“Show her to him.”
The man squeezed me harshly and took me to the front of the car. I blinked a couple of times.
Oh my god. I can’t believe my eyes. Is this really true?
It was Dominic, standing there, on the other end of the parking lot. A bag of money lay in between the two sides.
Chapter 6
“Dominic?”
“Julie!” He yelled.
His voice brought more tears to my eyes. How I wanted to run into his arms and be free.
The man’s hold on me tightened.
“Let me go!” I screamed.
“Soon, honey,” the woman said. “I’ll need to check if your Dominic here gave us what we asked for.”
Money? They wanted money? And they took me for it?
The woman searched through the bag and counted the stash with her thin fingers until she held a finger up in the air.
“You sure about this, boss?” the man said to her.
“Yes, yes, go ahead. A deal is a deal.”
He pushed me forward and then let me go. I ran. My lungs were burning with heat as I crossed the parking lot and threw myself into Dominic’s open arms. His warm hands enwrapped me into his coat, and he shuffled me toward his car, which wasn’t the usual limo. He quickly opened the door and nudged me inside, then got into the driver’s seat. He hit the gas, and I could hear the squeaks of the tires as he raced off.
***
Dominic carried me up in his arms, all the way to the loft. The man in front of the door was gone. Traces of his body, the blood, the bullet shells vanished. It was as if he never existed.
I was too stunned to talk.
Dominic used his elbow to open the door and his foot to close it. With care he put me down on the sofa. He ran to the kitchen and came back with a knife, which he used to cut open the bonds around my arms. It slithered off me and I wrapped my arms around him.
“Oh, Jesus, Julie …” he whispered. The knife dropped to the floor.
He sniffed, and I could hear him cry. Tears ran down my face as well. I used my hand to wipe my face, and when Dominic looked at me, I could see he’d been worried to death about me.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he said, and he clenched my face between his hands and smothered me with kisses. I could barely breathe.
He stood up and grabbed a wet towel from the kitchen, which he used to clean my face. He rubbed my painful arms between his hands and left kisses all over my skin.
“What happened? What did you do?” I said, my voice still wavering.
“I never thought they’d actually do it … I’m sorry, Julie.” He whimpered, and his head sank between his shoulders. “My dad had an arrangement with a drug gang. The casino was on the verge of shutting down, and he needed money to keep it going, so he borrowed some from the wrong people. He still owed them money when he died,” he said in between his sniffs.
“So they went after you?”
He put his arms around me and kissed my shoulder. “Yes. And the company. That’s why I hired Sharon, to figure out how to get them. I couldn’t let it get out to the public. The casino was only just recovering from the huge slump, and if that shit had gone public, it would’ve destroyed the casino.”
“So you chose to keep quiet?” I said. My body shivered from the sheer knowledge.
“I wanted to do what was best,” he said. “They sent me all kinds of threats, which got me so frightened … God, you don’t want to know the disgusting things they sent to me.”
No wonder he turned to the booze.
“I don’t even know how they found out where I live,” he said.
I closed my eyes, trying to come to terms with what just happened. I was kidnapped, because Dom owed some drugs gang money. The thought made me furious. Why hadn’t he protected me? Then again, it wasn’t his fault he was in this mess to begin with. Plus, I didn’t listen to him, which would’ve been the smart thing to do.
“That’s why I told you not to talk to anyone,” he said. “I was so afraid they’d take you away. I knew that if they found out I cared about you, they’d use you. That’s why I was so scared of falling in love, because I knew they could use it against me.”
“You let them use you, Dom, and they used me. Why didn’t that private investigator do anything?” I said, my voice still hoarse.
“She did. She tried to help me figure things out, but I didn’t want to give in to them either. I tried to go against them, Julie. Giving criminals what they want is not what I do, but when they took you … I couldn’t just stand by any longer.”
“You gave them what they wanted? Why?” I said, flabbergasted. “They kidnapped me!”