OWNED by Dominic (Possessed #1) (19 page)

“Loyalty is everything in my world.”

“Blind loyalty gets you killed,” Dom told him angrily.

She had one more question for Brock before she washed her hands of him. “When’s the last time you saw or spoke to my mam?”

“She tried to contact me on your birthday. Nothing since, though.”

“Could Bradshaw have her?” Dom asked him.

“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Brock seemed to wilt at the thought that Bradshaw could have his hands on her again.

“Let’s go,” she told Dom, spinning around to leave. She still wasn’t sure how she was going to proceed with their newfound relationship.

“Deidre!” She stopped but refused to turn. “You have to believe I didn’t know about you. If I had, I would have found a way to take you and Maureen away from him.” She wanted to believe him so bad.

“He wouldn’t have let you,” was all she said in response.

*****

She was vibrating
as they left his room, whether from anger or sadness she didn’t know, but she was overwhelmed with both emotions.

“Is Casey still here?” She wanted to see him before they went home.

“Should be ready to discharge today, so maybe,” he told her, pulling her into his own body. “You all right?”

Such a loaded question that she had no answer for. “I’m mad, sad, my world has imploded, and all I want to do is cry. But then I want to hit someone for fucking up my already fucked up life even more.”

Pressing his forehead to hers he said naughtily, “You’re hot when you’re mad.” She snorted in laughter at his light-hearted comment. It was just what she needed. “Seriously, Dee, I’m here. For anything. Scream at me, cry on my shoulder, fuckin’ hit me if it’ll make you feel better. You got me?”

“Yeah, Dom, I got you.” She smiled up at his handsome face, loving his crooked smile.

“Good. Let’s go get this whiney friend of ours before the nurses charge him with harassment or some shit.”

She knew he was kidding but wouldn’t put it past Casey. He was an eternal flirt.

A short elevator ride later and they were walking to his room just as he was being wheeled out by a seemingly pissed-off nurse.

“There’s my girl!” he called out. A smile immediately lit his face and any fears she had about him being angry at her for anything diminished.

“Casey,” she sighed, happy to see him.

“Watch that sighing shit, Princess,” Dom growled at her, shooting Casey a dirty look as he stood up and pulled her into his arms.

“Hey man, we all know she’s smitten with your grouchy ass. I can get one or two of her gorgeous smiles for myself while I’m injured.” He winked at her while Dom did his growling about the flirting.

“So glad you’re here to take him off my hands,” the cranky nurse announced. Not entirely serious, but also not kidding.

“I was a great patient!” Casey countered.

“Yeah, so great, all my best nurses refused to deal with your grabby hands.”

“I tried to warn you not to give me that loopy shit. Ain’t my fault you didn’t listen to me.” He smiled sweetly at the nurse.

Dom snorted at his obviously fake sweetness.

“Casey?” she asked, wanting to distract him so the nurse didn’t clobber him with the clipboard she was holding like she seemed to want to do.

“Yeah, Double D?”

Shaking her head at his very odd nickname for her, she asked, “Are you ready to go home now?”

“Is that a proposition?”

Dom cuffed the back of his head with his hand.

“Hey, man! She said it not me.”

“She wasn’t offering you shit other than not to get creamed by the nice nurse. Now shut your big mouth and let’s go,” Dom cursed out.

“Oh.” He looked between the nurse and Dom like he was trying to figure out who he’d rather take his chances with. Leaning towards her, he whispered not so quietly, “You’ll save me from him right?” Ducking just as Dom swung to hit his head again.

Laughter rang out behind them as Dom pushed his wheelchair and Dee walked beside them.

Eighteen

“So Miss Double
D, what have you got to say for yourself for leaving us like that?” Case blurted as soon as they were in the truck.

“Christ sakes, Case. Shut your damn mouth.” His friend was in rare form it seemed.

“No chance, Dom, the girl ran. I wanna know why she’d break my heart that way.” Yeah, he was pouting; it wasn’t pretty.

