Chapter 24
Allie
It feels strange, riding in the back of a car while Logan and Dom sit up front. We’re riding toward something, although they’ve been super-light on details.
Logan looks at me in the rearview mirror. I can’t decide whether he’s begging me to be onboard with whatever is happening or warning me off. Maybe both?
Still, until he gets the word from Dominick, he insists on talking in roundabout terms that remind me of when my parents would talk about ‘adult things’ with me and TJ in the room. Like when Grandma Ellie got cancer. It’s infuriating and confusing all at the same time because I’m definitely listening closely, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.
“Pete called. Unauthorized transport through the South Side.”
Dominick’s eyes are on the passing landscape out the window, seeing something in the darkness I can’t, or maybe he’s just using the white noise of the passing vista to help his mind focus. Either way, I can see his reflection, and the hard clench of his jaw and the way his face has gone from the expressive vulnerability of his office to a cold Terminator-like sternness is frightening.
“Involvement?” he asks crisply.
Only because my eyes are ping-ponging this entire trip do I catch Logan’s slight wince, his mouth twisting down at the corners before he answers. “Chambers . . . plus one.”
None of this means anything to me, except the word ‘unauthorized’. That obviously means that something is going down in Dom’s town without his permission, and I can’t imagine that’s a good thing.
Who would be stupid enough, brazen enough to do something under Dom’s nose without his go-ahead? And why did Logan want to bring me? It seems like a risk Dom wouldn’t usually take.
Dominick doesn’t give me answers or explanations though, just picks up his phone and dials a number by memory.
I can only hear his side of the conversation. “Silas? It’s Angeline.”
There’s a slight pause, and Dom speaks again. “Chambers was making a run.”
Another pause, and this time, I hear a deep but tiny voice shout ‘fuck’ loud enough that it’s audible from Dom’s phone.
“Am I to take it by that response that you did not authorize it?”
While Dom listens to whoever Silas is, he traces patterns on the window of the car, almost all of them geometrically perfect.
“Very well. There may be other complications, but I leave Chambers to your discretion.”
Another pause, and I wonder . . . did Dom just give permission for someone to die?
“Acceptable. Consider this a gracious gift, Silas. Tonight could’ve ended much differently for you.”
Dom doesn’t wait for a response, hanging up as Logan pulls into a totally darkened parking lot. I’ve had plenty of time in the car to let my eyes adjust, so I can see the shadowy shape of what looks like a fifteen-foot moving truck.
A moment later, the moon comes out from behind the clouds and I see more shadows and realize there are two men on the ground, with another small group of men surrounding them.
Suddenly, I really don’t want to get out of the car. I’m terrified of what is about to happen, knowing I’m going to see the true Dominick Angeline. The monster. The boogie man people of East Robinsville fear.
It’s time to meet The Boss.
Though he may not be those things with me, I’ve been fooling myself that he isn’t that. I realize I’ve been living a fantasy, pretending that Dom’s some ‘villain with a heart of gold’ who only pretends to be a ruthless bastard in order to stay alive. And I don’t want my pretty fantasy shattered.
“No. No . . . uh-uh,” I moan wildly, shaking my head. “I don’t want to do this. I don’t need to see this.”
Dominick turns around in the shotgun seat, reaching back to lay a hand on my knee, looking back at me. “Allison, this is my world. This is who I am, what I am. Evil, perhaps, but a necessary one. You need to see, and you need to know.”
I want one more moment of innocence, one more taste of who he is right now before my image of him is forever tarnished. I lean forward and he meets me. I kiss him softly, and it feels like a goodbye. In a way, it is. A goodbye to the delusion I’ve been allowing myself. His lips move against mine for a moment, soft and sweet, but all too soon, he pulls away, and I can see the mask come back on, his eyes going ice-cold and hard.
Undoing his seatbelt, he looks at Logan, his voice hard. “Stay with her, Logan. No matter what.”
