Unbound; The Dominator III Read online

  “I promise, we’ll be okay.” I kissed her tears away, “And I’m gonna make them pay, Angel. I mean that. I’ve had to play it cool but do not mistake that. I want those fuckers taken down. I’ll blow the place up if I have to. You get me?”

  She shuddered but nodded again, “I just want it over.”

  That she wasn’t begging me to fuck her or bring her to orgasm was shocking to me. She held me tight and shook like a leaf, crying quietly. It was almost as extreme as the first night we were here, when I told her that she wasn’t a slave any longer. This news was cutting deep, rocking her fragile world.

  There was no way she could handle news about Holly on top of all that. I’d talk to her about that later. Maybe much later.

  Unfortunately.

  More than anything I wanted to give her life a solid foundation, nothing to fear, nothing but goodness. I wanted that more than anything.

  “Tess is really okay?” she whispered.

  “She’s gonna be,” I said. “Even if she’s not right now, we’ll make it so she is.”

  Angel’s body locked tight, the meaning of my words clear. I didn’t know what the fuckers who had her had done but we’d make them pay, too.

  The fact that Romero had helped was still a lot for me to wade through, but one thing at a time. I’d control what I could, one step at a time. And by the end, Kruna would be dust, an unpleasant memory.

  And hopefully, my wife would have her baby sister back.

  Tommy

  I’d just woken up. I was wearing a pair of track pants and nothing else, standing in the kitchen trying to get my first mouthful of coffee into me.

  Tia was in one of my shirts, sleeves rolled to her elbows, sitting at the table, munching on toast with peanut butter.

  “God, I’m hungry today. I had two bowls of Sugar Crisp before this. I want pizza for dinner tonight, from Venetia. Oh, and what do you think about the name Bella for a girl?”

  “Hm?” I was half-asleep, still.

  “If we have a girl. Bella. Little baby Bella.” Her eyes were shining with hope but that didn’t occur to me immediately.

  “I want her name to have meaning,” she continued.

  “Uh, no.”

  “No? Why? I think it’s beautiful. It means beautiful in Italian, doesn’t it?”

  “A, I fucked a Bella. Twice. The second time was a mistake. Most annoying grating voice I ever heard. B, we’re not havin’ a girl. Fuck that noise.”

  Her face went sheet-white. She looked shocked for a second. And then her eyes narrowed and I immediately realized my mistake. Shouldn’t talk before coffee. Fuck. Shouldn’t bring up someone I fucked. Ever. Terminator warning screen malfunction.

  Her face then went red and shit started flying across the room. The salt shaker, pepper grinder thing, her napkin, the jar of peanut butter. And then the butter knife hit me right in the fuckin’ mouth before clanging to the floor, still covered in fuckin’ peanut butter.

  My arms came up to protect my head and I barked,

  “Whoa, Tia. Fuck!”

  “You’re such a fucking asshole!” She screamed this at me and I heard the disjointed noise of the chair being shoved away and then she ran from the room.

  Shit.

  I followed her upstairs and watched her slam the bathroom door.

  “Tia,” I knocked on the door and then jiggled the doorknob. It was locked, “Open up.”

  She didn’t answer me. I heard a bunch of shit being banged around in there.

  The lock was a shitty bathroom door lock, so I unlocked it with my thumbnail in less than two seconds.

  When I got the door open, her eyes were on me and they were on fire. She was pissed at me.

  “The second time was a mistake? Only the second time?” she snapped.

  “That was a dick thing to say. Wasn’t thinkin’, baby girl. I got a lotta shit on my mind, and---”

  She came at me and gave me a shove against my bare chest with both of her palms. She didn’t budge me even a little and I grabbed her wrists.

  “Hey. Chill out.”

  She tried to wrestle out of my arms and I picked her up and carried her out and put her on the bed and pinned her down.

  Grunting, she tried to shove at me.

  “Baby, give me a second to apologize.”

  “Let me go. I don’t wanna hear it right now.”

  “Tia, I’m sorry.” I put my mouth against her cheek as I said it. I rubbed my nose up her cheekbone, “Okay?”

