Dominion (Alpha Domain #1) (2 page)

“
Y
ou all set up
?”

I sighed into the phone and rolled my eyes. “For the hundredth time, Allen—yes. Everything’s in place and I’m lurking outside the building now.”

“Run me through what you did last night.”

I bit back an irritated groan. “I told you two hours ago, Allen. Just fucking
relax
.”

“Go through it again!”

“Fine! Last night, I went up the fire escape and broke into the apartment they’ll be staying in and bugged the ever living shit out of the place. I’ve got cams and mics throughout the entire apartment and the feed is going straight to my tablet, so I can keep track of them whenever, wherever.”

“What if they leave?”

This time, I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my tone. “Well that’s why I’m parked outside the building. I’ll tail them.”

“John, if she sees you—”

“She won’t see me!” I snapped, then shook my head at the tense silence coming from Allen’s end. “I won’t let them see me. Now, don’t you have something better to do with your time?”

There was a long pause before he finally spoke.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. One last thing before I let you go.”

“What’s that?” I asked dryly, my eyes snapping to attention as I noticed a taxi cab slowly pulling up to the curb of the apartment building.

“I want you to send me the passwords to view the feed.”

“Allen—”

“I’m not going to watch them the whole day, alright? I just want to have the option to check in on her when I have a moment.”

“Fine. I’ll text them to you in a minute.”

“Alight. And John?”

“I know, don’t let her see me. Watch from a distance. I fucking got it,” I ground out before I pulled the phone away from my ear and ended the call.

I didn’t immediately text him the codes, instead directing my attention to the taxi as the trunk popped open and the occupants finally shuffled out of the car. The first one out was the man I assumed to be Chris since he fit the general physical description that Allen had given me.

Tall, lanky, shaggy brown hair, a constant expression like he was strung out on something.

Yep, that was definitely Chris Maurer.

What I wasn’t really prepared for was Amber as she stepped out of the car and wondrously looked up at all the tall buildings surrounding her. I could tell she was a tourist from that simple move alone. Someone who lived here almost never looked up. It was a hell of a lot safer to keep your eyes on the people around you.

I could also tell she was quite a bit younger when the photograph Allen gave me had been taken than she was now.

Of course, if I had thought more about it I would have recognized the photograph as a high school senior portrait, but that fact never really clicked in my head until now. Sure, she was pretty as a teenager, but it was clear that she was at least in her mid-twenties now and the years had taken her from being a looker to a total
knockout
.

I watched as Chris put his arm around her waist and pressed a kiss to her neck and I couldn’t help but to laugh at the sight. As the duo pulled their bags from the trunk and made their way into the building, I took my cell and texted Allen the codes to view the feed.

If they kept doing that lovey shit on camera, Allen was going to flip his shit. I grinned when he texted me back with a thanks. I was inspired to shoot another text his way.

‘
You may want to check to make sure the feed will show up on your laptop.
’

‘
Good looking out. Will do that now.
’

I sat the phone on the passenger seat, knowing it’d be useless to pocket it since he would surely be calling me again soon. I opened the feed view on my tablet and watched as the guy—presumably a friend of Chris’s—opened his front door and let the couple inside.

The guy showed them to their bedroom and the moment they were left alone to unpack, Chris ran his hand from her lower back down to her ass and gave it a firm slap. I grinned and began mentally counting the seconds.

I only made it to twenty-six before the phone rang.

“Yesss?” I greeted jovially after I answered the call.

“Don’t let either of them out of your sight. By any means necessary.”

The line went dead and I chuckled as I slid the phone back into my pocket and returned my attention to the feed, slipping in my earbuds so I could listen in on their conversation.

I
t was
like a goddamn train wreck. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force myself to look away.

I guess the one thing I had to be grateful for was that the signal from the feed was too weak to pick up the audio. Otherwise, as I watched my stepsister and her boyfriend cuddling together on the couch whispering to one another, I might have thrown the fuck up.

“Hey, boss!”

I jumped and hastily slammed down the lid of the laptop, looking up with wide eyes as Derek strolled into my office without a care in the world.

“Don’t you fucking
knock
?” I snarled, unable to hold back my anger at his uncaring intrusion.

“Sorry. Just figured I’d check in.”

My eye twitched when he sat down on the empty chair across from my desk and made himself at home without so much as an invitation. I knew John allowed that kind of behavior from Derek and the others, but I didn’t.

I was a little more high-strung than John had ever been. I knew. John knew. Everyone who ever met me knew it.

So why the fuck was this asshole acting like he didn’t?

“I don’t need anything. Get out.”

Derek smiled and tilted his head to the side. “Oh. Alright. Hey, how’s John doing?”

“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously, eyebrows raised high with surprise.

“Didn’t you put him on watchdog duty? I gave him a bunch of spy equipment last night and I wanted to make sure he got everything hooked up right. Has he checked in yet?”

I cleared my throat and did my best to appear cavalier, not that I honestly thought I was fooling him with the act.

“I haven’t heard anything from him,” I said coolly before I walked around the desk and ushered him out of the room. “I’ll let you know when I do. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot to get done.”

Derek was resisting being thrown out of my office, but he ultimately knew better than to fight with me. “Alright, boss. Let me know.”

“Good-bye, Derek.”

“Later.”

I slammed the door shut and twisted the lock before slowly turning back and wincing at the sight of my closed laptop.

Was I really going to torture myself by watching the woman I loved cuddle up with another man all day? Was I that much of a masochist?

I was frozen with indecision for a long moment before I decided that, yes, apparently I
was
that much of a masochist. I sat back down on my chair and opened the lid, typing in my password then reopening the feed.

