The Dominator (62 page)

“Here’s the money. Please let him go.” She said softly.

Junkie took the bag and opened it. Jock started circling her.

“Damn, girl. You got a fine ass on you,” he said.  Bee rolled her eyes at me.  He leaned over and touched her face, “Maybe you need to pay just a little bit more, a bit of a tax, to get your boyfriend outta here.”  She gave me a scared look, a fake scared look; I could see the devil in a twinkle in her eye. I held my gaze steady and said, “Don’t you fucking dare,” to the guy. These were the first words I’d uttered since they’d gotten me.

He snickered, looking over his shoulder at me and the second he did, Bee’s high heeled boot came up and kicked him square in the mouth. As she did this, she also pulled a gun and pointed it at the junkie. Atta girl, Bee; always loved Charlie’s Angels. The junkie dropped the bag of money and his gun and put his hands up.

His eyes were crazy fucked up and I knew the guy’d been dreamin’ of his fix as he’d eyeballed all the money in the bag so he’d be extra dangerous.

“Take him out, sweetheart.” I told her and she immediately shot him in the leg and then kept the gun pointed at him. The guy screamed his head off, “You fucking cunt!”

“Uncuff him,” she said to the jock, who was rousing, pointing the gun back and forth between the two of them. Jock groggily got to his knees and pulled a key from the junkie’s jacket pocket and undid my cuffs. The second he did, my elbow came up backwards and hit him square under the jaw hard enough that he was on the floor on his back and out again. 

I cold clocked the junkie and kicked the jock in the head and then grabbed the bag of money and Bianca passed me an extra gun from under her jacket at her back. I put two bullets in one and then two in the other. She and I got outta there. Outside in a waiting car where Nino and Dex waited. Nino was looking at Bee with pride as we got in. I heard him call JC, head of our clean-up crew, and give a few key but cryptic details. We hopped into the back and we were off.

Tia

I was sitting in the back office of a coffee shop; one that Tommy’s family owned.  Dario was out front talking to a few burly-looking guys that had to be enforcements for the family. I was freaking right out, wondering if everything was okay. Bianca had insisted on doing this and they’d pulled me out at the last second. She hugged me hard before going in, “We’re family. I’m here for ya, Babes! And your man is familia, too, so there’s no way I’m not helping. I can do this.”

Dario had assured me that Bianca would be fine. Said she could double as a paid assassin if she wanted to, she was
that
tough. I prayed she’d be okay. She had a son to think of. And she might be or could soon be my only living relative, unless I counted Aunt Carol --- which I did not.

The door swung open and there was Tommy. I jumped to my feet and threw myself at him. He looked fine, totally fine, except for a bruise on his cheekbone.

“Hey, baby,” he breathed into my hair.

“You okay? Thank God,” I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me and held me tight. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he sat on the desk and kissed me roughly, deeply, possessively.

I heard a throat clearing noise and looked over my shoulder and Dario was in the doorway. He jerked his chin up at Tommy. Tommy returned the chin jerk, then turned and set me down on the desk, “Okay, baby. Gotta go end this. Bee’s driving you to where the girls are.  Be back soon.”

I winced, “I so want this over.”

“It ends tonight.” He said firmly and kissed me quickly on the mouth and then turned on his heel and he was gone.

I started to shiver.  Bianca popped her head into the office, “Ready?” I nodded and followed her out.

That night was like an eternity. The night that wouldn’t end.  When I got to Bianca’s mother’s house it was about 10:00 and it was like a locked down fortress. It was a gated place just at the outskirts of town and there were half a dozen men guarding the place. Inside the big, warm, welcoming house was Lisa, Tess, Luciana, the kids, Bianca’s mother Marie and Bianca’s Aunt Joanne. The 5 kids (Luc’s, Tessa’s, and Bianca’s) were in their pjs, getting put to bed by Bianca’s mom who waved at me as I came in but ascended the stairs with the four tots and one older child.  Luciana looked tired and ready to pop any second. Tessa’s eyes were red and puffy. Lisa looked pale and sickly. I hugged each of them and when I got to Tessa I whispered in her ear, “I’m so so sorry.”