  She stopped struggling but she was still pissed. I put my lips to her ear, “I’m sorry. Anyone before you meant nothing. Not a fucking thing. You just threw me off when I was half asleep. I’m not sleepin’ well. I’m edgy.”

  Her body relaxed a little bit but her eyes were still fiery.

  I kissed her mouth and palmed her face, “I’m a dick. Forgive me.”

  She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “You can’t boss me to forgive you.”

  “Yes, I can,” I insisted and started to kiss her neck, tracing the curve of it with my tongue.

  She shivered and her breath quickened but she was still trying to resist me.

  “Forgive me,” I ordered and took one of her tits into my hand and squeezed, nibbling on her earlobe.

  She shivered again, but she was trying to fight that pull. She was chewing on her juicy lower lip.

  “I have to talk to you. After I fuck you. Gonna fuck you now,” I smiled against her lips.

  She tensed up.

  “You don’t want me to fuck you?” I asked.

  “No. No, I don’t.” she said, turning her face away but I could feel her resolve melting against me.

  “No?” I teased and grabbed her hair and used it to bring her mouth to mine again.

  “Tommy, I can’t.”

  “Hm?” I got a hand under the shirt, into her panties, and to her ass. I squeezed and tongued her throat, “You don’t have to, because I can. You just gotta take what I have to give you.” I grinded against her.

  “Tommy, I really don’t think I can. All I can think about is poor Tess, and---”

  “I have news. She’s okay. She’s in Zack’s hands by tonight.”

  “Huh?” she jerked back and looked at me, wide-eyed.

  “We’ll go to Vegas tonight, meet with Zack, get Tessa.”

  The rest of the tension and anger in her locked tight body melted away, totally forgotten with this news.

  “She’s okay? Thank God. Oh my God, ohmygod!”

  “She is now, but I don’t know what she’s been through.”

  “Where was she?”

  “Mexico. Nephew of Juan Carlos Castillo has her.”

  Tia jolted.

  “Someone else took her but he got her back as a goodwill offering to us. Long story, can’t get into it right now. I would’ve told you last night but you were dead asleep. Pack for us? Shit for three, no make it five days, just in case. Something formal, too. We’ll need formal for the Fete opening so pack my black Boss tux. If you want, you can buy your dress there. Up to you.”

  She stared at me.

  “Sarah and Tessa’s boys are coming so Tess can see her boys right away. Talked to Sarah last night.”

  “Uh, wait, Um…” She looked stunned. I knew she was trying to absorb all the facts I’d just spewed but she was also thinking about being in Mexico, when Earl Johnson had taken her from me and put her through that hell.

  I rubbed her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

  “Gotta stay there a few days. It’s strategic. She’ll need to see her boys so we’ll bring them and Sarah can look after them. I’ll get someone to bring racks of dresses in to the hotel for you two to go through, if you want?”

  “I’m not going to the Fete opening.”

  “Yeah, I need you on my arm. I want Tessa there, too. I’m booking a private hotel suite for us and it’ll be under heavy security.”

  “I want nothing to do with that. I’d rather just stay home. I also don’t even want you
to go but whatever.”

  “Huh? What’s all this?”

  “If you have to do Vegas, can you do Vegas alone, please?”

  “Because you’re worried you’ll be sick the whole time?”

  “Because I don’t wanna go. How on earth can you expect your sister, after being kidnapped, to go to a sex club opening?”

  Tia

  “I need to be there; I need you with me. And it doesn’t matter the venue, it’s strategic.”

  “Huh?”

  “I don’t wanna get into it. It’s about who took her, why, and all that shit. You don’t need the details but her being there will send a message to the little fuck that took her.”

  “Tommy,” I whined and rubbed my eyes.

  “Tia, I need to fuckin’ know you’re okay. Do this for me.”

  “Last time we were there, things were kind of rough.”

  Understatement.

  “It was rough, yeah. But it was also beautiful, baby girl. Vegas was where you told me you loved me that first time, where you told me you were mine. It’s also where I knew how important it was for me to fix what’s broken in me.”

  My heart swelled, “You and me are both a little bit broken, Tommy. But we’re like puzzle pieces that fit together.”

