She turned to arrange her body back on the bed, hips hanging over the edge, legs spread.
“Naked.”
Without a word she removed her bra and underwear and laid back down and position. Fuck. He wanted her to fight with him, to plead her case. Not lay there like she believed she truly deserve to be punished in this way.
“Did you feel even the least bit guilty when I got back last night and ate your pussy? Did you feel bad that I’d been starving for your body all night while you’d been spending your time setting yourself up to steal from me?”
When he’d gotten in from drinking with his brothers, all he could think about was tasting her. That was how blind he was to what she really was.
Dominic brought the cane down in a hard swing against her ass. She whimpered but didn’t cry out. He brought it down again crossways and watched her entire body go stiff with pain. He knew he was striking her much harder than he ever had.
“That’s only two. Do you want to beg me to stop? Want to plead your case?”
She drew in a shaky breath. ”No, Master.”
Her words caused him to see red. No. She had no right to call him that. He brought the cane down again, harder, against the tenderest part of her ass. This time a small scream escaped her before she was able to catch it.
Dominic saw a line of red along her buttocks where he’d just struck her. He’d drawn blood.
He dropped the cane on the ground. What was he doing? Why was she allowing this? Why was he allowing her to allow it?
Titus had been right, Dominic should’ve gotten some answers before he made any decisions. Should’ve gotten his head clear before talking to her at all. He had to get away from her before he did both of them irreparable damage.
“I can’t even look at you.” Not without wanting to force her to tell him what was so worth it to her that she would give up what they had. Give up the feelings he’d been so sure were real between them.
He would come back later, after the wedding, and talk to her then. Force her to explain what she was doing and why.
She was still lying on the bed when he left.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Where’s Cassandra?”
The moment he’d shown up without her both of his brothers had noticed her absence and given him a look. But it wasn’t until about an hour before the wedding was scheduled to start that Sarah realized Cassandra wasn’t there.
“This is a family event, sweetheart,” Dominic tried to explain, the excuse weak even to his own ears. “I thought maybe it would be better if Cassandra didn’t attend.”
Sarah just looked at him as if he had grown two heads. “Cassandra has been here every day this week helping me set everything up. She’s been an absolute godsend. Why would you think I didn’t want her here?”
To Dominic’s absolute dismay, Sarah began to cry. Roman shot him a look that made him think of slow, painful deaths.
“Sarah,” Dominic tried to explain, “I don’t think Cassandra is the person you think she is. She’s a con artist, a thief; she always has been. That hasn’t changed.”
Sarah, dressed in her beautiful white gown, took a step away from Roman and came to stand right in front of Dominic.
“Is that what you truly think? Deep inside is that really the person you think she is?” Sarah asked.
Roman felt his fists clench. “Damn it, no I don’t want to believe it. But I can’t deny the proof when it slaps me right in the face.”
“And what proof is that?”
“We caught her planting a device that will transmit my computer files. Financial records, scheduling, plans for the future. Details that could be really damaging if sold to the right people.”
“You caught her doing that?”
Dominic grimaced. “No, actually we caught her taking it off. But the fact is, she did put it on the computer. She didn’t deny it when I confronted her.”
“And what did she say when you asked her why she did it?”
Dominic thought of Cassandra’s still form, lying on his bed. She hadn’t gotten up even when he’d hit her hard enough to draw blood. He flinched. “I—”
“Did you ask her if she was under duress? Or if there was some sort of stress trigger? I’ve gotten to know Cassandra a little this week, and I’ll be the first to admit that I might be too quick to give people the benefit of the doubt, but the one thing I’m definitely sure of is that she has some triggers. Feelings of inadequacy and uselessness. Like the night we were all together on the way to the gala. And she was a breath away from a panic attack.”
“Yes.” He remembered. Of course he remembered.
“You threatened to do some pretty drastic stuff.”
Dominic could feel himself getting defensive. “Because she needed it. It helped her.”
Sarah touched him on the arm. “I know. I was actually thrilled that you seemed to be so aware of what she needed. Definitely much more than she was aware of what she needed.”
“She’s still a thief and a con artist, Sarah.” Dominic looked over at his brothers to see if they had anything to chime in with, but they stayed silent.
“Something triggered her that night with the gala. But because it wasn’t one of your triggers, you helped her through it. All I’m asking is did she make a deliberate choice to betray you — because that would be one thing — or did something trigger her and she made a bad call, and then tried to fix it?”
Dominic felt a knot forming in his gut. “I don’t know.”
Because he hadn’t asked. Hadn’t given her a chance to explain at all. Hadn’t been able to see past the fact that she had betrayed him again. Hadn’t wanted to understand.
All he’d wanted to do was to make her hurt the way he had been hurting. And he had. He made her bleed. But the physical pain she would get over much more quickly than she would recover from what he’d said to her.
“Oh God.” His mind, his own subconscious, had known exactly what to say to hurt her worst.
“Maybe she had a reason,” Sarah said. “It may not even seem like a good reason to you or me, but things are a little twisted to her. Maybe if you just hear her out. And try to understand.”
