Page 70 of Dominance

“It’s sick.”

“But you wanted to go live with him. You wanted to go sleep in his house, in his bed. You’re going to tell me you haven’t?” But something in the way he says it makes me think he knows we haven’t. Like he’s been keeping eyes on us.

“We are just getting to know each other.”

“Well, then this is the next step in the right direction. And it’s gonna happen right now.”

Simply because he decided it. Like he decided to buy my debt. Decided I was moving to New York.

A strange calm settles over me. Nodding, I move forward again, this time pushing him lightly, gently toward the door.

“Then let me do this my way. Please.”

“That’s more like it. It’s not like you all don’t want this. Your mother was the same way.”

I inhale, resisting the urge to scream at him, to defend her.

“We aren’t ready for children, father. Please don’t do this. We will comply, just give us time, we’re not even married yet?—”

“You will do this for me. Until I get a child to call my own. Then you’re free to keep living your life. Working.”

“I won’t let you take my child—” I start to get agitated, the whole situation spinning out of control.

“You will. Or else.” When the gun points in Adriano’s direction again, I can’t bear the thought, the hammer cocking back sickeningly. But I can’t stand by and let this unfold.

“If you kill him, you’ll never get what you want. And I will die before I give it to you.”

Dom looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time, his eyes contracting to pinpoints.

“There’s the spine I knew you had. Bolster that resolve, daughter. You’ll need it.”

It’s working. Playing to his pride, to bizarre moods. Maybe…

Maybe I’m an idiot.

Dom’s sneer warps his face as he leans in. “You’ll need it, because if you defy me again, if you do not give me an heir?” His voice drops to a hiss so only the two of us can hear. “I will go to France.”

No.

“I will go to a certain boarding school.”

Please God, no.

“And I will find your little sister.”

My mind is frantically looking for how, how did he find out?

“And I will take her from you. Sell her to the highest bidder.”

“She’s … she’s?—”

“Not. My. Blood. So I do not care what happens to her. Maybe she’ll fetch me a pretty penny. For a foreign drug lord in need of a wife.”

My mind is shutting down.

“Get in that fucking bedroom and do your job.” It’s deathly quiet. Icy cold.

He nudges me into the room, shutting the door behind me. The lock clicks from the outside, like a hammer hitting a nail in my coffin.

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