by Rumer Raines
Dominic lets out a long, audible breath. “You should sit down. I’ll tell you everything.”
Dominic sits across from me, with his hand on my knee. He shares that he was going to kill Ted. The only thing that stopped him was when Ted cried about being in love with Monica and how he was willing to do anything to protect her. When Dominic questioned him, he figured out that Monica took the money. He chose to use Ted instead of killing him. Dominic brought in doctors and, once Ted was healed, they tracked her down.
“She’s been calling me,” I say with a light bitterness.
“I bet she is. We have a lot of connections, and they have been scaring the hell out of her.”
“You won’t hurt her, will you?”
“She won’t live happily ever after with our money.” There is a bitter edge of cynicism in his voice.
“What if I want her to?” I ask in a choked voice.
“What are you asking?”
“What if I ask you to walk away? What if I want her to live happily ever after? I’m not asking you to do this for her, I’m asking for me and our baby.”
His eyes move to my stomach, and he draws his lips in thoughtfully. “It’s not that simple, Steph.” His mouth twists unpleasantly.
“Why isn’t it?”
“Do you know what would happen if I let people walk away? Bad enough people already think I am going soft because of him.” He nods toward Ted.
I find myself inexplicably dissatisfied. He is the boss. He makes the rules, and I know he can say one word to make this all end.
“What if I tell you that I gave her the money?”
“You didn’t.”
“Yes… I did. I gave her the money, and I’ll tell Anthony, Nico, and everyone else that will listen. I can’t pay you back. How are you going to punish me, Dominic?”
He stiffens as if I have struck him. “Steph.” I detect a hint of censure in his tone.
“I hear you loud and clear, Stephanie,” Ted announces as Dominic stiffens.
“Shut up, Steph,” Dominic warns. He gives me a brutal and unfriendly stare.
“No! You lent the money to me, and I can’t pay it back. What happens to me?”
His dark eyes show the tortured dullness of disbelief.
I watch Dominic as he rubs his beard and starts to pace. I am putting it all on the line. I am going to protect Monica at all cost. She made a mistake, but I have made them, too. I am betting on the killer pacing in front of me.
I hope love can cover all sins.
When Dominic turns his cold, dark eyes in my direction, a flicker of apprehension courses through me. Panic like I have never known before wells in my throat as he slowly moves in my direction. He stands close but doesn’t say anything. The silence lengthens between us, making me uncomfortable.
“You’re not giving me a lot of options, Stephanie.” Uncertainty creeps into his expression.
“I’m doing what I need to do.” I choose my words carefully.
“And I am going to do what I have to do,” he says with detached inevitability.
A sudden thin chill hangs on the edge of his words.
A few minutes later, we stare at Dominic from the window as he sits in his car on the phone.
Ted questions if I’ve made the wisest decision. I can’t answer him since I have no idea if I did. He also advises that if Dominic does decide to kill me, he won’t be of any help. This is the man I wanted to save? We rush back to the sofa that Dominic left us planted in when we see him get out of the car and head back to the house.
“Tank and Nico will be here soon,” he announces.
I take a deep breath punctuated with several even gasps. “Why are Tank and Nico coming?” I ask.
“There is nothing else I can do here.”
“Dominic… what are you doing?” I draw a deep breath and forbid myself to tremble.
Is he going to have me killed? He didn’t call Anthony. He called Nico who doesn’t like me and would enjoy torturing the hell out of me.
His fingers trail down my temple until they stop on my stomach. “It will be over soon, Steph,” he whispers.
They say that life flashes before your eyes when you face death. I can assure you that it really does. I don’t know how many times I have thought about where I made my first mistake.
I have done so many wrong things in my life that I start to wonder if this is my punishment. I am unmarried and pregnant with the Mafia’s baby, and he is about to kill me. Taking a breath, I glance at Dominic who is sitting across from me with one leg crossing the other. I stare at his hands which are rough but always gave me a sense of protection. He looks very powerful, his chest broad and muscular.
“What are you thinking about, baby?” he asks.
I shake my head and glance over to Ted. He tries to look tough, but I can see the fear in his eyes, the sweat on his forehead, and he is breathing like he just ran a marathon.
Thirty-minutes later, I hear a car and two doors slam. I glance at Dominic and realize this is goodbye.
