Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

by Nicola Claire

  Something So Precious For Something Even More So

  The Jaguar purred to a gentle stop at the side of the road, the sound of the waves breaking softly against the sandy beach could be heard through the closed windows of the car. Just as Dominic had predicted a lone figure stood at the end of the wharf, silhouetted by the moon and stars. She was tall and lean, just like in the photo Brett had sent to my phone. Willowy in fact. Her arms wrapped around her body to keep the early morning chill out. I couldn't tell what she was wearing from here, but it didn't look like much. She must have been stone cold by now.

  "Are you all right?" Dominic asked quietly to my side, drawing my attention away from Caroline on the wharf.

  "I thought you might have been wrong. That she wouldn't be here," I admitted, searching his face for a sign of what he was currently feeling. But he was completely composed now, his court room lawyer face in place. I bit my lip and watched his eyes dart down to the movement.

  "She always comes here," he said, his voice a bit rough. "I don't believe she is capable of thinking outside her normal routine."

  I nodded. "You better go to her," I said, noting my voice was barely above a whisper. I may have had all the compassion in the world for this woman, but I did not like sending my man out to her alone.

  "I'll try and be quick," he said, leaning forward to kiss me gently. A soft mesh of lips to lips. It was over too quickly, but then I just wanted this whole night to pass now, so delaying it any further was not welcomed anymore.

  I watched as he slid from the car, the soft click of the door shutting behind him. And then couldn't take my eyes off his back as he walked away from me. She didn't turn when she would have heard his footsteps on the wooden boards of the wharf. She didn't acknowledge his presence at all, even when he came to stand a few feet behind her and undoubtedly said something in order to get her to turn around. She was a tall statue against the backdrop of house lights in the distance, the Tamaki Strait between Maraetai and the holiday homes on Waiheke Island itself.

  I bit my lip and wrung my hands in my lap, waiting for a sign that he was making it through her psychotic daze. Ready for the moment she reconnected with reality. Fortifying myself against the sudden unpredictable actions this woman could make.

  I might have been ready for her to move, but I sure as hell wasn't ready for what happened instead.

  Climbing up the end of the wharf came a dark figure. I watched as Dominic stiffened, having clearly seen who it was before I could make out the hazy figure myself. Dominic shouted something to Caroline, I could hear the sound through the closed window even though she still didn't turn around. He didn't take a step back, instead he stepped toward her, grabbing her upper arm and hauling her several feet away from the approaching threat at the end of the pier.

  "Crap," I whispered. Recognising the familiar stance of that dark figure standing off against Dominic on the wharf.

  This was bad. Oh, really bad. How had we mucked up so severely? How had ASI mucked up so severely?

  I dug my cellphone out and thumbed through until I found Nick, hit the call button and waited, biting my bottom lip and watching incredulously as Brett slowly took a step toward Dominic and Caroline, a look of pure hatred now obvious on his face from the light of the brightening horizon.

  "We're almost there, Gen," came Nick's voice over the phone. He somehow knew.

  "This is bad," I said on a whisper.

  "It'll be fine, hon," he reassured, then murmured something to someone at his end, his hand obviously over the mouthpiece of his phone because I couldn't make out the words. "Jason's on the Whitford-Maraetai Road now. He's almost there, OK?"

  I let a breath out in semi-relief. The Whitford-Maraetai Road was a long one, but it was the road that led directly onto Maraetai Beach. He could be quite close. I wasn't sure if Dominic had that sort of time though, especially if Brett was armed.

  "He might be armed," I offered, because that was on my mind and my mouth thought Nick should know.

  "Probably is," Nick agreed casually. "So is Jason."

  "But Dominic," I said and he interrupted.

  "Is trained to handle situations like this," he said out of nowhere. How the hell could a lawyer be trained to handle this? I didn't ask, even though my mouth wanted to.

  "What are they doing, Gen?" Nick asked, not even questioning that I was in a safe place. He either knew I was in the car or had expected Dominic to make sure I was.

  "Staring at each other. I can't hear what they're saying, I'll open my window."

  "Just a crack," he said quickly. "Make sure it's not big enough to slip a hand through."

