The Sacrificial Lamb (49 page)

Fiancée? What the hell was he talking about?
Alex glanced up at Shane in mortification and then looked at Domenic to see his reaction. There was nothing. Just that blank mask she had always despised.

They stopped shaking hands, and Domenic nodded at them curtly. “Well, I should get back. I’ll see you all in the courtroom,” he said in a clipped voice. “Alexis, nice to see you again.” He turned his back on them and began to stride away.

“Wait!” she called out in a strangled voice. This whole thing was turning into a nightmare, but she couldn’t just let him walk away. Not while thinking she was engaged to another. “Shane? Do you mind if I talk to Domenic alone for a minute?”

“Sure, Alex.” He leaned down, giving her a peck on the cheek. She grimaced, knowing Domenic was watching.

“Is that okay?” she asked Stafford, who had stayed back. Dufresne had begun walking with her father and Shane to the courtroom.

He gave Domenic an appraising look before agreeing. Facing her, he pointed down the hall. “I’ll be just around the corner in front of the courtroom. Meet me there.”

Alex watched Deputy Marshal Stafford walk away and exhaled. Squaring her shoulders, she turned to Domenic. Her stomach was flipping crazily, and it was with great restraint that she didn’t just throw herself into his arms. The hurt and anger she had felt before came back to her in a flood of emotion. She needed to know the truth. Domenic’s gaze was impassive, and the words stuck in her throat.

“Congratulations on your engagement,” Domenic said smoothly, inclining his head.

“No, you don’t understand…” she began, shaking her head. Damn it, this wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to go.

“Oh, I think I do,” he responded, in that ice-cold voice. “You needed a bit of excitement before settling down.”

“What?” Alex asked incredulously, not believing what he just said. Anger the uppermost emotion. “Is that what you call the last two weeks,
Agent
D’Angelo? A little excitement?” A spark of anger lit in his eyes, and she felt a moment’s satisfaction.

“I was just doing my job,” he repeated again.

“Really?” she seethed. “Was part of your job
fucking
me?”

“No,” Domenic said, smirking. “
That
was a perk.”

Alex pulled back in surprise, shock settling over her as his words sunk in.

“You threw yourself at me, remember?” he continued. “I’d have been a fool to pass up the opportunity.”

“A fool?” she said in a whisper. “The fool seems to have been me.”

Turning away, Alex rushed away from him before he could see the tears well up in her eyes. She didn’t see where she was going and flung open a set of doors. Running out of the building, she smashed into something solid. A pair of strong arms gripped her, and she looked up at a distinguished looking older man with steel colored hair.

“I’m sorry,” she spluttered. “I didn’t mean to run into you.”

“Ah, Alexis! I’ve so been wanting to see you again!”

Alex shook her head, staring at the man. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“No, my dear, you don’t,” he said, smiling. “But I know you.”

Domenic had just lived through one of the worst weeks of his life, and just when he thought things couldn’t get worse, inevitably they did. Alex whirled away from him, ran down the hall and around the corner, the staccato of her footfalls fading as she left.

The fool seems to have been me
…Her words echoed in Domenic’s head with each step she took away from him.

“Ah,
fuck!”
He turned in a half-circle, grabbing two fistfuls of hair. The pain was overwhelming. He had done this before, played the asshole so that the woman could leave and feel justified she had made the right decision, but he hadn’t ever loved any of those women. Never did he feel as if he would be torn in half upon their departure. Not like now.

It was obvious Alex had decided to go back to the safe relationship with her boyfriend. Sometime in the last week she must have decided that investing her feelings in him had been a mistake. While Domenic had considered that might happen, he honestly hadn’t thought it would. He had been wrong. How had her boyfriend inveigled his way back into her life? He supposed it was because Shane stayed, while he hadn’t. Shane had been honest, yet he had not.

Domenic debated going after her but knew it was pointless. What could he say? Should he get on his knees and beg her to choose him? Was he willing to be that pathetic?

At that moment the U.S. marshal who had been with Alex before their confrontation came around the corner. He glanced about sharply before striding up to him.

“Where is Alexis Montgomery?” the man barked out.

“What do you mean?” Domenic replied. “Isn’t she with you?”

“No! You
idiot!
Which way did she go?”

“
Jesus fucking Christ!”
he spat out before breaking into a dead run in the direction Alex had gone.

When he saw the doors leading outside, his heart jumped in his throat. Domenic prayed he would find her before anything happened. He pushed the door open frantically, and his greatest nightmare spun out before him on the steps of the courthouse.

Carlo had Alex by the arm and was dragging her down the stairs. She was fighting against him, but he was strong, and she couldn’t keep her balance on the steps.

“Carlo!” Domenic shouted, unholstering the Glock at his waist. It was a standard service issue that Fiona had given him that morning. It wasn’t his trusty forty-five, but it would do.

