Her Dom's Lesson (Dominic Powers Book 2)

by A. D. Justice

  “It was the perfect scenario. All of you would die, the insurance policy would be paid to the company, and I would convince your grieving parents to give me control of DPS. Rich Daltry made an offhand remark about wishing he could acquire a company like DPS during one of our calls, and that gave me the idea of selling DPS for hundreds of millions, and walk away with more than I ever imagined.

  “But you killed them both, despite the odds. You and Sophia both lived through it all! How can that be? A lowlife thug took Hope from us. My sister can barely function now. My wife and I are about to lose everything. But, you and your little pregnant whore have it all–even after she betrayed you!

  “So, I have to take this into my own hands,” he says calmly. Too calmly. “Your death will look like a cartel retaliation for you killing three of their own, most importantly the boss’s son.”

  “Three?” I ask.

  “Harrison, Ramon, and Shawn.”

  “You killed Shawn?”

  “Of course. I just told you–he outlived his usefulness.” He removes a gun from inside his jacket and levels it at me. “Let’s go to the parking garage. I don’t want to answer more questions about how someone got past security here.”

  “You helped Ramon get in here,” I say, realization setting in.

  “Yes, that was all part of Harrison’s agreement. He wanted you to be publicly shamed for his sister’s death when your office was packed up after your death. He really wasn’t that bright, but he was intent on destroying you in every way possible. Now, move.”

  Slowly walking to the door, I ask him, “Why didn’t you just tell me you needed help, Darren? You know I’d help you.”

  “I was going to, Dominic, until I realized that you were sleeping with the enemy’s sister. I’ve really been conflicted over Sophia’s fate because her personality reminds me so much of Hope. But, at the end of the day, it all comes down to family. Hope is my family. Besides, if Sophia’s left alive, your parents will want to give the company to her and your baby. That means the cartel will retaliate against her, too.”

  “You mean you will kill a defenseless, pregnant woman, who reminds you of your loved one,” I clarify, hoping the bluntness will shake his resolve.

  “Family, Dominic. It’s all about family.”

  Yes, it is.

  When I open my office door, I know we’re not alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Sophia

  “Something is wrong, I can feel it. Please go check on him,” I beg Shadow. “Dominic told Tucker to stay with me in case of an emergency while I’m pregnant, so he won’t leave me. I’m about to drive into downtown Dallas and check on him myself!”

  “All right, little one. Let me see what I can do. You’re just lucky I’m back in the area this week,” he playfully chides me. “Where are you anyway?”

  “I’m at the main house looking at color swatches for the nursery. Do you want me to meet you at the office?”

  “No, ma’am. You stay put. Dominic would have my head if something is wrong and I put you in danger,” Shadow laughs. “Leave it to me.”

  “Thank you, Shadow. Call me as soon as you can. Dominic isn’t answering his phone. He wouldn’t ignore repeated calls from me.”

  “No, he definitely wouldn’t do that. Give me a few minutes. I’m not far from his office now.”

  We hang up and I pace the floor, not knowing what else to do. Over the past month, Shadow has called and checked on us a couple of times a week. We really became attached to him when he was here all the time and missed him when he left after ‘the incident.’ I knew we couldn’t keep him, but the big guy is really great to have around.

  It’s killing me to wait and do absolutely nothing. Pacing back and forth, wringing my hands, and looking at the clock every sixty seconds is not helping at all. “Tucker!” I yell as I jog down the hall.

  He steps out from the kitchen doorway. “Are you okay?”

  “No, something’s wrong. I’m doing to Dominic’s office. You can follow me if you can keep up or you can drive me.”

  “That’s not a good idea, Sophia,” Tucker says, but even he can’t hide his concern for Dominic.

  “Good idea or not, I’m going.” I grab the keys and briskly walk to the garage door.

  “Hang on,” he says with resignation. “I’ll drive.”

