“You love her, don’t you?” Heather’s features had softened and filled with admiration, catching him off guard. The warm smile she gave him reminded him so much of Amelia, there was no denying their resemblance at that moment.
He nodded, feeling a little uncomfortable discussing his relationship with her. He’d never been good expressing his emotions openly anyway and their relationship before now had been rocky at best. He cleared his throat.
“I am more than fond of your daughter, yes.”
“Good,” she said. The air grows awkward, she is obviously just as uncomfortable; but that one word speaks more than a thousand, he knew it was Heather’s way of giving him her blessing.
The lift stopped, and their attention was immediately drawn to the closed doors.
“Let’s go and have some fun with Freddy Weddy, he’s going to shit his pants when I am done with him,” Heather said when the lift doors slid open. Her mischievous tone made Dominic smirk.
This was going to be fun.
Heather
The heels of her stiletto pumps clicked against the tiled floor as she rounded the corridor to Fredrick’s office. Dominic walked menacingly next to her, his facial expression hard; they were about to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting arsehole.
The floor was very quiet for late afternoon, so either everyone had left when they found out she was coming or they had all gone into hiding, she had that effect on people, call it sheer arrogance but she loved it and wouldn’t expect anything less, she had earned that fear she saw in people when they realised who she was.
They reached their destination in seconds, Dominic was first to enter and like the gentleman he was he held open the door as she sauntered in.
Fredrick’s office was more like a boardroom with a long table situated in the middle of it. His desk was at the far end near to the big window looking out over central Dublin.
Fredrick stood at the other end of the table as they walked in. She watched his eyes narrow as they landed on her; he was pissed. Good, she thought. This will be fun.
“Dominic, pleasure. Ms Vandran, I could say it was a pleasure to see you, but I’d be lying.”
The arrogant bastard.
“The feeling’s mutual, Freddy, believe me,” she said, sounding bored. She watched his eye twitch at her nickname for him, she loved making him squirm.
“I won’t tolerate your rudeness towards Ms Vandran, do I make myself clear, Fredrick? I suggest you change your tone… Now I will get straight to the point. You have allowed one of our coven to slip through the net and they have stabbed us in the back. Ms Vandran and her granddaughter were attacked this morning, the perpetrator used some of my family’s magic to do it, now I want to know exactly what you know or I won’t be responsible for what is unleashed here today, do you understand?” He bellowed the last part and she watched the old man’s reaction closely. Dominic would know if he was feeding him bullshit.
Fredrick paled and Heather was certain she saw his hand shake; he was afraid and she was impressed. Maybe Dominic had a bit of his ancestor in him after all, just hopefully not the ‘murder all of her family in cold blood’ part.
“I can assure you, Dominic, I know nothing of this betrayal, I swear.” Fredrick looked like he was about to have a heart attack. She could see the old man losing his cool; he knew something, she just had to prod a little further, she was sure she could unravel this fucker.
“What kind of circus have you been running here, Freddy? Your incompetence in running this, whatever it is,” she waved her hand around the room, “nearly got another one of my family hurt. Dominic should just put you out of your misery, you’re obviously not capable of doing this job,” she sneered and then smirked as the pained look on Fredrick’s face turned into scorn and he glared at her; his voice came out more like a growl as he challenged her.
“You know nothing of the work I do protecting the Domini Bellatorum name, we have worked for centuries to ensure that every Bellator male born was led on the right and true path. Our alliances lie with him and him alone. You, my dear, are vermin compared to him. The only reason you are even here is because he has chosen one of your children as a suitor. You should have been killed along with Cillian years ago, but you refused to die, much the pity.” She couldn’t speak as the audacity of the words he had just dared throw at her were registering in her brain. She didn’t get the chance to react before Dominic had rounded the table and was gripping Fredrick by his suit collar, lifting him off the ground.
“You are trying my patience now. Fredrick, I warned you to play nice—”
Her insides were at boiling point and she finally found her voice again.
“How fucking dare you speak his name? You arrogant bastard, my husband was a good man and didn’t deserve what you and your sick fuck of a leader did to him. You are lucky your boss is here, or I would turn you into a pile of dog shit,” Heather shrieked storming around the table.
“Apologise, now!” Dominic demanded. His red eyes bore into the old man, his feet dangling in Dominic’s powerful grip. For a second it looked like Dominic was contemplating launching him across the boardroom; excitement built inside her with the thought of hurting this mean old bastard. Fredrick’s head turned; his scared eyes met hers. Pitiful.
“I-I apologise, Ms Vandran,” he snivelled in her direction. She glared at him, not believing his sincerity one bit.
Dominic planted Fredrick’s feet back on the floor. The old man slumped into the nearest chair breathing heavily. Dominic circled him.
“My family have allowed you to run this show for far too long and the power has clouded your judgement, I let it go while my father was still alive as I didn’t have much say in the matter while I was under his control. I am the true embodiment of Dominus and I have had enough of you and the other members running my coven like we are still in sixteen hundred. I will not allow innocent people to be victimised in my name; therefore, it is time I intervened and stopped this bitterness between the Bellator and Vandran families, this feud is over.” Dominic looked like he was composing himself before he carried on scolding the old man.
