Page 4 of Dominic

Chapter Four

Dominic tookin the whole situation — the desperateness of thesituation — within a few seconds of entering the warehouse. Two of his men, Titus and Marcello, walked through the door with him. Gino was working his way around back in case he was needed.

Dominic had already called his brothers Lukas and Roman to apprise them of the situation. He hadn’t given them all the details — they were his brothers, they didn’t need all the details in order to have his back — just to let them know they might be needed.

Now that he had seen her, knew for sure it was her in Tambour’s possession, one thing was very clear to him. Dominic wasn’t walking out of this warehouse without Cassandra.

She was alive and that was the most important thing. But she was currently naked, tied up with her arms stretched high over her head. She was stretched so high her toes barely touched the ground.

Her chin was dragging low against her chest, hair framing around her face so that he couldn’t see it clearly. But he could tell a gag have been tied around her mouth. The only way Dominic knew she was conscious was by the way she kept trying to catch her weight on her toes.

Tambour was pacing back and forth, waving around a knife,screaming at his men in a mixture of Russian and English. From what Dominic could pick up, it seemed as though Cassandra had been about to escape due to Ian’s men’s incompetence.

Dominic forced himself not to think about what had probably happened to Cassandra during her captivity. He would deal with that later. Right now he just needed to get her out alive.

Dominic especially didn’t like how close Tambour got to her while he was pacing with that knife.

They had taken out Tambour’s watchman, who was now zip-tied and sitting outside. But Dominic was much further inside the warehouse then he should’ve been before Tambour realized it. That was sloppy and told Dominic a lot about the man.

Unfortunately what it said wasn’t good. Someone sloppy and angry was more difficult to reason with then someone cold and organized.

“Who the fuck are you?” Tambour finally saw them and spun around. His men had their weapons pointed at Dominic instantly. Titus and Marcelo immediately drew theirs.

“I’m Dominic Rinaldi.” He didn’t go into anymore detail as he continued walking towards them. Ian would know the name.

At his words Cassandra’s head flew up. Now he could see her face. His lips tightened at the bruising and swelling at her cheeks, but had to stifle a small smile at the wariness that entered her green eyes.

She was bruised, gagged, and scared. That was no less than what he had planned for her. But he would’ve never hit her, not with his fists, never like that. He would make damn sure she couldn’t sit for a week after he finished whipping her luscious ass with his belt, but he had never, would never hit her with his fists.

“Rinaldi, this has nothing to do with you.” Dominic’s attention was jerked back to Tambour by his words. “This bitch is payment to me from her family. They stole from me and didn’t have the money to repay when they got caught. Thefather offered her, since evidently she was the one who let my shipment escape.”

Sounded like Cassandra had tried to help some trafficking victims. A thief with a conscience. Go figure.

“Still.” Dominic gave a half shrug. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to let you have your revenge today.”

Dominic could see anger creeping onto Tambour’s face, but the man fought it down. “Look, you don’t want trouble in NOLA, fine. I understand. We’ll just take her and go. I apologize for causing trouble in your city. We don’t want any fight with you.”

His words gave Dominic some hope that he could get out of the situation without killing Tambour and his men. It sounded like Tambour had been given instructions not to get into a battle with the New Orleans Mafia.

“No. You’re not taking the woman with you. Cassandra Clemens is under my family’s protection.”

Now Tambour didn’t even try to hide the rage. “What? She was given to me as payment. You have no right to come in here and take her just because I’m in your city.”

Dominic knew he had to try to talk Ian down from this ledge. Because while he had orders not to do anything against the Rinaldi family, Dominic showing up here and flexing his muscle was not going to sit well with the Russians. Roman also wanted to avoid a war.

But the fact of the matter was, he was not going to let Cassandra die. Not by Ian Tambour’s hand here today.

“This isn’t just about you being in my city. This is about her specifically.”

“Oh really?” Ian sneered. “And what bond do the Rinaldi’s have with her that is stronger than the bond with her own family? The ones who gave her to me?”

Dominic had hoped to avoid this, had hoped money and threat ofpower would cause Tambour to back down. But evidently that wasn’t going to work. Only the truth would work.

Dominic was about to announce something he’d told less than a handful of people. His own brothers didn’t even know. But it was the only thing that was going to save Cassandra now.

“She’s my wife.”

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