Page 148 of Dominance

“Your mom was the same as Paolo’s scheming bitch mother. Bold and brazen until she realized who my family really was. They took my children from me. Just like him.” Dom points one rigid finger behind him toward Weller, slowly easing his way forward.

“And then they expected me to keep wearing a wire, keep spying, after they got my boykilled!”

“That’s horrible, Dad.” Gloria steps closer. Too close.

At the moniker, Dom’s lip curls.

“Gloria!” I shout, but it’s too late. His arm lashes out, catching her across the face, flipping her around and into a headlock, the gun pressed to her temple.

Taking one step back I raise my palms, my trigger finger along my barrel. I need to distract him. Keep him busy. Keep him calm.

“That’s why you left. Why you had to disappear?”

Dom closes his eyes, a mirthless laugh jostling his frame. “All I had left after he died was running the family. I vowed to use everything at my disposal to make them pay. To find Gloria and her mother, to bring her home.

“Then Giancarlo…thatrat, stabbed me in the back. He told me heknew. The entire time that I was working for the feds.”

“Let me guess. He offered you a deal. Giancarlo was always pragmatic.”

“Pragmatic my ass. He held it over me. Manipulated me. Made me swear to support Alessandro, to be his right hand. Except that I would be watched at all times. Scrutinized. A prisoner, slaved to the position that was rightfullymine.”

Weller is almost there, staying in Dom’s blind spot. I see him whisper down toward his lapel, give some kind of order.

I want to warn him off, to tell him to stop.

Dom might shoot Gloria. Gotta keep his attention on me…

“Is that why you killed him? Uncle Giancarlo?”

Dom stills, the only movement the ragged rising and falling of his chest as he locks eyes with me.

“I killed that filthy mongrel becausehesent the kill squad to Paolo’s safehouse. He ordered the hit. The motherfuckeradmittedit to me as I strangled the life from him that night in his hospital room. That he saw no other way. That I wascompromised. That my Aunt Eva couldn’t bear the thought of him putting me down, because I was like ason to her.”

My mouth goes dry.

An unearthly silence blankets the five of us.

Weller’s stock still, two arm’s lengths from Dom.

“Dad…please. Let me go.” Gloria says, her voice choked. “I’m your daughter too. I’m right here.”

Dom groans, his teeth bared, like he’s battling with himself.

“Why is everyone always trying tomanipulateme? Don’t you see? I have all the leverage now! I call the shots!”

“The only shot is going to be through your head if you don’t let her go.” I snap, my fury rising. This has gone on long enough.

Dom tightens his grip, cocking his gun. “I don’t take orders from Diamantes. So, we are going to back out of here. And you can rest assured that she’ll live.”

Because he thinks she has something that belongs to him.

In the chaos, it slipped my mind.

And Gloria comes to the same conclusion, catching my eye with hers.

Just as Dom starts to back away she cries out, clutching her belly with one hand, her middle convulsing against the pull of his arm.

“D-Dad, the baby!”

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