  I did what he said and heard Brett spitting out a few curse words and then adding, "You think I'd take your money?" He did literally spit then, on the ground towards Dominic's feet. "Rich lawyer want to buy me off."

  "You're in over your head, Elliott. King wants payment, interest alone has got to be in the tens of thousands. He doesn't do instalments, he'll want your skin or the full amount. I'm offering to clean the slate for you. Make it all go away. If you go away."

  Oh my God. Dominic was offering money to make Brett disappear, but not just a pay-off to get him out of my life, but a way for him to be clear of King, to be safe from the mob boss's - or whatever the hell he was - sights. I wasn't sure if I should be angry at that or thankful. I mean he was trying to buy me from Brett, wasn't he? But then I wasn't Brett's to sell, so what Dominic was doing, with his hard earned cash, was make a problem in my life go away. And in doing so save Brett from what could only be assumed a hard and painful lesson at the very least, or imminent death more likely. This King character sounded like bad news. I was sure if he didn't get paid, Brett wouldn't be allowed to live. I just had that feeling, and here Dominic was prepared to save Brett's life, while saving me from whatever Brett had planned.

  I think he deserved my thanks.

  But Brett didn't see it that way.

  "Fuck off! Money's no substitute for Gen." Then lifting his head in my direction he shouted, "Hear that, baby? He thinks he can buy your love."

  I gritted my teeth to stop myself shouting back that it was better than kidnapping and threatening me to get it. I noticed Caroline wake-up at Brett's shouted words then. Her eyes darted from the horizon to me in Dominic's car. Dominic was no longer holding her, but had placed her behind him, putting himself between Brett and his ex.

  "How do you think this will go, Elliott?" Dominic said calmly, returning my attention to him. He seemed to be in utter control. He wasn't shifting on his feet nervously like Brett was. He wasn't flicking his eyes around, looking out for a trap. His focus was entirely on Brett, his demeanour casual, but I knew that was a ruse. Dominic was in killer-lawyer mode, but not any killer-lawyer mode I'd witnessed so far. This one was a mixture of iced-lawyer as well as killer, and was even more lethal because of it.

  "I walk away from here with Gen, you go fuck yourself in hell," came Brett's eloquent reply.

  "And when you've got her?" Dominic asked, still with that calm voice. "What then? Happy families? You go live it up in the sun, never looking over your shoulder, never wondering if she's thinking of me and not you. Do you really think she'll forgive you for taking away her dream? Sweet Seduction means the world to her, any man in her life would know that. You know that, don't you, Elliott? You know how much it means. Yet you think taking her away from that will make her love you even more? You're a fool," he said softly. "You don't deserve her."

  I think Brett was going to have a stroke. He was beetroot red in the face, his fists were clenched tightly at his sides and a muscle jumped erratically in his jaw while he ground his teeth together.

  "And you think you deserve her?" he spat back eventually. "You're a womaniser, Anscombe. You leave a trail of heartbroken and mentally damaged women in your wake." Caroline's head turned slowly back to look at them both, but Dominic didn't show any obvious outward signs of being affected by Brett's words. I'd forgotten, however, that Nick was listeni
ng through my cellphone and I still had it to my ear.

  Nick's muttered, "shit" over the phone startled me and made me look closer at Dominic standing statue still before Brett. If I hadn't have gotten to know his body so well over the past two weeks, I would have missed it. A tension flowing out rigidly from his shoulders to the rest of his frame. Brett had hit a tender spot, a chink in Dominic's armour, and Nick knew it.

  "Yeah, you know who I'm talking about," Brett said on a taunt. "And it wasn't just Caroline here, was it?"

  Oh my God. I knew Brett was the reason Caroline was here right now. He'd used her, manipulated her, to get in touch with me. Knowing I would come running, or hoping I'd tell Dominic and he would come instead of me. What an arsehole, to take advantage of a sick woman like that. To screw with her head even more. The damage he could cause was unimaginable, but nothing compared to the reason why he'd gone to such lengths for this ruse.

  He wanted Dominic here. He wanted Dominic off centre, the evidence of whatever perceived destruction Dominic had caused in his ex-girlfriend's psyche, on display to rub it in some more.

