Dominic (Saint Brothers #1)

by Kristan Belle

  “Everything’s good. I think Kellin just got a bit worried because we got word from Harry about the trouble that had been making the rounds in the city.”

  Harry owned a bar not too far from here and he’d been a friend for several years now. “Has his place been hit yet?”

  Lauren nodded sadly. “Last night. That’s why he called here.”

  “Keep your eyes open and keep one of the guys close.” I said as I walked away from the bar. It was good to see her getting back into the swing of things here.

  I couldn’t see any of my brothers out here in the bar, but a couple of their security guys were dotted around, keeping an eye on things. I knew they would enjoy the extra cash and the women, but also that they would do the job they had been tasked. Heading towards my office, I knew that’s where I would be able to find my brothers.

  Kellin was sat at the corner desk watching over the security cameras. Austen was sat behind my desk, drinking a cup of coffee and looking bored.

  “Where’s Jared?”

  “He’s at home with Maren. She wasn’t feeling so good and he didn’t want to leave her. He’s been training all day so he didn’t want to skip out on her tonight as well.”

  That was pretty understandable. Jared was spending more and more time training. He had a couple of warm-up fights coming up and then the big one, if he won. Maren was getting worried about him, and a bit shitty about the amount of time he was spending away from her. I made a mental note to give them a call later, to make sure they were alright.

  “Anything happening?”

  “Not yet. Same old, same old. We’re still waiting on the photos coming through from Harry.”

  Harry wasn’t the greatest when it came to technology so it was no wonder they were still waiting. I half expected him to come around later with a Polaroid. The guy didn’t even own a phone because he thought they were too complicated.

  Glancing back at the screen, I peered a bit closer. “Go back to number seven.” I snapped when Kellin flipped the screen.

  “What is it?”

  I pointed to the screen. “Do you recognise him?” The guy on the screen was preppy looking with his smart button down shirt and neatly trimmed hair. He stood out like a sore thumb in our crowd.

  “Not a clue.”

  We didn’t know all the people who came into the bar, but I knew the girl he was talking to. Wendy may dress like a slut but she set high standards for herself and that guy was clearly wasting his time. Evidently, he realised that too, when I saw him slip something into her drink.

  “Motherfucker!”

  I slammed my fist down on the desk and raced out of the office. The crowds parted as I stormed my way through, seeing the fury on my face and not wanting to be the recipient of my rage.

  As Wendy’s hand with the drink in it rose to her mouth, I swiped it out of her hand. The glass shattered on the floor, spilling the tainted drink out of harm’s way.

  “What the hell are you doing, Dominic? I was drinking that!” Wendy shouted, more in shock than in anger.

  I didn’t bother to answer her. Rounding on the asshole, he looked ready to piss his pants. Unable to control my anger, my fist flew out and connected with his nose with a crunching sound. Blood spurted everywhere as he wailed in agony.

  Grabbing hold of his shirt collar, I dragged the dumb little shit to the door and threw his sorry ass outside. It took everything in me not to kick the ever living shit out of him.

  He was sniffling and whimpering on the floor. The doormen turned to me in matched confusion. “You don’t ever let this little shit into my bar again. The police will be on their way to deal with his ass.”

  “What did he do?” Tom asked.

  “This useless fucker tried drugging one of our girls in there.”

  Tom growled and stepped forward menacingly. The guy on the floor whimpered again. I couldn’t blame him one bit. Tom was a mean looking bastard and looked like he could snap a man in half with his little finger.

  “We don’t let rapist fuckers in here, or didn’t you know that?” Tom towered over him, looking ready to murder.

  “Well, make sure you circulate his picture so that everyone knows what he has to do to get a woman into bed.” I took a step back from him, knowing I was going to kick the bastard if I stayed too close.

  I wanted to. I really wanted to. I couldn’t stand guys like him who took advantage of women like that. Sick, twisted fucks who couldn’t pull a girl so they had to drug them to get what they wanted instead. They weren’t men. They were fucking parasites.

  Hearing sirens, I told Tom to send the police through to my office if they wanted a statement or the video evidence.

  Walking back through the bar, it took all of my restraint not to go back out there and kick the shit out of the waste of space. Yeah, the girls that came in here loved to get fucked, but it was always consensual. No one was ever forced to do anything they didn’t want to do and certainly never drugged.

  This was a bar. It wasn’t a brothel. No money exchanged hands here. People came to the bar looking for a good time, looking for like-minded people to fuck the night away. There was no room for men that treated women like that. They were the scum of the earth and weren’t welcome in my establishment.

  Even when my bitch ex took off, choosing drugs over her own baby daughter, I didn’t lay a finger on her. Anyone that treated women like that deserved a beating. There are two main rules I live by. One, no drugs. They cloud your mind and your judgement. Two, never lay a violent hand on a woman. I’d managed to live by those rules so far and expected those that came into my bar to do the same.

  That’s what a lot of my issues came back to – my ex. She stood in front of me and told me that she didn’t want anything to do with Lily or me. She told me that she didn’t love us. How could she not love that little bundle she’d given birth to? The heartless bitch.