  I toss him the keys and we jump into the car. Tucker floors it when we turn on the main road. Time seems to stand still as we fly by the other cars. The miles are longer and longer the closer we get. The usual forty-minute drive might as well be a three-day cross-country excursion. Dominic still hasn’t called me back and my imagination is running away with terrifying scenarios. This hasn’t happened since the day I thought he’d been shot. I’ve had nothing but good thoughts and good feelings. But this just isn’t like him, at all.

  “Hurry, Tucker,” I plead. “I’m sorry. I know you’re doing all you can do. I’m just scared.”

  “I understand, Sophia. You don’t need to apologize. We’re almost there.”

  When the building is finally is sight, my heart is beating even faster than Tucker was driving. When we pull into the parking garage twenty minutes after we left the house, my pounding heart comes to a halt and tears spring to my eyes. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. No, God, please!

  An ambulance and several police cars are in the parking garage and their emergency lights are still going. The paramedics are rolling the stretcher toward the open door in the back and Dominic is lying motionless on the stretcher. Shadow is following closely behind them, his ear glued to his cell phone, and a cop is putting Darren Hardy in handcuffs. Tucker screeches to a stop and I jump out of the car in a mad dash to my Dom.

  “Dominic!” My scream echoes through the empty parking garage.

  Dominic’s head jerks up off the stretcher in search of my voice. “Stop! Let me off this thing!” he demands.

  He sits up and swings his legs over the side and that’s when I see his blood-soaked shirt. I finally reach his side and all I want to do is wrap my arms around him, but I don’t want to hurt him. “You’re bleeding! What happened? Where are you hurt?”

  “Calm down, love. You’re scaring my son,” he smiles. “I’m okay, thanks to Shadow.”

  “I knew something was wrong! What happened? Tell me,” I demand, not feeling the whole submissive thing right now.

  “Seems our friend Darren was behind most everything,” he says and my mouth literally drops open. “Anyway, he came to my office tonight to finish what he started but he wanted to do it here in the garage to look like a cartel retaliation. He said he was coming after you, too, so he could get my company and the money. When I opened my office door, I saw Shadow hiding in Dana’s closet.”

  “He only saw me because I wanted him to see me,” Shadow clarifies.

  “Anyway,” Dominic grins and cuts his eyes to Shadow, “when Shadow let me see him in the closet, I made a break for it to get away from Darren. He fired his gun and it grazed my shoulder. Shadow’s scared of you, Sophia, so he called an ambulance to take me to the hospital.”

  “She’s scary as shit, man. You should’ve heard her on the phone earlier,” Shadow replies and shivers exaggeratedly.

  “Why do you think I insisted on driving here? Her driving is even more terrifying,” Tucker chimes in.

  I know what the guys are trying to do. They’re trying to make the moment much less scary by being light-hearted and funny about it. And I love them for it.

  “Very funny, guys,” I say with a smile as I wipe the tears from my eyes. Looking at Shadow and Tucker, I add, “And thank you, both, so much.”

  Sitting on the stretcher beside Dominic, I peek inside his shirt to see the wound. “You should go on to the hospital and let them check that. At least let them clean it so it doesn’t get infected.”

  “Okay, but I’m riding with you and Tucker. No need for an ambulance.”

  “I need just a minute, Dominic,” I say as I make eye contact
with Darren.

  “Sophia, don’t,” Dominic says softly, his eyes silently asking me to comply.

  “I need to say something to him, Dominic.” Waiting for his nod out of respect, I lean over and kiss him before I get up. “Thank you.”

  Slowly walking over to the police car where Darren’s just been frisked, I stop when I get directly in front of him but stay out of his reach, just in case. “You knew I didn’t have much of a family life, how I lost my parents and my brother when I was younger, and how that hurt me. You told me once that I reminded you of your niece and you talked about how much you loved and missed her. How could you disgrace her memory like this? How could she be proud of the man you’ve become?”

  His face falls as my words take root in his mind. I turn my back to him and walk away before he has a chance to respond. There’s nothing he can say that would make up for this now. He tried to kill the love of my life– the man who is my whole life –and then he was going to kill our baby and me. And for what? Money?

