Las Vegas Sidewinders: Dominic (29 page)

The other fun news was that
Suze was pregnant too, nine weeks along and thriving. Their due dates were only
a week apart so Molly pushed down thoughts of losing yet another baby, thinking
about how much fun it would be to have their kids close together.

As the Sidewinders took the
ice, Molly watched Dom intently, skating out behind Cody and Toli. Cody had
been officially named Captain, wearing the C proudly on his jersey. Dom and
Toli were the two Alternate Captains, and Molly had known wearing a jersey with
an A sewn on the shoulder had been a high point in Dom’s career. Though she’d
been forced to watch all the other games on TV, she’d finally gotten permission
to come tonight and it took all of her self-control not to jump up and down.
She was healing well, but her priority was keeping the baby safe.

She saw Dom look up in her
direction and lift his stick. She waved, a big smile on her face.

“God, you two are
ridiculous,” Suze teased her.

“And proud of it,” Molly
grinned.

“I thought sure you two
would run off and get married the moment you got out of the hospital,” Andra
said.

“I didn’t get a real wedding
the first time,” Molly said with a secret smile. “And I’ll be damned if I don’t
get one this time.”

“When is it?” Andra asked.

“August,” Molly said.

“I’m already excited!”

Molly and Toli were as close
as ever, and she was grateful for his presence in her life. He and Dom had
buried the hatchet so she felt okay about spending time with him. Now that
Sergei and Tatiana were officially together, he’d been more okay than she’d
thought he would be. They were meant to be, he’d told her, and though she knew
he believed that, it still left him unsettled. He’d been in a relationship for
all of his adult life, with a few exceptions during times that he and Tatiana
had broken up; hence when Anton was conceived. But now he was completely single
and about as interested in dating as he was in having a root canal.

“Women are difficult,” he’d
told her wryly.

Watching Zakk score the
first goal of the night left the girls cheering loudly and he turned to point
his stick at them, making them laugh in delight.

“How many girls do you think
he’s sleeping with?” Suze stage whispered to their group.

“A lot!” Tiff laughed. “He’s
soooo hot. Good thing I’m happily married, cause I’d get me a piece of that if
I wasn’t!”

They laughed again. Molly
looked down and saw Dom turn back from where he sat on the bench. He found her
eyes and winked; she blew him a kiss before he turned back to the game.

I got my happily-ever-after,
she thought to herself, and Dom got his life back. They’d climbed out of the
darkness, together, and found their way back to the light. Today was the first
day of forever and she couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

Dom took slow, steady
breaths as he buttoned his shirt. Focusing on the task of getting dressed was
the only thing keeping him from running to the bathroom and losing his
breakfast. This was going to be the hardest things he’d ever done and it
suddenly felt like everything he’d done in the last year had led up to this
moment. Ten long months that had brought the most remarkable changes to his
life, even though he wasn’t sure if he deserved them.

Shaking off the melancholy
thoughts, he looked over to where Molly was fixing her hair in the bathroom.
Her face was almost healed since the beating and the subsequent plastic surgery
she’d had no choice but to have. Her nose had been broken so badly she couldn’t
breathe, and the fractured jaw made it impossible to eat. They’d met with every
possible specialist to ensure the baby she carried would be okay, but in the
end they worried that if her jaw healed wrong she would be both disfigured and
in pain. Somehow, everything had come out okay, including the baby.

She looked as beautiful as
ever and he stole up behind her, wrapping his arms around her expanding waist.
He rubbed her small stomach gently, resting against her. She smiled up at him,
her eyes narrowing slightly as she felt him tremble.

“You’re shaking,” she
whispered, turning to him. She grasped his hands in hers and met his eyes
directly. “He can’t hurt you now,” she said softly. “I’m here, Cody and Suze
are just downstairs, and Toli and the others are nearby. We’ve got your back,
and you’ve got this.”

“I know.” He took a deep
breath. “I just want it to be okay.”

“It’s going to be.” She
touched his face. “If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t have agreed to meet with you.”

“What if he wants to sue me
or something?” he whispered.

She shrugged. “Then we pay
him. He doesn’t have any power over us, babe. It’s just money.”

He nodded, though he felt
sick.

“Come on.” She pulled him by
the hand and grabbed her purse. “Let’s go.”

They took the elevator
downstairs and she held his hand tightly until they got to the small hotel
conference room where the meeting would take place. Cody and Suze were there
waiting for them, and he looked at his friend gratefully.

“You don’t know how much this
means to me,” he said softly.