Hearing his voice, Carlo dragged Alex down the last two steps, spun her around and held a small gun held to her temple. She stopped struggling right away, her eyes widened in fear.

“Hello, Domenic!” Carlo called out. “So nice to see you again.”

“I wish I could say the same,” he muttered.

“Carlo!” a woman’s voice called shrilly from the top of the stairs. “What’re you doing? How the hell do you expect me to defend you now?”

“Shut up, Denise!” Carlo retorted, eyes on Domenic and the gun pointed at his head.

“Let her go,” Domenic said in a level voice.

“Why would I do that, when killing her would cause you so much more pain?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, old man.”

“Oh, but I think I do!” Carlo grinned wolfishly over Alex’s shoulder. He backed up against a pillar and held her in front of him like a shield. Domenic examined them and noticed that he had a loose hold of Alex, knowing the gun he held to her head would keep her in place.

In a burst of clarity, Domenic remembered one of their self-defense lessons in the cabin. They had been wrestling playfully as he taught her how to escape a knife hold.

“How would you escape a gun?” she had asked, laughing as he tickled her.

“You wouldn’t,” he replied, seriously. “It would be too dangerous.”

“Well, there must be some way,” she had asked, always inquisitive.

“If the guy is holding you loose enough, you could escape from under him. But you’d have to be fast to disarm him of the gun.”

“Show me.”

And he had.

Now Domenic wondered if Alex remembered what he had taught her. He had to take a great gamble that she did. A plan formed, and he prayed that despite what he had said earlier she still trusted him.

“Carlo, don’t be stupid. You’ll never make it out of here alive. Just let the girl go.”

“What do I care if I die now? I’ve lost everything because of you!” the man spat out. “Better to die here than rotting on death row! More poetic, don’t you think? And I get the bonus of taking your lovely Alexis with me.”

“The girl means nothing to me,” he lied, watching as Alex closed her eyes. Silently, Domenic begged her to open them again and to disregard everything he was saying.

“I don’t
believe
you, Domenic,” Carlo sang out.

“I was just doing my job,” he replied, shrugging. Alex opened her eyes, the phrase sparking life into her.
Yes, baby, look at me
. Maintaining eye contact with her, he played his card. “Carlo, has anyone ever told you that you’d be great at playing Scrabble?”

“Scra—” Carlo began as recognition flared in Alex’s eyes.

Quickly, she raised her arms up, broke his hold, fell to her knees, and rolled away.

As soon as she broke free, Domenic began firing. Carlo, realizing his gaffe, pointed his gun at Domenic and fired off a round simultaneously in a last ditch effort to save himself. The old man still had good reflexes.

Pain exploded in Domenic’s chest, his breath left him, and he went spiraling backward. Vaguely he heard screaming as he tried to suck air back into his lungs. He lay on the ground, gasping, trying to claw at the burning that threatened to ignite him in flames.

Then Alex was there, kneeling by his side, crying and begging. Domenic wanted to tell her not to cry for him, but the words wouldn’t come.

“No, no, no, no…” she moaned, her hands pressing against his chest, trying to staunch the blood. “Please, Domenic! Stay with me, please!”

Domenic coughed and reached a hand up, winding it in her hair. Tugging, he brought her face close to his.

“Just in case…” he whispered, before brushing his lips against hers.

His vision started to recede then, and he could hear Alex crying out as everything went black.

Even as she cried and pressed her hands against Domenic’s chest, a part of Alex rose above it all and waited patiently to wake up from this nightmare. But that never happened.

People around them stopped trying to get her to leave Domenic’s side after she had attacked the first person who tried to physically remove her. She called out his name until her voice was hoarse, but he remained motionless under her hands. Alex heard her name being yelled over the crush of people who now surrounded them, but she had no extra attention to spare.

Somewhere in the background, there was the warble of an ambulance and EMS workers rushed toward them. She moved out of the way while they worked on Domenic, grabbing him and placing him up on the stretcher. Getting up, she followed but was grasped roughly by the wrist and pulled around. Her hands were slick with blood, allowing her to wrench her hand free easily and push against her captor.

Deputy Stafford looped an arm around her waist and pulled her back once again.

“Let me
go!”
she screamed at him, fighting to free herself. It seemed like she was always fighting for something these days. Alex turned in his arms and pounded on his chest. “Please! I have to go with him!”

“You can’t!” he said, dodging her blows as best as he could under the circumstances.

“I’m not leaving him!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Stafford grunted under his breath. “Come on.”

Grabbing her elbow, he propelled Alex toward the ambulance. Flashing his badge at the EMS workers, he informed them gruffly that he would be Domenic’s escort. Stafford climbed into the front of the ambulance, allowing her to get in the back with Domenic, and they drove hell for leather to the hospital.