  Dom is standing now, watching Darren with an alarming intensity as I put him behind me and set my eyes on my future. There’s a veiled warning in Dom’s eyes that I think Darren completely understands.

  “What is it, Dom?” I ask, knowing there’s always more to the story than what he told me.

  Dom looks over the top of head and locks eyes with Darren again. When I turn around and look at Darren, he opens and closes his mouth a few times as if he wants to say something, but he’s too ashamed. Dom wraps his arm around me protectively and possessively.

  “Sophia,” Dom says softly as he leans his mouth to my ear. “This won’t be easy for you to hear.”

  I brace myself, tightly gripping Dom’s arm that’s around me, covering our baby, but I can’t tear my eyes from Darren’s. Whatever Dom is about to say, I have a feeling it involves what Darren said to him. The cop stands behind Darren, holding his handcuffed hands to make him listen. Holding my breath, I wait for Dom to continue.

  “The girl that died in the wreck Shawn had was Darren’s niece, Hope. Sophia,” he pauses, his voice full of dread and pain, “Darren murdered Shawn.”

  The screams and tears come simultaneously as I’m overcome with sorrow. I know I’m shouting ‘NO!’ over and over, but no other words come to me. NO–he can’t be dead. NO–he can’t be gone. NO–we never reconciled. NO–he is only nineteen.

  Just. NO.

  Dominic is holding me up, as he’s always done and as he will always do. He is my rock, my shelter, and my white knight in a cold, black world. He cradles me in his arms and comforts me, letting me feel everything and deal with it in my own way. Darren watches with tears streaming down his face. He took my brother’s life in revenge for his niece, thinking only of the suffering his family has endured. It’s only now that, as he watches the grief consume me, he realizes Shawn also had a family who loves and misses him, regardless of his mistakes.

  “Get him out of here, Officer Jordan.” Shadow says with a cup to the officer’s shoulder, showing his gratitude.

  “You got it, big guy,” the officer responds and pushes Darren’s head down as he gets in the backseat of the cruiser.

  Shadow walks over to me, his eyes full of compassion. “I’m so sorry, little one,” he says as he wraps his big arms around me. I squeeze him hard, conveying my gratitude for everything he’s done for us and step back into Dom’s arms. “Let’s get Dominic to the hospital to be checked out now.”

  Hours later, we’re back home after Dominic’s shoulder injury has been thoroughly X-rayed, cleansed, stitched, and bandaged. They said he will be sore for a while, especially the next few days, but it really was “only” a flesh wound. Now I have the horrendous task of calling my parents to tell them their son is gone.

  Gone. I overheard a couple of paramedics talking with the nurses in the emergency room while Dominic and I waited. One of the paramedics said they were trained to never use the words gone, passed away, passed on, or anything like that when delivering the worst news a family can hear. They’re trained to say dead so that there’s no confusion, no misunderstanding, and no hope.

  He’s dead.

  “Do you want me to help you?” Dominic asks. There’s no need for elaborating, we both know what he means.

  “Just be there with me?” I ask as my voice breaks.

  “Of course, baby.”

  Opening FaceTime on my MacBook, I call my Dad’s cellphone. It’s late, way too late for them to be up, but I can’t hold this news until morning. After a few rings, Dad’s sleepy face fills the window. “Sophia? Dominic? Are you two okay? What’s going on?”

  When the phone rings at nearly three in the morning, it’s never with good news. “Hi Dad,” I say, now comfortable with calling him that again. “I hate to wake you but this can’t wait until morning. Is Mom up?”

  “I’m here, honey. What’s wrong, Sophia?” Mom replies as Dad extends his arm so I can see them both now.

  Taking a deep breath, the tears streaming down my face, and Dominic’s arms wrapped around me from behind, I look into my parents’ eyes and tell them that Shawn is dead. We cry together as I recount the details of the evening and Dominic fills in the blank spots for us. After talking and crying for the last thirty minutes, we disconnect with promises to try to get some rest and talk again later.