  That thought was frightening, because Brett had a plan and that plan revolved around my man.

  "Leave her out of this," Dominic said in a voice that was neither calm nor controlled. My heart sank.

  "OK," Brett said agreeably. "What about Stacey?" Dominic's fingers twitched at his sides and Nick growled down the phone. "Or Rebecca? Or Nancy? Or Melanie?"

  "Ah, fuck," Nick muttered down the phone and I held my breath. "He's fishing, Gen," Nick added for my benefit. "They mean nothing to Dominic, you know that right?" I closed the phone, disconnecting the call, without a word.

  "All of them fucked over by the charismatic, rich and popular, Dominic Anscombe," Brett said taking a step closer. A move designed to be casual, to be accomplished while Dominic was off guard. It worked, because Dominic didn't seem to be aware of how close he was getting. He certainly wasn't adjusting his stance in preparation for a physical confrontation. He looked a little stunned and lost, I thought.

  My heart clenched tight. I didn't know who these women were. Dominic had never mentioned them. Maybe they were important. Maybe not. Maybe he treated them badly, maybe it just didn't work out. Maybe it's all conjecture and Brett was stirring up shit where it didn't belong.

  Dominic seemed to shake himself awake slightly when Brett had halved the distance between them.

  "What's your point, Elliott? Bringing up my ex-girlfriends doesn't mean a thing." I held my breath, aching for the man I loved, and despising the man who made him have to address these things right here. "Genevieve knows I've had previous relationships, likewise I'm sure so has she."

  "Three," Brett answered immediately. "Gen's had three boyfriends before me, you fucker. If you knew her at all, if you cared about her at all, gaining that knowledge would have been the first thing you did."

  I blinked, a little stunned at Brett's words. And a little shaken.

  "Really?" Dominic shot back, looking more like himself again. Controlled and calm and deadly. "I was more concerned about getting to know the Genevieve of today. The woman she has become. We both have pasts that have shaped us, but it's Genevieve I love, and sifting through her romantic history won't change that at all. That smacks of possessiveness and insecurities to me. Having to know absolutely everything about anyone who has gone before you, so you can ensure they never come back, proves how little of her heart you actually held. Or thought you did."

  Oh. He'd certainly nailed Brett on the head with that analysis.

  "You don't love her," Brett spat out desperately, his face scrunching up in anger. Caroline's head moving rapidly between the two men, no longer frozen in a psychotic episode, but I was thinking very much present in this ugly scene.

  It was obvious all Brett had heard though, from Dominic's last speech, was the fact that Dominic loved me. I was sure none of the rest of his words had even sunk in. Typical Brett, attacking the supposed threat, not picking up on his own failings. And suddenly I knew that Brett would say and do anything to prove his point, and that most of it - if not all of it - would be utter crap.

  Yes, Dominic had a past, but so did I and how Dominic behaved now was all that mattered.

  Dominic Anscombe loved me. No matter what hurdles came our way, that would never change. And I loved him right back. Brett - and Caroline - could go the fuck to hell.

  "You don't care about her," Brett was adding, bringing my attention back to the scene before us and making me wonder where Jason was now. Several minutes had passed, surely he was upon us already. "If you did, you'd let her walk away."

  "Sound advice," Dominic admitted. "Advice you should take yourself."

  "She doesn't love you," Brett shot back. "She knows I'm all she'll ever get. You move in different circles to us, you live a different life. Genevieve Cain is not a million dollar babe, she knows where she sits on the ladder of life and it's right beside me."

  Those words would have meant something once upon a time. But I've come a long way since then. Yes, Dominic was worth more than me financially. He owned a firm on Queen Street. A sought after lawyer with an established career. He had a museum of expensive and exotic cars in the basement of his commercial-sized home. I would never have thought someone such as god-like Dominic Anscombe would settle for me.

  But then, I do all right financially, especially now that Brett's not draining me dry. I can pay my bills now, I've even put some aside, and Sweet Seduction is getting more and more popular as time goes by. I own a successful business on High Street. A sought after café and chocolatier. People come to my establishment because of the seductive atmosphere; great music, fine chocolate and to-die-for coffee. I have a loft apartment in the CBD, it's small and I owe money on it, but it's all mine. I'm a success - and I am so far out of Brett's league it isn't funny.