  Jessica had felt trapped. She didn’t want this kind of life so young, even though she was twenty five and should have been ready to grow up and settle down. This wasn’t the life she wanted for herself anymore.

  I didn’t stop her from leaving. How could I live with someone who told me that she wished she had aborted our baby? And it wasn’t just words that she threw at me in anger, she meant them to her very core. The very moment she said it was when she was holding Lily in her arms, looking down at her with eyes full of regret.

  For my baby’s sake, I tried to talk to Jessica, tried to make her see reason. I shouldn’t have bothered. It was only a matter of days after having Lily that she was spitting and screaming at me, saying she felt trapped, calling me stifling and suffocating.

  But even as all those vile words spewed forth from her mouth, I didn’t lay a hand on her. I wanted to, God knows I wanted to, but I didn’t. She was the mother of my child. I wanted to strangle the heartless bitch, but instead, I let her walk away.

  Some people really shouldn’t ever have kids and Jessica was one of them. I was glad she was out of Lily’s life. My daughter didn’t need that kind of poison around her.

  Kellin and Austen followed me back into the office and shut the door behind us, sitting down around the desk. “Why didn’t you tell me what the fuck was going on before you jumped up and started playing fucking superhero?”

  “If I had stuck around to explain the situation to you in plain fucking English, she would have drunk it and it would have been too late.” I didn’t appreciate Kellin’s tone. This was my bar and I would do as I saw fit. Sure, he helped build it, but I didn’t question his decisions when it came to the security business and I would appreciate the same courtesy here.

  My thoughts were flipping like whiplash tonight. One minute, I was grateful for the boys being around to help me so much and the next I was regretting them poking their noses in. It was just going to be that kind of night and followed by one helluva hangover in the morning.

  Kellin could see I was pissed off but he wouldn’t drop it. None of us were the type to back down
from an argument. “You know that we could have radioed through to one of our guys to sort it out, don’t you? They would have been able to stop him as quick as you, if not quicker. That is what you’re paying them for, after all.”

  I didn’t bother to respond. I knew that Kellin took his security business seriously and liked to do everything by the book, but I couldn’t just stand in here and watch it happened. That wasn’t who I was. I had to act. There had been no choice.

  Shaking his head, Austen stood up. “I need a drink. Kel? You coming?” I knew he was trying to defuse the tension in the room. Austen was the one that was always stuck in the middle. He knew that we both had a point, but the way that Kellin was staring at me wasn’t helping matters. We were both on edge and neither of us were ready to back down.

  Kellin stood up slowly. “Remember, you hire my boys, you let them do their fucking job.”

  “Fuck off, Kellin.”

  He stomped out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Childish little fucker.

  Chapter 8

  Fallon

  All I wanted to do was get out of there. Sinners was a rough bar and I didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.

  However, I promised Lauren that I’d call in and keep her company tonight so I was stuck. There was no way I was going to let her down. In all the time we’d been friends, it was only ever after the issue with Matt that she’d asked me to come down here so I knew she was still feeling a bit on edge.

  All I could hope was that she stuck to her guns and didn’t give him a second chance. She wouldn’t get out of it again quite so easily.

  I wasn’t sure what it was. He seemed to have some kind of hold over her which I knew scared her sometimes. He’d made her want him, need him and it was difficult for her to shake that feeling off. The longer he stayed away from her, the more reason came back into her thoughts. As soon as he turned up with those flowers, those doubts had crept back into her mind.

  Also, the thing with Maze was confusing her. We hadn’t had too much time to spend together lately, but we’d spoken on the phone as often as we could. I knew that she was feeling things for Maze and it was confusing her. She didn’t know whether he was there because he was told to keep her safe, or because he felt something for her, too.

  Also, she didn’t know what she was feeling. Was it gratitude because he was keeping her safe? Or something more? When she asked my opinion, I told her the truth. I loved Maze. He was a great guy, someone who would always be there for her and would make her laugh all along the way. She could do a hell of a lot worse.

  And we’d talked about Dominic. I’d found it easier to talk over the phone when I didn’t have to see her face. My thoughts were confusing me so it was good to talk it out. I’d never done anything like that before. I wasn’t one for one night stands. But he’d lit something up in me and it was hard to get him off my mind.

  Not that I thought anything was going to come of it. The last time I’d seen him, I’d gone running from the bar like there was a fire lighting up my ass. It wasn’t the most elegant exit I could have made.

  But now I was here in Sinners again and I had been on pins and needles, waiting to see if I would see him. Lauren kept throwing me quizzical looks, as we were both distracted by the men who weren’t in our lives. It was a real pain in the ass, that’s for sure.

  Maze was still shadowing her every move and even I noticed something different between them lately. Lauren said that nothing had happened yet, but I had the feeling it was going to when the time was right. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, making his huge crush on her obvious to me, even if she couldn’t see it.

  If Lauren hadn’t told me otherwise, I would have thought that they had slept together already. There was something there between them, a spark. I knew that it worried Lauren to get involved with someone else so soon after Matt and that was why she was trying to keep her distance from him, but I didn’t think Maze was going to give up on her that easily.

