OWNED by Dominic (Possessed #1) (23 page)

“Dom, put your feelings aside for a second here and think about it. You’d do it if you weren’t emotionally invested in her.”

“No.”

“Dominic.” Dee stood in front of him with a pleading look in her eyes. He knew what they were getting at and knew they were right. The best way to get Bradshaw’s attention would be to have her contact him. While he knew all of this, he also knew that if something happened to her, he’d never recover.

So maybe he was selfish in wanting to protect her, but he couldn’t throw her to the wolves either. And that’s exactly what they’d be doing.

“I can’t do it,” he told them flatly.

Tears swirled in her eyes at his answer. Bringing her hands up to his face she told him, “I love that you want to protect me,” she paused to search his face, “but I’m doing this, Dominic.” Her tone left no room for argument.

“You’ll be there, Dom, just not in view.” Creed tried to soothe him.

“We’ll control the scene,” Case chimed in.

“Please, Dominic,” she begged him.

Glancing at the faces around the room, he knew he was screwed, trapped, cornered, whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. They were doing it with or without him.

“I want a tracker on her,” he demanded. He wouldn’t leave anything to chance.

“Done,” Creed agreed.

“And a wire.”

“I’ll set it up,” Case promised.

“And you don’t fucking move from any spot we put you in,” he finally demanded of her.

“I won’t,” she swore to him.

“I’m not ok with this,” he reiterated.

“I know.”

“I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t,” she vowed.

He looked to Case and Creed as they watched them. “What’s your plan?”

*****

You can do this Dee, you can totally do this.
She tried to give herself a pep talk as she prepared to call Bradshaw.
No you can’t, woman, are you crazy? Back away.
Her inner voice could be a fickle bitch sometimes.

Grabbing the phone with one hand and Dom’s hand with the other, she hit the connect button to the number Creed was able to find.

“This is Bradshaw.” He picked up after what felt like hours of ringing when it was only seconds.

Clearing her throat, she took courage from the strong men in the room around her. “It’s Deidre,” she said meekly. “We need to talk.”

Harsh laughter met her words. “Is that so?”

“Yes, I want this over with. Whatever this is.”

“And how does your keeper feel about you calling me?” he asked her snidely.

Now for the hard part—lying. She was always a shitty liar. “He doesn’t know. He can’t know,” she tried to inject some sort of fear in her voice.

“Hmmm.”

“You seem to think I owe you something, and I’d like to know what it is. Why did you sent Dominic to find me? Why you sent Brock to kill me? What have I ever done to you to deserve the amount or cruelty you’ve shown me?” She didn’t have to fake the emotion in her voice that time.

“Fine,” he snapped, sounding put out by her questions. “I’ll send a driver for you.”

“No, you can come to me. Dominic’s gone for a few days on assignment.”
Did I sound panicked?

“And his little follower?” he asked suspiciously, talking about Casey.

“With him,” she rushed to reassure.

He was silent for so long she feared he would deny her request. She needed to have him out of her life and felt like this would be their last chance to meet him on their turf.

“All right, I’ll be there in two hours,” he told her, hanging up before she could suggest meeting him the following day like they all had planned.

Looking to Dom in a panic, he had a wicked gleam in his eye. “It’ll be fine,” he told her. “Case, call Angie and Larry to come get Jax. Creed, call in every favor you’ve got in the area; I want as many snipers as you know all over the property.” He started directing them. She saw now what his men in the in the Rangers saw—cool confidence.

As Case and Creed left the room to get everything in order, she sat in the same spot silently freaking out. He was really coming. She was going to face him, and it would finally be over. They could live in peace.

*****

One hour forty-five
minutes later and if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she never would have known that there had been over thirty men in Dom’s house planning where everyone would be positioned to keep eyes on her. All the vehicles had been moved to the other sides of the property that could only be seen from the air. There were men situated on every structure on Dom’s land and in a surrounding twenty-mile radius. They had men watching to see when and where Bradshaw was coming from.