Logan dips his chin once and Dominick gets out. I can’t hear, but I see him greet and shake hands with an older guy in a suit and give a nod of greeting to the three other men holding guns on the guys on the ground.
But when Dominick says something to the two guys on the dirty asphalt, they both look up.
One of them I don’t know. The other is . . . TJ.
Before Logan can say anything or do anything to stop me, I’m out the back door of the car, running to him. “TJ! Oh, my God. What the hell is going on?”
TJ looks at me, obviously surprised at seeing me here. “Allie? What the fuck? Get out of here!”
I should do what he says, but in that moment, my eyes involuntarily turn to Dominick, looking for his guidance. I’m in way over my head here, and I don’t know what’s happening, but on some level, I trust that Dominick isn’t going to hurt me.
The next instant, Logan is at my side, holding me back from TJ. Pulling me away, he growls lightly in my ear, “Settle down, Allie. Watch, learn, and understand.”
Logan’s the sort of man who always sounds hard. It’s part of what makes him a good bouncer, but in the time I’ve known him, I’ve learned to read his rumbles. This time, there’s no bullshit, no compromise. He’s as intense as he can be, and I know if he has to, he’ll pick me up like a child and drag me away.
I stop fighting him so that I can stay, though I’m not sure if it’s for TJ or for Dominick. Maybe both, to some degree. I stand on my own quietly, and he slowly lets go. Logan and Dominick have a quick, silent conversation with their eyes, and whatever else is passed, I know that from this moment on, Logan is personally responsible for my safety. Knowing Logan, that means he’d lay his life down in the process and not even think twice about it.
My interruption settled, Dominick returns his attention to the man in the suit, though TJ is still begging me with his eyes to run like hell.
“Pete, this is Allie. Allie, this is Pete. He’s the man on the South Side. A good boss.”
Something in the way he says it makes me hear the lower-case ‘boss’ instead of the upper-case Boss I’ve heard others whisper when they talk about Dom. He doesn’t tell Pete who I am, and I wonder if that’s because Pete already knows or if that particular piece of information is something he doesn’t need to know.
Usually, I’d shake hands with an introduction, but my gut tells me to stay where I am. Dominick is on edge, and while the signs of his stress are very well-disguised, they’re there. His right hand is half-clenched, and the little wisp of hair just above his right temple is out of place.
I’m probably the only person in the world who would notice that, though. Instead, everyone else would likely see that his shoulders are down and tension-free, his breathing is slow and even, and by all accounts, we could just be having a casual meeting with friends about helping out with apartment moving tomorrow.
Except for the guns and the guys on the ground.
TJ on the ground.
I look down at him again, hating that he’s in this position and not understanding why. He’s still screaming at me with his eyes, anguish and apology in their depths.
I want to jump in and demand answers, but Logan’s words flash in my mind and I wait. Dominick glances at me, and though he doesn’t say it, I can see the gleam in his eye, telling me I’m doing the right thing. Telling me to trust him.
The kind flicker is gone when he looks back to Pete. “Pete, as you were saying?”
Pete swallows, eyein
g my presence carefully, but he clears his throat and continues. “Yeah, so I got word a shipment was coming through. Knew you hadn’t authorized it or you would’ve let me know, and it would’ve been my guys, not these assholes. So I had my guys stop the truck, and here we are.”
He seems kinda smarmy and talks to Dominick like they’re old pals, even making it seem like he’s a big shot. Maybe he is, but Dom doesn’t seem impressed.
“And you found out about the shipment when?”
Pete flushes a little but answers. “Got word about a bit of trouble earlier today, but wasn’t sure it was real until we actually saw the truck.”
Dominick purses his lips, pinching his left shirt cuff to pluck off an invisible piece of lint, and when he answers, his voice is emotionless.
“I see. So you had intel but didn’t feel the need to tell me. Instead, you decided to choose your own course of action, also without authorization. Have you forgotten that there’s a proper way to do things? Seems you’re taking a lot of liberties. Just like these guys.”