Cody smiled. “Yeah, I do.”
He motioned with his head. “He’s already in there—let’s do this.”

Dom swallowed hard, but
nodded. He turned to Molly and pressed his lips to hers.

“I’ll be right here,” she
said softly. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” He
squeezed Suze’s shoulder as he passed her. He and Cody paused at the door and
looked at each other.

“Whatever happens, it’s
going to be okay,” was all Cody said.

Dom opened the door and
stepped inside.

Bobby Thomas was sitting in
a chair, his curly blond hair slicked back and the jacket of his suit
unbuttoned. His eyes met Dom’s and after a slight hesitation, he got to his
feet, extending a hand. Dom walked forward slowly and shook it. Neither of them
spoke and finally Bobby’s companion, another player for the Canadiens, cleared
his throat.

“Thank you for meeting me,”
Dom managed to find his voice. “Uh, this is Cody Armstrong.”

They made introductions
before they all sat down, the four men staring at each other with an awkward
silence.

“I’m not sure why we’re
here,” Bobby said at last, his eyes moving from Dom to Cody and back again.

“Because I owe you an
apology,” Dom said. “A real one—not the bullshit mandated by the League. What I
did was fucked up, and I needed you to know that, man to man.”

Bobby nodded, seeming just
as nervous as Dom. “Okay.”

“I don’t expect forgiveness,
or that we’re going to just bury the hatchet and pretend like it never
happened,” Dom continued, trying to still his shaking hands. “But I wanted to
sit across from you and give you my word that nothing like what I did to you
will ever happen again.”

“Good to know.”

“And if you ever need
anything, whatever it is, I owe you.”

Bobby took a long drink from
the glass of water in front of him and the room fell into silence once again.
He glanced at his teammate, who hadn’t said a word since Dom started talking,
and got to his feet. He began pacing, looking everywhere but at Dom

“When I woke up in the
hospital they told me my neck was broken,” he said after a minute. “They said
the spinal cord hadn’t been severed but that I would probably never play hockey
again.” He turned and fixed Dom with a stare. “I hated you. I was so fucking
mad, the only thing that got me through those first days was hoping that I
could get well enough to kill you.” He paused. “And then I started drinking and
partying, making an ass out of myself. I figured some guy broke my neck—I had
the right.” He was still pacing, gazing out the big conference room windows.

“Bobby, I—” Dom got up but
Bobby held out a hand.

“Let me finish.” He turned.
“One night I picked up this girl. She was great—really hot, smart, funny—and
she could suck the chrome off a tailpipe.” He shook his head, a faint smile
playing on his lips. “We’d gone a couple rounds when I went looking for my
bottle of Jack Daniels, but it was empty. I told her to go get me some.” He
shook his head. “I didn’t ask her—I told her. We were both too wasted to drive,
and when she fought me on it, I lost my temper, started calling her names,
threw stuff at her…” He took a breath. “I didn’t hit her but I almost did. I
was a complete asshole, and just before I closed the door in her face, she
said, ‘wow, I guess now we know why Dom Gianni broke your neck.’”

The room was quiet for a
minute before he continued. “The next day I called a friend and he got me the
tape of the game. I watched that play where I slashed you in the back of the
knee over and over, until I was having dreams about it. What the hell was I
thinking? I didn’t have an answer then and I don’t have one now, but the one
thing I knew was that you weren’t the only one who fucked up that night. I was
so busy trying to pretend I wasn’t the rookie, I wasn’t the new kid, and that I
was
as good as the rest of the team, I lost sight of the game. I lost
sight of everything except getting over on you. For whatever reason you were in
my sights and I wanted to go at it, one way or another.”

“No matter what you did,”
Dom said, trying to wrap his mind around what Bobby was saying. “I still left
my feet and charged you—something we’re never supposed to do.”

“And even though they tell
us not to put our heads down from the time we’re five years old, I did it
anyway.” Bobby shrugged. “Whatever went on that night was on both of us.”

“That night changed my life,”
Dom admitted. “It sucked for a while, but it’s the best thing that could have
happened to me. Now that I’m through my probation and all the therapy, I love
hockey again, which is something I lost along the way.”

“Last week they told me I
could play again,” Bobby said. “I don’t know if I’ll get back to NHL level
play, but I’m going to try my hardest, and I hope I can find love for the game
again too.”

“I’m really happy to hear
that,” Dom said.

There was another awkward
silence when Bobby finally walked over to Dom and stood in front of him. They
looked at each other for what seemed like a long time but was probably less
than a minute, and Bobby slowly extended his hand again. Dom looked down at it
and then reached out to shake it.