  It was a shame really and I knew that once her shift was over tonight and we were back at her place, we were going to have to have words about it. Maze was a great guy and nothing like Matt. He wouldn’t hurt her or break her like Matt did. Maze would do anything to make her happy and keep her safe. He’d be good for her.

  We’d spoken about it on the phone and she knew she was holding back because of Matt and the way he treated her and she also knew that it was irrational. She couldn’t run away from every man just because of the way one had treated her. By doing that, it gave Matt the power over her, which was the last thing she needed to do.

  When Dominic had come raging through the bar and smashing that guy in the face, I should have been scared. It was a brutal sight. But oddly enough, it turned me on in a warped kind of way. Not that I agreed with violence, because I don’t. I’m probably one of the softest people you could come across, but there is something about a man who can handle himself that does it for me. It’s like he would be able to protect me if we got into a dangerous situation. Crazy, I know.

  He’d looked damned hot, especially when we found out why he’d pounded that guy. Dominic had been coming to the rescue of the girl, the damsel in distress, even if she didn’t know she needed rescuing.

  I was glad in a way that I hadn’t caught his eye. He looked deadly and dangerous as he stalked through the bar and I dread to think what went on when he threw the man out. When he came storming back in, everyone moved out of his way, the rage pouring off him.

  “Fallon!”

  I looked over to Lauren behind the bar. “What’s up?”

  “I need you to come with me.” She said as she walked around the bar, “I’m going on a break.”

  I followed her though to the back of the bar, pausing when she stopped at a doorway. She knocked on the door before opening it and poking her head in.

  It seemed like a heated conversation if her body language was anything to go by, but I couldn’t hear anything over the music. I was kind of glad she was going on a break. The heat in the bar was stifling and I could do with a breath of fresh air.

  She opened the door wider and beckoned me over. I cocked my eyebrow at her in question.

  “I need you to take a look at Dominic’s hand.”

  I shook my head. No chance. No way.

  “You’re a nurse, Fallon. It might be broken.”

  I didn’t care. There was no way I could do that. How embarrassing! She didn’t seem to take any notice of my reservations and moved into the office ahead of me, leaving me with no choice. If I ran away now, I’d look even more stupid than I would going in there. Shit. I had no choice.

  Moving into the office, I saw Dominic was sat at the desk with a fierce expression on his face.

  I felt my stomach clench. I hadn’t been this close to him since we had been together at Decadence. Even the harsh look on his face didn’t diminish from his good looks, it just made him appear more dangerous and appealing.

  Sitting there with a scowl on his face, all those tattoos on display and cut up knuckles, he looked like the original bad-boy. Nothing about him was the same as the sharp suited man I had been with at Decadence.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Lauren?” His tone was low and harsh.

  “I’m going on my break. Fallon’s going to take a look at your hand.”

  “Lauren.” He growled.

  She leant on the desk with both hands and stared at him hard. “I’m doing you both a favour here. Suck it up.” And she left the office, shutting the door behind her with a shit eating grin and leaving me alone with a man who looked like he was ready to tear someone’s head off.

  I stood just inside the door of the office, not really knowing what to do. I was going to kill Lauren when I got out of here.

  “You can leave.” He barked, dismissively.

  His tone and the look of anger in his eyes put me on edge and I was ready to run out of the room, but something in me made me stop.

  Dominic spoke to m
e as if I were a piece of shit on his shoes, like he was better than me and wasn’t willing to waste his time on me. Who the fuck did he think he was to talk to me like that? I had been surrounded by people all my life who thought that they were better than everyone else and his shitty attitude irked me.

  Stepping forward, I stood in front of him defiantly. “Lauren said that you needed me to look at your hand. What did you do to it?”

  “I don’t. It’s fine. Lauren needs to keep her nose out of my business.”

  My eyes widened, “She’s only looking out for you. There’s no need to be rude.” Dominic clearly had an attitude problem. At least I’d found his fault now and it would be easier to kick him out of my mind.

  He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ve had a shitty night.” His shoulders relaxed as he watched me standing in the office, feeling as awkward as hell.

  I appreciated him dialling back the attitude, but that wasn’t enough for me. “That’s no excuse. She only asked me to come in and look at your hand.”

  Dominic narrowed his eyes at me, frowning fiercely. “Why do you care?”

  “I don’t. But Lauren does.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

  “Are you going to let me take a look at it or not?” I put a hand on my hip defiantly. I wasn’t going to beg him and he was pissing me off. I was going to walk out of there any minute now and I didn’t give a crap if his whole hand fell off.

  “Feisty bitch, aren’t you?” Dominic smirked.

  “Feisty, yes. Bitch, no. So, what’s it going to be?”

  He finally laughed and the tension drained out of the room. His features changed dramatically and he was back to being the man that I’d known in that other office.

  Taking that as a ‘yes’ I pulled up a chair in front of him and waited for him to show me what he’d done.

  Taking his hand in mind, I exclaimed, “Holy shit! What did you do?” His knuckles were cracked and bleeding and bruising already.