She nodded, her chin trembled, and she put her arms around herself and just curled into a ball on the sofa and closed her eyes.

Bianca’s mom had come back from putting the kids all in her bed with a Disney movie on, and then pulled me into an embrace and told me it was nice to meet me and that she had thought very highly of my mother. Then Bianca’s aunt put a big plate of pasta in front of me and told me to eat. Food was the last thing on my brain at that moment.

“How’s Tom?” I asked Lisa, who’d sat beside me a breakfast bar in the big open kitchen that had a big island surrounded by stools and the room also had a sitting area, where Luc and Tessa were curled up on opposite ends of a big sectional sofa.

She shrugged, “It’s breath by breath. Tommy okay?”

I nodded, “Just a bit banged up. He’s okay.” She nodded and sipped from a big glass of wine.

“I’m going to bed,” Luc announced and left the room. I tried to eat a few bites but really wasn’t hungry. I didn’t want to insult them so I sat at the plate for a long time, moving food around with my fork, while Bianca talked with her mother and her aunt in Italian.

Bianca sat beside Tessa and put her arms around her. Tessa cried softly into Bianca’s shoulder and I felt her sorrow, the whole room would’ve felt it.

“Athena, you wanna get a bath or something? I’ll get you some towels.” I nodded at Marie. She took me upstairs and showed me to a guest room and pointed out the bathroom next to it and said she’d get my bag, that Nino had brought the bag with mine and Tommy’s clothes from the barn as well as my make-up case.

I took a long shower and then got dressed in yoga pants and a hoodie and tied my hair into a braid and went downstairs. Tessa had gone to bed. Bianca, Lisa, Bianca’s Mom, and Aunt Joanne were watching TV. Sarah was sitting there, too. She pulled me into a hug and then she told me that Tom was hanging in there and then in hushed whispers they all sat and talked about the fact that the boys were ending things tonight and that everyone would be back here afterwards. They told me to go to bed and sleep in the room she’d put my stuff in whenever I was ready, that Tommy would find me when he arrived. I didn’t think I could sleep and being there in that group felt comforting so I curled up on the sofa with them and we watched the rerun channel with all the old comedy shows on it until well past 4: am when I’d noticed that Lisa had fallen asleep, Bianca’s mom and aunt were sitting at the table talking softly over mugs of tea, and Sarah had fallen asleep sitting up beside me.

I just kept staring at the TV, not really paying attention, just mulling everything over. All of it. It was nice to be part of this group, to have these other women to lean on. And Bianca was family. Her mother was my aunt by marriage. And now Lisa, Tessa, Luciana…they were family too because they were Tommy’s family.  It felt good to belong. Amid the stress, the worry, the tragedy, it really felt like I belonged here with these people, despite what I knew of Tommy’s father.

As I pondered the group around me I heard noise and then Nino, Eddy, Dario, and Tommy were there. I’d been holding my breath watching the guys enter in single file and when I finally saw him, I bolted to my feet and ran to him. He gripped me tight.

“Is it over?” I asked into his ear.

“Yeah,” he answered.

Dario spoke to the others and then Tommy looked to Bianca’s mother and spoke to her in Italian. She motioned toward the fridge and was talking with her hands. He shook his head and said some more in Italian. And then she motioned toward the stairs. Tommy took me by the hand.

“Goodnight everyone,” I said, “Thank you so much for everything.” I looked to Bianca, her Mom, and her aunt and they all smiled at me.

In the bedroom Tommy shed his clothes and took off mine and then just held me tight, my naked body against his. I could see in the dimness of the room that his lower back and thigh were badly scraped.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Road rash,” he said, “it’s fine.”

“I should put some ointment on it, bandage it.”

“Leave it. It’s fine.”

“What about the other stuff.”

“Can we just go to sleep? Talk later.” he asked softly into my throat as he nuzzled closer, “I just needed to feel you against me. So fucking tired.”

“Kay.” I answered and closed my eyes.

“Love you, baby girl,” he whispered.

“Love you, too, baby.” I said as my eyes drooped and I fell asleep feeling warm, feeling safe, feeling immensely relieved. Everything wasn’t totally over, there were a lot of unanswered questions, but I was relieved that progress had been made and that he was here beside me.

