I knew exactly what she was doing. She was avoiding speaking about what was going on with her and Maze. He’d called in this morning to let her know they were changing shifts and I’d seen the way they looked at each other. If they didn’t get together after all this madness came to an end then I was going to bang their heads together.
I had the distinct feeling that she felt she was being unfaithful to Matt by starting up something with Maze, which was completely crazy. I’d told her so and she tried changing the subject. She was within her rights to be confused and messed up, but she had to try and clear her mind. Matt was the one with the problem, not her.
How she still felt so much attachment to that psycho, I had no idea. He had obviously done more of a number on her mind than the rest of us suspected. It was would take her time to get over it. But, with our help, she would. I would see to that. I wouldn’t let someone like him ruin her life.
“If I drink anything else, I’ll be peeing all day.” I joked, hoping to bring her out of her mood. I was a two cup of coffee kind of girl and she’d already poured three down my neck since we woke up at the butt crack of dawn.
Lauren stopped mindlessly cleaning everything over and over again and leant against the counter. “Tell me what’s going on with Dominic?” she said with a smirk.
“Didn’t we talk enough about this yesterday?”
“Not enough. I didn’t get answers.”
I laughed. “So it’s alright to grill me but I can’t do it to you?”
“Something like that.” She grinned. Hearing a bang outside, she cocked her head. “I wonder if that’s them demanding coffee again.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve never known anyone have so much caffeine.” The men that were watching over her were drinking endless cups of coffee and energy drinks to keep alert, which again I thought was overkill. Why we needed two men watching the house was beyond me. It was all locked up tight and no one was getting through. There was only one way in and out of the house and that was at the front. Even though I knew how violent Matt was, I thought having two watching the house was over the top.
“Let me go see.”
I watched her walk out of the room. Quiet enveloped the room. It was better when we were talking, even when she was trying to information out of me about what was going on with Dominic. The silence let my mind wander to what happened with Matt. Although, not all the thoughts were bad when they returned to Dominic.
That night had seemed to change something between Dominic and me. Before, it had been forgettable sex, at least on his part. But now? There was something there, something more. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but I had the feeling I would be seeing more of him in the future.
Lauren couldn’t believe that he had taken me to his place and introduced me to his daughter. Admittedly, now that I thought about it, it was huge, but I didn’t want to make it into something it wasn’t. I was having hard time trying to rein Lauren in.
Hearing another thud, I called out, “Lauren? Do you need a hand?” I immediately felt an idiot. She’d gone out to see Maze. Anything could be happening between the two of them. There was an energy that she was desperately trying to deny, but she wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer. Maze was going to get to her in the end and rid her of all thoughts of Matt, of that I was sure. And he was a good guy, so I was going to encourage her as much as I could.
Getting up from the table, I walked out into the hallway and stopped dead in my tracks. The blood froze in my veins.
My heart dropped to my feet.
“Move, Lauren.” Matt said with his arm around the throat, making her walk towards me. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s walk.” His tone was almost loving, much in contrast to his actions, sending shivers up and down my spine.
“What’s going on?” I croaked, looking behind him, waiting to see Maze come flying through the door to our rescue. He didn’t. Where the hell were they? They were supposed to be watching the house so something like this didn’t happen.
“Fallon, would you go on into the living room?” Matt asked politely, tightening his hold on Lauren as she started to turn a disturbing shade of red.
My feet didn’t want to move. I was too scared. He was there, holding her in a forceful choke hold, but acting as if everything was normal and okay. It was far from that.
A glare in my direction from Matt had my feet moving quickly. His eyes were blank, a void. He wasn’t right in the head and I had no idea what he was going to do. All I did know was that this wasn’t going to end pleasantly.
Matt followed me into the living room with Lauren looking wide eyed and scared.
“Sit.” He demanded me with a glare and pushed Lauren down into a chair before running a hand gently over her hair with a soft smile.
Gasping for breath, Lauren’s hands went to her neck. “Why are you doing this?”
Matt chuckled. “Because they’re trying to keep us apart.”
Lauren stared over at me, puzzled. I wished I could smile at her to reassure her, but we were in deep shit. She had to stay strong to get through this.
This was going to be a real eye opener for her. Even after seeing the state of my face, she didn’t really believe that Matt would ever be violent towards her, but I knew different. I’d seen that emptiness in his eyes and knew that he was capable of anything.
Now, I wished we had more men watching over the house. It had only been a few minutes before that I hadn’t believed Matt would have been stupid enough to turn up here, and now this. Why hadn’t I taken it more seriously?
I had no idea what had happened to Maze or Chester. They could have been out there seriously hurt, but there was nothing that I could do to help them. All I could do was try to get Lauren and myself through this, hopefully unscathed.
“What are you talking about?” Lauren cried, the tears now pouring down her face.
“It doesn’t matter now.” He said as he lovingly brushed the hair back from her face. “We’re going to be together now.”
“No!”
“Of course we are, Lauren. We’re going to go far away where they can’t touch us.”
She jerked her head away from him and I saw the flash of anger cross his features only a moment before his hand slapped across her face, leaving a bright red hand print.
