Page 1 of Dominance

PROLOGUE: GLORIA

There once was a little girl with bright eyes, fiery red hair, and a million questions on her mind. She was smart and clever and knew better than to ask why Mother moved them to a new town every few months.

Why they had strict rules about their names.

That was normal and it was their adventure. Plain and simple.

And asking those questions made Mommy anxious and sad. So, she learned how to make her mother smile and forget.

But the one question that she wanted an answer to most of all was who her father was.

So, she carefully asked little questions, found out little details that her mother let slip. Until one day, she gathered up her courage and asked her mother, “Where is Daddy, Mom?”

The look on her face is seared into my memory to this day.

Shock.

Fear. No …terror.

But she hid it quickly, so fast that at the time, I thought I imagined it. Mom smiled, kneeling, and told me, “Your father was a great man, Gloria. A powerful man. But he died a long time ago.”

And that was the last she ever said about it.

“Es-tu sûr?You sure you don’t want me to stick around, MissGloria?” The bell on the door jingles, held open by a dark-haired, older man with a cleft chin.

“No,merci, Louis. Get home to Mael.”

“Merci beaucoup. He loves when I make it home to tuck him in.Bonne nuit!”

“Au revoir,” I mutter, waving as I gather the last of the flower arrangements off the cafe tables.

A long, dramatic sigh slips out as I wipe up the last of the coffee, beer stains, and crumbs and sweep the floor one last time. Another day done at one job, and I still have to get home and write two essays for class tomorrow.

Finishing up the last of the dishes, I lock the shop, making sure to close the curtains and pull down the retracting gate out front. Louis finally stopped reminding me to do it just last week.

“Even though I have been running his bistro for a year now,” I grumble, just to hear the sound of my voice as I head off down the walk.

It’s been useful having this job, conveniently located halfway to the university from my house, but I’m flagging. Wearing thin.

Two jobs.

Master’s program.

Debt.

And a private boarding school bill that eats up the rest of the money I scrape together every month. It’s worth it, though. I have to keep that first and foremost in my mind.

Because my little sister Anna is everything to me, and the only person I have left in this world.

After years of town hopping, switching schools, and homeschooling, Mom and I stopped running. Everything seemed to settle down, my mother relaxed, some. Like something crucial had changed.

And for the first time in my life, I stayed in one place. One year, then two.

Paris was magical. Happy.

But that peace didn’t last. Mom said we still weren’t safe. So, she found someone to protect us.

Claude was intimidating, but quiet. A real thug, but he treated my mother well enough.

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