As Dom was about to tell him off again, or maybe cut his head off, he wasn’t sure which, Deedee smiled sweetly at them both. “Because you got hurt because of me. Jaxson could have been hurt so much worse, and I had no idea what else to do. So yes, Casey, I ran. I ran because people I’ve come to care about more than myself were getting hurt left, right, and center, and I refused to be some sort of catalyst to a major tragedy. I left to protect you all.”

Dom looked in the rearview mirror at Case to see him looking his body over before he answered. “You’re just a tiny thing; you seen the size of me?”

Oh shit.

“I don’t need some li’l girl to protect moi!”

“From where I was sitting, yeah, you did,” she told him quietly.

Dom could still hear the worry and fear in her voice. Case seemed to quiet down at her words. She didn’t say much, but they held an impact. The further they drove, the quieter it seemed. Case’s meds had finally knocked him out, and he was drooling on the back seat while Dee seemed to be staring off into space.

For the longest time in his life, he’d believed he would be alone forever, made peace with it years ago even. But now, he had this incredibly selfless and vulnerable woman to take care of, and he was often left confused as to how he could possibly be enough for her.

He’d done a lot of bad things in his life—killed, cheated, stole. He wasn’t perfect. He was simply just a man trying to survive. All those missions for the Rangers had left some sort of stain on his soul for the longest time. He hadn’t always agreed with what they were ordered to do, but like so many other men and women, he was a cog in the wheel, only worth something if he was doing what he was trained to. And so he did it, no matter how questionable or noble, he did it.

He was damn good at it, too. Until his last mission in Haiti. They’d been sent in to rescue an American diplomat when things went FUBAR. The hostiles not only took the man we were sent to rescue, they also took an entire village of hardworking Haitians hostage.

While Dom’s team had been organizing and planning everything, the insurgents had been raping and torturing woman and children. Tying the men up to poles and forcing them to watch. His team had never been informed of anyone other than the diplomat, so they had no clue they were about to walk into something nightmares were made of.

Heading in to rescue their target, the scene that greeted them had made even the hardened soldiers sick. They were supposed to be the baddest of the bad but seeing so many small children chopped up and bloody, violated; they had all been shaken to the core.

When they’d contacted their unit leader, he told them to stick to the mission. Nothing else was their problem. That hadn’t sat well with any of them. They’d successfully completed their mission, though. Once the diplomat was on a plane back to wherever he was so important, they’d defied orders and gone back to the village to see if they could rescue any of the people left alive.

In the twenty-four hours it had taken to get the man they’d rescued on the plane, a lot, they learned, had happened.

The village had been burned to the ground.

Its people burned alive.

The smell of burning flesh was something etched into his brain’s synapses for life.

*****

The silence was
a welcome relief from Casey’s inquisitive questions. She had a hard time fully explaining where her head was at when she’d decided to leave, so hearing the hurt in his voice was painful. She’d caused it, though, so she owed him the small explanation she gave.

Spending a lifetime trying to protect those she loved, it had come as second nature to want to protect them, too. Only she’d hurt them all while doing it. Now, remorse would be her companion.

Turning to Dom, she noticed he was looking a little pale but a lot pissed off.

“Dom?” she asked quietly not wanting to disturb him but needing to know he was all right, and where his head was at.

It took him a moment to come back into his head before he answered her. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You have this look on your face…I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Just thinking.” His answer was short, sharp.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He pondered her words for a moment. Looking to her, he grabbed her hand squeezing it lightly. “It’s not something you ever need to hear about, Princess.”

“Oh. Ok.” It kind of hurt that he would dismiss her so easily. He demanded everything from her and more. It was the first time she’d had the opportunity to really help him, and him shooting her down stung.

“Just thinking about the past, Princess. Trust me when I tell you it’s not something you’d ever want to hear about. Nothing good came from it then, nothing good will come from it now.”

“Talking about it will be good for you, though.”

“Are you always so damn logical?” He laughed.

“Only when it comes to someone I love.”

Shit. Did I just say that out loud? Please don’t notice
, she begged in her mind.

“Are you saying you love me, Princess?” His tone of voice had no give, so she didn’t know if the idea made him happy or what.

“Of course she is you idiot,” Casey commented from his drool-filled bench.