They’d left no chance for mistake. As far they were concerned, she was covered and just in case she wasn’t, she had two trackers on her. One in her necklace and one in the sole of her runners—microscopic and hidden.

Creed thought it best for her to wait on the front porch where everyone could see her and so that Bradshaw couldn’t push his way inside and somehow trap her. Inside the house was where there was absolutely no one.

Creed took position behind the barn with one of his men. Case settled on top of the barn with one of his friends, and Dominic took up point across the road that led into his driveway. He said that way he could see to her safety when Bradshaw and his goons were coming, and everything that happened in between.

They were confident they had all of their bases covered.

She was terrified something was going to go wrong.

When the sound of multiple vehicles approaching was heard, her heart nearly burst out of her chest. Four large SUVs pulled up to the house, and she almost collapsed in fear. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how frightened of him she was.

She watched as all doors opened and men started stepping out. Bradshaw was the last to appear from the lead SUV. He had a triumphant look on his face, almost like he knew something she didn’t. Standing there staring at her while she fought not to fidget under his intense scrutiny, he finally told her, “Your mother used to say how sweet you were; that I should have shown you more compassion. It wasn’t your fault she was a slut.”

Dee stayed silent at his obvious attempt to make her angry.

“How would you feel if you found out the brat you planned to leave an empire to wasn’t your own?”

She had to bite her tongue.

“What would you do if the choice was between yourself or a child you share no DNA with? Would you give yourself up for them? Or hand them over?”

There was a message in his words. He couldn’t have Jaxson, could he? She was terrified. She couldn’t look around for anyone, or he’d know they were there. Glancing down at her phone, she wondered if she should call Dom.

As soon as she had the thought, Bradshaw’s phone rang, “Yeah?” he answered. “His eyes met hers in triumph at whatever the other person on the line said. “Good, that’ll make this much easier then,” he told them, hanging up.

She waited for him to fill her in when he said to her, “Call him.” She wanted to play stupid so badly, but the tone in his voice and the arrogant gleam in his eyes told her she needed to play it smart.

Calling Dom, she lifted the phone to her ear just as he picked up. “Princess?” he asked.

Her voice shook in fear, yet she wasn’t sure why. “Dominic, somethings wrong.”

“Give it here,” Bradshaw demanded.

Tossing the phone to him, she waited some more. “Hello, Mr. Slade. I like what you’ve done here today. You’re much more organized than I thought you would be, but you forgot one thing. Have a look at the text message coming to you, I’ll wait.”

A minute later, a sadistic smile grew on his face as Dom said something to him. “The choice is yours, Mr. Slade,” was all he told him before tossing the phone back to her.

Bringing it to her ear with a shaking hand, she asked, “Dominic?”

He was too quiet when he finally said, “I’m so fucking sorry, Princess.”

She could almost hear tears in his voice. It was then that she knew the meeting was a setup. How Bradshaw knew what they were going to plan she would probably never know, but she understood that her life was going to change in a huge way and not how she’d anticipated.

“What’s happening?” she asked, petrified of the answer.

“You need to know how much I love you; how much this is going to kill me.” If he were in front of her, she would have seen the tears streaming down his face.

“Dominic, what’s going on?” she begged him, tears in her own eyes now.

Clearing his throat, she could almost feel him turn into the hardened man she’d met seven years ago. Gone was any emotion. “They have Jaxson.”

She hung her head to hide the tears streaming steadily down her face, not wanting anyone to witness her complete heartbreak. To know how devastated she was that Dominic was forced to make the decision between her and his son. Even if he didn’t choose Jax, she wouldn’t let him choose her.

Wiping her face clear of tears, she exerted every ounce of resolve she could find to clear away any emotion that came through her voice or across her face.

“You’ll get him, right?” She had to know he would.

“Yes,” was all he replied.

“You’ll make sure he knows I love him? That I didn’t leave him?” Tears clogged her voice.

“Yes.”

Taking a deep breath, “You burn them to the fucking ground, Dominic,” she told him angrily, hanging up before he could say anything else. She didn’t want to hear any more. If she did, her heart might shatter completely.