“Now, tell me everything you know about each member of the coven, I am about to make a lot of members redundant and Ms Vandran here is going to help me do it.”
What?
“What do you say, Heather? How do you fancy becoming the head of the table in the Domini Bellatorum? I need someone I can trust running my family’s affairs. I know it’s a little unorthodox given the circumstances, but I couldn’t think of anyone better to step in.”
“You can’t – she can’t,” Fredrick stuttered, a look of pure panic on his face. “It’s blasphemy to your ancestors’ nam—” Dominic sent a glare in the old man’s direction, cutting him off.
Heather stood watching them, not quite believing what exactly just happened. Was he serious? “Dominic, I appreciate the offer, but I will have to think about it.”
Dominic looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded. She put on her best sly smile and directed it right at Fredrick who looked like a man defeated.
“Now what shall we do with Freddy Weddy here?” she said. Her voice sounded menacing as she prowled around him, running her nails across the top of his chair.
“We’re going to find out exactly what he knows and then you can have some fun with him.”
“Oooh, goodie, I do like some fun,” she sneered into Fredrick’s ear.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emmie
“Mummy.” Hope’s soft little voice woke her from her nap. The sickness had hit her with ferocity earlier and she had spent an hour throwing up while Dominic held her hair back and whispered soothing words to her; between that and the exhaustion from the horror of this morning, a little sleep was just what she needed to recharge her batteries.
She couldn’t remember being this sick when she was pregnant with Hope, she just prayed that after the first trimester was done all the sickness would stop.
She yawned,
stretched and sat up slowly in Dominic’s massive bed, opening her arms for Hope to climb in next to her. Hope jumped in and she wrapped her in the duvet, tucking the thick material round her little body; she nuzzled her wild mane of dark hair and kissed her forehead lovingly.
“Hey, pretty girl, what have you been up to? Did you have fun with Vinny?” she asked groggily, not quite awake yet. Vinny had offered to look after Hope while she rested which she was thankful of; she trusted Vinny implicitly with her daughter and Hope was very fond of him.
Vinny was a mean-looking bastard. He was a beast of a man, all muscles and testosterone; he looked like he had torn a few throats out in his time, but he loved her little girl. Dominic had confided in her that he and his wife had lost a few children through complications of childbirth and pregnancy. She had seen her fair share of loss over the years working in the maternity ward; the death of a child is heart breaking enough for a couple to go through, to lose a few must have been absolutely devastating for them.
She rubbed a hand across her flat stomach. She didn’t know what she would do if anything happened to this little one growing inside her, she was already so attached to the little dot, she would have to have a scan and some tests soon to make sure everything was growing properly.
“Nicnic said I was in charge, I gots bored, being in charge is rubbish.” Hope pouted, interrupting Emmie’s train of thought. She chuckled and stroked her finger down her little girl’s soft cheek.
“Well, now Mummy is awake, what would you like to do?” She kissed her nose.
“Can I play dress up?” Hope asked enthusiastically.
“Of course you can sweetheart, we can cook Dominic something nice for dinner and we will both dress up pretty for him; I will even let you have some of Mummy’s lip gloss on again, what do you think?”
Hope jumped up and down excitedly, her beautiful curls bouncing with her movements.
“Let’s make him lasagne and garlic bread, Mummy, that’s my favourite, so it will be Nicnic’s favourite too.”
She loved how self-assured and resilient her child was; the way she lit up when she talked about Dominic melted Emmie’s heart. He was winning her little miss over, that thought warmed her inside; she had become a bit attached to the big bad warlock herself too.
The fright Hope must have had earlier seemed to have been forgotten about, the innocent playfulness was back in her daughter’s eyes. It was a far cry from fear she had seen resonating in them earlier.
Emmie shivered, remembering the sight she had walked into, seeing her mother like that and cradling Hope’s little body in her unconscious state. The image would be imprinted in her mind forever; God only knew what would have happened if Dominic hadn’t shown up when he had.
She would check up on Heather later to make sure she was all right; right now, she needed to prepare dinner and then take a shower ready for Dominic coming home.
“Right, well, I guess Mummy should stop being a lazy bum and start making dinner.”
She swung herself out of bed, changed into some clean sweatpants and a t-shirt and they walked hand in hand together to the kitchen, chatting about what dresses they would try on later.
Emmie spent the next hour preparing a lasagne from scratch with her daughter’s help of course, Hope was adamant about helping to layer the lasagne sheets and sprinkle the cheese on top; she kept popping some in her mouth when she thought Emmie wasn’t looking, and giggling when Emmie jokingly chastised her with a wagging finger and raised eyebrows.
“We’ll put it in the oven after we’ve got our pretty dresses on, it only takes forty-five minutes to cook,” Emmie said, lifting Hope off the chair she was standing on.
