Owned by Dominic (Possessed 1)

“There’s my girl!” he called out. A smile immediately lit his face and any fears she had about him being angry at her for anything diminished.

“Casey,” she sighed, happy to see him.

“Watch that sighing shit, Princess,” Dom growled at her, shooting Casey a dirty look as he stood up and pulled her into his arms.

“Hey man, we all know she’s smitten with your grouchy ass. I can get one or two of her gorgeous smiles for myself while I’m injured.” He winked at her while Dom did his growling about the flirting.

“So glad you’re here to take him off my hands,” the cranky nurse announced. Not entirely serious, but also not kidding.

“I was a great patient!” Casey countered.

“Yeah, so great, all my best nurses refused to deal with your grabby hands.”

“I tried to warn you not to give me that loopy shit. Ain’t my fault you didn’t listen to me.” He smiled sweetly at the nurse.

Dom snorted at his obviously fake sweetness.

“Casey?” she asked, wanting to distract him so the nurse didn’t clobber him with the clipboard she was holding like she seemed to want to do.

“Yeah, Double D?”

Shaking her head at his very odd nickname for her, she asked, “Are you ready to go home now?”

“Is that a proposition?”

Dom cuffed the back of his head with his hand.

“Hey, man! She said it not me.”

“She wasn’t offering you shit other than not to get creamed by the nice nurse. Now shut your big mouth and let’s go,” Dom cursed out.

“Oh.” He looked between the nurse and Dom like he was trying to figure out who he’d rather take his chances with. Leaning towards her, he whispered not so quietly, “You’ll save me from him right?” Ducking just as Dom swung to hit his head again.

Laughter rang out behind them as Dom pushed his wheelchair and Dee walked beside them.

Eighteen

“So Miss Double D, what have you got to say for yourself for leaving us like that?” Case blurted as soon as they were in the truck.

“Christ sakes, Case. Shut your damn mouth.” His friend was in rare form it seemed.

“No chance, Dom, the girl ran. I wanna know why she’d break my heart that way.” Yeah, he was pouting; it wasn’t pretty.

As Dom was about to tell him off again, or maybe cut his head off, he wasn’t sure which, Deedee smiled sweetly at them both. “Because you got hurt because of me. Jaxson could have been hurt so much worse, and I had no idea what else to do. So yes, Casey, I ran. I ran because people I’ve come to care about more than myself were getting hurt left, right, and center, and I refused to be some sort of catalyst to a major tragedy. I left to protect you all.”

Dom looked in the rearview mirror at Case to see him looking his body over before he answered. “You’re just a tiny thing; you seen the size of me?”

Oh shit.

“I don’t need some li’l girl to protect moi!”

“From where I was sitting, yeah, you did,” she told him quietly.

Dom could still hear the worry and fear in her voice. Case seemed to quiet down at her words. She didn’t say much, but they held an impact. The further they drove, the quieter it seemed. Case’s meds had finally knocked him out, and he was drooling on the back seat while Dee seemed to be staring off into space.

For the longest time in his life, he’d believed he would be alone forever, made peace with it years ago even. But now, he had this incredibly selfless and vulnerable woman to take care of, and he was often left confused as to how he could possibly be enough for her.

He’d done a lot of bad things in his life—killed, cheated, stole. He wasn’t perfect. He was simply just a man trying to survive. All those missions for the Rangers had left some sort of stain on his soul for the longest time. He hadn’t always agreed with what they were ordered to do, but like so many other men and women, he was a cog in the wheel, only worth something if he was doing what he was trained to. And so he did it, no matter how questionable or noble, he did it.