“Leave her alone!” I shouted, standing up from where he’d ordered me to sit. I knew I shouldn’t anger him further, but I couldn’t see him laying a finger on Lauren. He’d already attacked me, so what more could he do? Hit me again? I didn’t care.
Plus, if I was loud enough, hopefully the neighbours would hear and call the police. I had to try and draw some attention. We needed all the help we could get to get out of this one.
“You.” He pointed at me and it had me taking a step back. “You’re one of the one’s who has been poisoning her mind against me.”
I couldn’t back away any further, the arm chair stopping my retreat. Yanking me towards him by my shirt, the buttons ripped free, exposing my bra. He eyes didn’t falter from mine as I scrambled to cover myself. He jerked me closer and I felt the material rip along the seam in the back.
His fist slammed into my stomach, robbing me of my breath. I bent over, gasping, before he wrenched my head back with a fistful of my hair.
“Matt, no!” Lauren shouted, her voice breaking.
Cowering as his fist flew out again, punching the wall next to my head, sending the mirror crashing to the floor.
Back handing me across the face, I fell to the floor. Tasting blood in my mouth, the splinters of mirror on the floor bit into my naked back. Watching as he advanced on me again through hazy red vision as my eye throbbed like a drum beat, I could tell from the look in his eyes that he didn’t ever mean for me to leave this room breathing.
“Please stop. Please, please, please stop.” Lauren begged, sobbing so hard she had to hold her chest.
“She’s the one that has been keeping us apart. This is the bitch that got those fucki
ng Saint Brothers involved in my business.”
“No, no! She didn’t!”
“I can’t have that, Lauren.” He took another step towards me. “I won’t allow her to come between us. I won’t allow anyone to come between us.”
Before I could even take a breath, blows rained down on me and I fell to the floor, curling up in a ball to try and protect myself.
It was no use. There wasn’t a part of me that Matt didn’t take his anger out on. Pain crawled across every inch of me.
Bloody and beaten, I lay on the floor gasping for breath. Every part of me hurt like a bitch and he was still standing over me, wanting to do more.
“You’ll think twice next time you mess in someone else’s business, bitch.” He smiled down at me gloatingly.
Cowering, I knew that he wanted me to die. My body couldn’t take much more of this agony. He was going to pound on me until I was nothing but a pulp.
“Matt, no, please, no.” Lauren begged, moving closer to where I lay.
He rounded on her with a fierce expression. “Sit over there. Do not get involved.” He demanded.
“Please, Matt. You’re going to kill her. Please stop.” She pleaded.
He chuckled. “And then we’ll be free to be together.”
Lauren gasped. She hadn’t realised that was his plan all along. I’d known it. From that first blow, from the first moment I saw the look in his eyes, I knew. He was going to take me out of the equation, thinking that I was the obstacle in their love life.
But I couldn’t accept it. I truly wanted to live. I didn’t want to die. I had too much to live for. There was no way I was going down without putting up a fight. I had the feeling it would be futile, but I had to try.
I couldn’t let Matt win. If he managed to do what he set out to do, Lauren wouldn’t be able to escape him. Presuming he had done something to Maze and Chester that meant that no one else knew Matt was here. No one else was coming to our rescue.
She couldn’t do anything. Every single time she moved, Matt rounded on her and the look in his eyes froze her to the spot. Not that I could blame her – he was terrifying. After seeing what he was doing to me, Lauren knew that she was no longer safe from him. It was up to me to stay alive until help came.
Which was coming to come first? Help or my death?
Skirting around the shards of broken glass, I tried to drag my body away from him. His mocking laughter followed me before his booted foot crushed down on my hand. The crack of the bones was audible in the room before I screamed out in pain.
Pulling me back off the floor, his hand closed around my neck as I gasped in a breath. As his hold tightened, my eyes felt like they were bulging out of their sockets as I tried to keep focus on Lauren, trying to fight against the darkness. She was unharmed and as long as he kept taking his anger out on me, he was leaving her alone. I couldn’t let him do this to her.
Throwing me back onto the floor, dots in my vision fought against the darkness that wanted to take me under and away from the pain.
Sneering down at me, he spat in my face. I didn’t even have the strength to lift my hand to wipe it off.
“You just won’t fucking give up, will you?” Matt hissed at me, obviously talking about my fight to hold onto my life.
I couldn’t reply and I didn’t think he really expected one. My throat was too bruised to talk. My left eye had swollen shut, the blood crusting on my eyelashes. Barely being able to see out of my right eye, I watched as he prowled around the room like a caged animal. That was just what he was. An animal.
Lauren whimpered on the sofa as he drew near her, bending down to tenderly brush the hair from her face. Tears streamed down her face as she refused to look at him.
“Come on, baby. This is the way it has to be.”
“Look at her.” She sobbed.
“Lauren. She brought this on herself. Anyone else would have given up long ago. She kept holding out, needing more from me. Do you need more from me, too?”
“No, no, no.” Lauren cowered from him.
“Baby, I’d never hurt you. I love you.” He smiled down at her, taking hold of her hand and holding it tightly as she tried to pull it away.
