Dominic (Saint Brothers #1) (20 page)

“No, Matt.”

“I do. I love you. I’m doing this for us. This is what we both want.”

“No it’s not! I didn’t want you to hurt Fallon!” She cried.

“She’s irrelevant.” Matt dismissed me with a wave of his hand as the darkness crept closer to me, threatening to take me away.

“No, Matt, please, no, please don’t.” Lauren whimpered but I couldn’t focus anymore. I couldn’t see what was happening.

Unable to speak, I gurgled out a croak, wanting him to stop whatever he was planning to do to her.

“Fuck! Why don’t you just die?” Matt roared and I felt the thunder of his footsteps cross the room before my head exploded in imaginable pain and mercifully, unconsciousness claimed me.

Chapter Sixteen

Dominic

What a clusterfuck.

The last thing I wanted to do was to leave Fallon at Lauren’s, but I had more important things to think about. Like getting hold of that asshat Matt and beating the living shit out of him. He was going to wish he hadn’t been born by the time I was through with him.

That wasn’t going to be easy, though. As soon as I contacted my brothers to trace him, Matt had dropped off the map. We couldn’t find him anywhere.

It didn’t help that we didn’t know who the fuck we were actually looking for. Nothing had come through about his real identity and as much as I wanted to keep this off the police radar, I’d had to update Ethan on the situation. He was trying to keep things as quiet as he could, but I had the feeling we wouldn’t be able to keep this from blowing up for too long.

Driving around the city mindlessly, there was nothing I could do. All I was doing was wasting time. We had no clue where he was, where he could go or if he had any known contacts in this city. We were fucking clueless.

Heading towards the security office, I had to meet with Austen and Kellin to see what we could do. They had to have come up with some ideas by now. It had been at least a couple of hours since I last checked in with them. Sending off a quick text to Lauren, I threw my phone on the passenger seat and put my foot down.

Pulling up outside, I took a moment to clear my head. All I could feel was red hot anger. That man was putting not one, but two of our women in danger and there was no way we were going to let that slide. It wasn’t only that, though. Kellin and Austen were pulling men off other jobs to keep the girls covered. That couldn’t go on indefinitely.

Fallon was now one of us. I couldn’t do anything about it until after this mess had been cleared up, but I was willing to give it a shot if she was. It took a lot to come to that decision and I’d battled many demons in my mind, but I thought it was worth a try. Fallon was the one I wanted in my life.

I think it was seeing the way she was with Lily that did it. Or maybe it was the way Lily was with her, I’m not sure. But I realised that by keeping Lily to myself, I wasn’t doing her any favours. She needed people in her life beyond my family.

Plus, I couldn’t keep worrying about her losing the people she loved in her life. Her mother had walked out on her, but that didn’t mean everyone else was going to. It was a natural part of life to love and lose, but I hoped that Fallon would be a permanent fixture in our lives. If she wanted to be, that is.

And I wasn’t doing myself any favours. I knew that now. I was long past the time that one night stands with faceless women at Sinners was satisfying. I needed something more. Intimacy. Closeness. And all that other pussy shit I wouldn’t be caught dead speaking to my brothers about.

It was going to take a lot of trust to get involved with someone, especially because of Lily, but I thought that out of all the girls I’d been involved with, Fallon would be the one to do it.

She was a fantastic woman and I should have treated her better. It was clear from the first time that she wasn’t the kind of woman to go out and hook up with a random guy. But that didn’t stop me from taking what I wanted from her, what she willingly gave to me.

But even from that first time, it had been more than just the sex. I couldn’t shake her from my mind. Fallon haunted my days and my dreams. It took me until now to realise that I was going to have to take that step or be alone until Lily had grown up.

Seeing her hurt like that and then seeing her tortured sleep, it cut me deep. It was then that I realised how much I cared for her. She was mine and someone had hurt her and they were going to pay.

“What have we found out?” I demanded as soon as I walked in.

The office space was modern and spacious. They were building up a large client base and had to expand, taking over the office building next door. The building work was going on as we speak and all I could hear was banging and clanging which rattled my already frazzled nerves.