“I was really surprised when
I got your message,” Bobby said. “But I’m glad you reached out. It means a
lot.”

“I’m glad you agreed to meet
me.”

“I guess I’ll see you
around,” Bobby stepped back and glanced at his friend, who got up.

“And I meant what I said,”
Dom said. “If you ever need anything at all...”

“I may need a job when this
is over,” Bobby chuckled.

“Give me a call.” Dom nodded
before following Cody out of the room.

As soon as he stepped into
the lobby Molly was on her feet, moving towards him.

“I felt the baby move!” she
whispered excitedly, pulling his hand to her stomach.

“Really?” He gazed down in
awe, noting that his hands were no longer shaking. She was almost five months
pregnant now and they had yet to feel the baby.
Until now.

Molly glanced up as Bobby Thomas
paused in front of them, his eyes moving to her stomach as well. She smiled
brightly, deciding she didn’t need to ask what had happened.

“I’m Molly,” she said to the
younger man. “Dom’s fiancé. It’s good to see you up and around.”

Bobby inclined his head. “I
didn’t know you were expecting, Dom. Congratulations.”

“It could be the best thing
that ever happened to
you
, too,” Dom spoke so softly Bobby almost missed
it.

Then he smiled. “Yeah, I
hear ya. Take care. Nice to meet you, Molly.” Bobby turned and got into the
elevator.

“What did you say to him?”
Molly asked, looking at Dom curiously.

“I’ll tell you later.” He
kissed her. “Come on, let’s go celebrate!”

“Tell us everything!” Suze
said, falling into step with them.

“Nothing to tell.” Dom
glanced at Cody and just grinned.

*****THE
END*****

F
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In the meantime, if you liked Dom and Molly’s story,
enjoy this sneak peek of book 2 in the series, Drake.

Chapter 1

October
31, 2013

Chicago

Coming off the ice, Drake
Riser felt a brief moment of triumph as his team, the Las Vegas Sidewinders,
notched another win. This was the last game of their first road trip, and they
were undefeated. For an NHL expansion team, they had beaten all the odds,
getting through six pre-season games and 12 regular season games so far. They
were bound to lose eventually in an 82-game season, but not tonight. They were
going home with another win and a whole lot of energy.

It had been a wild couple of
months since he’d taken the leap of faith and gone to Las Vegas. He’d been
happy in Detroit, but he was in a rut and needed a change. When the opportunity
came around, he’d been interested in something new. It was an added bonus that
one of his best friends, a goalie named Karl Martensson, was going too. Add to
that several other friends that he’d played with over the years, and he was on
board. Jumping into his new life with both feet, Drake had been having a
blast—both on and off the ice—but he was restless. If he was honest with
himself, he knew he was lonely, and it was hard for a guy like him to meet
decent women. Sex was easy, but women who weren’t after his money or the status
of becoming the wife of a professional athlete were hard to find; he’d already
been through one marriage like that, and at 31, he had no desire to do it
again.

“Coach said you’re not
flying home with us,” Cody Armstrong, the team captain and one of Drake’s good
friends, came up beside him as he got dressed.

“My sister has this charity
thing tonight and she expects me to show up since we’re in Chicago anyway,”
Drake shrugged.

“Oh, yeah, that masquerade
ball,” Cody grinned. “Better you than me!”

Drake grinned. “Alcohol,
attractive women and a happy older sister—I’m thinking it’s not that bad.”

Cody laughed. “When you put
it that way…” He clapped him on the shoulder. “See you day after tomorrow.”

Drake nodded and slipped out
to the waiting taxi. He would get back to his hotel room, change into the
tuxedo his sister had rented for him and then walk across the street to the
venue. It was already after 10:00, so he was running late, but her big events
always ran until the wee hours of the morning. If she hadn’t become a top-notch
plastic surgeon, she could have been a fundraising guru. His older sister
seemed to be good at a lot of things, especially trying to find him a new wife.
She’d been attempting to set him up on dates for a few years now, and he was
glad he was too far away for that anymore. It had been a nightmare when he was
still in Detroit and she’d been close enough to regularly set him up on dates,
sometimes several times a week.

Tonight his mind was only on
one thing: sex. He wasn’t kidding anybody with his monk routine. He’d gotten
tired of one-night stands, so he’d stopped having them, but it had been months
since he’d gotten laid and that was getting old too. Here in Chicago, his
hometown, there had to be a sexy socialite interested in one night with a
good-looking hockey player. At least he hoped so; he wouldn’t be going to this
dance otherwise.