I woke up to Tommy’s hands and mouth on me. My back arched as his fingers prodded between my legs and I let out a little moan. Then I heard squeals of laughter outside the door and he put his hand over my mouth and winked. The kids were awake and sounding like a herd of elephants running down the hallway. Tommy ignored their ruckus and kept at me, hand over my mouth the whole time. When, I wasn’t too far off an orgasm, the door burst open and Luc’s two girls and Tessa’s older boy all barreled in and were on the bed with us. Tommy had been on top of me, thankfully we were covered by the blankets but the three of them were jumping on the bed, “Uncle Tommy, Auntie Tia! Breakfast is ready!” Tommy blew out a slow breath and said, “Okay, guys. Get downstairs and tell them to pour coffee. We’ll be right there.” The kids all scattered. I felt my heart warm at being called Auntie.

He looked at me with a wicked grin, “To be continued,” he said. Then he got up and got dressed and so did I.

“What happened last night?” I asked before we left the room.

“We’ll talk later. Let’s go down for breakfast. I smell bacon and I think I can hear it calling my name. And if I can’t be inside of you hearing you call my name then I need to answer to the call ‘o the bacon.”

I giggled and pushed away annoyance at not being answered. But maybe it was better that I knew as little as possible. Plausible deniability and all. I followed him down thinking that maybe the Romero threat was done with but that there was at least my father to still worry about, not to mention Tommy’s father. Was my Dad still alive or was he gone?

The mood downstairs was strained. There was still a cloud looming, obviously. Coffee was handed to me and to Tommy as we entered.  Tessa was sitting on the sofa in a bathrobe with her hair up in a towel turban with Luc and they were talking quietly. Tessa still looked awful. The kids were all eating pancakes and bacon. Nino, Eddy, and Dario were eating. The other women were all busying themselves in the kitchen, buttering toast, washing and drying frying pans, another putting clean dishes away from the dishwasher.

Tommy and I sat at the table with Dario and Nino.

“Pop’s showing signs of improvement,” Dario said to the group, then added, “After I finish my coffee I’m takin’ Tess to make arrangements for James. We don’t want the whole family in one public place at one time for a while until we know things are settled down so he’s being cremated and we’ll do a memorial service later.”

Tommy and Dario exchanged looks that made it obvious there was more to everything. Fear prickled the back of my neck. What now?

I heard a phone ringing and Tommy reached into his pocket and answered it. He stepped away from the table and outside with the phone.

I drank my coffee and managed to get a piece of toast into myself and then was helping by drying dishes when Tommy was back.

“Wanna grab our stuff and say bye? We need to go.” He grabbed a piece of bacon off the platter in the center of the table and sipped his coffee. I nodded and made the rounds, thanking Marie for her hospitality, hugging Marie’s sister, getting a big hug from Bianca and thanking her for her help last night. We talked about getting together soon. Then I said goodbyes to the rest of the ladies as well as the kids, who all gave me hugs. I told Tessa if she needed anything, for me to help with the boys, or anything like that to just call me. She nodded solemnly. When I hugged Luc I felt her baby kick me through her belly and I told her that it felt like a he, like a soccer player. She hugged me hard. I hugged Tommy’s brother, Eddy, and Nino, thanking them for all their help, too.

I dashed back upstairs and made the bed and then got our things and when I got to the door, Tommy was standing there talking to his brother quietly. They separated as soon as I got there and Dario pulled me in for another quick hug and kissed the top of my head as Tommy reached for the bag from me. As we left I saw there were six men mulling about outside. We got into Tommy’s car, the convertible; I didn’t know how it got here, where the jeep was, or where the Harley was, either.

When we pulled out past the gates and were on the road he reached across and held my hand as he drove.

“They ran me off the road on the Harley just up the road from the farm and knocked me out and took me and when I came to all I could think of was you and how I’d fucking left you a sitting duck. Nino told me you’d gone on a hike and came back to them coming in. They were gonna grab you and after they’d ransomed me out with Dare they were gonna ransom you out with me. Bunch of fuckin’ chuckleheads. No idea who they were messin’ with.”