Without warning, Dominick’s right foot pistons out, kicking who I’m guessing is Chambers dead in his chest. He’s knocked back, rolling over, but Dom’s foot meets him in the gut, driving the wind out of him. Though it’s Chambers on the ground coughing and moaning, the threat is obviously to Pete and everyone knows it.
“I was watching my South Side, like I’m supposed to,” Pete says defensively, still trying to sound strong but wilting by the word. “My guys stopped the truck, like I told them to.”
He’s emphasizing everything about this seeming like his territory . . . me, my, I’m, which feels dangerous. East Robinsville’s Dominick’s, not his. He’s just the store manager.
“Dom, I knew it was a big night at the club and I didn’t want to interrupt your night of dancing,” he says, more than a little disrespect in his eyes as he glances at me. In that moment, it’s apparent that he knows exactly who I am by the way he leers at me.
Though I’m fully dressed in sweats, I’ve never felt more naked, which pisses me off. I glare back, my fists bunching at my sides, telling him with my eyes to fuck off and hoping Dominick tells him out loud because I’m not real sure of the rules here.
Not that I’ve ever been one for rule following.
“Fuck you, Pete,” I say, disrespect and dismissal dripping from the words.
There’s a tiny piece of me that acknowledges it’s a stupid thing to do, but I’m secretly curious how Dom is going to respond.
My heart leaps as I see the slightest uptick of his lips, not a smile, but enough of one that I know he approves of my outburst and might even be a little amused.
But when he turns back to Pete, there is no smile and his neutrally impassive expression has given way to a clenched jaw and stormy eyes.
“It seems that you’re getting a false sense of your importance, your power,” Dominick says, pulling everyone’s attention back to him. “That’s something I can’t have. I have given you some slack because of your experience, but let me be clear. You are a pawn trying to claim a crown that doesn’t fit. I let you ‘run’ the South Side as my eyes and ears, but in doing so, you are to share that insight so that I can actually do something with it. Perhaps stop us from having an evening like this at all. Something avoidable with a single phone call.”
Dominick tsks as he steps closer to Pete, who’s watching with true fear in his eyes now. In a blur of movement, Dominick backhands him across the face, his ring popping the skin open at the point of contact as a thin line of blood instantly appears.
I gasp, my hands covering my mouth as my eyes shoot wide open.
I feel Logan place one staying hand on my shoulder, lightly but enough to remind me that this is a test, as much for me as it is for Dominick.
Pete wipes his cheek, and though he’s cowering slightly, I can see the fury in his eyes. Dominick leans into Pete, forcing him to tilt back and putting him at a disadvantage. His voice is cold and sharp, cutting through the night air like a laser.
“Do not fool yourself, Pete. We are not friends. This is not your territory, and these are not your men. Everything you see, everything you eat, everything you touch . . . it’s mine.”
Pete starts to say something but freezes when Dominick cuts his eyes over to the three guys with guns. Instantly, they point their weapons at Pete.
To his credit, Pete stands tall in the face of the threat, head held high, but his retreat is complete as he takes a step back and adjusts his jacket lapels.
“My apologies, sir. Won’t happen again, Mr. Angeline.”
The moment stretches, and I’m holding my breath, waiting for the sharp cracking pop from my nightmares, the sound of a pistol going off and someone suddenly blooming red from some part of their body. But the silence holds as Dominick stares Pete down, searching his face for something, and whatever it is, he must see it because he relaxes incrementally and the tension in the small group lowers.
Looking around, I realize these men are just as scared as I am. Even Logan, who can dish out violence with his bare hands in the octagon like it’s nothing, is relieved too.
Still, while the guns lower, nobody moves.
Dominick sighs like a disappointed parent and turns back to Chambers, who’s gotten himself together enough to be sitting on the ground.
“What’s in the truck?” Dominick asks.
Before Chambers can answer, a loud rumble fills the quiet night and everyone turns to look at the approaching headlights.
“Who the hell is that?” Pete growls, confused.
Dominick smiles. It’s full of teeth, but instead of looking happy, he looks feral. But also, he looks a little pleased?