Yes, that was what he should’ve done. It was what Titus had been trying to tell him. That he needed to speak to Cassandra calmly, get all the facts. But he hadn’t been able to see past the possibility of his pride of getting hurt again.
“I said some unforgivable things to her.”
Sarah flinched. “Cassandra doesn’t have a lot of the emotional fortitude. Physical pain she can take, but emotionally she’s much more vulnerable.”
“I’ll talk to her after the wedding. Listen to what she has to say. I don’t want to hold up things for you.” But God, he wanted to go to Cass right now. To take back what he’d said about not being part of the family, about nobody wanting her around.
“No,” Sarah said, walking back over to stand with Roman. “I don’t want to get married without all my family here. Cassandra is included in that.”
“I don’t know that she’ll be in any state to come back here.” Physically or emotionally.
Now Roman spoke up. “Then we’ll wait till next Saturday. You two make up one eighth of our wedding party anyway.”
“I’m sorry I messed this up.”
“Cassandra thinks she’s worthless,” Sarah said gently. “It’s ingrained in her thinking, Dominic. I work with children all the time so I see this sort of thing. Emotional abuse that has been rooting for years, probably before you even knew her before. It affects her judgment. Her ability to see herself and others. And it’s not something that can be fixed quickly. She needs someone who can understand how precious she is. If you can’t be that person then you need to let her go.”
“I already am that person. I just lost sight of it.”
“Then go to her and don’t leave her side until you’re sure she knows.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Where the fuck is Cassandra?�
��
He’d searched the bedroom, the kitchen, the garden. Everywhere. She wasn’t here.
Titus shook his head. ”She asked me to take her to the bus station, but I said no. She said you specifically indicated you didn’t want to see her anymore. That the two of you agreed that it wasn’t a good idea for her to be around the family.”
Dominic ran a hand over his eyes. God damn it.
“I did say those things.” He’d said them in the cruelest way possible. “But...” But what? But he’d been an asshole and hadn’t listened to her? But he’d been too caught up in his own pain to see what was right in front of him?
“She wasn’t in good shape, boss. I was worried about her.”
“What do you mean?”
Titus shrugged. “She wouldn’t look me in the eye when we were talking. And she had red marks all over her arms. She wouldn’t stop scratching them.”
Triggered. He’d driven her to that.
“I didn’t want to take her anywhere without asking you,” Titus continued. “But I thought the wedding was happening so I didn’t want to call. I couldn’t stand to see her like that, so I convinced her to go work out in the garden. She loves the garden.”
“She does love the garden.”
“When I went to check on her, maybe twenty minutes later, she was gone.”
She’d run off again. Except this time she’d run because he told her she wasn’t wanted here.
“I found her phone,” Titus continued. “She didn’t take it with her. It had this on it.”
The tension already pooling through Dominic skyrocketed at the text Cassandra had received threatening Sarah. She’d also gotten a call from that same number.
“Do we know who that number belongs to?”
“No, sir. But we do know that Darrell Clemens is in town. It’s possible Cassandra’s family was trying to blackmail her into planting that spyware on your computer. It looks like maybe she caved and then changed her mind or she put it on there trying to insure Sarah’s safety.”
“Either way is understandable. Forgivable.” Especially if he’d just given her five minutes to explain. He scrubbed his hand across his face again. “Whether she’s with the Clemens — especially if we think she’s with the Clemens — I want all our contacts out. Check the bus stops, even airports, although I don’t think she had any ID. Hell, did she at least take some money with her?”
Titus’ short shake of the head let him know that if she had taken some it hadn’t been much.
“You were right this morning when you said I should give her a chance to explain, Titus. I didn’t. But we’ll get her back and this time I’ll listen. Hell, it may still be that she has been playing me this entire time.”
“If she is then she’s the most amazing actress I’ve ever known.”
Titus left to get to work, and Dominic went up to the bedroom. The cane still lay on the ground where he’d dropped it. He couldn’t bear to touch it; thinking about what he’d done made him ill. He was so wrapped in self-contempt that he almost missed the envelope lying against the pillow with his name written on the outside. His hands shook slightly as he opened it.
It was a plain piece of paper inside, with just a few sentences written on it.
You’re right, I never belonged here. I’m sorry I hurt your family.
There’s a loose brick on the top right of the mantle of the fireplace. I never knew how to tell you it had been here the whole time. I guess that says everything you need to know about me. Useless, as usual. I’m sorry your mother died thinking it was gone. Not that my apologies change anything. I offer them anyway.
Dominic ran down the stairs into the living room, the only room with a fireplace. He began touching the stones above the mantle on the right-hand side and sure enough, one of them was loose. He moved it aside and saw the ring box in there.
Unable to breathe, he opened it, and found his mother’s wedding and engagement ring.
