DOMINIC

 

I'm in the bathroom staring at myself in the mirror. Staring at myself with an equal mixture of confusion and disgust. There's nothing about Katie that's disgusting though. The disgust I'm feeling is only at myself. As soon as I climaxed inside of her, I immediately began to feel the pangs of guilt ripping away at my soul. In many ways, I feel like I used her. I feel like I took advantage of a vulnerable woman.

She was right about something, she always seems to be right about something, and that’s that the two of us have a lot more in common than I want to admit. We've both lost something so important to us and we’re both on the eve of possibly getting that back. We both spent our lives on the outside of the law. I spent my life protecting people behind closed doors, but I've also spent my life harming them. She, on the other hand, she spent her life trying to find her brother. She spent her life bartering secrets. I'm surprised our paths haven’t crossed before now.

I steady a hand on each side of the sink as I gargle mouthwash in my mouth. When I look at myself in the mirror, I see nothing more than dead eyes. Ten years ago I lost my sister and I created a new family for myself. Now that my actions have come to light, I've risked losing the family I created for myself. Chase, Luke, Zach, Zane, Marcus, Anna, and I. That's my definition of a modern family and it's a family that's potentially about to be torn away from me forever.

I spit out the mouthwash into the pale yellow sink and then climb into the shower. I make it as hot as my body can possibly handle. Steam rises from the basin of the shower, rises to twist all around my body. When I breathe it in, it clears my passageways. I drop my head low and let the shower rain down onto my head. Water falls over my face, washing all of the sins away. I brace my hands against the wall of the shower and just stand there for as long as I can muster until I feel my weight giving out underneath me.

That's when I twist off the knob, rip the shower curtain open, grab my towel and then step outside.

I make quick work toweling of my body as my mind begins to blur. Between the hot shower and a sleeping pill, I'm about to pass out. I exit the bathroom in a hurry and then drop down onto the bed while still wearing nothing but a towel…

###

I'm forced awake by a pillow colliding with my head. I grunt out in equal parts tiredness and frustration as I jolt myself up in bed and grab the pillow that's assaulting me. I find myself ripping it out of Katie's hands and tossing it to the floor before throwing my head back down against the pillow and closing my eyes once more.

And just like that, I find myself drifting back off to sleep. The thing I hate more than anything in this world is being awoken from a good dream, and I don't have the whereabouts to realize that the dream I just had could very possibly come true today. I had dreamed of my sister and for the first time in a while, it was a good dream. We were reunited after Katie and I had stormed the castle so to speak. And we did it without any casualties.

Another pillow collides with my head and this time I thrust upwards in bed and scream, "Stop!"

I scrub my eyes clear with both of my hands and get a better view of the scene in front of me. Katie is standing there right in front of the bed motionless. A halfhearted smile fades into a frown. "Sorry, I was just trying to wake you up."

"There are much less violent ways to wake somebody up," I point out and let out a loud obnoxious yawn. "You know, waking up somebody that used to be in the military like that could get you killed."

She rolls her eyes and huffs, crosses her arms over each other and stands before me defiantly.

"What time is it anyways?" I let out another yawn as I stretch my arms over my head.

"It's four in the afternoon."

A smile pitches halfway up my lips before I realize that she's probably not joking. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," she says flatly.

"Shit." I jump out of bed and the towel I had worn to bed falls to the floor and I'm standing bare ass naked. But that's the last thing I care about right now. I glance around the room and notice that everything is already packed and then I fully realize that she's not kidding. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"I tried," she scoffs and leans back against the dresser. "I've been trying to wake you up for four hours but you been snoozing like a pig. It's not that it really matters though because Tosha has no more information than she had last night."

I rush to the edge of the bed where she's packed my duffel bag and collect my clothes for tonight. "So, we’re going in blind?"

She shrugs and cocks for head sideways. "That looks like it's the plan."

I grumble under my breath before climbing in to a black pair of jeans and a matching black shirt.

###

As the sun begins to set over the Pacific Ocean, Katie and I are parked five blocks down from the compound. We're waiting for Tosha to give us the signal that the cars parked outside have left but as of this precise moment, that's yet to happen.

I'm starting to think it's never going to happen. Whoever actually took my sister is probably very interested in making sure she doesn't escape. Add that into the fact that Christopher Lawson knows that I'm onto him and I imagine he's beefed up security ever since we broke into his house.

I'm fully rested—probably too well rested if I'm being honest—my whole body is pumping with adrenaline and I can't sit in this car any longer. I reach for the door handle and pop the door open, jump out of the car as fast as I can. I slam the door closed behind me and drag my palm against my forehead. The evening air is hot and my forehead is slick with sweat. From behind me, I hear Katie climbing out of the car.

And when I turn to her, to look at her over the roof of the car, she’s staring at me and drumming her fingers on the roof of the car. 

She pushes her tongue against the inside of her cheek as shadows began to fall over her face as the sun continues to set behind us. "Are we ever going to talk about what happened last night?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "What is there to talk about?"