“No, Matt.”
“I do. I love you. I’m doing this for us. This is what we both want.”
“No it’s not! I didn’t want you to hurt Fallon!” She cried.
“She’s irrelevant.” Matt dismissed me with a wave of his hand as the darkness crept closer to me, threatening to take me away.
“No, Matt, please, no, please don’t.” Lauren whimpered but I couldn’t focus anymore. I couldn’t see what was happening.
Unable to speak, I gurgled out a croak, wanting him to stop whatever he was planning to do to her.
“Fuck! Why don’t you just die?” Matt roared and I felt the thunder of his footsteps cross the room before my head exploded in imaginable pain and mercifully, unconsciousness claimed me.
Chapter Sixteen
Dominic
What a clusterfuck.
The last thing I wanted to do was to leave Fallon at Lauren’s, but I had more important things to think about. Like getting hold of that asshat Matt and beating the living shit out of him. He was going to wish he hadn’t been born by the time I was through with him.
That wasn’t going to be easy, though. As soon as I contacted my brothers to trace him, Matt had dropped off the map. We couldn’t find him anywhere.
It didn’t help that we didn’t know who the fuck we were actually looking for. Nothing had come through about his real identity and as much as I wanted to keep this off the police radar, I’d had to update Ethan on the situation. He was trying to keep things as quiet as he could, but I had the feeling we wouldn’t be able to keep this from blowing up for too long.
Driving around the city mindlessly, there was nothing I could do. All I was doing was wasting time. We had no clue where he was, where he could go or if he had any known contacts in this city. We were fucking clueless.
Heading towards the security office, I had to meet with Austen and Kellin to see what we could do. They had to have come up with some ideas by now. It had been at least a couple of hours since I last checked in with them. Sending off a quick text to Lauren, I threw my phone on the passenger seat and put my foot down.
Pulling up outside, I took a moment to clear my head. All I could feel was red hot anger. That man was putting not one, but two of our women in danger and there was no way we were going to let that slide. It wasn’t only that, though. Kellin and Austen were pulling men off other jobs to keep the girls covered. That couldn’t go on indefinitely.
Fallon was now one of us. I couldn’t do anything about it until after this mess had been cleared up, but I was willing to give it a shot if she was. It took a lot to come to that decision and I’d battled many demons in my mind, but I thought it was worth a try. Fallon was the one I wanted in my life.
I think it was seeing the way she was with Lily that did it. Or maybe it was the way Lily was with her, I’m not sure. But I realised that by keeping Lily to myself, I wasn’t doing her any favours. She needed people in her life beyond my family.
Plus, I couldn’t keep worrying about her losing the people she loved in her life. Her mother had walked out on her, but that didn’t mean everyone else was going to. It was a natural part of life to love and lose, but I hoped that Fallon would be a permanent fixture in our lives. If she wanted to be, that is.
And I wasn’t doing myself any favours. I knew that now. I was long past the time that one night stands with faceless women at Sinners was satisfying. I needed something more. Intimacy. Closeness. And all that other pussy shit I wouldn’t be caught dead speaking to my brothers about.
It was going to take a lot of trust to get involved with someone, especially because of Lily, but I thought that out of all the girls I’d been involved with, Fallon would be the one to do it.
She was a fantastic woman and I should have treated her better. It was clear f
rom the first time that she wasn’t the kind of woman to go out and hook up with a random guy. But that didn’t stop me from taking what I wanted from her, what she willingly gave to me.
But even from that first time, it had been more than just the sex. I couldn’t shake her from my mind. Fallon haunted my days and my dreams. It took me until now to realise that I was going to have to take that step or be alone until Lily had grown up.
Seeing her hurt like that and then seeing her tortured sleep, it cut me deep. It was then that I realised how much I cared for her. She was mine and someone had hurt her and they were going to pay.
“What have we found out?” I demanded as soon as I walked in.
The office space was modern and spacious. They were building up a large client base and had to expand, taking over the office building next door. The building work was going on as we speak and all I could hear was banging and clanging which rattled my already frazzled nerves.
“Absolutely fuck all.” Kellin shook his head. “Where have you been all morning?”
“Out looking.”
“Come up with anything?”
I shook my head in frustration. “Where’s Austen?”
“Chasing a lead.” He got up from behind the desk. “It’s like he’s a ghost. We can’t find the bastard anywhere.”
I shook my head in frustration. How could this be happening? My brothers were the best at their profession, yet they couldn’t find him. And if they couldn’t, no one else would be able to do.
“Where’s Jared?”
“He’s taken Maren to the doctors. She hasn’t been feeling well.” Kellin explained. “I told him we could take care of this.”
Sitting down in the chair, I ran a hand through my hair. I couldn’t just sit there doing nothing. It was driving me nuts. As I stood up, Kellin asked where I was going. “I need to do something. I can’t just sit here. Where’s Austen? I’ll go find him and see what he’s come up with.”
“I don’t know where Austen is. He said he’d call as soon as he came up with something.”
“Well, I can’t just sit on my ass and do fuck all.”
Dominic (Saint Brothers #1) Page 17