“In America for only a few weeks, and I see your language has deteriorated,” he scolded.
“Look, I don’t know who the fuck you are or where you want to take me, but buddy, I’m fucking done with your cryptic old ass. Leave me alone or I scream.”
He gave her a look that told her she’d won this round, but he’d be back for more and might not be quite as nice about it. Why the fuck did you leave, Deidre? That damn voice again.
Fourteen
Ireland. The damn girl had to cross the fucking ocean for whatever she thought she was doing? He was pissed, scared, and understanding all at once. She’d left on her own, and at first, Dom couldn’t comprehend why. He’d studied the look on her face as she watched him and Jax with the doctors for hours on the flight, and the meaning behind the look in her eyes clicked...Cold, hard fear.
She thought everything that had occurred was her fault. She was terrified of hurting his son. He could understand that and even respect it, but she was his, and she wasn’t getting away from him that easily. If he’d thought there were any real danger to Jaxson, he would have sent him away.
Despite what had happened with Raine that day—which he still thought Brooke was responsible for—he never considered the danger was so close. They’d all learned that lesson the hard way. Now everyone was paying the price.
His immediate worry was for Deedee, though. She left in a fragile state of mind with nothing but the clothes on her back and the cash he’d given her weeks ago that she’d refused to touch until she thought it was safest to leave them.
How wrong she was.
He was never going to let her go. Even when he thought he was confused about them making things work, he still wasn’t sure he could have done it. His parents had always talked about that instant connection two people would have. How once he met the right girl, he’d know she was it for him. He’d always thought it was bullshit of course, but they were right.
It didn’t matter that he’d met her eight years ago when she was a kid; he didn’t have the sensual awareness for her that he did now. But he’d always felt a kinship with her. Like he was meant to be in her life for a reason. Turns out he was. If it wasn’t for him, she’d have been sold.
Now she was his, and he had to find her again.
*****
After the odd encounter at the airport, Deidre hesitated to go anywhere isolated. She needed people around her after that. The look the old man had given her still puzzled her. There was a familiarity in his eyes that she couldn’t place. Yet, he insinuated he would force her to go with him, so she was confused.
Tempted to hop on a flight back to Baltimore and beg forgiveness from Dominic, she just couldn’t do it until she understood why a man who had protected her mam for years tried to kill her. He’d always been loyal to her mother and not her father, which was what had her so perplexed. Brock’s hatred for her da ran blood deep.
He was so angry at the way she had been treated after that horrid night when she was six that he’d even encouraged her mom to run. If she thought hard enough, she might even suspect they’d been having an affair. But that couldn’t be, could it?
Her mam might hate her da now, but her loyalty was as imbedded in her as her love for Dee. Some days, she felt as if she knew how she would act or what she would do in certain situations, but then other times, she felt like she had no idea who the other woman was.
It’d been years since she’d spent any decent amount of time with her, so how could she possibly know what the other woman was like now? How could she be sure she was even alive. They hadn’t actually spoken in over a year. Hadn’t seen each other face to face since Dee was shipped off to Switzerland.
What if her dad had done what he threatened to do and killed her? What if all this time she’d been planning her flight, only to be conversing with him or one of his men and they always knew where she was?
The thought left her cold.
If her father knew that she planned on leaving him, running so he couldn’t find her, he’d have gone ballistic. Disobedience from anyone would not be tolerated, most especially from his daughter.
“Got yourself in a real pickle this time, Dee,” she mumbled to herself, earning a glare from some highfalutin woman passing her by in the street.
When she left the airport on foot, she hadn’t had a destination in mind other than to stay in populated areas. Stopping after walking a considerable distance, she looked up to see what used to be her old school. Her father’s old mansion not far from where she stood.
Dare she go back to hell? Or keep walking?
I need you, Dominic.
*****
Finally landing, Dominic quickly gathered his carry-on. Disembarking the plane, he went through the process of customs before managing to leave the airport. Contemplating his options, he figured his best chance of finding Deedee was checking her father’s old mansion. It was all she knew in Dublin, other than her old school.
Quickly hailing a cab, he gave the driver the address he remembered by heart with the hope that he would find his woman there. He watched as the city flew by in a whirlwind of smoky haze and fast cars. Nothing stuck out except his overwhelming fear that if her didn’t reach Deedee soon, something terrible was going to happen to her.
Once he reached the mansion she used to live in, he asked the driver to wait before getting out. Taking a fortifying breath and walking up to the iron gates, he pushed them open with a loud groan as he went in search of his love.
The place had always given him the creeps. It looked more like a prison than a home. The brick walls were three stories high with towers on both sides of them, and the windows were covered in bars preventing entry or escape.