The Sacrificial Lamb (55 page)

“When we went for the ultrasound, the doctor said the baby was the size of a sesame seed,” she said, smiling sweetly. “So that’s the baby’s name till we know for sure if it’s a boy or girl.”

There was so much pride and joy in her voice as she spoke that Domenic was overcome with emotion once more. They had lost so much time, but he hoped the wounds would heal. And then perhaps they could begin rebuilding their relationship.

They talked for a while longer until he was stifling yawns. It had been four days since he was shot, and while Domenic felt infinitely better, he still needed rest. Taking her cue, Bianca rose to go. She leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

“Go to sleep, big brother. I’ll see you soon.”

Domenic smiled sleepily and said goodbye. At last part of him felt at peace. He had Bianca and Russell back in his life, and while Russ always knew how to get him going, Bianca had always been able to calm his spirit. With that in mind, he let the darkness take him.

It was still light out when Domenic awoke, but he could tell from the golden hue of the room that twilight was fast approaching. Alex was sitting in a chair, legs curled up under her, reading a book. She sat in a dying ray of sun that caught the subtle golden highlights of her hair and made her skin glow translucently.

She didn’t realize he was awake yet, and he took advantage of that, memorizing her in her entirety…the tilt of her head, the engrossed look on her face as she lived through whatever was happening in the book, and the way her hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her back. Domenic watched as she held the book with a certain type of reverence and how she licked her index finger to turn the page.

Alex looked up from her book and saw that he was awake. She closed it, keeping her finger between the pages, and gave him a tentative smile.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I got shot,” he said, instantly regretting it when he saw her smile fade, replaced by a faint look of horror.

“I’m so sorry,” she blurted out. “If I hadn’t run out of the court house, you would have never been shot.”

“Don’t apologize. It was my fault,” he began and was stopped by a knock on the door. Both of them turned to see an auburn head pop in.

“Hey, roomie,” Fiona said, sauntering into the room.

“Hello, Fiona,” he said, trying not to grit his teeth. “This is Alex. Alex, this is Fiona O’Malley.”

Alex stood up, eyeing the other woman, taking in her low cut top and skintight jeans. She put out her hand, and Fiona grasped it firmly, also giving Alex the once over. For a perverse moment, Domenic had visions of catfights in his head, but killed it as soon as a JELL-O pit became involved. Well, he was happy to see that the bullet hadn’t squashed his libido any.

“Roomie?” Alex said, smiling thinly. She looked from Fiona, to him, and back again.

“Yeah, me and Domenic were shacked up the better part of last week.”

He winced at the way that sounded and hastened to rectify it. “Fiona works for the FBI as well. She was stationed with me last week, on assignment.”

“Oh,” Alex replied, not looking appeased. “I see. Well, I’ll just leave you two alone then.”

“Alex, you don’t have to leave,” he said, exasperated. They hadn’t had a moment alone since he’d come out of his coma, and he was loath to see her go just when they were going to get things out into the open.

“It’s fine,” she replied tightly. “I wouldn’t want to disturb you two catching up.” With a last disparaging look at Fiona and a flick of her hair, she was out the door.

Fiona watched her go with an amused expression on her face and then turned to him with a coy smile. “So, that’s the infamous Alexis Montgomery?”

“What are you doing here, Fiona?” he demanded.

“I
did
come to apprise you of the Liseni situation, but if you’re going to be a jerk about it…” She made as if to leave the room, knowing that was too big a carrot to dangle in front of Domenic’s nose to let her disappear.

“Wait,” he called resentfully, and she turned back, sly smile still in place. “What about the Liseni?”

“Well, since you asked
so
nicely, I’ll tell you,” she said, leaning forward, her eyes sparkling. He made a waving motion with his hand, indicating she should get on with it. “Since you shot Carlo, it’s been a war zone out there.”

“What?”

“Oh, yeah!” she said enthusiastically, “With a quarter of their army dead and Carlo out of the picture, the other families are taking advantage and wiping out the whole lot.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Nope.”

“What about Elio and Sandro?”

“Car bomb.”

“
Car bomb?”

“Mmhmm.”

“And the rest?”

“We’ve found five so far—assassinated. The rest are probably in hiding, but whoever is left when this is all done will get picked up by us.”

“I can’t believe it,” he said, his mind reeling.

With the death of Elio and Sandro, there was no need for John Montgomery to testify. Now that the family was either dead or scattered, there wasn’t much of a threat left to the Montgomery family at all. None of the two-bit players remaining would care enough to want revenge on them. If anything, the target would be trained on him, since he had been the one to betray the Liseni, effectively destroying them. Five dead, which meant five still remained, and until they were in the ground or behind bars, he would always be on their radar.