Erin stared at the
beautifully dressed people, stunning decorations and luscious tables of food
without any interest. The Halloween-themed masquerade ball had been a
last-minute invitation by the new plastic surgeon she’d come to Chicago to meet
with, but now she was having second thoughts. The only reason her friends had
been able to coax her out to such a social event was that her Victorian ball
gown covered the burn scars down the right side of her body, and the elaborate
mask she wore covered the scars on the right side of her face.

She never went out socially
anymore. She had returned to desk duty at Quantico just six months ago, and
only left the townhouse she shared with one of her best friends, Kate Lansing,
to go to work or to the dozens of doctors she saw on a regular basis. They said
she had PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The death of her best friend
combined with nearly debilitating injuries and an ugly divorce had been hard on
her and she hadn’t been the same since it happened.

Then there was the physical
therapy to get her strength back and work through the pain of the burns. She’d
had multiple surgeries to remove the flesh that was no longer living with the
hope that new skin would grow in its place. That hadn’t happened to the extent
they’d been expecting, though. Nothing had healed as well as they’d hoped, even
after five surgeries and dozens of doctors.

“Are you going to sit here
all night?” Kate demanded, giving her a look, her brown eyes sparkling with
excitement. “Come on, you’re in disguise. No one can see anything. Dance with
someone. Have a drink. Do something.
Anything
!”

“I’m going to have fun!” Her
other friend, Tessa Barber, gave her a pointed look.

Erin rolled her eyes. “I’m
here, aren’t I? You don’t have to babysit me! Go dance. Have fun. I’m fine, you
guys.”

“If you don’t have any fun,
I’m calling Liv!” At that, Kate flounced away, her dark hair swinging behind
her, Tessa close on her heels. Kate had given up so much to take care of Erin
over the last 18 months, that’s why Erin had felt guilty enough to come to this
stupid dance. That, and the compelling invitation from her new plastic surgeon.

Erin really hadn’t wanted to
come, but Dr. Riser had been so sweet and generous. This was a huge fundraiser
for a local children’s hospital and the tickets were normally $500 per person.
Lots of celebrities and professional athletes were supposed to be here, and she
recognized many despite the disguises. When Dr. Riser had offered tickets to
Erin, Kate and their friend Tessa, who lived here in Chicago, they’d convinced
her that this was the perfect setting to get out socially. After all, she was
almost completely covered—no one would be able to see the scars under the big
Victorian-style dress and the elaborate gilded mask that covered most of her
face.

Erin had come to Chicago to
meet with Dr. Riser after her ex-mother-in-law, Jan Gentry, had told her about
this doctor’s specialty in burn victims. She had a new procedure she was
testing and needed subjects who were willing to let her try it on them. In
Erin’s case, it was not like it could hurt. Almost the entire right side of her
body was severely scarred from the explosion in Afghanistan. Her right eye drooped
slightly and the skin on her right arm and leg was brown, mottled and ugly. The
scarring started at her temple, went all the way down her arm, and started
again mid-thigh, stopping several inches above her ankle. Her torso had been
mostly spared because of her bulletproof vest and Liv’s quick thinking, rolling
her on the ground, but the rest of her was ruined. She could barely stand to
look in the mirror anymore.

Divorced and basically broke
after so many medical bills, all semblance of what had once been her life was
gone; she went to work, therapy, the gym, and the rest of the time she hid at
home. After Liv had been moved to a unit in Hawaii, her friend from college,
Kate, had left her thriving New York City public relations firm to come live with
Erin in Virginia. Though she traveled back and forth quite a bit, Kate, along
with Liv and Tessa, had decided that Erin shouldn’t be alone. The trauma of the
explosion, coupled with her disfigurement and losing Shay, had been more than
she could handle by herself. Liv had been unable to stay in Quantico any
longer, and was forced to transfer to Hawaii. Tessa had been pregnant at the
time, so it was Kate who had offered to uproot her life and moved to Virginia.

Erin had tried to fight
them, but in the end, she knew they were right. Without Kate, she would
undoubtedly be curled up in a corner somewhere feeling sorry for herself.

After being released from
the hospital in Germany, she’d come home to the U.S. to have her husband serve
her with divorce papers. She’d been too tired and in too much pain to fight him
in court, so she wound up getting far less than she should have. In lieu of
taking her share of the million-dollar home she and Clay had bought, along with
their assets, she took a mere $50,000 payout that she used as the down payment
for her condo, and instead of alimony, Clay paid the $5000-a-month nursing home
bill where Erin’s father had been when she’d been deployed. With advanced stage
Alzheimer’s, it didn’t seem that he would live much longer, and although Clay
had balked, somehow Jan had talked him into it.

