Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 26645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 133(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
“What the hell are you doing?” he asks Tyler, quickly walking forward and standing in front of him.
Tyler is larger than him—the guy’s larger than most people—but he cowers in Dominic’s presence. I can’t tell if he’s afraid because Dominic is his boss or if it’s something else. Something tells me he has more reasons to be afraid of Dominic than I know about. Nevertheless, I’m happy Dominic showed up when he did. He’s a criminal and I know that, but I feel safe with him here.
“We were just having a chat,” Tyler says, trying to lie, probably hoping I’d be too afraid to disagree.
I don’t say anything. Instead, Dominic looks at me, sees the fear in my eyes, and pushes Tyler up against the wall. Tyler tries to fight back, but Dominic hits him and knocks the wind out of him.
“Didn’t look like talking to me,” Dominic says through gritted teeth. “Daniella, go inside.”
I rush to the door and open it, standing on the threshold for a moment, looking back. Dominic doesn’t need to look back to know I’m still there.
“Go now!” he commands and I quickly close the door and back away.
5
DOM
My blood runs so hotly through my body that I hardly feel the chill of the winter air.
Tyler is pinned to the wall, and I press my forearm against his neck. He’s gasping for air and shaking his head to tell me to stop. I’m not going to kill him even if I could. Trust me, I want to. But I won’t.
When Tyler’s face is purple, I drop my arm and back away from him. He falls to the ground, gasping for breath as he coughs and sits on the ground on his hands and knees. I thought I would leave it there, but I couldn’t. His hands were on Daniella. He touched my woman. He could have hurt her. Hell, he probably scarred her for life. He isn’t going to get away with it this easily.
He catches his breath and looks up at me before slowly starting to make his way to his feet. Before he can, I kick him in the side and he falls back down with a groan.
“It’s not what–” he starts saying before I kick him again. He rolls over onto his side and winces from the pain.
Yes, Tyler is twice my size. But he won’t fight back against me. He knows better than that. Just like he should have known better than to corner my woman in an alley. Besides, just because he’s bigger doesn’t mean he’s stronger.
“I don’t ever want to see you touch her again,” I seethe at him, holding back a slew of curses I want to send his way. “You don’t look at her, you don’t think about her, you don’t breathe the wrong way when she’s around. If she walks into a room, you will look away and leave. Do you understand?”
Tyler doesn’t say anything. His nostrils flare, and he’s gritting his teeth. He’s known for being a hothead, temperamental, unable to control his anger. I’m provoking him and I know that. So fucking what. I almost wish he’d give me another reason to do more to him.
I move to stand over him, gripping the collar of his shirt and lifting him to face me. He still doesn't say anything, so I punch him in the face.
“I said, do you understand me?” I yell at him again.
“Yes,” he groans, holding his cheek where my punch landed.
I drop his collar by shoving him into the ground. “Get the hell out of here. I don’t want to look at you.”
I don’t turn to watch him leave, but I can hear him hurriedly walking down the alley while I make my way to the door. My hand is throbbing and I can feel blood trickling through my fingers from the broken skin.
Daniella is standing near the door with a worried look when I open it. She holds her breath, expecting to see Tyler walk in behind me, but is relieved when he doesn’t. Seeing her fear again makes me want to chase Tyler down and kill him.
“Did he hurt you?” she asks me, looking down at my hand.
I look at it for a second and shake my head. “Don’t worry about me. Are you alright? Did he do anything to hurt you?”
She looks down at her feet for a moment and shakes her head. I can’t imagine what’s running through her mind right now. It takes all of my self-control not to go back and finish that asshole off.
“I saw a first aid kit on the desk upstairs,” she says instead of answering me. “I’ll help you get that cleaned up.”
I don’t want to push her, so I follow her to the elevator. Daniella walks through the party with her head down, not wanting to draw any attention to either of us. My hand is throbbing, so I hold it with my other hand while we walk. I see a few people’s eyes fall on it, but they don’t say anything.