Page 27 of Handcuffs & Honey

Dominic handed the report to Ezekiel, who took it and grew quiet as he read. Dominic just stood there, watching Ezekiel’s facial expression, and waiting for the guy’s reaction.

“He was a good guy.” Ezekiel gripped the back of the chair, the color bleeding from his knuckles. “I told him to leave Julian alone. The human was bad news for him. I knew Julian was going to get my boy in trouble. He’s a piece of shit that needs to be locked up.”

Dominic was really trying to keep his temper in check. His bear snarled at Ezekiel insulting Julian, but if Dominic was going to get through this, he needed to rein in his bear. “Be that as it may,” Dominic said as he blew out a slow breath, telling himself not to shift and kill this son of a bitch, “he attacked Mr. Sanders.”

Then Ezekiel’s canines descended as he looked up at Dominic, as if the shock had finally worn off and the full impact of what happened finally settled inside of him. “Your men killed my son!”

“He was out of control and wouldn’t comply,” Dominic argued. “He was a threat and attacked one of my deputies. He’d already attacked Mr. Sanders, trying to rip his damn arm off.”

“Then you should have subdued him a different way,” Ezekiel snarled. “You could have done a hundred different things other than shooting him.”

Dominic took a step forward, his bear now fully on alert. He was not going to back down from this. He didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. He could see the anger in Ezekiel’s eyes and the way his fist clenched tighter around the report. Dominic took a step back, giving himself some space in case he had to shift into his bear, but he wouldn’t back down. The situation at Julian’s had been handled in the only possible way.

“We did what we had to do to protect ourselves and the innocent people around us,” Dominic said firmly. “Your son made a choice, and he suffered the consequences.”

Ezekiel slammed the report down on the desk. Papers scattered everywhere, but he didn’t seem to notice. “He was my only child,” he growled. “He was all I had left. And you just...killed him. Like he was nothing.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Dominic said, even though he didn’t feel sorry at all. Robert had been a danger to everyone around him, and Denali had made the decision to take him out because Robert refused to back down. “But I stand by what happened. And I won’t apologize for my deputy doing what he had to do.”

“Your men should have found a way to stop him without killing him,” Ezekiel repeated, his eyes locked on Dominic’s. “But instead, they chose the easy way out. They chose to take his life.”

A jolt of anger rippled through Dominic at Ezekiel’s words, but he pushed it down. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool now. “We did everything we could to stop him peacefully,” he said tightly. “But he didn’t give us a choice. He was attacking Mr. Sanders, and then he turned and attacked my deputy. He was going to hurt someone else if we didn’t stop him.”

Ezekiel scoffed. “That’s just an excuse. My boy wasn’t a goddamn rabid animal.”

Dominic clenched his jaw. “That’s exactly how he was acting,” he snarled, tired of this conversation going in circles. “I’m sorry that it had to end this way, but we did what we had to do.”

“You couldn’t have tranquilized him?” Ezekiel spat.

“There was no time,” Dominic argued. “Robert was out to kill. He’d already attacked Julian. He went after my deputy, injured him, and wouldn’t back down.”

Ezekiel’s eyes narrowed, and Dominic had a sudden feeling that things were about to get uglier. But before he could say anything else, Ezekiel stormed out of his office. He thought for sure Ezekiel was about to attack. Now he wondered what the guy was up to. He’d seen Julian outside of the diner, but Ezekiel didn’t know that Julian worked there. For all the wolf shifter knew, Dominic and Julian could have been just eating there and then went on their way.

Even so…

Dominic pulled his cell phone out and called the diner.

“Deep Dish,” Roman said when he answered.

“I need you to pull Julian into the kitchen,” Dominic said. “Now.”

“Hey, Julian, come here,” Roman shouted. “Go in the kitchen.”

“Why?” Julian asked in the background.

“Just go,” Roman said then turned his attention back to Dominic. “Okay, he’s in there.”

Dominic told Roman what just happened. “I would come there and get Julian, but if Ezekiel is lurking around, I don’t want him to follow me.”

And if Ezekiel showed up at the diner, it would take Dominic less than a few minutes to get there and put the guy out of his misery.

“Julian is safe here,” the snow leopard shifter said. “I’ll keep him busy in the kitchen, out of sight. You want me to sneak him out back and take him to your place?”

“Let things die down first,” Dominic replied, though he doubted this would die down. His gut told him that Ezekiel would be back with a vengeance.

“I’ll meet you both in a few hours.”

“Got it,” Roman said before hanging up.

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