Page 151 of The Dominator

I lit a few scented candles, put the groceries away, and then swept the floors in preparation for mopping. If we were staying here for a week, it certainly was a little dusty and dead buggy, so I was going to give it a thorough cleaning. I saw him out by the pond on his phone and he looked like he was reading someone the riot act. I couldn’t hear him and didn’t really want to, anyway. If he’d wanted me to hear the conversation, he’d have made the call from here.

When he came back in, I had the single serve coffee maker set up, I had the place smelling better, looking cleaner, and then I offered to cook breakfast for him. He nodded and sat on the sofa and put his head in his hands. He looked exhausted and stressed.

I cooked him an omelet and some toast. He ate and then he passed out on the couch, his phone lying on his chest.

* * *

Almost two hours passed before phone rang. He bolted awake and grabbed it.

“Dare!” His expression dropped and he was silent for a few minutes, listening, but his eyes were intense and his jaw was tight. “Seriously? Okay, yep. Right. Call me later, Bye.”

He put the phone down.

“Sit,” he said, patting his knee. I hesitantly walked over and he pulled me into his lap and kissed my head.

“This is further blowback from Mexico. There was a relative of Castillo that’s local. We thought we got him but that was a decoy. He’s the one who arranged the shootout in the house the day we came home from here last time. Jimmy was shot last night; he’s in the hospital in intensive care.”

“No.” My heart sank.

“We had the security footage checked and some chick at the gate coaxed our guys to open the gate and then two other guys showed up and abducted them. I got us out of there just in time. Another few minutes and we’d have been shot up in our sleep. Someone cloned Eddy’s phone after he left it on the bar at the restaurant, and so they texted me like Luc was in labor. They were just trying to get us all to the hospital, planning a shoot out there, since they didn’t get me at home and couldn’t get into Pop’s. They got into Dare’s apartment but he shot their guy. He, Tessa, and the boys are fine. But…” Tommy took a deep breath, “Pop and Lisa, they were asleep when the text came through but Lisa’s phone was dead and Pop never checked his voicemail or texts. She got the texts this morning and they drove to the hospital before talking to anyone. Pop got shot twice in the hospital parking lot. Once in the shoulder; once in the gut.”

I gasped.

“He’s in surgery.”

I put my arms around him and squeezed. He hugged me back.

“My two guys watching our house last night, found dead. Jim in ICU, Pop in surgery right now, my sister and her kids in hiding. Pop’s wife beside herself. We got her with Tessa and the kids.”

“Luc and Eddy?” I asked.

“Eddy got them out of town at his folks’ cabin. He’s trying to keep my sister calm. He’s bringing her to Tess and Lisa today.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, it has hit the fucking fan. I’ve got a few of our guys dealing with things. Dare and I have cleanup in progress.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we’re safe here and that I won’t bring you home until it’s safe.”

“Okay.”

“Tia?”

“Yeah?”

“Your father was moving drugs for someone affiliated with these guys, owed them a lot of money.”

My hand came up and covered my mouth.

“Your father has hours, days at most. He might already be gone.”

I pulled away from him, ran to the bathroom, and promptly hurled my omelet into the toilet. After I finished brushing my teeth I heard Tommy’s phone ringing.

When I came out, he wasn’t here. I looked out the screened-in doorway and he was outside by the pond again, talking on the phone, pacing. He looked up at me and jerked his chin in a “You all right?” kind of way. I wiggled my fingers in a wave and blew him a kiss.

He walked toward the barn, so I sat on the sofa. He was with me a minute later.

---