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“Grab your things sweetheart, we have to go.” He storms into the bedroom.
I follow behind him, my gut twisting into a knot. “Go where?”
“Find a bag. Hurry. We don’t have much time.”
“Daddy, I’m not going anywhere. This is my home now. I belong here with Dominic.”
“Callie, we don’t have time for this. Dominic is going to kill me.” His hands clamp onto my arms, “Please trust me this is the only way to get us both out of this mess.”
“He’s not going to kill you, but you probably don’t want to be standing in our bedroom when he gets out.” I hear the water turn off. I only have a few minutes to reason with him before Dominic is done in the bathroom. After everything that’s happened today, I have no idea how my father’s intrusion will play out with Dominic, but I know one thing, he’s not going to like my father trying to take me away.
“Fuck.” My father drags his hands through his hair, “Callie you don’t understand. Dominic isn’t the only one I owe money to and without the company I can’t pay. Xander is pissed and now I’m in debt to Victor Pacelli too.”
“We can work something out. I’ll talk to Dominic, but you have to go.” I push him toward the door, but he flings around and pushes past me.
“Callie If you don’t come with me, I have nothing left to bargain with. I’m as good as dead.” His words bite into my heart. I try not to react, but tears are on the brink, and I don’t know if I can hold them back.
Is that all I am to him anymore, a bargaining chip?
“She’s not going anywhere.” My eyes swing towards Dominic crowding the bathroom door frame and the glint of silver clenched in his hand.
“Dominic, wait.” I step between them. My heart drops into the pit of my stomach and sits like a brick. “He has his faults but he’s still my dad.”
Chapter 26
Dominic
Callie pleads with me to lower my weapon. The fear in her eyes guts me and I drop the gun to my side. When I do, Danny pulls a gun jabbing the muzzle of silver into her temple and a heartache sharper than my own floods her eyes. I rack the slide and raise my gun back up.
“D-D-Daddy?” Hot tears flood her eyes as she frantically searches my face for hope this isn’t happening. I can’t give her the reassurance she wants. “Why are you doing this?”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, but he won’t fucking die and you won’t listen to reason.” My body grows rigid, hearing her soft whimpers. Like the night of the fire, her vulnerability is breaking me. “I owed Xander a lot of money, sweetheart and I saw an opportunity to get out of his debt but when Dominic found out I stole from him he was going to kill me. That’s why I had to tell him about your grandfather’s will. I had to make you marry him to save both of our lives.”
“I know this already; daddy and I forgive you. Dominic and I are past that now. We can work all of this out without guns.” Her heart is breaking, I can see it in her eyes. She so desperately wants to end this amicably, but men like us don’t settle scores with words.
“I don’t know if we can, Princess. I made you a promise and you know what that means.” I’m rendered powerless by the hot tears now flooding her eyes.
“If I let you go, I’m a dead man anyways. If Dominic doesn’t kill me Victor or Xander will.”
I shrug my shoulders, “You’re half right. Victor and Xander are dead. Don Marco is too. Let her go and I’ll think about not killing you where you stand.”
“I can’t do that.” Danny swallows hard, “I’m in over my head, I owe too many people. I need that company for leverage so either you sign it over to me or you die here tonight.”
“Daddy don’t do this.” She pleads, “I love him.”
“But does he love you? What means more to you, Dominic, her, or the money?” He swings the gun toward me. My finger twitches on the trigger. I’m an excellent shot, I could take this son-of-a-bitch down as long as she doesn’t move. Danny recognizes his error in judgment and quickly returns the gun to Callie’s head.
“Dominic, please.” She cries when the muzzle presses against her temple.
My anger spills into every vein, replacing the ache in my side with burning hatred but there’s only one way to end this.
One bullet.
One Death.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before I allow it to be hers. “I hope you can forgive me, Callie but I have to pull this trigger.”
She knows her father is leaving me with no other choice. Her life means more to me than all the money and power in the world. Everything I have means nothing without her, but I made her a promise and I’m a man of my word.