40
NICO SMIRKS at me like an eagle ready to swoop down and grab his prey. The smirk quickly fades as I run to the garbage can to vomit. I feel my hair being pulled back, and Dominic kneels next to me as he yells for Nico to get a wet towel. How touching that he would care for the person he’s about to kill.
His eyes narrow when I try to push him away.
“Don’t touch me.” I wipe my mouth with my sleeve.
Nico hands Dominic the warm towel, and he gently taps it against my face. I again push him away, and he stiffens as though I’ve struck him.
“Can everyone get the hell out?” He rips the words out impatiently.
Once alone, he gives me a dark look. “What’s wrong?” A shadow of annoyance crosses his face.
“Are you seriously asking me that? What the hell do you think is wrong?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you, would I?” His lips pucker.
“Will you feel guilty afterward, Dominic?” My lower lip trembled as I meet his glare.
“After what?”
“After I am gone,” I whisper with some bitterness.
He stares at me, baffled. “Where exactly do you think you’re going?”
“I guess wherever you have Tank and Nico dispose of me.”
I begin to shake as the fearful images build in my mind. Will they make me suffer, or will I die quickly? Will I see my baby in heaven? Will I even go there after all the shit I have done?
Dominic closes his eyes and shakes his head in utter disbelief. “You think I am going to have you killed?”
I nod woodenly.
His brows draw together in an agonized expression as he walks away from me. “I would slit my own wrist before I hurt you or our child.” His dark eyebrows slant in a frown.
A knock at the door ends the uncomfortable conversation, and Nico enters, informing us that Anthony should be arriving in the morning with the package. Dominic nods, and when he looks at me, all I see is the raw hurt glittered in those dark eyes
IT’S A LONG, quiet night in the house. I wander back to the bedroom and lie in bed waiting. Dominic swears that he won’t hurt me and the baby. What I don’t know is if he will have Nico or Tank do it for him.
The next morning, I wake up to knocking on my bedroom door. I sit up as Tank sticks his head inside. We head downstairs as I hear crying and Dominic and Nico talking in Italian. My eyes widen when I see Anthony and notice that he is standing next to a thin and now blonde Monica.
“Stephanie!” she yells.
She starts to run toward me, but Anthony grabs her by the shoulder and forces her to sit back down.
Dominic takes a long, audible breath before asking everyone to sit.
He speaks to all but gazes only at me while he insists that Monica isn’t to be touched. She’ll work at Marco’s for free until her debt is paid.
“This is a bad idea, Dominic,” Nico argues.
“Are you questioning me, N
ico?”
“Yes, I am. You obviously aren’t thinking with the right head. Ever since she came along…”
“Stop!” Dominic shouts.
“When Pop died, I took over the business. I make the rules, and you need to listen to me and respect me the same way you would have done him.” Dominic is sure of himself and his rightful place in the universe.
“What happened to blood is thicker than water, Dom?” Nico questions.
“Blood will always be thicker than water. That woman that you refuse to respect is carrying our blood, Nico. She is carrying our future. Does that blood mean anything to you?”
Nico is momentarily speechless in his surprise, and his eyes finally look at me and notice my stomach.
“I didn’t know. I try not to look at her,” he murmurs.
Nico, Anthony, and Dominic agree that Monica will work at Marco’s until her debt is paid. She also agrees to it, not that she has any choice. She tells them she didn’t spend most of the money and promises they can have it back.
“How much do you have?” Dominic asks.
“Four hundred and ninety thousand,” she whispers.
Dominic nods and tells her that she will work at Marco’s for three months, and they will be even.
I can hardly believe that she has been gone all these months and only spent ten thousand, but I suppose we are used to living on next to nothing. However, something just isn’t adding up.
41
IT’S BEEN one month since Monica was given her free pass from Dominic. I have gotten bigger, and Dominic has taken care of my every need. I had to quit my job because of the stress, and my bank account magically increased significantly. Dominic also insisted in trading in my car, so I now have a BMW SUV, which he insists is safer for the baby.
Our relationship is good, but it’s not what it was. I can feel the wall he has been building around himself. He is on guard with me, and I don’t like it. Dominic picks me up and comes along to every doctor appointment and, afterward, we have dinner and he takes me back home.
Tonight, I decide I have had enough and want to figure out what the hell is going on between us. I climb into my SUV and head to the house he shares with his family. I knock several times, but there is no answer. I turn to walk away just as Anthony pulls open the door. He is half-dressed, wearing only black pants that are unbuttoned. I admit I am impressed by what I see. Anthony’s chest is covered in tattoos, and I also notice he is out of breath.