“Absolutely fuck all.” Kellin shook his head. “Where have you been all morning?”

“Out looking.”

“Come up with anything?”

I shook my head in frustration. “Where’s Austen?”

“Chasing a lead.” He got up from behind the desk. “It’s like he’s a ghost. We can’t find the bastard anywhere.”

I shook my head in frustration. How could this be happening? My brothers were the best at their profession, yet they couldn’t find him. And if they couldn’t, no one else would be able to do.

“Where’s Jared?”

“He’s taken Maren to the doctors. She hasn’t been feeling well.” Kellin explained. “I told him we could take care of this.”

Sitting down in the chair, I ran a hand through my hair. I couldn’t just sit there doing nothing. It was driving me nuts. As I stood up, Kellin asked where I was going. “I need to do something. I can’t just sit here. Where’s Austen? I’ll go find him and see what he’s come up with.”

“I don’t know where Austen is. He said he’d call as soon as he came up with something.”

“Well, I can’t just sit on my ass and do fuck all.”

“But what are you going to do? We’ve no idea where the hell he is.”

“I don’t fucking know!” I shouted, slamming my fist onto the desk. Getting up to pace around the room, I felt like a caged tiger.

The phone rang and I glared at Kellin as he picked it up. The last thing I needed right now was for him to have more work to pull his attention away from getting this situation sorted. He had enough men to cover the work that they had on at the moment, but their workforce was already being stretched thin. They were going to have to take more people on soon, which was a good thing. It meant business was booming. It just wasn’t great for me at the moment when I wanted every man on finding Matt and keeping the girls safe.

I didn’t take any notice of what Kellin was saying on the phone until he slammed the handset down on the desk. He looked over at me with wary eyes.

“What is it?”

“We’ve found him.”

“What? Where is he?” I was ready to storm out of the building and go and find his sorry ass.

“At Lauren’s place.”

“What the fuck? What do you mean he’s at Lauren’s place?”

Kellin shook his head, moving around to gather up everything he’d need to take with him.

“Kellin, fucking talk to me.”

“He took out Chester and Maze.”

“Where’s Fallon and Lauren?” My anger rose as I was met with silence. “Where the fuck is Fallon?”

“We need to get there.” Grabbing his car keys, Kellin looked at me pointedly. “Keep your shit together. This is bigger than any of us could have anticipated.”

“And what the hell does that mean.” I stormed after him. At least he wasn’t wasting any time hanging around at the office. We were striding out towards his car that was parked outside, getting in and setting off quickly.

“It means that Ethan got back to me with his background check. Matt’s real name is Russell Eastman. He’s wanted by three different police forces for sexual assault, rape and attempted murder.”

I stared at him. Kellin was busy keeping his features neutral as he concentrated on navigating around the busy morning traffic. I could see by the twitch in his eye that this was getting to him, but he had moved into a professional mode.

There was no way I could do that. Kellin and Austen encountered messed up shit like this every day in their line of business, but I sure as hell didn’t and this was personal for me.

“What else did Ethan say?”

“He’s got men on their way to Lauren’s.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “And how did you find out that Matt, or whatever his name is, is at Lauren’s and had taken out our boys?” When Kellin stayed quiet, my temper spiked. “How did he know, Kel?”

He slammed a fist on the steering wheel. “Dammit, Dominic!”

“Just tell me!”

“Ethan is there. He’s outside.”

“He’s there and he’s not doing anything about it? What the fuck?”

Kellin glared at me. “He’s doing us a fucking favour. He’s managed to check on Maze and Chester and they’re still breathing. Backup and medical assistance are on the way.”

“And what about Fallon and Lauren?”

He was quiet for a moment. “Lauren seems unhurt from what Ethan can tell.”

“And Fallon?” I was about ready to strangle the motherfucker if he didn’t start talking. “What about Fallon?”

“Ethan hasn’t been able to… he doesn’t know.”