Dropping the phone, she stomped on it until it smashed, ripped the necklace from her throat and tossed it to the side. Looking up into Bradshaw’s taunting eyes she told him, “Let’s go.”

He laughed as she walked towards him, smirking while she climbed in the SUV.

*****

Fuck, fuck, fuck!
This wasn’t how it was supposed to turn out. He didn’t know how they had found out where Jax was staying, but he was going to figure it out. What worried him most was the lack of any emotion in Dee’s voice as she hung up on him. She should damn well be mad as hell at him. She should have screamed and yelled and fought for him to choose her, to not let Bradshaw take her. But she did none of those things. She kept her cool and did everything he would have done.

In the photo Brooke sent him, Jax had tears running down his face. He was tied up and tape covered his mouth. A small bruise had begun to form on his cheek as well, so he knew without a doubt that they would hurt his son if any of his or Creed’s men followed them as they left.

The text came with a warning to stay put until he received another call from Brooke. He wouldn’t stay. He’d go, he’d hunt, he’d do whatever it took to get his family back and knew without a shadow of a doubt that every one of the men scattered out right now would help him do it.

Taking Deedee’s last comment to heart, he’d burn them to the fucking ground. When he was done with them, they would wish they’d never dared to cross him.

Speed-dialing Case’s phone, he picked up before the first ring was through. “What the fuck just happened?” he demanded.

“We were fucking naïve, that’s what. We had all these men here with us when we should have had some with Jaxson. Brooke’s fucking got him.”

“That bitch is good as dead,” Case snapped. “Creed’s calling everyone back now. Two guys are tailing the SUVs from the fields on horses—don’t ask, you don’t need to know.”

“Have someone at the airport, too. Did Creed find out where he was staying?”

“He’s got two possible places for the prick and is sending two men to each now,” he explained, “We’ll get them both, Dom. Fucking believe it or you’re useless to us.”

“You a fucking mind reader now?” Case was right; he needed to get rid of the emotion and screw his head back on straight. Focus was paramount—concentrating on what he would do if he wasn’t emotionally invested. “If they lose eyes on her, I want to know immediately.”

“You got it, boss,” Case responded, hanging up so they could converge at the house.

“Don’t take her from me, not now. Not after everything we’ve been through.” He spoke to no one in particular, but he had to get the words out, to know he at least said them.

Twenty-two

As they drove
away from the house she’d come to believe of as her home, her sanctuary, she knew she’d never see it again. Her life as she knew it was over, and now Bradshaw would do to her as he had planned all those years ago.

“No tears for your lost lover?” he mocked her.

She ignored him. What could she possibly say? Tears would make her feel worse. Emotion would make him happy. Either way it would destroy anything left in her.

“If he’d only left well enough alone seven years ago, you wouldn’t be in this position now.”

“Yeah it’s his fault you were going to sell me. He should have just killed you then,” she said to him without taking her eyes off the roadside.

“You wound me,” he mocked her again.

“What is it you want with me?” she finally asked him.

“Your whore mother deprived me of something when she slummed it up with that moron Brock,” he began.

“What’s that?” She shouldn’t have asked.
I really shouldn’t have.

“An heir.”

A bark of laughter escaped her before she could stop it. “What the fuck do you need an heir for? You sell drugs and guns. You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being.”

Anger crossed his features. “You’ll watch your mouth, young lady.”

Because I’ve ever listened to you
. “Fuck you,” she spat out bitterly.

A sharp slap across the mouth met her words. “Enough talking.”

Just like that, she was ten years old again. Smacked for talking back and then ignored. It was for the best this time, though. She had to cooperate for the time being. She understood Dom wasn’t coming. Jaxson took priority, as it should be.

Maybe he’d send Creed or Casey, but she didn’t want to rely on them to get her out. She’d been taking care of herself her whole life, she could do it now, too.

Closing her eyes, she thought of Dom’s arms wrapped around her, his heated words whispered in her ear as he made love to her. They were feelings she would carry with her forever, and nothing or no one could ever take them from her. Those memories would get her through any hardships she was about to face.