“Stephanie. What are you doing here? Is everything okay with the baby?”
“I’m fine. I just need to talk to Dominic. Is he here?”
I walk inside, and he moves in front of me, blocking me from going in any farther. “He’s not. I’ll let him know you stopped by,” he adds quickly.
“Can I have some water please?”
The corner of his mouth twists with exasperation. “Water?”
“Yes… the clear stuff that I can just get from the sink.” I shrug as he looks at me like I have a second head.
Anthony hesitates and tells me to stay at the door and he’ll bring me a bottled water.
It amazes me that he thinks I’ll listen, but he does. I decide to follow him to the kitchen, but before I make it, I hear a very familiar voice.
“Tony, the bed is getting cold without you.”
I’m confused as I come face to face with Monica, who is obviously wearing Anthony’s missing black shirt.
“Oh my God,” she says before she starts to walk away and runs into Anthony’s chest.
He grabs her and stares between us both, baffled. “Shit.”
“Anthony… Monica… What?”
Anthony runs his hand through his short hair. “You might want to sit down.”
“What is it with you Mansos telling me to sit down?”
“Okay, stand. Do you remember when you came to me and asked if we had found Monica?”
I nod and decide to sit.
“I made a few calls and found out where she was. Once I laid my eyes on her, it was all history.”
I waver, trying to comprehend what I’m hearing.
Anthony and Monica are secretly dating. They have been seeing each other for two months. Anthony gave her the money to pay back Dominic. He couldn’t give her the entire five hundred thousand since it would have looked suspicious. He knew that if she had enough cash, and with me being her friend, along with the baby, Dominic would be willing to look the other way.
“If this is such a big secret, why would you be here at the house?” I ask.
“Nico is out of town, Monique is having one of those parties, and Dominic barely comes home.”
“Where is Dominic spending his time?”
“He spends most nights in his office, Stephanie,” he replies.
I give Anthony and Monica a hug before I leave for Marco’s.
Mixed feelings surge through me as I lift my hand to knock on Dominic’s office door. Things are good between us, so I should leave it alone. I should, but I can’t. I miss my Dominic. I miss the man who would tell me what to do. I miss the dominant man who would take me in bed.
Dominic yells for me to come in when I finally knock on the door, and I slowly walk inside.
He stares at me as I waddle over to his desk. “Is everything okay with the baby?”
There’s a long, brittle silence.
“Steph is everything okay with the baby?” he asks again.
“Yes, everything is fine with the baby. The problem is with us.” Nervously, I bite my lip.
“What’s the problem?” Uncertainty creeps into his expression.
“I was hoping you would tell me. You are different with me. You’re acting distant like we’re business partners and this is a business arrangement.”
Dominic runs his hand through his beard and starts to pace, but his eyes never leave mine. “I’m not sure what you want from me, Stephanie.”
“I want my Dominic. I want you… the real you.”
He glowers at me and turns away. “You don’t want me, Steph. You thought I was going to murder you and our child. You have finally figured out that I am a monster. The last thing you want is that man.” He chuckles nastily.
The force of his seething reply takes me off guard. His voice is cold and lashing.
“If you’re a monster, you’re my monster! Do I have to remind you how we met? I was selling sex toys, and I wanted you to find me a hit man! None of us are perfect, Dominic. We all make mistakes and sin. What you do is no worse than what I have done. I want you! I want us! If we’re screwed up sinners, then we can be screwed up sinners together. I love you, Dominic!”
My eyes fill with tears of frustration. Dominic wipes one away as he places his hands on either side of my face. When a second tear falls, he gently kisses it away.
“I love you, Stephanie, and if you will have me, I promise I’ll be a little more perfect for you.”
In one forward motion, I’m in his arms. His mouth covers mine hungrily.
Dominic pulls away and glances into my eyes before walking behind his desk.
“I have to do something before we do this. I need something from you.”
He takes a black velvet box from his desk and watches me as he walks toward me. My eyes widen as I watch him bend to one knee. He lifts a beautiful, large pear-shaped diamond out of the box.
“I promise I’ll be yours forever, Steph, if you’ll take me. Will you marry me?”
Our baby gives me a gentle kick, and I promise Dominic forever.
THE END
AFTERWORD
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Afterword