Page 48 of Dominic

He put a finger over her lips. “It’s time for me to know. Especially given what I found in the loose brick of my fireplace today.” He turned to Gordon. “Continue. The truth.”

“She chose you as a mark all on her own. Any of us would’ve told her she couldn’t handle you. I tried to get her out at the very beginning, but she wouldn’t go.”

Dominic turned to Cassandra. “True so far?”

She nodded. Dominic turned back to Gordon, gesturing for him to continue.

“She checked in with me at first, but after about three months that stopped. Then we started seeing pictures of you guys out at places. Obviously she was getting very close to you, like she was supposed to. Finally she called for a meeting after she’d been with you about eight months. But instead of having some sort of payment, she told me you two had gotten married. That she wanted out of my family. Wanted to become a little housewife.”

Dominic looked at Cassandra again. “Still true?” She was staring at the ground, but nodded.

Darrell decided to chime in. “She’d already cost us eight month’s worth of time. And then she had nothing to show for it. And just expected us to be okay with that?”

Dominic spared a glance at Darrell. “I understand you were threatening to hurt my sister-in-law yesterday. Your time right now is probably better spent figuring out how you’re going to convince me you’re not a threat to my family and let the adults talk.”

Darrell flushed and looked away.

“I offered her a choice.” Gordon continued. “I’d seen that rock she’d been wearing in some of the newspaper pictures. I told her if she wanted out, that’s all it would cost her… a couple of rings. So before you get too mad at me, you should know that your relationship wasn’t even worth that to her. The price of a couple of rings. Wanted to keep them for herself.”

Gordon Clemons didn’t know it, but he had just signed his own death warrant.

Dominic’s voice was soft but it didn’t lessen the cold fury rising in him. “So she showed back up without the rings, and told you to get lost. Leaving you with nothing. Offering nothing. Not even willing to treat me as a mark anymore.Is that right?”

“Yeah.” Gordon nodded rapidly, obviously excited that Dominic seem to understand. Dominic continued. “And as both her stepfather and her boss, that was unacceptable. So you decided to beat some sense into her. And it, what, got carried away?”

Gordon shot a look at Darrell.

“Oh,” Dominic said. “So you were both there. You both decided to beat a defenseless woman, half your weight, until she was in a coma. And you killed my unborn child as part of that.”

Dominic took his arm from around Cassandra’s waist and moved it in front of her. He backed her behind him so that his body was between her and her family.

Family. Not anymore. Never again. She had a family now, but it wasn’t these two assholes standing in front of him.

Gordon didn’t look the least bit repentant. “Look Rinaldi, we didn’t know. She didn’t tell us. It was just business. You can see yourself how useless she is–”

All it took was one nod from Dominic to his men standing behind Gordon and Darrell. No fanfare. No drama.

Shots fired into the back of their skulls and the two men fell to the ground.

“My wife is not useless,” Dominic said to their dead bodies. “She is the most amazing woman I’ve ever known.”

Without another word he wrapped his arm around her, keeping the scene blocked from her vision, and led her out of the warehouse.

---