Page 157 of The Dominator

She gave me a scared look, a fake scared look; I could see the devil in a twinkle in her eye. I held my gaze steady and said, “Don’t you fucking dare,” to the guy.

He snickered, looking over his shoulder at me and the second he did, Bee’s high heeled boot came up and kicked him square in the mouth. As she did this, she also pulled a gun and pointed it at the junkie.

Atta girl, Bee; always loved Charlie’s Angels. The junkie dropped the bag of money and his gun and put his hands up.

His eyes were fucked up and I knew the guy’d been dreamin’ of his fix as he’d eyeballed all the money in the bag, so he’d be extra dangerous.

“Take him out, sweetheart,” I told her and she immediately shot him in the leg and then kept the gun pointed at him. The guy screamed his head off. “You fucking cunt!”

“Uncuff him,” she said to the jock, who was rousing, pointing the gun back and forth between the two of them. Jock groggily got to his knees and cautiously pulled a key from the junkie’s jacket pocket, worried we’d shoot him. He shakily undid my cuffs. The second he did my elbow came up backwards and hit him square under the jaw hard enough that he was on the floor on his back and out again.

I cold clocked the junkie and kicked the jock in the head and then grabbed the bag of money and Bianca passed me an extra gun from under her jacket at her back. I put two bullets in one and then two in the other.

She and I got out of there, hopping into a waiting car where Nino and Dex waited. Nino was looking at Bee with pride as we got in. I heard him call JC, head of a clean-up crew we used, and give a few key but cryptic details.

I was sitting in the back office of a coffee shop; one that Tommy’s family owned. Dario was out front talking to a few burly-looking guys that had to be enforcements for the family. I was freaking right out, wondering if everything was okay. Bianca had insisted on doing this and they’d pulled me out at the last second. She hugged me hard before going in, saying, “We’re family. I’m here for ya, babes! And your man is familia, too, so there’s no way I’m not helping. I can do this.”

Dario had assured me that Bianca would be fine. Said she could double as a paid assassin if she wanted to, she was that tough. I laughed, like it was a joke, but neither of them laughed. She gave me a serious look, as if to agree. I prayed she’d be okay. She had a son to think of. And she might be or could soon be my only living relative, unless I counted Aunt Carol – which I did not.

The door swung open and there was Tommy. I jumped to my feet and threw myself at him. He looked fine, totally fine, except for a bruise on his cheekbone.

“Hey, baby,” he breathed into my hair.

“You okay? Thank God!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me and held me tight. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he sat on the desk and kissed me roughly, deeply, possessively.

I heard a throat clearing noise and looked over my shoulder and Dario was in the doorway. He jerked his chin up at Tommy. Tommy returned the chin jerk, then turned and set me down on the desk. “Okay, baby. Gotta go end this. Bee’s driving you to where the girls are. Be back soon.”

I winced. “I so want this over.”

“It ends tonight,” he said firmly and kissed me quickly on the mouth and then turned and he was gone.

Bianca popped her head into the office. “Ready?”

Trembling, I nodded and followed her out.

* * *

That night was like an eternity: the night that wouldn’t end. When I got to Bianca’s mother’s house it was about 10:00 and it was like a locked down fortress. It was a gated place just at the outskirts of town and there were half a dozen men guarding the place.

Inside the big, warm, welcoming house was Lisa, Tess, Luciana, the kids, Bianca’s mother Marie and Bianca’s Aunt Joanne. The five kids (Luc’s, Tessa’s, and Bianca’s) were in their pjs, getting put to bed by Bianca’s mom who waved at me as I came in, but ascended the stairs with the four tots and one older child. Luciana looked tired and ready to pop any second. Tessa’s eyes were red and puffy. Lisa looked pale and sickly. I hugged each of them and when I got to Tessa I whispered in her ear. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She nodded, her chin trembled, and she put her arms around herself and just curled into a ball on the sofa and closed her eyes.

Bianca’s mom had come back from putting the kids all in her bed with a Disney movie on, and then pulled me into an embrace and told me it was nice to meet me and that she had thought very highly of my mother. Then Bianca’s aunt put a big plate of pasta in front of me and told me to eat. Food was the last thing on my brain at that moment.

“How’s Tom?” I asked Lisa, who’d sat beside me at a breakfast bar in the big open kitchen that had a big island surrounded by stools. To the right was a sitting area, where Luc and Tessa were curled up on opposite ends of a big sectional sofa.

She shrugged. “It’s breath by breath. Tommy okay?”

I nodded. “Just a bit banged up. He’s okay.”

She nodded and sipped from a big glass of wine.

“I’m going to bed,” Luc announced and left the room.

I tried to eat a few bites but really wasn’t hungry. I didn’t want to insult them, so I sat at the plate for a long time, moving food around with my fork, while Bianca talked with her mother and her aunt in Italian.

Bianca sat beside Tessa and put her arms around her. Tessa cried softly into Bianca’s shoulder and I felt her sorrow, the whole room would’ve felt it.

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