Page 24 of Dominic

Chapter Thirteen

Cassandra hadno idea why she told him the truth. It wasn’t in her best interests. Knowing they were married would just give him more freedom. She couldn’t be forced to ever testify against him in court for anything.

She watched as the color drained from Dominic’s handsome face, his brown eyes blinking repeatedly as if she wasn’t speaking a language he understood.

That was right, they were married. Had been for the last seven years.

“Okay.” Roman stood up, Lukas mirroring the action. “We’re going to leave. Looks like you two have some… stuff to talk about.”

Lukas grinned. “Looks like I really am the only one of the three of us left without an old lady.”

Lukas turned to the door, but Roman stepped towards Dominic. Cassandra had to strain to be able to hear him.

“Six months ago in a fit of rage I almost did something that would’ve cost me the woman I love forever. Would’ve broken her. You stopped me.” Roman clasped Dominic on the shoulder. “I know this is not the same thing. But do you need us to stay? Do you need to get away from her for a little while so you don’t do something you regret?”

Dominic was still staring at her, eyes flat. “No. I won’t hurt her. But, by God, she will explain herself to me.”

Roman looked over at her. She knew he would never take her side over his brother’s — if Dominic decided to kill her right now, Roman and Lukas would be the two people who would help hide her body — but she wasn’t worried about Dominic hurting her.

“You can go. He won’t hurt me. At least not permanently.”

Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “Are you so sure about that?”

She stared at him without flinching. “If you wanted to hurt me, you could’ve done it long before now and no one would’ve been any wiser. Or you could’ve just left me with Tambour. I’d be dead now.”

Dominic turned back to his brothers. “I won’t hurt her.”

They left and for a long time he just stared at her from his office chair. She stared back, not sure where to start or what he wanted her to say.

“So we are legally married,” he finally said.

“Yes. I used my real name on the marriage certificate.”

“But I started as a mark for you. A con.”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “Yes. My home situation was never very great. Gordon — my stepfather — loved my mother but didn’t really have much use for me. I was a lookout at best, punching bag at worst. I learned how to be fast, to blend in, to lie.”

He didn’t say anything so she continued. “I saw you a week before we officially met at the club. I researched you, found out your family was rich and connected and that you were single and decided to pull my own job.”

“That’s all you found out about my family? That we were rich and connected?”

She flushed. “Yes. I was young and stupid. I didn’t know what questions to ask. I didn’t know you were… connected…”

“La Cosa Nostra. Mob. Mafia. You can say it.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t know you were mob. I just knew you were sexy and probably had a few things I could take and fence. Maybe get some bank account info or travel patterns or something. Buy my way into a better position with Gordon and the family.”

A half smile lit his face as he shook his head. “No offense, but you were an idiot. You picked the wrong family.”

“I know.” She shook her head also. “Believe me, I know.”

She picked the wrong family, mob for God’s sake, but she’d picked the wrong man too.He’d been her mark, and she’d fallen in love with him. That pretty much made her the worst con artist in the world.

“I was in way over my head from the beginning. And then you and I…”

“We had a spark,” he finished for her.

Their eyes met, both of them thinking the same thing, but neither of them saying it. A spark? They’d had a damn forest fire from the very beginning.

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