  I linked my fingers with his and tightened them.

  “You’re not a little broken, Tia. You’re ten times stronger than I am.” He kissed each of my knuckles and closed his eyes, pulling me tight to his warm body.

  “I’m sorry for being a dick this morning,” he said.

  I nodded.

  He put his hand on my belly. It was still flat but that wouldn’t last with the way I’d been eating in the last twenty-four hours. I was keeping food down since the day before too, which was a welcome change.

  “Talking names? Can’t even see a bump yet but it’s…fuck…shit’s getting real.”

  “Yep.” I looked him in the eye.

  He looked at me with warmth, “You forgive me?”

  “Not sure yet. And it might be a girl, you know. Fifty-fifty chance.”

  He shook his head, looking a little disgusted.

  “Such a man thing. Prove you’re a man by having boys?”

  “Naw, fuck. It’s not that. The idea of having a little girl? Scares the shit outta me.”

  I smiled, “God help her boyfriends.”

  He sorta looked a little green. He flexed his jaw muscles.

  “You gonna puke?” I asked.

  “I might.”

  I cuddled into him and he wrapped me up tight in in his arms.

  “Well, whether it’s a boy or a girl it sure as heck isn’t gonna be Bella now,” I grumbled, “Thanks for ruining that for me.”

  He put his mouth to my forehead but wisely kept his mouth shut.

  I started to trace his tattoo, getting lost in thought. His hand started to move up and down my leg and then he was cupping my ass, his lips moving down my face with feather-light kisses as he made his way to my mouth.

  I got lost in a hungry kiss, but then his phone rang and he looked at the screen and declined the call, a muscle ticking in his jaw as he fiddled with the phone a second and dialed another number. I didn’t tune into his conversation.

  My mind wandered back to Tess. Thank God she was okay. She’d been through so much these last few months.

  I thought back to my time in Mexico, in that little girls’ room in that dank basement. I felt a little sick, suddenly, remembered it. Smelled it down there. Tasted what that horrible guy down there did to my mouth. And then I remembered what that cop told me Tommy had done to Juan Carlos and to Earl. I felt the contents of my stomach coming up. I untangled myself from Tommy and dashed to the bathroom.

  I’ve been sick and sleeping a lot and busy helping out with Lucas and Antonio and he’s been a wreck, trying to find his sister. It’s been awful. We haven’t made love in well over a week. And he’s grouchy.

  So, I’d been thinking I’d try to help, entice him into a sexy game. But now my head is full of memories of Mexico and he wants to take me to Vegas, which has some pretty rough memories, too, maybe even worse than Mexico, because I almost gave up on him, on us, while we were there.

  Mexico was scary for me but Tommy saved me from there. Vegas was painful for both of us and Tommy hurt me there.

  I didn’t throw up. I’d just stood over the toilet for long moments, fearing that I would. Finally, I went back out and he was still talking on his phone, sitting on the edge of the bed, so I curled up beside him and put my head on his knee. He stroked my hair while he kept talking, discussing some construction job site problem with materials being stolen. I guess I fell asleep because I woke up a while later and I was still in bed but he wasn’t there.

  I got myself mobile and started to pack for Las Vegas. I was looking forward to seeing Tess but I wasn’t looking forward to the rest of it.

  Tommy

  I didn’t take the call when Leo Denarda called me again, this time using a phone that had his name on the caller ID. My ignoring the call would send a message and the message it sent was the message I wanted to send. He was not worth my time and I had no interest in pandering to him.

  I wanted him to see my sister on my arm and know that we’d gotten her back, despite his game. Nino was coordinating sneaking her in with Zack so no one would know she’d been retrieved.

  While Tia slept, I got a few calls taken care of, including calling my brother-in-law Ed, and my top guys to set up a meeting at a quiet location where I’d be sure there would be no bugs and where we could map out a few potential plans for how to handle Denarda after the Fete opening.

  Someone was picking me up. We were all leaving our cars behind and taking burner phones. I didn’t trust that any of us weren’t being tailed. And for the shit that needed to be discussed, we needed complete privacy.

