My mouth tastes like cotton candy, gin, and blood.
Not a pretty taste, mind you. But also not the first time either.
Sweeping my tongue along my lip, I wince. There’s a cut at the corner of my mouth. That’s probably where the blood came from.
The rest of the taste reminds me of when I awoke in Lex’s office after a night out with Danica. I had been fighting off a high then.
Pills. Someone slipped me drugs, more than enough to knock me out. Probably didn’t realize my tolerance was high as it was. That’s the only reason I’m awake right now.
Glancing around, I notice the same family room and worn in leather couches. I can smell remnants from yesterday’s dinner and the old smell of cologne. The estate I’ve been living at the last few weeks fills me with relief and also dread. Home. I’m home.
I don’t remember leaving the auction. I don’t remember the car ride here.
Glancing down, I see my arms and torso bound against a dining room chair, facing outward. The rope digs painfully into my skin and my dress is bunched up around my hips.
The fireplace is so hot my body is sweating all over.
Those pills must have been strong.
“Ah, you’re awake.” Dom walks from the kitchen, a glass of something brown in one hand, a poker in the other.
A fire poker.
Oh, fuck.
“You drugged me.”
He shakes a small plastic bag, full of those little pink pills that his family peddles. “It took a few of these to get you out for so long. I wasn’t expecting that.”
I figured as much. “Reformed party-girl for the win,” I quip, voice scratching. My head is throbbing, and the heat is making me nauseous. It’s been a while since I’ve had to fight off a hangover.
Where is Lex?
“What the fuck is this?” I snap, twisting against the restraints. “Some evil villain bullshit? Tie up the girl, wait for the hero to get killed? You’re cliché as fuck.”
Dom rears back, slapping me across the face. My chair teeters and my cheek explodes with pain, a groan slipping from my lips.
When I right myself, my face throbs in agony and Dom is at the fire, the poker deep into the flames. The flames leap over the iron, tearing into it hungrily.
Terror crushes my lungs, but I keep still. Fuck this guy. I won’t let him see me scared. He’s not worth it.
“We’re going to have to work on your mouth, Red.” Dom snorts. “Your husband might like your bite but it’s unbecoming for a wife of the organization. I’ll get you a muzzle before I let you embarrass me to the family.”
I spit a glob of blood onto the ground.
He makes a disgusted look that has me smiling. My face constricts and I know it’s swelling from his hit. Everything throbs, but I focus on Dom.
I know the minute I take my eyes off of him, he’ll hurt me.
He moves closer, smelling like blood and booze and all kinds of things that make me think of a murderer in the night. My stomach rolls, and I fight against the instinct to recoil.
Gripping my chin, he tilts my face to lock eyes with me.
“You should have been mine.” He drops me, rocking back on his heels. “All of this? Should have been mine. The business, the leadership. A wife like you? Fuck. I bet you screw better than any two-cent hooker on the corner.”
My body trembles because the pure lust in his voice is telling.
He’s leering at me, and I can’t even cover myself.
A fingernail trails down my bare shoulder, and I shudder with revulsion. My mouth waters, vomit trying to come up, but I will it back down.
I summon the coldness Maeve always shows and stare the bastard down. He won’t see me afraid.
“I actually fuck like an expensive escort,” I quip, daring him to move closer. “The kind that only accepts black credit cards. And unfortunately for you, Lex is the best I’ve ever had. You’ll be a poor man’s imitation.”
I expect this slap. Dig at a man’s pride, his ego, sexual prowess, there’s going to be retaliation.
He hits the same spot, my vision going black for a brief moment.
I cry out, blood gushing from my nose. It’s not broken, but hell, it smarts. He leans forward, smashing my cheeks between his meaty hands and shakes me. Hard.
Agony rips across my face and this time, I can’t hold back the wince.
“You have a smart mouth for someone at my mercy. It’d look better wrapped around my cock.”
A slip of gold around his neck draws my attention even as my skin crawls. Right there, under his white collar, sits my mother’s cross.
Between his hard hold, I mutter, “You mugged me.”
I’m not asking, and he knows it. The asshole smiles.
“I needed you to be afraid. Think Lex couldn’t protect you. That anyone could get to you.” He releases me, holding the cross up like a trophy. He can fucking have it. “I didn’t expect my fucking cousin to coddle you. When you went to the docks, I had to improvise. This was supposed to be easy,” he snarls, dropping the cross.
White hot fury licks up my arms.
He was trying to scare me away from Lex. Never mind I was already falling for him, never mind that I only ever felt safe with him, Dom wanted me terrified. He wanted that captain to scare me.
Prove that Lex wasn’t in control. Show the world that he couldn’t be an effective leader.
Dom didn’t plan on Lex killing for me.
“So, scare me and then what, be my knight in shining armor?” I drawl, fighting back the urge to claw his eyes out. “You’d let Lex take the fall for all the shipment issues, step in to fix it and then what? Take over the family?”
He winks. “I always knew you were smart. It’d be so easy to do it. Especially because I was the one fucking with his shipments. No one expected me.”
“Except my sister didn’t react the way you wanted.” I’m fishing, but I need to keep him talking. Draw this out. Wait for help.
My eyes slide along the floor. My small beautiful clutch is across the way.
The small black gun Nico trained with is still in it. So is the knife Maeve gave me.
I could either wait for help or get to my purse.
“Fucking Ace.” Dom seethes, throwing his glass tumbler. Glass explodes by my head, but I don’t flinch. I can’t show any fear. “Your sister is a fucking cunt. She’s this hard-ass who plucks guys’ eyes out with her fingernails but lets Lex off with a warning when her shit goes missing? Like what does a guy have to do to see his cousin get fucking killed?”
Maeve’s stuff was missing? She didn’t hurt Lex for it?
I push that away for later. Survive now. Ask questions later.
“So this kidnapping.” I lick my lips, ignoring the cut. “Was a way to draw Lex out. Kill him and what? Make it look like someone else.”
He taps his nose. “Bruno has been looking to get even with Lex after his display over the bridge. Do you know I helped him do it? Bruno was pissed when it happened. This is just the smoking gun to make it look like they finally got him back. Take his wife, kill him, I happen to walk in and look like the hero.” He dusts his hands as if to rid himself of the invisible trouble. “Easy. What I wanted to happen was take you and therefore the alliance, but things get a bit complicated when emotions are involved. So we improvised. I’ll get what I want.” His eyes rake over my body again. “I’ll keep the alliance by marrying you. And Lex is gone. Finally.”
A noise behind us is so light, I almost miss it.
Unfortunately, Dom rears at it and hastily shoving a rag into my mouth. “Shh.” He taps my cheek, just like how his parents do to Lex to show affection.
Bile burns my throat. He disgraced something beautiful, and I hope he burns in hell for it.
He slips into the shadows to the side and I see Lex. His face is a mask of rage and fury, darkened by the shadows. He’s an avenging God, forearms bare, a gun held in his large palms.
Everything in me sags in relief.
Until he spots me, drops his weapon, and rushes to my side.
I try to warn him, but the rag blocks my words.
Once he takes it out, I say, “No, Lex! It’s a trap.”
He doesn’t move fast enough as Dom uses the butt of his gun to knock my husband unconscious. He crumples to his knees first, hands digging into my arms as if he can forcefully keep himself awake. Physically keep me safe. Dom hits him again, again.
His beautiful eyes roll back, and he falls, unconscious.
Dom tsks lightly. “See? Easy.”
That flicker of rage grows to a damned inferno.
