Page 55 of Monster

I considered my options: risk going outside and running into Dominic’s goons, go back up to my prison in Dominic’s room, or help Lucy.

None of those things held any appeal.

I walked into the kitchen.

9

DOMINIC

I parkedmy bike in the driveway and looked up at the darkened house.

The men I had guarding the place nodded their heads at me before they went back to their car, back to their home.

I didn’t usually have guards around here, and these men weren’t really guards… more like prison wardens, keeping one small woman inside my house.

It was late.

Well past the time for anyone to be up and about, and though I was fucking tired as hell, I wasn’t sleepy.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had a full night’s sleep, even with the little wildcat in my arms the night before.

It hadn’t been my plan to put her in my room, or to sleep in my bed.

Hell, Kai’s room had been empty for a while now. I could have put her in there.

The windows had already been nailed shut, a remnant of my son’s wild high school years, when he would sneak out in the middle of the night and get into all sorts of trouble around town.

I was a young dad, and I probably had more energy to deal with a teenage boy than the other old fucks in my position, but Kai’s teenage years were ones I was so fucking grateful had passed.

I shivered just thinking back on it.

Now I didn’t have a wild teenager in my house, but a woman held against her will.

I should fucking feel bad about that.

I was just fucking confused, wondering what it was about the little wildcat that got to me so much, or why the hell I had been thinking about her all day.

I was sure Roman and Micah knew my mind was elsewhere today, because Roman was looking at me with a shit-eating grin on his face for most of the day, and Micah was looking at me with the same expression he had given Roman when shit with him and Ryleigh had just started.

Fuck me.

I turned off the ignition on my bike, and a sudden silence filled the air.

I hopped off my bike and made my way inside the silent, dark house. Lucy should be back at her own home by now, with Colt, one of my club brothers—and her husband.

I came up to my room first. I knew it was empty before I even opened the door. Only the fact that there was no way for Emmy to have escaped with my men outside kept me from panicking.

Where the fuck could she have gone?

I went to the room next to mine—Braxton’s, who was now safely under the care of his aunt—found it empty, and went to Kai’s old bedroom.

I found her curved into a small ball under the covers, sleeping soundlessly.

Like a small child, so sure of her surroundings.

She didn’t even know a monster was in her midst, wanting to claim her and own her completely.

I shook my head and tried to calm my heart.

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