Page 1 of Dominic

Chapter One

Cassandra spottedthe two men before she got to the rundown hotel she’d been staying at for the past week. Her family had taught her how to spot a tail not long after she started school.

After all, when your family was made up of con artists andthieves you tended to have plenty of people following you. Using a grade-school aged girl as a lookout worked well in a lot of cases. Nobody was paying attention to a kid with a lollipop in her mouth and book in her hand.

Even at that age, she could spot a cop from half a mile away. And could move quickly through shadows and crowds to let her family know trouble was coming, and help them get cleared out before it arrived.

So now, at twenty-seven years old, she could definitely spot when someone was following her.

This time it wasn’t a cop.

And this time her family had sold her out rather than working together. Well, not her family, her stepfather. He’d pretty much inherited Cassandra when her mother had died a few years after marrying him.

There had never been any love lost between her and Gordon, but this was low even for him. He must have gone to Ian Tambour personally and offered Cassandra to him on a silver platter. Offered his stepdaughter in trade for his own life. Tambour, a pretty high-level henchman in a Russian gang, was bad news. This Russian gang was known for drugs and sex trafficking. Cassandra had no idea why Gordon had decided to steal from them.

But Gordon had. And then Cassandra had made it worse when she’d helped release a group of women — some barely more than children — from a shipping container where they’d just been smuggled into the country by Ian Tambour.

So if the thugs following her were anything to go by, Gordon had killed two birds with one stone. He’d offered Cassandra to Ian as payment for his own debt, plus ratted out that she’d been the one to help the women escape.

Gordon had planned to deliver Cassandra to Tambour in Chicago, but she’d gotten word of it and had gotten the hell out. Had used the last of her money to get to New Orleans.

“Damn,” she muttered as the two guys split up and one headed across the street. She’d been about to do that herself, since the best way out of this situation was to head north. To get to a more populated area towards Bourbon Street where she could blend in then disappear.

Coming back to New Orleanshad been a tactical error. She’d known it would be a risk, but it had been the only place she’d had any desire to go. Even if it meant she was running towards trouble instead of away from it.

She had no idea why she would want to see Dominic Rinaldi after seven years, she just known she’d wanted to with a desperation she couldn’t explain.

Not that he was ever going to talk to her again. He probably would want to kill her on sight.

Looked like he would have to get in line. Tambour had found her much more quickly than she would’ve thought. She had Gordon to thank for that, she was sure.

Cassandra had kept her pace steady, brisk, as most women walking alone would have, but not hurried enough to clue her followers that she was aware of them. But when she spotted a third man joining the one who crossed the street she knew the time forsubtlety was gone.

It was time to run.

There were people around, but this wasn’t a good side of town. None of them were going to risk their own lives to help her, even if she started screaming. She was on her own.

She saw the alleyway across the street and immediately ran for it. This was her best shot. She just hoped she could get a few seconds on them so she could make it to the more crowded streets on the other end. Because if they caught her in the alley, it was all over.

She didn’t look back once she started running; she was either going to make it or she wasn’t. But three quarters of the way through the narrow alley a small smile lit her face.She was going to make it.

She was still running full speed when someone stepped out from behind one of thedumpsters lining the alley. The man used his weight to shove his shoulder into her torso and send her sprawling onto the ground. Ian Tambour stood over her, evil grin splitting his unattractive face. Too late, Cassandra realized she had been herded this way. They’d wanted her in this alley all along.

Ian pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at her. From the corner of her eyes she saw someone at the end of the alleyway looking in their direction, but when Ian pointed the gun at the person they obviously thought better of getting involved.

Ian’s booted foot came crashing into Cassandra’s midsection. She gagged and fought for air, curling her body protectively around itself.

“That’s for making me hide behind a fucking dumpster.”

Cassandra kept her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms around her head to protect herself from more blows as the rest of his men caught up with them. Ian pointed the gun at her again and she thought he would kill her right there.

“Grab her. It’s too crowded here. We’ll take her to the warehouse.”

Ian yanked hair and pulled her face back so he could see her. “Your daddy gave you to me. Somebody has to die for what was stolen. I guess he decided that would be you.”

“He’s not my father.” Of all the things she should be worried about, that was probably the least, but she said it anyway.

“I don’t give a shit. You’re a Clemens, he’s a Clemens. A Clemens stole from me, and a Clemens is going to pay for it. Although maybe we’ll have some fun first.”

Cassandra cringed as she heard Ian’s man laugh. She had to keep her wits about her, figure out how to survive this. How to get away.

Or how to make them kill her quickly. Because some things were worse than death and there was zero chance of anyone coming to her rescue.

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