“Shut the hell up, Case,” Dom snapped at him. Staring back to her, he asked again, “Princess?”

She smiled at him, not wanting to have such an intimate conversation with an audience, even a partially passed out one. There was a lot she wanted to say to him, and the fear of him not reciprocating held her back from experiencing that humiliation where she couldn’t run away.

“That’s all right, I can wait,” he whispered to her.

Needing to change the subject, she asked, “Is Jaxson with Angela still?”

“Yes. Larry is with them, and I think it’s best it stays that way until we find out what Bradshaw wants.” She understood his point, but it hurt nonetheless. She was excited to see Jax but knew him staying away from her until the danger had passed was for the best.

“Can I call him when we get home?” she asked timidly.

“I think he’d love that.” Dom smiled at her.

The rest of the way was driven in silence as Case snored in the back seat. Once they finally pulled up to Dom’s house, she immediately noticed a black SUV parked beside the house. Not hiding but trying to blend in she supposed.

“Stay here, Princess,” he told her. Leaning over the seat, he shook Case’s shoulder telling him, “Wake up, sleeping beauty, we got company.”

Casey popped up far more alert than she’d have thought possible. “Ahh, man, not again,” he grumbled seeing the SUV, but he dutifully followed Dom out to where they stood sentry in front of Dom’s truck, waiting for the occupants of the other vehicle to exit.

Who she saw stole her breath, seizing any rational function as she saw the man from her nightmares.

Bradshaw.

*****

Oh, he was
pissed something fierce. As soon as Bradshaw exited his vehicle, Dom drew on him, a Glock in each hand. Case was slightly unsteady on his feet but his aim was true, so he knew his back was covered.

“Whatcha’ doing here, Bradshaw?” Dom asked lazily.

“I came to collect my daughter.” His nasally, stuffed shirt British accent grated on his nerves so badly.

“Not happening.”

“That was the deal. You bring her to me one time after she turns eighteen, then she’s yours.”

“You’re fucked up, man,” Case supplied helpfully.

Bradshaw ignored him. “Tell her to come out here.”

“She already knows everything. What torment do you need to lay on her now?”

He completely ignored Dom now and looked around him into the truck to try and see her, shouting, “Come out here now, Deidre Lynne!”

“Not happening,” Dom reiterated.

“He seriously sold her to you? I thought you were shitting me,” Case fake whispered. “What a tool.”

“You do realize I can hear you?” Bradshaw sneered at them.

“Oh shit! So you can hear? I thought you were just ignoring us.”

“Ignorant Americans,” one of Bradshaw’s bodyguards muttered.

“Here’s the thing, Bradshaw. She’s already mine–” When Bradshaw went to say something, Dom continued, “In
every
way possible.” He emphasized it to make his point and piss Bradshaw off. “The deal always was your life for hers. I let your sorry ass live; she’s mine. Tell me what exactly it is you want and just maybe I’ll let you see her.”

“She’s my child, I’ll do– “

“I am not you stupid, self-righteous son of a bitch! How dare you!” Of course, she wouldn’t listen to him.

“Young lady! I’ll beg your pardon to not speak to me like that.” His haughty attitude only served to piss Dom’s little she-devil off more.

“Fuck. You!” she snapped at him. “How do you like that for language?”

“Damn, Double D, you fixing to make a sailor blush or what?” Case said smartly. He could see a small smile trying to tug at her lips.

“You’ve done enough damage in my life,
Bradshaw
,” she said his name like it was a curse. “What more can you possibly want?”

“Well, since we’re all uncivilized beings here, I suppose it doesn’t matter if I tell you here or somewhere else.”

“What?” she finally snapped.

“Your mother took something from me, something I needed very much– “

She interrupted him, again. “Oh please! Like you didn’t take everything from her? How dare you come here looking for anything from me!”

“If you would get some manners that I know were beaten into you at that school and let me finish, you would know what I’m trying to say.”

“Well, get on with it, old man,” Case announced. “I got more meds to take.”

“You associate yourself with drug people? Such a disgrace.” He shook his head in shame at them.