Page 134 of Dominance

“My future.”

“Oh, Glow, don’t say that. Adriano won’t ever expect you to be like them.”

“I hope not.” I wish I could tell her everything that happened.

But it’s enough that she was willing to come.

“I never got the chance to apologize,” Sandra bites her lip, looking down.

“You don’t have to. I overreacted. It’s not your fault that your business is where it is. Or that I am marrying into the family that runs the whole fucking city.”

“It’s not that bad. Or it wasn’t until recently.”

All thanks to my father.

“I’m scared, Sandra.”

“Everyone gets cold feet, Gloria.”

“It feels more like concrete shoes than cold feet.”

Sandra snorts, covering her mouth. “I know I don’t know the whole story. Including where you disappeared to for a week. But from everything youhavetold me, Adriano really does care about you. Talk to him. Maybe he’ll postpone the wedding, or you can work something out.”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“I’m your wedding planner. I can move the date, reschedule everything.”

I smile sadly at her efforts.

“No refund on the deposit if you cancel this thing, though. Girl’s gotta live.”

We giggle a bit at her snippy comment, fading into silence again, the bus strangely quiet. Too quiet.

“I wish it were that easy, but it’s my dad that I’m worried most about. He’s?—”

The bus lurches forward suddenly, the door snapping shut.

“Hey! What the fuck, man!”

“We’re still back here!”

The black glass door to the front is closed.

And the bus accelerates, slamming us back into our seats and scattering glasses and bottles. Veering to the right, then back left, we scramble for something to grab onto, the two of us sliding wildly with the momentum, out of control. On a straightaway, I lunge for one of the stripper poles and manage to keep myself upright, making my way slowly forward.

I have to get to my purse, to my phone, stashed in the closet near the front.

Reaching the front, I’m almost thrown from my feet again as the bus screeches to a halt, thumping my shoulder into the glass door painfully. Sandra yelps behind me, crashing to the floor of the bus.

“You okay?!”

“Yeah, just pissed off! What the fuck is going on?”

Our question is answered as the glass door slides open, revealing the driver, a bull of a man with slicked back hair, a beard. Not the man that picked us up.

They must have switched at some point along our route.

That realization is only a fleeting thought as he steps closer, snatching at my dress and yanking me toward him viciously.

---