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Inhaling a deep breath, I set to work, digging the tip into the muscle, and wiggling ever so slightly. I work the metal fragment loose through alternating waves of pain and numbness until it’s protruding enough that I can pinch it between my fingers. My blood rushes to my feet and my knees follow suit but I manage to free it, dropping it into the nearby toilet.I drown the wound in more of the saline solution.It hits my skin like burning acid and I roar into my upper arm bracing myself against the sink.
Almost done.
Franco and Lanah’s voices drift under the door, joined by another. I hear the tap of his shoes as a large shadow moves along the floor when he positions himself outside the bathroom and their muffled conversation continues. I still myself, inhaling and exhaling slowly and deliberately until the pain eases.
I’m not a stranger to pain. This isn’t even the hardest thing I’ve had to do in this life but it’s the first time, the only time, that my survival mattered. I made Callie a promise that nothing and no one would take her away from me and that includes my own stupidity. I should have been more prepared today, but my ego got in the way of planning. I was blinded by revenge that I faltered from my normal M.O. The stranger's voice fades and a light rap at the door signals we’re in the clear. I push my thoughts down deep and focus on sealing up my wound before another nurse can return.
Heating the steel with my lighter, I press the hot blade to the wound cauterizing the shit out of it. Silent screams rip from my mouth with my jaw clenched around the leather casing. The taste of blood is now in my mouth and I’m second from losing consciousness.
Hold it together.
I tear at the wrapper and unroll the gauze, dressing the wound that’s going to leave a nasty scar. When I’m done, I fish everything out of the sink and drop it in the red container on the wall.
I need a fucking drink.
Chapter 23
Callie
I yank the steering wheel of the Civic harder than I mean to, swerving onto the bridge that will bring me back to Dominic. Grief has come for me once again only this time it’s for the man I trusted with all my heart. When I needed him the most my father was supposed to be my solace instead, he traded me off. He let this happen. It’s his fault and the secrets he kept that put me in danger in the first place. I blame him and his crooked dealings. If it wasn’t for what he set in motion, I never would have allowed myself to be so vulnerable.
I trusted Dominic. I thought he saw me in ways no one else ever has but it was all a lie. Where I was beginning to see a future, a new life, a different dream, Dominic saw dollar signs. A way to corner the market on his illegal drug business. How stupid could I have been? I knew his businesses weren’t all above board. I read the articles Collin sent me, I heard him talking with his men. I listened closely when we had dinner with his allies, all the signs were there but I was blinded to it. Blinded by looks, his smooth talking and the way he fucks.
The tears are still falling when I jerk the car into the passing lane to speed around the postcard family piled into a rental car crawling acrossthe Benjamin Franklin Bridge. A part of me wants to keep driving somewhere far away where I can put this ache behind me, but I can’t. Even knowing the truth, Dominic has a pull on me. A pull drawing me in and closing the distance between us as fast as I can drive. To hell with the blacked-out SUV trying to keep a discreet distance three car lengths back.
Dominic agreed to allow me a visit with my father without a bodyguard, but he never said he’d let me go alone. Two hours ago, I would have believed that was for my own protection but now I wonder what he’s protecting and who from. Is it me he wants to keep safe or his investment? My ache gives way to anger as I take the final turn into the parking garage of Dominic’s building. The tires squeal as I slam to a stop, between the two white lines. The grind of the engine still hissing as I swing the car door open and storm into the building.
“Mrs. Delgado.” The security guard at the entrance greets me but I don’t slow my stride. If I stop the weight of this heartache will crush me where I stand. Until I hear the truth from him, everything else is just noise.
“Where is he?” I ask in a tone that confuses him. My usually mild demeanor shifted somewhere between my father’s betrayal and Dominic’s.
The guard glances at his monitors. “His office. On the eleventh floor. Let me escort you.”
He falls in step with me, his short, corpulent legs struggling to keep up. “No need. I know where it is.”
Releasing my frustrations on the elevator button, I will it to come faster by pressing it over and over. When the doors slide open, I step inside, flinging myself around and extending my hand to stop him from stepping inside, “This is between me and him but thank you.”
Under normal circumstances I’d feel guilty about being so curt when hisbroad thick shoulders hunch forward over his involuntarily protruding stomach. He doesn’t deserve my insolence; he’s just doing his job but I’m in no mood to patronize anyone when my heart is bleeding at my feet.
His rebuttal is deterred by a sudden commotion at the main entrance. His gawking stare turns away from me quickly and his hand sweeps to his side, flicking the button on his gun holster open when I’m swallowed up by the closing elevator door and whisked up to the eleventh floor.
Chapter 24
Dominic
Death will not come for me now, not when I’m this close to securing my blood-stained victory over the drug market. Breaking the gold seal, I unscrew the cork and pour myself a glass of Hennessy. The sweet burnt fruitiness stings the back of my throat, aharbinger of the good fortunes to come. The call I had been waiting for all day, came a short time after I left the hospital. I anxiously await the proof of Don Marco’s death, sealing my fate. Despite my wound, it’s been a good day. My enemies are falling one by one and I’m climbing up their bodies like a stairway out of hell.
The velvety taste in my mouth, beckons for more. I pour myself another glass and settle myself behind my desk. Victor should be arriving any moment. Once I have proof Don Marco is dead, I’ll fire off a text to Dixon and he’ll escort Stephanie home safe and sound. I’m a man of my word after all.
Shifting my legs up on my desk, the pull at my side jolts through me. Self-medicating on Lanah’s pain meds and alcohol has dulled the worst of it but it’s my glorious triumph that is causing my current high.I swallow back moreHennessy when I spot Callie on the monitor. She’s crossing the lobby with a fire in her eye and fury in her steps. The security guard falls in line behind her, but she shrugs him away and stabs at the call button on the private elevator. His eyes darting upward toward the camera in warning. He knows I monitor the feeds from my office and is trying to catch my attention. I’ve never seen this side of her before and it sets my heart racing. My cock is happy to see her, but my instincts are screaming as many obscenities at me right now, as I did in the hospital bathroom.
Something is wrong.
Tossing back another swig, I leave the bottle on the desk and pick up my gun before darting towards the elevator. The sudden movement sends the pain rushing in again. Gritting my jaw, I fight through it as I cross the reception area of my office to meet her. The door flies open knocking me back a step.
I set my jaw tight, so she doesn’t see me flinch from the pain. “‘Why are you home this early?”
Hurt and anger flares in her eyes, the image turning my blood cold, “Not happy to see me, husband?”