I didn’t know how to feel when I noticed they were no longer on the couch. I flicked between the camera feeds and quickly realized that they weren’t even in the apartment anymore.

My fingers twitched over the pocket of my jeans, itching to pull out the phone and demand to know where they went.

“
O
h shit
,” I cursed as I hastily ducked down in my seat to avoid being seen.

The last thing I expected from the couple was for them to immediately take off again. Last I looked, they seemed pretty content just snuggling on the couch while talking to Chris’s friend. I was completely thrown by the behavior, unprepared to be following them this early.

But as I peeked over the dashboard and saw the cab pulling away from the curb, I knew I had to act fast. Just because I wasn’t prepared didn’t mean I could slack on my duties. I started the car and mentally took note of the cab’s license plate number, just in case I lost it in traffic somewhere.

When my cell rang in my pocket, I nearly screamed in frustration. It was pissing me off that Allen seemed to think I could tail one yellow cab from a distance in a city full of
thousands
of yellow cabs while
also
watching for dumbass pedestrians
and
talking on the phone at the same time.

I should’ve said no to this. Should have made Allen do his dirty work himself.

Not that watching Amber was something I could really consider ‘dirty work’. It was actually a nice change of pace to be trailing a beautiful girl to keep her safe instead of following around a fat ugly fuck for days on end, waiting for the perfect opportunity to knock him off.

So, yeah. I really couldn’t complain about this job. It kind of felt noble.

Until the phone started ringing in my pocket again and I just barely resisted the urge to throw it out the goddamn window.

Allen was a high-strung guy, that was no secret. But usually when he sent me to do a job, he trusted my ability to get it done right and gave me space to do so. That didn’t appear to be the case this time and after I managed to figure out where Amber and Chris were going, I planned on immediately calling Allen and telling him to either back the fuck off or do this shit himself.

I was already agitated enough.

Trailing them was a chore and the cab almost disappeared from my sight multiple times, but I somehow managed to subtly stay on them all the way to their location. I couldn’t see any parking spots in my view so I was forced to ride past them as they exited the cab, but not before slowing down enough to take note of which building they were going inside.

I circled around the block three times before finally parking two blocks away. I quickly dialed Allen’s number, cutting him off when he immediately started shouting at me.

“I followed them to Manhattan. SoHo, to be more specific.”

The news apparently shocked all the anger out of him. “SoHo? What the hell are they doing in SoHo?”

“I don’t know. There wasn’t any parking within two blocks of the building they went in, I can’t keep watch. I’m a few blocks away.”

“Text me the address where they’re at and get a move on.”

“Allen, I told you there’s no parking anywhere on the street.”

“On foot! Go!”

“You said not to—”

“I said don’t let them see you! I didn’t say you’d be sitting in your fucking car the entire time! Hurry the fuck up!”

The line went dead and I stared down at my phone incredulously. Did he
really
just tell me to try to tail them on foot without letting them see me? How in the fuck was I supposed to do that?

I grabbed the newspaper from my back seat and hurriedly made my way out, hoping I could find a park bench within eyeshot of the building to sit on. It might have been a complete cliché for the spy to hide behind a paper, but I didn’t have any better ideas at the moment.

My phone chimed with a text.

‘
ADDRESS!
’

I shook my head and sent it out before getting out of the car and rushing back to the building. I had no way of knowing whether they had already left yet or not, but I prayed they were still inside.

Otherwise, Allen was going to kill me.

There wasn’t a bench across the street, but there was one right beside the building itself. It was risky as hell, but I darted across the road and sat down, opening the paper across my lap and pretending to be engrossed while I sporadically side-eyed the entrance.

When my phone rang yet again, I growled.

“It’s an office building. There are a few different business inside so it’s hard to be certain which one they went into.”

“I’m not going in there to find out.”

“You don’t have to,” he assured me quickly. “I’m pretty sure I know. One of the offices is leased to Mario Lorenzo.”

“Really?” I asked quietly, glancing at the door again to make sure the coast was still clear.

“Really. So regardless of which office they went into, it’s pretty obvious why they’re in SoHo.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that,” I noted as my frown deepened. Usually, Allen would be satisfied with the knowledge of where, when, and why… but this time, he sounded worried.

“I’m not. This changes everything.”

“How so?”

Allen hesitated for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I had convinced myself that Amber had nothing to do with Chris’s debt, or any knowledge of it. If he took her with him to see Mario…”

“Then she obviously knows.”

“Yes. And she’s willingly put herself in danger for
him
,” he summed up with a snarl.

I sighed and ran a hand over my face, recognizing how this did indeed change things. “Where do you want to go from here?”

“Just come on back for now. I can’t imagine the Sanchez family will take action when Chris is willingly going in for a meeting. He obviously wants to make good on his debt.”

“Or he’s just too afraid to
not
go in,” I pointed out.

“True. And he should be. Since you’ve already briefed Derek on what was going on
without my permission
, I’ll send him over to cover them for a few hours while you and I discuss options.”

I winced when I recognized the irritation in his tone. “Allen, I didn’t tell him to—”

“I know, we’re cool. Just don’t do it again.”

I nodded to myself and said, “I’ll see you in a few.”

“Alright, man. See you soon.”

I ended the call and slipped the phone back into my pocket before I stood up and vainly attempted to refold the newspaper. My attempt was shot to hell as a large gust of wind blew it right out of my hands.

I turned to my right at the sound of a shrill yelp, freezing to the spot as I saw Amber pulling the paper away from where it had blown right into her face. She was laughing lightly as she gripped it with one hand and ran a hand through her wind-blown hair with the other.

“I’m guessing this is yours?” she asked, turning her curious blue eyes to me.

I gulped and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she waved off my apology as she handed the paper back to me.