is mine. Run and I’ll be right behind you.”
A hand goes up to wipe her eyes.
“Still have to pee or are you giving up on trying to make a run for it?”
“I have to pee, you asshole.” She spits the words at me.
It’s a good thing it’s dark and she can’t see me smile. I like her fire. It’s going to have to go but for now, I like it.
Pulling into a fast-food place with the lights still on, I see the door opens right into the hallway for the restrooms. Good. Then I see it, I can’t believe it, there are five cars in the parking lot and at least a dozen people milling around inside.
“I’m hungry. Can you please get me something to eat while I use the restroom?”
“No, you’re going to use the restroom and we’ll order your food together. Behave, Regina. These civilians don’t deserve to be dropped into the middle of this.”
She hangs her head and nods. Good girl. I take her hands and remove the cuffs. Taking a minute, I rub the skin to get her blood flowing. Soft, small, her wrists are fragile in my hands. I hear her breathing catch, and it goes straight to my cock. She might think she’s in love with a moron, but she likes my touch. This close her hair smells like cherries and her perfume is Joy, and fuck I want to lick it off her skin. She tries to tug away from me, I grasp her tight, needing her to know I choose when I stop touching her. Underneath my thumb, her pulse is pounding fast. Now I let her go.
I get out of the car and am pleased when she waits for me to open her door. I beep the car locked. “Wait, I need my bag.”
“No, you don’t.”
“It’s got women’s stuff in it, I—”
I give her a look. Her head goes down and she stops talking. My hand goes around her arm and I walk her into the restaurant. The bathroom is empty, it’s a large single room with one toilet, no windows and a lock from the inside. “You have three minutes.”
Her jaw drops, she doesn’t say anything, just slams the door. I check my watch for the time. She’s out in only two and a half minutes.
My hand is around her arm again as I guide her to the main area. There are a few people milling around, an older man is ordering at the counter and a couple are waiting for their order. I look down to see Regina studying the menu. When the older man is done, I nudge her forward. She places her order.
The young girl behind the counter looks to me and blushes as she asks what I would like. I give the girl a smile as I tell her I’m not ordering, I’m just paying. As I let Regina go to pull out my money clip, I notice she’s stiff as she looks from me to the girl. The girl takes the twenty with a smile then slowly counts out the change into my palm. Another girl hands Regina her bag of food and a drink. Regina tries to pull away from me when my hand goes around her arm, I tighten my grip.
We’re barely out of the restaurant before she lets loose. “She was a little young, don’t you think?”
I unlock the car and open her door. “Fuck yes she is, and so are you. I told you, I’m not one of those gross fuckers who is into young girls. I’m not going to be an asshole to some little girl to make you feel better.”
“So you’re just an asshole to me?”
“I’m an asshole to most people, but not girls and kids. You might be a girl, but you’re mine and you need to get used to it.”
“I’m not a girl.”
“Then act like a fucking woman,” I snap at her. Wanting her doesn’t allow me to forget how young she is. “A grown-ass woman would not be jealous of me smiling at a little girl. I didn’t fuck teenagers when I was one. I haven’t fucked anyone under twenty-five in over a decade. You make the idea less appealing by the hour. By our wedding night I’m going to have to either be drunk or tape your mouth shut to get it over with.”
Christ, I’m lying. All I want to do is tear that ugly dress off her and get lost in her body. Is it the arguing that’s making my cock hard? No woman has ever argued with me before, they knew better.
“What the hell are you talking about? We... I don’t want to marry you. You’re really going to marry me knowing I’m in love with another man? I won’t do it. I won’t f—I won’t.”