I wanted to kill something, to rip it apart. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Ethan was there and not doing anything to stop that maniac? What kind of cop was he?

“Are you listening to me?” Kellin snapped.

Swinging my eyes to him, if looks could kill, my brother would have been six foot under. “When you stop talking shit, maybe I’ll listen.”

Kellin rolled his eyes. “Stop being such a stubborn son of a bitch. You’re not the only one involved in this you know. Lauren is in danger. Two of our men are down, luckily not dead. Ethan is there, but he’s waiting for backup before they storm in.”

“Why wait?”

“Because this asshole has already taken out Maze and Chester and they’re big motherfuckers. Ethan wouldn’t stand a chance against him. If he decided to play hero and run in there all guns blazing, he could end up getting the girls killed.” He glanced over at me to make sure I was listening. “We need clear heads on this, brother.”

I shook my head at him. This was a goddamn mess. We thought that we were doing more than enough posting two men to watch over Lauren while we gathered more information on her ex, evidently it was not enough.

It seemed to take forever to get to Lauren’s neighbourhood. We rode the rest of the way in silence. What else was there to say? He had one up on us and we now had to rally to take back control of the situation.

I couldn’t think about what could be happening to Fallon. To do that, I would lose my mind. We weren’t even involved, but she already meant something to me and I wasn’t ready to let go of that.

Fallon was a special woman and it made my blood boil that he had already laid his hands on her, let alone to think what could be happening to her right now.

It was also a concern as to how Lauren would deal with this. I knew what kind of girl she was and she was going to lay all the guilt for this situation on her own shoulders. That was going to be a lot for her to bear, but it would take some work for her to understand that this wasn’t on her. This was all on him. And he was going to pay. God, was he going to pay.

Pulling the car to a stop at the end of the street, I glanced over at Kellin. “What are you doing?”

He frowned at me, “What were you planning on? Storming in there?”

“Well, I’m not just going to sit here twiddling my thumbs.” I scowled at him.

“We need to wait for word from Ethan.”

“Why?”

“Back-up is on the way.”

Staring at him in surprise, I had to rein in my temper. “You’re just going to sit there and wait? Do nothing while anything could be happening in there?”

“Well, have you got another plan?” Kellin sneered.

“Fuck yeah I do.” I wrenched open the door and slammed it shut behind me. Kellin was behind me in two seconds flat, grabbing hold of my arm and trying to drag me back. “I’m not waiting!”

Kellin all but growled. “You’re not going in there alone.”

“I will if I have to.”

He rose his eyes to the sky. “Fuck.” He mumbled before nodding me on. “What’s the plan?”

“Tell Ethan I’m going around the back. You go in the front.”

I didn’t wait for Kellin to say anything. Nothing was going to stop me from going in there.

It wasn’t that I was playing hero. I just wasn’t prepared to wait around any longer. He could be doing anything to them in there while we were sat around waiting for backup to arrive.

Scooting down the side of the house, I couldn’t see anything as I peeked through the windows. I knew that Kellin would be ready to go at a moment’s notice and I didn’t plan on going in quietly. He would know I was coming.

Matt wasn’t going to know what had hit him once I got my hands on him. I didn’t give a flying fuck what his real name was. It didn’t matter to me. All that mattered was that I got the girls away from him and then we could do this man to man.

As I rounded the corner, I saw Chester lying on the floor. He was still unconscious. Even though it concerned me, I had to keep moving. Help would be on the way for him. They should be here any minute. I had to concentrate on getting the girls safe.

Crouching by the patio door, I couldn’t see anything. The curtains were drawn, but they didn’t block out the sound. I could quite clearly hear pleading from Lauren mingled with her pitiful cries.

There was no way I was holding off any longer. I wasn’t going to put her through any more of this.

Moving around to the side of the house, I tried the back door. I couldn’t believe my luck when the door handle moved and the door opened without any resistance. I was beyond grateful that I didn’t have to waste precious time trying to kick it in or having to smash a window, although the thought was at the back of my mind that the boys had done a shitty job of securing the place.