Dom (Alliance, #3)

by S.J. Tilly

Dom makes a clicking sound with his tongue. “Is that any way to welcome me into The Alliance?”

The Alliance. Dom knows about The Alliance. He knows King. He’s in the mafia. Something tightens around my throat. It’s a coincidence. It’s some terrible coincidence.

“What do you want?” King grits out the question, squaring off with Dominic, waiting for his answer. Me. Please say you want me. “To join The Alliance.” My knees weaken. No. No, no, no, no. This can’t be happening. I thought…

“There is no stunt. This little sister of yours has been wedded and bedded. That makes me family, and if you have any honor at all, King Vass, you know that means I’m a part of The Alliance now.”

You dirty bastard

I was so close. Tears form and fall in the space of a heartbeat. I was so goddamn close to having what I’ve always wanted. And it was all a fucking lie.

It was all a setup. A trick.

I thought I could make him love me.

I thought someone finally cared. But Dom never cared about me. He did this for The Alliance. He married me for The Alliance.

I don’t want to be this close. I don’t want to be this close to these dangerous men.

What if Dom did all this, only to find out I’m not family enough? What if his plan doesn’t work? What will happen to me then? I reach up with my right hand and press it over my heart. I’m already a nobody.

“You owe me. Remember?” Dom says slowly. “A wife for a wife, King. Val is mine now.”

When he called me Mama at the airport. My eyes squeeze shut. When I followed him into that little room. When I had sex with him. Numbness starts to wash through me. Starting at my toes. Up to my ankles. I’m such a fool. It’s at my knees. Such a sad, pathetic, love-starved fool. My hips. So desperate for love, I believed that the hot man on the airplane was desperate to be with me. My belly button. So goddamn broken, I believed every compliment. I clung to every nice thing he said. My rib cage. So fucking lonely, I drunkenly married him and…

The numbness rises to my shoulders, the horrible ache in my heart finally dulling as I let the disassociation win. He’ll never love me.

No one ever has.

King lets go of Dom’s shirt with a shove. “Get out of my fucking house.” I don’t look up to see if he’s talking to just Dom or to both of us. Because it doesn’t really matter, does it? I...

Val’s pretty brown eyes are staring right at it, but I’m not sure she sees it. Not sure if she realizes now that this is my vehicle. Just like the one in Vegas. Just like the driver in Vegas. Just like the witnesses at our wedding.

I’ve been building this world out of smoke and mirrors. Carefully. Meticulously. All for this. For what just happened. Because I had to. Because I need this. And I won’t apologize for it.

She just shut down. And King… Fucking King just let me take her.

The outcome is exactly what I needed, because I need Valentine in order to leverage King’s, and therefore Nero’s, cooperation.

But King just let me take her. He let me walk his sister out of the house. Val was standing there, fucki...

Before I can stop her, she lowers her window, and the wind rushes through the opening as she throws her ring out onto the freeway.

“Only took you three and a half hours to decide you want her.” His words are true. And that’s why they hurt so much.

It never even crossed my mind that he was a gangster. But knowing what I know now, I don’t know how I didn’t see it. His eyes, the ones I thought were full of so much history, really are. But it’s a darker history than I imagined. His calloused palms. The skull permanently drawn into the middle of his chest. The confidence.

“I can.” Dom leans closer. “You’re in my city now, remember? I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

He left it on. And it fits him perfectly. And he brought the rings with him. Because he planned this.

“Did you fucking drug me?” I snap. Dom stares back at me. “Yes.”

Better a gilded cage than a real one.

While I redo my ponytail with more force than necessary, I don’t think about how Dom drove so calmly to King’s house, knowing my world was about to crumble.

prick.” I slam my toothbrush down on the edge of the sink and leave it there. Just like I leave my dirty clothes on the floor. And my backpack open on the edge of the tub. They are small acts of defiance in his pristine living space, but they make me feel better.

“Then please turn off the ceiling lights and shut the fuck up so I can sleep.”

“And I’ll shut the fuck up in a moment. But understand that you’re the only person who can get away with talking to me like that. And only in private.”

It’s nearly comical. All my mom’s lectures growing up. How men will only want to use me. How I’m too stupid to understand them. How I’ll end up ruined and alone. I really should have paid attention.

“These should look exactly like the ones she has.”

Oh hell no!

Doc digs into his satchel for the second item, withdrawing a capped syringe. “This is the other thing.”

ummmmm excuse me???

“Did you seriously tattoo my whole fucking finger?”

the audacitiy!

“Is that your argument?” My eyes widen. “If the question had been will you wear my ring, or would you prefer I tattoo your whole-ass finger like a psycho, my answer would’ve been a little different.”

“You. Are. My. Wife.” He punctuates each word with a step, stopping directly before me. “And people need to know that. If I can’t trust you to wear a ring, I’ll mark you myself for everyone to see.”

“Four.” He leans closer. “One to replace every other dick you’ve touched.”

“How many vaginas have you stuck your stupid cock in? I bet it’s more than fucking four.”

“It’s more than fucking four.”

The neon red flag finally unfurls in the center of my brain.

“How did you even do this? Did you drug me again?” Dominic turns to face me. “I wasn’t going to let you feel the pain.”

That makes it so much better

“Dom, that’s not an answer.” “I prefer you calling me Dominic.” “I prefer you when you aren’t drugging me and scratching your name into my skin.”

And if the heart inside my chest hadn’t already been turned into a diamond through decades of pressure, the expression on her face would break it.

“Angel.” His voice is soft. The voice I used to know. A thumb brushes across my cheek. “You’ll always be seated at my side.”

“We will win because we have The Alliance. Because a good woman can change your life.”

“You’re in the parking garage. These are your positions when my wife is home. No one is in here with her. If she orders anything, you’ll collect it from downstairs and hand it to her at the door. Not a fucking foot inside. Got it?” The men all nod. “You’re here because I trust you to protect my woman. But if you step out of line, I’ll kill you my-fucking-self.”

“If the worst happens, and Rob and I go out together, I have contingencies in place to alert your brother. Then it’s up to you to wait for him. I imagine it will only take him a handful of hours to arrive, but the pantry is stocked with enough food to last you six months. While you’re here, you’re safe. Nothing and no one can get to you.”

“I didn’t know Ivy League offered gangster studies.”

can’t possibly focus on that. Because there, right above Dom’s cock—like directly above the base of his fucking cock—are the words Til Death.