Dominic could not even wrap his head around what this meant. He’d been convinced Cassandra left him seven years ago because she’d found out he was mafia and knew she wouldn’t be able to get much from him as a mark. So she taken the rings to recoup what she could. Otherwise she would’ve left here completely empty-handed. Going back to her family with nothing, after eight months of a con, would not have been acceptable. There would’ve been dire consequences for her.
Ring grasped in his hand, Dominic found Titus.
“When Cassandra left seven years ago, we checked hospitals right?”
Titus nodded. “Yes, for Cassandra Barker and for Jane Does.”
“See if you can find hospital records from seven years ago for Clemens. We weren’t looking for that name.”
“Do you really think she got hurt, boss?”
“I think she went back to her family empty-handed, and I think that probably didn’t go over well.”
Twenty minutes and probably many greased palms later, Titus received the report. The pallor on his face told Dominic what he needed to know.
“You were right,” Titus said, handing him the papers. “Hospital report from General Southern seven years ago. A Cassandra Clemens, beaten so severely she was in a coma for four days. The police suspected the stepfather, but when the woman woke up she cleared him, so charges were dropped. She left the hospital despite doctors orders.”
Dominic stare down at the papers, a part of his history falling into place. There would only be one reason why Gordon Clemens would beat Cassandra like that. She’d either refused to continue the con or had refused to make payment. Clemens had made sure Cassandra couldn’t return to Dominic.
“Boss, there’s more. The last line of the doctors’ report.”
Patient unable to sustain fetus due to extent of internal injuries. D&C completed, 13 week fetus. Scarring complications in uterus.
Cassandra had been pregnant. Then had lost the baby due to the beating she’d received.
“You find me Cassandra, Titus,” Dominic said, feeling his hands start to shake around the papers. “And you find me Gordon Clemens as well.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
They finally found her by tracking Gordon Clemens’ phone. The fact that he was in the New Orleans area wasn’t a surprise to Dominic, especially considering his son Darrell had been following Sarah yesterday.
They were back in the Michoud Blvd area, not far from the warehouse where Dominic had found Cassandra bound and bruised a few months ago.
So help him God, if she had been hurt by her stepfather’s hand, the man would not live to see another day. He might not live to see another day anyway.
Dominic categorically refused to allow himself to think about the fact that Cassandra, even if he got her away from her stepfather, might not want anything to do with him. The things he said to her were unforgivable. He’d known what would hurt her most and had twisted the emotional knife in the most cruel way possible.
He only hoped she would give him a chance to make it up to her. He would, no matter what it took.
The relief he felt when he heard her voice from where he hid around the corner, even as angry as it was, almost overwhelmed him. She was talking to her stepfather.
“I’m out, Gordon. Dominic told me to leave. I can’t go back.”
“You stupid bitch,” Gordon spat. “Do you know how much you’ve lost? I saw the pictures of you two in the paper. Saw you for myself at that gala. He would’ve given you anything.”
Cassandra’s voice was much smaller now. “Looks are deceiving. Dominic never loved me. Never trusted me. He was never going to give me anything. So stay away from him and his family. Leave them alone. Leave Sarah alone. Hurting them won’t help you.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe hurting you will help me. I can’t believe you got in with Dominic Rinaldi twice and walked out empty-handed both times. You’re beyond useless. Obviously the only way I’m going to make money from you is to whore you out.”
“I don’t even know if she would make much
money as a whore,” Darrell’s voice chimed in.
Dominic had had enough. He stepped out from around the corner, Titus at his side, two other of his men coming up behind Gordon and Darrell.
“I don’t imagine I’m going to want my wife to be whored out. But I do wonder what sort of price I could get for the two of you.”
Gordon and Darrell both drew their weapons, but when Dominic’s men placed the muzzle of their guns directly on the back of their heads, Gordon and Darrell lowered theirs, obviously realizing they couldn’t win. Cassandra just stood there staring at Dominic with wide eyes.
“I feel like the last time I was in a warehouse like this it was also because of you,” he said, doing his best to give her a gentle smile. She just continued to gape at him.
“Why are you here?” she whispered.
“My wife and I had a fight this morning and I said some pretty dumbass stuff. I was hoping I could beg her forgiveness.”
Cassandra looked down at the floor and began scratching her arms, the skin already raw from previous abrasions.
“Cass. Look at me.”
Relief flooded him when she looked up.
“Don’t hurt yourself, baby. We can work through this.”
Gordon scoffed. “She’s such a freak with the scratching. She’s useless, Rinaldi. Deadweight. Can’t close a deal. I’m doing you a favor by taking her off your hands.”
“She’s my wife. And if there’s anything I know it’s that she’s not a deadweight.”
“Really? She can’t even have kids. Why would you want someone like that for your wife?”
He saw Cassandra’s flinch and knew it was true. Dominic mourned for just a second a future that could never be, then walked over to Cassandra and drew her next to him, kissing her on the forehead and stopping her hands from hurting herself further.
“And why is it that Cass can’t have children, Gordon?” Dominic’s voice was quiet. Deadly.
Dominic: A Triple Threat Novel Page 11