Thank God for Jan, she
thought as she sipped the fruity drink Kate had stuck in her hand. Clay would
have left her with almost nothing, but Jan had somehow gotten her the down
payment for the condo and worked out the deal to take care of Erin’s father.
Though she’d made good money while deployed, and she still made a decent salary
now, Clay had spent every dime of their shared monthly income decorating the
house and entertaining. She hadn’t even realized that he’d spent her paychecks
as well as his own while she’d been gone. Unfortunately, she’d signed a
prenuptial agreement before they married restricting her from getting any of
his healthy trust fund.

Ironically, Shay had a life
insurance policy for $500,000 that had Erin as the beneficiary. Clay was
currently in court fighting to take it from her, but she hadn’t even shown up
to the hearing. She didn’t care about the money—she’d gladly trade it to have
Shay back. Two years later, it was still unbelievable to her that he was gone.

Drifting back to the
present, she looked around the room and caught a glance of herself in a mirror.
In all fairness, she looked lovely. The sapphire ball gown covered her right
shoulder and had a long embroidered sleeve that went to her wrist. The other
shoulder was bare, as was her arm, and the dress came with a corset that
accented her already slender figure. The skirt was full and enhanced with a
hoop skirt Kate had forced her to wear, completely covering the scars on her
right side. Her dark hair was swept up in an elaborate updo, covered with
bejeweled pins, and curling tendrils framed her face. On her face was a
gorgeous gold and crystal-laden half-mask that almost completely covered the
right side of her face, while leaving her undamaged side glowing prettily, with
the exception of the wired portion that rode just above her right eyebrow.
Honestly, it was the only time in the last two years she’d been able to look at
herself without wincing.

“Hi.” A sandy-haired man
with amazingly long-lashed hazel eyes, who was wearing an incredible tuxedo
with tails, approached her with a smile. He was at least 6’5” with shoulders
that seemed to take up the whole room. She was momentarily stunned by his large
form and rugged good looks.

“I’m Drake Riser,” he
continued. “My sister said she would tell our mom on me if I didn’t ask you to
dance, and she’s my older sister, so I do what she says.” He leaned close and
stage whispered, “She kind of scares me.”

“I do not!” Dr. Mackenzie Riser
nudged her much younger brother with a laugh. She leaned over to give Erin a
hug. “This is my younger brother Drake. I figured I’d introduce you since he
doesn’t know many people here and, other than your friends, neither do you. So,
Erin meet Drake, Drake meet Erin.” With a grin, she moved away towards another
group.

“Sorry,” Drake laughed. “She
hosts this shindig every year and always wants everyone to have a good time.”

“She’s very sweet,” Erin
smiled.

“How do you know my sister?”
He leaned back against the wall next to her comfortably, his large frame
dwarfing hers.

“I, er, well, I came to
Chicago to talk about her new study.” Erin took a breath and waited to see his
response.

“Oh.” His eyes met hers with
genuine concern. “Her burn study?”

“Yes.” She looked away. “My
unit hit an IED in Afghanistan.”

“I’m sorry.” He looked
genuinely contrite. “I didn’t realize—I know she has patient confidentiality; I
didn’t even think…” His voice trailed off. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have
asked.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugged.
“It’s been two years—I’m not ashamed of seeing a plastic surgeon to help me.”

“Well, I don’t know what’s
under the dress,” he shrugged. “But you look pretty good to me.”

“I do?” Erin blinked. Then
she laughed. “God, I’m sorry. That was an idiotic thing to say! Thank you. But
yes, there’s a lot of damage under the dress.”

“Would you like to dance?”
Drake abruptly changed the subject. “I promise, no more stupid questions and I
won’t look under your dress.”

In spite of herself, Erin
laughed again. “I’d love to dance.”

 She let him take her
hand and lead her to the dance floor. He moved easily on his feet and she let
herself get lost in his strong arms and handsome face. It was the first time in
years that she’d thought of anyone but Shay as handsome. God knows, though Shay
and Clay looked alike, there was always something ugly underneath Clay’s smile.
She’d spent the last two years wondering why she hadn’t noticed that until it
was too late.

“You looked awfully serious
just now,” he said lightly.

“Thinking about my
ex-husband and other things I shouldn’t be,” she admitted.

“Anything you’d care to
share?”