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "You didn't want to talk last night. As soon as it happened, you rolled out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom. And I fell asleep alone."

"I wasn't awake for very much longer either."

"That's not the point," she scowls at me. "Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?"

I bite into my lower lip, shake my head profusely and then look to the side at a row of cars pulled tight to the curb outside of a street full of mom and pop shops. Each and every building is painted in pastel hues. I finally force myself to look back at her and though it's not a conversation I want to be having right now, I realize that we have to have it. "I feel something for you."

That seems to take her aback. She swallows a nervous lump in her throat and her lips tremble slightly. "You don't know me," she says lowly. "Maybe your right. Maybe we don't need to talk about this."

I rest my hands on the top of the car and pass her a knowing glance. "How about we just wait until this is all over?"

"To talk?" She purses her lips in contemplation and then nods. "That sounds like a deal." She reaches across the hood of the car to shake my hand, to seal the fact that we are not going to talk about us until this is over.

I shake her hand firmly and then pull back before circling around to the trunk of the car. I twist my key into the trunk and then open it to find semi-automatic weaponry, a few handguns, some smoke bombs, and a few silencers.

I reach into the trunk and grab a pair of handguns. I drop the clip from each to make sure they’re fully loaded and then pass one into her hands while I shove the other one into my side holster. I cock my eyes to her. "Let me show you how to use that thing."

"Are you serious?" She takes a measured step back and laughs wildly. "What the hell makes you think I don't know how to use one of these? Do you not remember me and my girls saving your ass?"

"Fair point." I offer her a wicked grin of approval. "Girls that know how to fire guns are beyond sexy."

"Really?" She rolls her eyes; she always seems to be rolling her eyes. "We're not talking about that, remember?"

"Yeah…" I grab the four smoke bombs from the trunk and attach them to my belt. I then grab two handgun silencers and screw one onto my gun and screw the other onto hers. "I remember."

She smirks and it's one of the sexiest damn things I've ever seen. Almost as sexy as when she first straddled me last night. Almost as sexy as she was when she rescued me from the back of Christopher Lawson's van.

She averts her gaze, combs her hand through her hair and looks out into the distance as the sun finally rests behind the houses on the harbor. It's getting closer and closer to showtime, and with every minute that passes, my heart beats a little bit faster. If this were any other situation, if I were attempting to rescue someone unknown, I wouldn't be this nervous. It's all the more difficult and urgent when you're trying to save someone you know. With every client that has ever walked into the Ford Security offices, I've never quite put myself in their shoes. Going forward, I'll be sure to think about what the individual client is going through. I'll take this experience and use it to become a better soldier for all that's good in the world.

"How much longer do you think it's going to be?" I question her, tapping my fingers on the roof of the car.

She sighs and passes me an animated shrug. "I'm just waiting on word from Tosha or Alice."

"We can't wait all night," I grind out through gritted teeth. "The longer we wait, the more likely they are to move her."

"If they try moving her, then Alice or Tosha will see it's on the satellite. And if they try to move her, we will have to make our move then, but right now it's in our best interest to wait."

I dig at the back of my head. "Aren't I supposed to be the one organizing this raid?"

"What do you want to do? Do you just want to storm the castle in broad daylight?"

I point a finger above my head at the evening sky. "It's not exactly broad daylight."

She wags her finger at me as if to say she's not arguing with me. "Let's just wait a little longer and if those cars are still there then will make up a plan."

"Whatever you say," I say under my breath, "Captain."

She passes me a disapproving glare before circling around to the driver's side of the car and climbing inside, pulling the door closed behind her.

I pass her a confused look, which she can't see since she's inside of the car and I'm on the outside. I swallow my pride and shuffle around to the passenger side of the car and climb into the passenger seat of my own damn car. As soon as I close the door, I look over to her see her smiling from ear to ear. "What do you think you're doing?"

"This seat is more comfortable." She chuckles softly and looks me dead in the eye. "And besides, you know I like being in control. I like being in the driver seat."

"You're a real difficult woman to handle, aren't you?"

"Do you realize that in the last few minutes you’ve asked me more questions than a college test?"

I decide to play her game with her. "Do you realize that you just asked me another question?"

"You're a real smart ass, you know that?"

"That's because I choose to be a smartass," I say to her, reflecting back on the conversations in her hallway where she gave me the lecture on how we always make choices.

She does what she always does; she rolls her eyes and glances out the driver window. And as she's looking at whatever she's looking at, I find myself looking at her. Her dark brown auburn hair trails down the back of her black shirt. For all intents and purposes, she basically looks like a robber. Not that I can say anything since I basically look just like her in my all black attire.

When she turns her attention back to me, she catches me staring at her. It would be awkward if it hadn't happened before but it's happened a multitude of times already.

I force a wild grin. "What are you looking at?"

"That's enough of the questions, Mr. Ford."

Did she just call me Mr. Ford? I move my lips to speak but before anything can come out, she's reaching across the distance and planting her mouth against mine.