Page 68 of The Dominator

Oh. My. Lord. I wanted to collapse. He was fricking scary. I stumbled backward and Nino prevented my fall by catching me by the elbows and holding me up.

Tommy’s eyes shot to my face. “It’s okay, baby. Dario’s taking you to my father’s house. I’ll pick you up there later. Tia…”

“Yeah?”

The guy in the chair coughed into his hands and had blood on his fingers. I shivered.

Tommy reached onto his desk and then caught me by the hand and pulled me to him, slipped the engagement ring on my finger, and then traced a fingertip from the hand without blood on it, across my lips. “This doesn’t leave your finger again. Ever. Say nothing to the girls.”

I think I nodded. He kissed my hand and squeezed it, kissed me on the mouth quickly, then passed me back to Dario. He actually took me by the shoulders and moved me toward his brother who then took my shoulders and led me out. Tommy’s mouth was set in a grim line and his nostrils flared when he looked back at the bloody redheaded guy in the chair.

As Dario led me out into the hallway, Nino put some flip flops on the floor in front of me.

“I’m going to your father’s house in my pajamas?” I asked Dario while stepping into them.

“Tell Nino what you need; he’ll bring it to the car.”

“Umm…”

“Don’t worry; I’ll get you something,” Nino trotted up the stairs without waiting for me to answer. I was glad I didn’t have to go back up there and walk past dead bodies.

Dario and I went out to a waiting red SUV.

“What on earth?” I asked when we got into the back seat.

Dario shook his head, “Don’t ask me questions. Talk to your fiancé later. He’ll decide what you need to know.”

Decide what I need to know? Wow. Does any one of these men know this is the 21st century? And okay, not only did I hear gunshots and see dead bodies again, what was that now, four? But my supposed fiancé had just very frankly made the fact that he liked to see fear on my face known to his brother, his employees, and a guy who maybe wasn’t making it out of the office alive. I was now being ushered, in skimpy pajamas and Tommy’s robe, to his father’s house.

When I got there Lisa was in the doorway to receive me, literally. She hugged me and pulled me into the house, ignoring Dario and the two muscle guys behind him. “Are you okay?”

I heard Dario, on the phone say, “Bro, we’re here.” He then he looked to Lisa. “Yeah, she’s fine. Lisa has her.” Dario and the two guys followed us in and disappeared into that office that I was ushered into on graduation day, which felt like a million years ago.

Lisa was in a robe, too, her hair pulled up into a messy bun. She walked me to her kitchen where an older grandmotherly-looking Black woman was frying bacon.

“Hello, Tia, I’m Nita!” the woman said to me cheerily with a Jamaican accent. “Coffee, right?”

I thanked her as I sat at the table with Lisa. Nino came into the kitchen with a bag in his hand. “Clothes, Miss O’Connor,” he said, and I peeked in the bag and saw a jean skirt, top, matching underwear and bra, and my purse. He also handed me an iPhone box, shrink wrap half on and half off. “Mr. Ferrano wants this with you at all times,” he said.

“Thank you,” I said and put it on the table in front of me.

He took two steps back and stood against the counter. I looked up at him and then to Lisa.

“Nino?” Lisa asked.

“I have orders to stay within three feet of Tia at all times, Leese,” he said softly.

Obviously, they were good friends by the way he spoke to her. She nodded at him, resigned-looking, then Nita passed me a cup of coffee. “Two sugars, Sarah told me?”

I shook my head and smiled. Two sugars. “I’ll need one more, thanks,” I said sweetly.

She smiled what looked to me like a knowing smile. She must be in the know about Sarah’s sugar hatred. I wasn’t going to let this happen, I had so little control over my life right now the one thing I could control was how many fucking sugars I’d get in my coffee, so I was taking that third sugar.

“So,” Lisa started.

I looked at her. Nita was passing Nino a coffee and pulling another package of bacon out of the fridge.

“I hear we get to help you plan your wedding and that it’ll be here!”

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