Page 141 of The Dominator

“Tommy,” she whispered to me while I was deep in thought.

“Yeah, baby?” I’d thought she was asleep.

“I moved your guns.”

“You what?”

“The guns under the bed were freaking me out. I gave them to James. He’s not working tonight, so I wanted to tell you.”

“Baby, guns protect you. You shouldn’t be afraid of them.” Why hadn’t Jimmy told me? I’d seen him on my way in today, had a fifteen-minute debriefing with him.

“I was…afraid of myself,” she said quietly.

“Oh, babe.” I kissed her. I was going to be the ruin of her. She was better off without me. Too bad I didn’t have the decency to make her go.

“I just wanted to tell you so that if someone came to hurt you… you wouldn’t reach and have nothing to defend yourself but the knife.”

“Don’t stress. Go to sleep, baby girl.” I gave her a squeeze and got out of bed. “Be right back.”

When I woke up in the morning, Tommy was gone, I vaguely remembered him kissing me goodbye. I woke up to the sound of the phone text alert.

Tommy: Baby, I’m busy with stuff today so I won’t see you till late tonight. My sister wants to pick you up and take you to the salon for nails & then lunch. If you want to go, tell Nino. Let me know. Love you. Xo.

Me: Yes! Thanks, baby.

Tommy: Shit, I’ll have to get you a debit card & copies of my credit cards made. I’ll have cash dropped off for you.

Me: It’s okay, I have a bit in my account and I have my Lost Wages money in your underwear drawer.

Tommy: Oh that’s what that was? I saw that and thought you were paying me for sex.

Me: LOL. $5K isn’t enough for the awesome sex you give me. Esp. last night. Oo

Tommy: I’ll give you a discount. Fiancée’s rate.

Me: Haha. Any requests from the salon?

Tommy: Requests?

Tommy: Wait! Don’t cut your hair short!

Me: No, just a trim but I was thinking maybe I’d get my first Brazilian.

Tommy: mm…but not much of a trim, k? It needs to be long! Your hair on your head, I mean. haha.

Me: Don’t worry, I’ll make sure there’s enough left for you to grab onto. On my head, I mean. lol. ;)

Tommy: Mmm. Making me hard here and I’m in public. I might have to spank you for that.

I chewed my lip. Sexting was fun. I was beaming at how fun and easy these texts were today. So different from the tone around here lately. As I was closing the message, I got another message in from a number I didn’t recognize.

Hey Tia, it’s Tess. Wanna go with moi for a mani/pedi? I have Sarah watching the boys ALL DAY :) We can have lunch, too. Tommy wants Nino to drive us.

I replied.

Hey and YES, absolutely! What time should I be ready?

Then I wrote back to Tommy,

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