Dominion (Alpha Domain #1)

by Arabella Abbing

  Hell, I was a little afraid of that too.

  “So, what has John told you thus far?”

  “That my boyfriend of almost a year was about to sell me into slavery,” I said dryly before leveling my stepbrother with an icy glare. “Is it true?”

  “Sort of. He was actually going to trade you to pay off the debt he owes to the Sanchez family. Then they would’ve sold you off.”

  “Or kept you,” John muttered under his breath and I bristled at the implication.

  “Is this for real?” I asked incredulously, looking to Allen for answers.

  “I’m afraid so,” he said sadly. “I’m sorry.”

  I wiggled uncomfortably in my spot, wringing my hands together while I avoided the gazes of the two men in the room. How exactly was I supposed to respond to this? Was I supposed to say it was okay? That I wasn’t heartbroken by the idea of Chris, a man I once thought I loved, trading me for a debt? That I wasn’t terrified by the thought of being captured and sold as a slave?

  Or worse, my mind reminded me, the mental image of being tied up and raped by that man— Dante— popping into my head unbidden.

  “What am I supposed to do?” I asked desperately as I looked between the two men. “Are they going to come looking for me?”

  “Yes,” Allen confirmed with a sharp nod. “But they won’t take you.”

  Fear was coiling in my stomach, mixing with dread and panic as I asked, “How do you know that?”

  “Because you’re not leaving this house until the threat is over,” John cut in.

  “And John and I are going to take care of the threat,” Allen added.

  They seemed so sure of themselves, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the thought of my stepbrother and his best friend somehow managing to save me from this.

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  Again, they shared a silent look and I felt myself getting irritated at being left out of the loop. But then, Allen turned to me with resignation in his eyes.

  “Because this is what we do. You can trust us to take care of it. To take care of you.”

  His promise was earnest, but my mind was stuck on the first part of his sentence. “What do you mean by ‘this is what we do’? What exactly is it that you do?”

  “We’re hitmen, Amber.”

  I turned wide, incredulous eyes to John, blinking owlishly for a moment before cutting my gaze back to Allen. He didn’t move— just watched my face closely for reaction.

  They were serious.

  My stepbrother was a hitman.

  Shock didn’t even begin to describe what I felt in that moment.

  Chapter Seven

  Allen

  “Amber? I asked quietly after a long minute of staring at her face, frozen with shock.

  “Hmm?” she hummed in response, and I knew immediately that she was so lost in her thoughts that she wouldn’t hear a word I said even if I did continue.

  I looked over to my best friend and shot him a deadly glare, silently berating his complete lack of finesse in handling difficult manners. John gave me a small shrug and a shake of his head as if to say, ‘What? I didn’t do anything.’

  I wanted to punch him in the face. But that would likely cause more problems that it would solve.

  “Hey,” John said as he reached his hand down to pat Amber on the shoulder. “You aren’t going to faint again, are you?”

  That seemed to snap her out of her daze and her eyes refocused right before she shook her head.

  “Surprisingly, no. I’m... I’m alright. John, can I talk to Allen alone for a moment?”

  Uh-oh. This can’t be good.

  “Sure thing. Just give me a shout when you guys are done,” he said as he stood up and started heading towards his bedroom.

  After we were alone, Amber turned to me with her lips pressed into a fine line. “You told him to watch me.”

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “I knew Chris was in trouble with the Sanchez family,” I offered with a shrug. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

  “Why John though? Why not you?”

  I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest. “Gathering intel is below a man in my position. Don’t get me wrong— it’s below John as well. But I trust him more than the others.”

  Amber’s jaw dropped open. “There are others? A man in your position? Allen, what the hell is going on? What happened to you?”

  The hysterical disbelief in her tone made me frown. “Yes, there are others. John and I have five other men in our employment full-time, as well as a few contacts that we hire on a job-to-job basis.”

  “Jobs? You mean hits? Like killing people?” she ground out angrily.

  “Yes. Among other things.”

  She shot me a dry look and mimicked my stance, folding her arms across her chest. “Such as?”

  “Such as gathering intel,” I said with a smirk.

  Amber clearly wasn’t as amused by my tongue-in-cheek response as I was.

  “Some jobs are... less savory than others,” I vaguely stated.

  “I don’t get it. What’s less ‘savory’ than murder?”

  “Kidnapping comes to mind.”

  Amber froze and looked at me seriously. “You... You kidnap people?”

  “Not to sell them,” I added quickly. “We don’t... we aren’t like them. We rarely get those types of jobs, but they’re usually just for ransoms. No one gets hurt or stays missing.”

  “Do you really think that makes it okay?” she shouted, standing up from the couch and flailing her arms around aimlessly as she began to release her anger. “Spying on me? Murdering and kidnapping people? What the FUCK happened to you in the past few years, Allen?”

  I stayed as calm as possible, even though my mind was screaming at me to take action.

  “Amber, nothing happened to me. This is just who I am.”

  “Is this who you were when you nearly beat my boyfriend to death all those years ago?”