  "No, she's not a million dollar babe," Dominic surprised me by saying, making all of my courageous words falter in my mind. "She's priceless, Elliott. She's a precious treasure that I would sell my soul to keep." Oh, that's nice. "She's the world," he added, his voice slightly rough on those last few words.

  I watched, stunned at Dominic's beautiful, heartfelt words, as Caroline quietly nodded - as though to herself - and began to walk back down the wharf, away from Dominic and Brett. Neither man noticed, too wrapped up in their own contest of wills. But she held my gaze as she walked past the car, a small sad smile playing on her lips. Then she was gone, between two houses across the street, disappearing into the fading night.

  I'd been right, she'd needed to see it. But I had never thought for a second that she'd see it this way. Damn Brett for doing this to her. Damn him for making Dominic suffer through it too.

  "You're really beginning to fuck me off," Brett said snidely, his whole body relaxed, nothing to give away his next move.

  But I'd known Brett for over seven years. I'd seen him standing exactly like this, talking in exactly the same overly casual way, right before he threw a glass of beer at my head.

  I was out of the car and running towards them before my brain registered what was happening.

  I could see Jason pop out from behind the phone booth across the street, a gun in his hand trained on Brett. I spotted a series of black clad, armed, soldier-like men half crouching, half running along the beach wall, and emerging out between houses - even the houses where Caroline had disappeared to.

  I saw Dominic tense for attack, what he was going to do I wasn't sure. Throw a punch, dive out of the way? Did he know I was running towards them? Maybe he was getting ready to grab me and keep me from harm's way.

  But nothing mattered in that instant, nothing mattered at all. Because Brett had grabbed his gun from behind his back where neither of us had seen it, but no doubt Dominic like me, had suspected it rested. And pointed it at Dominic's head.

  Several things happened at once, which strangely enough I could see playing out in slow motion, like a DVD movie being forwarded at the slowest se
tting on the remote. Jason fired his gun, a puff of smoke and a flash of orange light at the muzzle. Dominic spun slightly to see me jumping through the air at his side, a surprised look on his face. Several of the black clad men fell to the ground and trained their weapons on Brett, but Nick's urgent, "Don't fire!" sounding out behind them had them holding their position and not firing. As Brett pulled the trigger on his gun, from no more than five feet away.

  And I took the bullet meant for Dominic in my lower right stomach, as I sailed through the air between him and my loser-ex, determined to protect my love, my dream-man, from harm.

  I hit the ground hard. Another gunshot rang out from behind Dominic and me, but I couldn't see who fired it, I was too busy gasping for air and wanting to scream in pain, but unable to get a sound out because my body had simply decided enough was enough. I could feel warm liquid through my fingers, where they rested against my groin. I could smell the sea that lay beneath the wharf where I lay. I could hear sirens getting closer and shouting and someone pleading for me not to die, right beside my ear.

  And I hurt. I was in agony, but I was also so very happy that I'd done it. That I'd sacrificed something so precious for something even more so.

  My life for Dominic's. The sweetest of sacrifices, the most worthy offering I could make.

  Chapter 33

  And Damn Any Understandings We'd Had Before

  Kelly

  Gen's my best friend. I never, in a million years, thought that something like this could happen to my best friend.

  If I could have strangled that nurse's neck I would have. How many friggin' times did she have to come out of that door? I mean it was obvious she'd get pounced on. If not by me, then by Gen's Mum or Dad, or God forbid by Dominic himself. That's if his brother and one of his men weren't holding him back by hanging off each of his arms.

  The man was beside himself. It was obvious to everyone here that he thought Gen was a gonna. I'm not surprised. She was so pale when they wheeled her trolley into the ED, the helicopter paramedic yelling at everyone to get out of the way. Dominic trailed after them, blood smeared all over his T-shirt and jeans, utter shock the only emotion on his face. Thankfully Nick brought a spare, clean T-shirt for him ten minutes later, before Mr and Mrs Cain arrived. They wouldn't have needed to see that. It was bad enough that I did.