What could make him that cocky in the midst of all this? The sound gets closer, and I see a big motorcycle and a muscle car approach. Half the guys turn their eyes away, but I forget and am immediately plunged back into night blindness as the engines turn off.
In those few moments of silence, Dom speaks.
“You may go now, Pete.”
It’s an order couched in pleasantness.
“I will be watching for any further signs of trouble.”
Everyone hears the implication. Pete steps back, waving ‘his’ guys back with him, and they all retreat slowly, none of them stupid or courageous enough to give Dom their backs.
Instead, as bootheels crunch on the blacktop and two newcomers approach, their eyes flick back and forth worriedly. As I look at them, I understand. It feels like everything just got worse. I had no doubt that Dom could handle whatever sniveling shit Pete was up to.
But these two new guys look rough.
They’re tall, hulking men, one with a beard and long blond hair making him look like a Viking, the other an older man with salt-and-pepper hair and eyes that even in the darkness burn with a hellish fire that says he’s seen some shit and come out the other side.
Nobody says anything until Pete and his men get into their cars and pull out of the lot. In the deep silence that follows, there are three groups, the rough biker-looking men, TJ and Chambers in the middle, and Dom, Logan, and myself on the other side. It’s like some weird sandwich, and I wonder if I’m the mayo or the pickle. No, not the pickle for sure, considering the swinging dicks around me right now as the men all take each other’s measure.
Finally, the Viking looks at Chambers and TJ, then up at Dom. “Well, ain’t this some shit we got here, Angeline?”
My eyebrows raise at his lazy tone, not disrespectful but just zero fear. Either he knows something I don’t, which is probably likely, or he’s fucking clueless about Dom.
Chapter 25
Dominick
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Logan subtly move in front of Allie, not cutting her off but making sure that if something kicks off, she’s covered. Good man.
On the ground, Chambers starts to get up. “Fucking hell, Robbie. Where’ve you been, man?”
He’s suddenly laughing and jovial, like he thinks Robert Zal
low is here to save him, but one look at Robbie’s eyes and I know that’s not the case at all.
“Get on the ground, Chambers,” I growl as he gets to a knee, but he knows who he answers to. Instead of following my order, he looks at Robbie and gets to his feet, but I don’t give him another warning, sweeping his feet out from underneath him and sending him crashing back to the cracked asphalt.
“As I was saying, what’s in the truck?”
Chambers looks to Robbie again, but I plant my foot on his chest, pressing down on his ribs. I don’t lean my full weight into him, showing a glimmer of mercy mostly because Allie is here, but when I withdraw my shoe, his full attention is on me.
“Fuck . . . fine. Open and see for yourself, asshole.”
Chambers is digging his hole deeper and deeper, and I suspect he’ll need a literal one before the night is through.
I nod to Zallow, who nods to Victor. I’ve never met him before, but I know all the players in Silas’s crew because you never know when the insight might come in handy.
Like tonight.
Victor is Silas’s Sergeant at Arms, a former Marine Scout Sniper and a weapons expert, and it makes me wonder if Silas suspects the unauthorized shipment contains guns.
Victor goes over to the truck, unlocking the door and pushing it up, the rollaway door rattling on its frame.
Suddenly, Victor steps back as a chorus of cries fills the night air, and Zallow flashes a flashlight over the interior of the truck box, spitting out a harsh echo of my own thoughts.
“Fucking hell.”
Not guns, not drugs. Instead, a small group of perhaps a dozen or so women and children huddle against the back wall of the moving van, fear and confusion written boldly on their faces.
Victor recovers quickly, holding his hands out, showing he doesn’t have anything in his hands, and rattles off clear, if badly accented, Spanish.
“No problema, estais seguro. You’re safe, okay?”
He turns to Robbie, his look telling me what I need to know. Silas didn’t know about this. His guys didn’t know about this. And they’re furious, judging by the glares they send Chambers’s way.
Dirty Secrets Page 25