  “Yes. I’m the same exact person. In every single way,” I added, stressing the words and hoping she would get the hidden meaning beneath them.

  Judging by the way her eyes softened, she did.

  “Allen—”

  “I heard shouting. You two alright?”

  “Get the fuck out!” I screamed at John, hopping up from my perch on the coffee table and pointing in his direction. “We’re trying to have a conversation.”

  Amber jumped and I instantly regretted shouting at John. I was about to apologize when he stalked into the room and poked me in the chest with two fingers.

  “Dude. Knock this shit out. Remember the conversation we had earlier?” he reminded me quietly, neither of us wanting to attempt to explain to Amber that we had already agreed to share her in some sort of twisted polyamorous relationship.

  She probably wouldn’t like to hear that considering she didn’t seem too happy with either of us at this point. Still, the reminder deflated me. I had agreed to it for a myriad of reasons.

  “I know,” I whispered back, then raised my voice as I said, “I’m sorry.”

  John patted me on the back and grinned. “We’re all good, brother. Amber? You mind if I hop back in? I’ll mediate.”

  “Whatever,” she said as she sat back down and huffed, pouting so adorably that the desire to kiss her was nearly overpowering.

  But I somehow managed to hold myself back. Probably because I was damn sure she would’ve slapped the shit out of me the second I leaned in.

  “Allen!” John called before letting out a short whistle to capture my attention. “You’re zoning.”

  “Sorry,” I repeated, shaking my head as if it would help clear it.

  As it was, I had gone back to the memory of watching Amber and Chris as they undressed and almost had sex and inserted myself in the place of Chris.

  Even though John had attempted to get me out of my thoughts, I couldn’t help them from running rampant from there. I cou
ld vividly picture myself taking off Amber’s top and dipping my head down to trace her stiff nipples with my tongue. I could hear the sound of her moan from the other night replaying in my head and I imagined that it was me who pulled that sound from her throat.

  I would look up at her with hooded eyes and dip my head towards her lips, drawing that pouty bottom one between my teeth and gently biting down on it.

  My fantasy abruptly shifted and I pictured John standing behind her, his hands accidentally touching my arms as he ran them up her hips and around her front, gripping her breasts as she strained up to kiss me. Our eyes locked in a brief moment of mutual understanding before my attention returned solely to the woman I loved.

  The most surprising part about where my fantasy had gone was just how at ease I was with the idea of it. John and I had been best friends for years and had lived together for nearly the entire course of our friendship. We’d been stuck together in life or death situations countless times and had relied on each other so often that I trusted him more than anyone else.

  So the idea of sharing Amber with him wasn’t as unsavory as I thought it might be. I knew I could trust him with her, just like I trusted him with my own life. Maybe this whole thing would work out alright after all.

  Assuming Amber was even wiling to entertain the idea.

  * * *

  John

  “ALLEN!” I shouted as his eyes glassed over once again.

  I reached over and gave him a not-so-gentle punch on the shoulder, rolling my eyes as he finally snapped out of his daze. Amber looked like she was torn between rolling her eyes right along with me and just bolting out the front door, which was the last thing we needed to happen.

  Because I couldn’t speak for Allen, but I had absolutely no intention of letting Amber out of this house for the next week at least.

  “What was I saying?” Allen asked and I curiously wondered where his thoughts had wandered off to.

  “You were saying that you two are kidnapping murderers,” Amber said coldly.

  I frowned. “Oh no, sweetheart. Someone must’ve gotten their wires crossed. I don’t kidnap people. Neither does Allen.”

  “Well, then your ‘people’ do.”

  Ahhh, now it made sense. Allen must have mentioned that we have others working with us. She seemed stuck on the kidnapping angle and I wondered if telling her that we only had two people on the entire team who were morally loose enough to do those jobs would make her feel any better.

  “Amber, I know this must be a shock to someone who grew up as sheltered as you did, but this shit does happen in real life,” Allen said slowly, as if he was speaking to a child.

  I winced and braced myself for her outrage. To my great surprise, it never came. She just blinked and stared at Allen as he continued.

  “But you have to believe me when I say that the things the Sanchez family does are far worse than anything me or my team has ever done. I hate to phrase it like this, but you’re going to have to choose between two evils. And I guarantee that we’re the lesser.”

  “The devil you know,” I added with a chuckle, gesturing between the two step-siblings.

  Amber looked between the two of us with a furrowed brow, finally understanding the severity of what she had been pulled into. She sighed and nodded, the resignation clear in her eyes.

  “Alright, alright. Point taken. So what do I need to do?”

  “Just stay here. Stay with us,” Allen said, his voice taking on a pleading tone. “John and I will keep you safe.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. At least one of us will stay with you at all times while we work this out.”

  “Do you really think you can fix it?” she asked hopefully.

  “We will,” Allen promised. “One way or another, we will get you out of danger.”

  I could sense Amber’s hesitation, but she ultimately accepted the graveness of the situation and nodded in defeat.