“Come on, Princess, you need a bath and we both need to choose our dresses for Nicnic.”
Dominic
It had been a long and gruelling day, he was shattered; four of his coven including Gretchen had been very forthcoming with information and it had become apparent that one of his ancestors’ spell books had been stolen over a year ago and Fredrick had placed orders to keep it quiet, hoping the book would be found before Dominic discovered its loss. Fredrick’s actions had cemented his fate as far as he was concerned. His lack of loyalty and honour had caused people he loved to be hurt, the old bastard was out of the running where his affairs were concerned, now he just had to find out who was behind the theft. This wasn’t going to be an easy task considering the amount of people his darling sister had coming in and out of the place.
Images of Hope lying limp in his arms twisted his gut in anger. Fredrick had to be punished and locked away until he could decide what to do with him. Maybe a few nights in the cave would teach him a lesson.
After Heather was through with the old man, he had been a sobbing mess on his knees begging for her torture to end; even he had a felt a slight wave of sympathy for the pathetic excuse of a man who had spent his whole adult life serving his arsehole of a father.
Dominic shook his head at his weakness, he had to dismiss his feelings of sympathy and run his business like he wanted; Fredrick was a liability and unhinged, the things he had ordered in Dominic’s name while he had been away building the LA Perdition had turned his blood cold. Gretchen had been very helpful with the rundown of the unspeakable acts they had been forced to carry out, she even had produced video footage and images of their gruesome escapades.
The authority his father had bestowed upon Fredrick had turned him greedy, bloodthirsty, and selfish. Innocent people had been hurt while Fredrick and his father had been in charge. He couldn’t have that anymore.
Heather was ruthless but fair in business and brutally honest, she would make a perfect candidate to run the show here; he just hoped she would consider his offer, now Colt was concentrating on building his life with Clara.
Tomorrow he was setting the ball in motion to destroy the arseholes who were terrorising him and those he loved, he had a meeting at midday with Joe, Simon, and Simon’s brother Tom, they had some information for him on Juliet’s main henchman, Phil. He clenched his fists when he thought about that fucker hurting Amelia, that bastard would be begging for mercy when he finally got his hands on him.
There were also leads to some of Juliet’s other hired help; it would mean being away for a few days to gather information and as much as he hated the idea of leaving Amelia it was necessary; but he would worry about that tomorrow, business could wait; tonight he needed to bury himself inside the beautiful woman waiting for him on the other side of this front door. He was insatiable when it came to Amelia.
Entering the mansion, he walked up the stairs needing to see his woman; he had missed her today. It was a strange sensation, caring so much for another person so deeply, the feeling of needing her so badly he ached from it.
He didn’t think he would ever get to feel like this about another, he had never allowed himself to feel this way about anyone, it was a wonder to him that someone as beautiful as Amelia could ever love him for something more than just his wealth and accept the monster he carried inside. Amelia had awakened his soul with just a look from those beautiful hypnotic eyes of hers, they were like the bluest pools that he could bathe in for eternity; with one glance, one touch from her perfectly luscious lips he was putty in her hands, she had shaken him to his core with her mere presence, he was nothing without her.
Once all of this was over she would be his completely… if she would have him.
There was no sign of his girls upstairs. Strange.
He headed back down the stairs and was greeted by a very excited, very pretty little girl. She had the cutest pink dress on, with frilly white socks and pink shoes; her ribbons holding her pigtails in place matched her dress perfectly. She was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
“Well don’t you look beautiful, little lady,” he said, picking her up for a cuddle. She wrapped her little arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He placed her back on the floor and she took his hand, tugging at him to follow her.
“Come
on, Nicnic, Mummy says to take you to the dinner room.”
He chuckled at her pronunciation of ‘dining room’ and allowed her to pull him along.
The big table in the vast dining room he normally used for business dinners had been laid out amazingly, it was so perfect.
“You sit here, Nicnic, Mummy won’t be long,” Hope said, tugging him to the head of the table. Two places either side of his had been set, there was a bottle of wine on ice and some fresh orange juice, the silver cutlery had been laid out exactly to his liking with a plate and the pressed white napkins resting on top of them ready for their meal.
He sat down and looked in awe at what his lady had been busy preparing for him. His heart swelled in his chest; he was the luckiest man alive to have Amelia love him as deeply as he cared for her, she was so attentive.
“Hey handsome.”
The sound of Amelia’s voice pulled him out of his daydream. He turned. His mouth went dry at the vision before him; she was dressed in a black cocktail dress that hugged all of her delicious curves, her high heels made her already long legs seem to go on for miles, she had loosely curled her usually straight hair and her make-up was minimal but flawless. He was sure he was gawking but he didn’t care, she never ceased to take his breath away.
“Amelia, you – you look sexy as hell in that dress,” he stuttered, unable to hide the effect she had on him.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice husky. He loved the way she still blushed at his compliments; the look on her beautiful face told him she was as affected as he was. They held each other’s gaze and the air fizzed between them.
Something Familiar (The Vandran Legacy Book 2) Page 13