  Tessa

  I was so relieved when Zack Jacobs got to Mexico to pick me up. I’d lost track of time but had to have been away for several days at least. I’d been in the dark for a lot of it, rooms without windows, boxes with air holes. It felt like a long time since I’d been home.

  I had been safe since arriving at this place but the first leg of my journey hadn’t gone as well.

  Not nearly. I didn’t know if I’d be rescued. It certainly wasn’t looking good when I’d found myself up for bid at an auction.

  After I’d been kidnapped, they’d drugged me and whatever they injected me with, it knocked me out. I woke up, groggy, in what looked like a cargo bay of a warehouse. My hands and feet were taped, my mouth was taped, and there was a guy standing over me, smiling a creepy slimy smile.

  He wore a shiny blue suit that was too large on him, not that he was a small guy. He was stocky, kind of tall. Big ears. Bad haircut. He had a 1970’s mob movie vibe to him and he smelled like he’d bathed in both Aqua Velva and Polo cologne.

  “She’s awake. Move her to that office over there,” he ordered.

  My eyes were wide and I didn’t know what would happen next but two large men, one was for sure the one who’d jumped in the passenger seat of my car, hefted my top half and another guy got my bottom half and they carried me into an office as the guy who seemed in charge said, “On her stomach.”

  They dropped me on a dirty sofa on my belly. I barely took in the room. Off-white walls, an old beat-up desk with papers all over it, brown corduroy sofa. My nostrils filled with the scent of stale tobacco and sweat mingled with that Polo cologne.

  “Out,” The one in charge said and I heard the door click shut.

  I felt the shift as his weight hit the sofa but I faced the backrest and I didn’t know if I should turn around. I was groggy. Disoriented. But scared. So scared.

  Whatever drug they’d given me hadn’t fully worn off yet. My arms and legs felt like rubber bands. And being beyond scared, frightened out of my mind, I also didn’t know where I was, who these people were, or what they’d do to me.

  “Your big brother needs a lesson,
Contessa Ferrano Michaelson. You’re gonna disappear pretty little thing. Jeez, you got pretty hair. Sweet ass.”

  I felt a hand on my butt and my body went from shaking life a leaf to locked tight. He was laughing. He was laughing like he was the king of the world.

  “You’re gonna make me a few bucks by disappearing. All I’ll say is that if you wanna survive, you’ll learn how to be an obedient little slave pdq. That’s down to you. You get yerself killed, that’s not on me.” I felt his breathe against his ear. I smelled it, too. Garlicky.

  He leaned over and said in a low and very sinister voice,

  “Before transport picks you up, I’m thinkin’ it’ll give me that much more joy if I take a piece to remember you by before you go. Then when I see Tom junior’s smug mug next week at the Fete opening, I’ll look at it knowing I blew my load deep inside his sister.”

  Vertigo descended quickly and everything spun in my head. As I went to struggle, he put his hands on me. My hands were taped tight, clasped together with my wrists bound so tight that I couldn’t unclasp them. Same for my feet. My ankles were hurting, because the one ankle was taped so tight against the other ankle that bone was rubbing against bone. I tried to roll after feeling the weight of him disappear from the sofa. I dared to flip over and saw him fiddling at the desk and he was holding up a box cutter.

  “In case he ever gets you back. He prolly won’t. But if he does? He’ll know I was here.”

  He made his way back toward me and then yanked my sleeve up, pried my left arm one way, causing pain but not separating my wrists, only making the duct tape stretch and cut in deeper.

  I felt the cutting pain as he started to carve something into the underside of my forearm with the box cutter. I was screaming behind the tape over my mouth as I watched him do it painfully slow. I started kicking and writhing and he looked right into my eyes, “Don’t move or I carve your face instead.”

  I froze. He finished one last large circular motion on my forearm, which he was holding tight, by my elbows.

  He then let go, saying, “Don’t fuckin’ move,” and reached for the desk and grabbed a roll of silver duct tape and quickly taped over my bleeding arm, winding the tape round and round to seal what he’d done. He must have gone around three or four times and it did nothing for the excruciating pain in my arm. In fact, it felt like the tape was too tight and cutting off my circulation.