  “Aright, fine. I’ll hole up in here while you two... do whatever it is you do. Just don’t give me any gory details.”

  “We won’t,” Allen assured her. “Come on, I’ll show you to the guest bedroom.”

  She stood up and started following him and I trailed behind the duo, listening to Amber as she asked, “What about clothes and stuff? I can’t live out of my purse.”

  “I’ll buy you new clothes. Just give me your sizes and a list of anything else you need.”

  Amber scoffed. “Like I would trust your sense of fashion.”

  “It’s not like you’ll be going out in whatever I buy you,” Allen pointed out.

  “Haven’t I lost enough of my dignity what with being spied on and nearly sold into sex trafficking or whatever?”

  “I’m not going to buy you shitty clothes, Amber. My fashion sense has evolved since high school.”

  “You couldn’t tell by that outfit,” she mumbled.

  Allen stopped and looked down at his khaki pants and light blue button down shirt with a frown. “What’s wrong with this outfit?”

  “You look like you’re going to go door-to-door selling bibles or something,” Amber said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not hot. Like, at all.”

  Allen growled and kept walking as he clipped out, “I need to do laundry, this was all that was clean.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.”

  I laughed out loud and the pair stopped to turn around, regarding me curiously as I doubled over and clenched my stomach as wave after wave of uncontrollable laughter shook me.

  “What’s so funny?” Allen demanded.

  “You two...God, you two bicker like you’re really brother and sister,” I explained as I wiped a tear from my eye. “It’s fucking hilarious.”

  The glare Allen leveled me with was marginally less hilarious.

  But I noted with curiosity that Amber had also frowned, seemingly upset with the comparison. They both were blushing as they turned and began walking up the stairs to the second floor and I leaned against the railing with a smirk.

  “How interesting,” I murmured once they disappeared from my sight.

  Very interesting.

  Chapter Eight

  Amber

  The bedroom Allen dubbed as mine for the duration of my stay was at least five steps up from the shitty room I shared with Chris in his friend’s apartment. Every room inside the house was surprisingly luxurious—a stark contrast to the outer appearance of the home.

  After Allen showed me to my room, both him and John left me alone to settle in for the rest of the day. I wandered out to find a bathroom at one point and ran into John who told me that Allen had already taken my sizes and gone out to buy me some clothes to replace the duffle bag full of them I had left at the apartment.

  I was thankful I had my purse and cell phone on me when I ran into John again. Otherwise, I could just imagine Chris and those men combing through my text messages and call log looking for a clue to my location.

  And even though it was pretty obvious I was now done with Chris, I really didn’t like the idea of him going through my messages and seeing the conversation I had with my father a few weeks ago—when I had pleadingly asked for a place to stay so I could leave Chris for good.

  Of course, if my asshole father would have said yes, I wouldn’t have ever been put into this situation. But he’d turned me down, much like I expected.

  It wasn’t like Chris treated me terribly. He never hit me—even though there were a number of times when I thought he might. But our relationship had gotten to a point where I was just sick of being with him. I was sick of coddling him and trying not to judge him for his bad habits.

  My endless amount of patience for him and his bad choices hadn’t paid off at all considering he was going to trade me into slavery just to pay off a debt.

  What an asshole.

  It was getting close to the time when I typically ate dinner now and I still hadn’t heard a peep out coming from the rest of the house. I stuck my head out of the bedroom and looked aroun
d, walking out when I realized nobody was there. I went for the stairs and headed to the ground floor, hoping I’d see John or Allen so I could find something to eat.

  “Hey, girl!”

  I startled at the sight of John sitting on the couch, looking up at me with a goofy smile as he dug into a container of Chinese food. My stomach roared at the sight and John laughed when he heard it, gesturing for me to sit down beside him.

  “There’s plenty to go around. Allen brought a ton.”

  “Where is Allen?” I asked curiously.

  John answered around a mouthful of noodles. “He ran back out to the car to grab your clothes. I would’ve offered to help but… meh.”

  I rolled my eyes and plopped down beside him on the couch, grabbing a random container of food and opening it up.

  “I would offer to help if I was allowed to leave the house.”

  “Your excuse is far better than mine.”

  I shoved a forkful of chicken into my mouth and nodded. “Mm-hm,” I murmured in agreement.

  I had managed to get a few bites in when I heard the doorknob rattling followed by a low curse as Allen stumbled into the house. I was setting the carton down to go help him when he appeared in the doorway of the living room, his arms crammed full with a variety of different bags.

  “What the fuck?” John asked from the couch. “Damn, no wonder you were gone all day.”

  “I might have gone a little overboard,” he admitted with a half-shrug as he started to deposit the bags on the floor.

  “That’s an understatement,” I mumbled as I wondrously took in the designer names on the bags. “Jesus. How much did you spend?”

  “That’s not important,” Allen dismissed with a wave of finality. “Let’s eat now, then I’ll carry these upstairs for you. You can pick through the bags and take the stuff you like.”