  We all need time to process this.

  Dominic made sure that Shawn’s funeral was beautiful. No expense was spared as he tried to help us find closure and come to terms with the gaping hole left in our lives. Mom and Dad wanted him buried in Dallas, close to Dominic and me, because they plan to move here with us soon. Dominic’s parents and his sisters, Emma and Stephanie, also came in a show of emotional support. Kayla and Rick hugged Dominic and me a little longer than usual after the funeral ended.

  Tucker was with us, too. He told Dominic that the cartel would probably try to retaliate against him for killing the boss’s son and two other members. Shadow’s contacts are staying close to the situation and keeping him updated on what’s happening. Dominic and I talked about it and made a decision that life is too short and too precious to live scared all the time. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with when we have to. For now, we’re focusing on the good.

  Darren has been charged with pre-meditated murder for killing Shawn and attempted murder for shooting Dominic. There are other charges for the conspiracy to commit murder and arson. He’s currently in the county jail awaiting trial. Dominic was concerned about his wife and his sister, so he set up trust funds for them both to live comfortably. If only Darren had just told Dominic to begin with, none of this would’ve happened.

  We all made a trip to Shawn’s apartment and packed up the few belongings he had left. In his room, on the nightstand next to his bed, was a note he’d written to me. It must have been written right after our meeting at the restaurant. He told me how much he loved me, missed me, and how sorry he was for how he’d treated me. The letter said that he was trying to find another way out of it, even if he had to kill Harrison himself to protect me. I consider that letter our reconciliation now and it’s in a box with my most precious belongings.

  The box is now at my new home with Dominic. My life. My love. My family. The weather has turned cooler and Thanksgiving will be here in another month. The best birthday present I could ever ask for is happening tonight–we’ve moved the last of our belongings to the newly built house. We’re home.

  “Are you ready to officially move in our new home, My Angel?” Dominic murmurs in my ear as we climb the front steps to the door.

  I can’t help but laugh at him. “Dominic, we’ve been here every day for the last two weeks, arranging furniture, decorating, and getting all the finishing touches done. What makes you think we haven’t officially moved in yet?”

  “Because now it’s all completed and this is the first time we’ve unlocked the door to our new, completed home!” he explains, as if that makes all the sense in the world.

  “Okay, if you
say so, Dom,” I concede in mock surrender.

  “Oh, your Dom says so,” he replies with that wonderfully wicked gleam in his eye.

  Dominic sticks the key in the front door, turns the lock, and opens the door for me to enter first. When I walk into the great room, my breath is taken away. I can’t believe my eyes and I’m shocked at the lengths that even Dominic has gone to this time just to surprise me.

  The room is pitch black except for the blanket of stars across the ceiling. The tiny, white lights are suspended from the ceiling, casting a soft candlelight glow onto everything. Slow music is playing softly from the surround sound speakers. As I step fully into the room, I notice the red carpet that creates a path from the great room to the kitchen. On either side of the path is a row of staggered luminaries that have been suspended from the ceiling. Each one has a different letter cut out that’s illuminated by the candle inside.

  Adorning every open space the room and along the lighted path are vases upon vases full of the most gorgeous red long-stem roses I’ve ever seen. The fragrance in this room alone smells finer than the most extravagant florist. All of my senses are on overload– sight, sound, smell, touch, -and if the aroma wafting on the air from the kitchen is any indication, taste is next.

  “Oh, Dominic, it’s beautiful! I can’t believe you went to all this trouble! You really didn’t have to do this for me,” I ramble, but I love that he did this for me.

  One side of his mouth lifts as he tries to contain his smile. “My Angel, take a few steps back and tell me what the luminaries say.”

  Doing as he asks, I take a couple of steps back. I start at the beginning and call out the letters. “M- A –R –R – Y – M – E.”

  My head is spinning and my heart is pounding out of my chest. Surely I misread that. Staring at the candlelit lettering, I go over them once, twice, three more times in my mind. He’s asking me to marry him?