Domenic’s heart sank as he realized what this meant. If he kept Alex in his life, she would still be in danger. If he cut her loose, she had a chance at a safe and happy life. He stopped listening to Fiona’s chatter as his last hope for a normal life flew out the window, taking his heart with it.

Alex left Domenic’s room, fuming. One of the guards got up from his chair to follow her, and she sped up so that she was in front of him. This was getting real old, real fast. She couldn’t wait until the day came where she didn’t need to be watched twenty-four hours a day.

“Hey,
roomie
,” she mumbled to herself, mimicking Fiona’s sickly sweet falsetto. “Shacked up, were you? No wonder you were so anxious to get rid of me. Asshole!”

All of the hurtful words Domenic had said to her back at the courthouse came back to her, along with a whack-load of insecurities. Perhaps Fiona had been a
perk
, too. The two of them naked and writhing together flashed in her mind, and she gritted her teeth against it. The problem was, she had shared Domenic’s bed, and she knew exactly the things he would have done to Fiona. Every single one of them was flitting through her mind at warp speed.

“Okay, calm down, Alex,” she whispered fiercely.

She let the red haze fade and tried to look at the scene with some perspective that wasn’t colored by jealousy. Domenic hadn’t looked pleased to see Fiona when she sauntered into the room—not the way he had looked at her, Alex thought with grim satisfaction. He had also been quick to correct Fiona after she’d told Alex they’d been
shacking up
. It was probably completely innocent.

As much as Alex hated to admit it, the woman was stunning. She knew very few men who would refuse a woman that drop-dead gorgeous. Oh hell, if Alex was going to be honest, she knew
no
men who would refuse that woman. The way Fiona had looked at Domenic was like a cat licking its chops once it spied a juicy mouse. What made Alex think that Domenic would be impervious to her wiles?

Because he loves you
, came a voice from deep inside. It sounded exactly like Russell, and Alex smiled a little.

Over the last five days, she and Russell had become good friends. She had told him everything that had happened at the cabin—minus a few things of course—and the more she had told him, the larger his grin had become. Russell had been very confident about the fact that as long as he had known him, Domenic had never been in love with
any
woman. When he saw the look on Alex’s face, he was quick to assure her that, by the same token, Domenic hadn’t been a manwhore either. Domenic had been very careful with the women he had gotten involved with. However, once they became attached, he withdrew.

“Sounds familiar,” she’d grumbled at him.

“No, it’s different,” he insisted. “Once he drew back, that was it. It was
over
. There was no convincing him of anything. He shut off and just moved on.”

“Um…that still sounds familiar.”

“
No
…’cause you said that when he did that at the cabin, things changed after you confronted him!”

“So?”

“So, if that had been the old Domenic, he wouldn’t have given a shit. He would have just marched you back to the cabin and kept on ignoring you, but that didn’t happen.” Russell coughed, hiding a smile behind his fist, while Alex scowled at him. Although she hadn’t filled him in on their more intimate encounters, her blushes had given her away.

He had doggedly continued to tell her he was convinced Domenic was in love with her and that she should just talk to him once he had healed from surgery. When Alex told him what had happened at the courthouse, Russell’s face turned puce and he gnashed his teeth together.

“What a douche.”

“Uh, yeah! See? Your theory is wrong.”

“Well, he did go chasing after you,” he pointed out. “And he took a bullet for you. That has to mean something.”

“It means he was doing his
job
,” she spit out.

“Holy fuck. Again with the job! You know,” he said, leveling her a stern look, “you two deserve each other. I’ve never met two more mule-headed people in my life. And I thought Bianca was bad!”

Alex grinned sheepishly while he continued glowering at her. The least she could do was talk to Domenic and let him know that she was not engaged to Shane and never had been. Perhaps once that was out of the way, they could discuss what had happened between them at the cabin, and she could find out how he felt about her. She had told Russell as much, and he had sat back with a satisfied look on his face.

The problem was, she hadn’t had a minute alone with Domenic today, and when they were just about to hash things out, Fiona had busted in on them.

Sighing with resignation, she turned back toward Domenic’s room. Maybe by now he’d be alone. Or maybe she’d get back and find a naked Fiona straddling him in his hospital bed. Alex picked up her pace and beat it back to his door. Stopping, she took a few deep, cleansing breaths and asked a favor of the two guards permanently stationed outside of Domenic’s room.

Walking in, Alex was happy to see he was alone. She reached behind her, turned the lock on the door, and rested her back against it, hands flat on the cool surface. Domenic was sitting at the edge of the bed, wearing a pair of scrubs. He was watching her curiously, most likely wondering what she was doing.

“I told the guards not to let anyone disturb us.”

Domenic smirked, and her heart lurched.

“We need to talk.”

His smile faltered, but he nodded his head.

Taking a deep breath, she started speaking.