I push away from the table. Dominic’s hand is around my arm before I can blink. God, it would help if every time he touches me my stupid body wouldn’t come alive with electricity. Fear of what he does to me kicks my tongue into action. “Please let me go, let me talk to Richard. I need to talk to him.”
He doesn’t say a word; his eyes are on Kane.
Kane hands Dominic the cuffs. They don’t look like normal handcuffs. I’m grateful he doesn’t put my hands behind my back. I still hate him for using them at all.
They are a thick rubber or silicone, and even though I know it’s a waste of time I test them. There is no give, at least they don’t hurt. “Fuck you. I won’t marry you. I love Richard, you can’t make me stop loving him by showing me faked pictures and bogus bank statements.”
Dominic nods at Kane. “How about a gag?”
Kane laughs. “No gag. I have something to put her to sleep.”
I shake my head frantically. “Please, Dominic, no. I promise I’ll be good.” I’m terrified of being drugged and unaware of what’s happening.
He sighs as he looks down at me. “If you behave. Can you do that?”
I nod, fear closing my throat.
Kane reaches into his inner pocket and pulls out a wicked-looking gun. “Here’s the Sig P226 Diego said you wanted. Fifteen in the mag and one chambered, we included a suppressor as well as the ankle holster you asked for.”
I can’t tear my eyes away from the gun or the way Dominic handles it. He presses a button and the magazine slides out easily; he runs his hand down the bullets, reading it like braille. Then he slams it back into the gun. His movements are easy, practiced without a hint of showmanship the way some of the men who came to the condo were. It’s obvious he has handled a gun often.
He puts his foot on the chair he had been sitting in, straps on the holster, sliding the gun in, then adds the thin suppressor beside it. Once he lowers his pant leg, if I hadn’t known it was there I would never guess it.
Dominic nods at Kane. “Thanks, tell Valdez to extend coverage beyond a week. I’ll let him know when to stop.” His eyes meet mine. “With the way she’s been acting I don’t think a week is enough. Ears as well as eyes.”
“Done, he wasn’t thinking a week was long enough either. Good luck with her, she’s got some fire. I wouldn’t turn my back on her.”
“I figured that out already.” Dominic pushes me ahead of him.
5
Regina
Outside again, I take the time I hadn’t before to scan the area around us, and my heart sinks. It’s nothing but woods down a long gravel road. Running would get me nowhere but lost. Dominic opens the car, I hesitate, his hand tightens in warning around my arm. I give in and get in. I’m barely in the seat before he leans over me and secures the seat belt. It annoys the hell out of me the way my whole body is tingling from his hands on me. What the fuck is the matter with me?
I lean my head against the window, trying to think of a way out of this. Dominic gets into the car but he doesn’t start it. A heavy sigh comes out of him, filling the car. My eyes are drawn to him against my will. His head is back as if he were staring up at the ceiling. Except I’m pretty sure his eyes are closed.
“Johnny is dying, Regina. The doctors talk in terms of making him comfortable. He gave you to me because he wants to die in peace knowing you are going to be taken care of. That’s what he asked me to do, to protect you from this world and yourself.”
Dying? “He said the ch
emo and radiation...he said it worked. He’s going to be fine.”
A shake of his head. “They thought so. It was his last checkup before he was going to move back to Chicago, six months ago he found out differently. He refuses to go through it again.” He shrugs. “Johnny has been given last rites. He put our family in order.”
Memories tumble one after another, the weight he’s lost, the priest who came to dinner, the men who came almost daily for a few weeks months ago. I close my eyes as I try to figure out what it is I’m feeling. Sadness, hollow... no pain. I tried, I wanted so badly to have a father, only we never connected. I’m not sure if it was because of the pain and anger I held on to from those long years of never hearing from him or because I still feel even two years later that I don’t know him.
It’s sad he’s dying, but I don’t think I’ll miss him. How could I miss someone I didn’t know and who didn’t know me? Johnny didn’t know my birth date, he didn’t even know my middle name, he knew nothing about me and he didn’t even try to learn. Those hours when I sat with him during his chemo treatments he talked about my mother, his mother, his son. He talked to me, he didn’t talk with me, and never once asked me a question about myself.
“I’m one more thing he put in order.” The words slip out of me, bitter in a way I’ve never tasted before.
“Something like that. I should have known when Pop gave me that smile this morning. In the family there is only one other man around your age suitable for marriage, and he’s not high enough to have pleased your father. With me a Sabatini, even though I am too fucking old for you as far as I’m concerned, Johnny would want our families tied together.”
“Your father, he’s Tony Sabatini. You’re Dom.” I’ve heard Francis and Danny and a few others talk about him. Except they referred to him as Dom, not Dominic, and they never said his last name or even Tony’s last name despite there being more than one Tony in the family. It was as if there was only one Tony that mattered.
Dominic was feared and respected, a good earner, a good killer. He maintained his territory and business with ruthless efficiency. Actually, the words they used were “he was a scary motherfucker that no one dared to go against.” They said he was a master negotiator, an extremely effective torturer, and he knew things, found things and people no one else could. The men around Johnny envied Dom and wanted to be him. There was also talk about how Dom had a steady string of mistresses, each of them more beautiful than the one before. When they talked about him I thought they were exaggerating; seeing him now, I know they were speaking the truth.
“I am a human being who can think for herself. I don’t care what Johnny wants. This is my life, not his. I can take care of myself. I’m in love with Richard. Richard wants me for me.”