Dominion (Alpha Domain #1) (11 page)

I waited a beat, glancing around to make sure no one raised their hand or nervously fidgeted. Mason sighed with resignation, but otherwise it appeared that this plan was a go.

Now the
real
planning could begin.

“Alright, boys. Let’s talk about how we’re going to do this.”

M
y heart felt
like it was lodged in my throat and beating a mile a minute as I listened to the men in the kitchen plotting ways to take out people like they were nothing more than pawns on a chessboard. Even though I already
knew
, I still couldn’t believe that this was the life my stepbrother now led.

Could I live with this?

I shook my head as if to clear the thought, not wanting to think about it right now. Possibly because I already knew the answer.

I didn’t like it one bit, but I’d stay for Allen and John.

After all, all this violence—this killing—they were doing it to keep me safe.

Which just made me feel even more like shit. How could I just sit here and be okay with countless people dying in my name?

They’re human traffickers
, my mind hissed as my survival instincts started to creep in and take control.
Do you think they deserve to live more than you do? Do you
really
want to become a sex toy for some thug?

Aren’t I already?

I gasped and backed away from my hidden spot in the hallway, wincing when I slammed my elbow into the wall in my haste to get away.

The muffled voices in the kitchen stopped all at once and I was paralyzed with fear—my body screaming to run but my mind saying they might consider me a threat if I did.

When I heard the unmistakable sound of guns being loaded, I froze in my spot and raised both hands in the air, Allen’s t-shirt riding up higher on my thighs as I slammed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t see it coming if someone accidentally fired at me.

I could hear footsteps as they rapidly approached then the sound of a pistol being cocked right before the booming sound of Allen’s voice as he shouted, “STOP!”

I winced at the loudness and tried to keep my hands from shaking as I cracked open an eye to see what was happening.

Should’ve kept them closed
, I thought as I stared straight into the barrel of a gun.

“Mason, lower your weapon or I’ll put a fucking bullet in your head,” Allen growled from behind him, his own pistol raised in the air.

The man—Mason—frowned, the movement jarring the long scar that marred half his face and making harsh shadows appear on his skin. I held his gaze even though I was desperate to look away.

“I take it this is the girl who means so much to you?” he asked in a gravelly voice as he slowly aimed the gun at the ceiling and backed up a step.

“It is,” he replied, his gun still trained on the man’s skull. “Now unload and holster your weapon.”

Mason chuckled as he lowered the gun and followed Allen’s order. The bullets clinked on the ground before he shoved the pistol beneath his coat, reemerging with empty hands.

Allen gave him a jerky nod and followed suit. While he was excellent at covering his emotions under masks, I could read him like a book. He was almost as terrified as I was.

If he had been a second too late, there was a chance that Mason could have seriously hurt or even killed me.

With a shaky sigh, I leaned back against the wall and lowered my hands, immediately tugging down the hem of Allen’s t-shirt to preserve my modesty. After the sex and the crazy adrenaline rush of having a gun pointed in my face, all I wanted to do now was take a nap.

Now that the crisis had been averted, I could feel Allen’s steely gaze on my face as he realized I had been eavesdropping. I swallowed hard and turned to run up the stairs—my body slamming directly into John’s broad chest. His hands went right to my shoulders and he spun me around to face Allen once again.

“How much did you hear?”

“Um... A lot more than you probably wanted me to.”

Allen’s face remained stony. “That’s true considering I didn’t want you to hear
any
of it.”

I frowned. “That’s not very fair. This whole mess is because of me.”

“
No
,” he drawled slowly, as if he was speaking to a child. “This mess is because of
Chris
. Not you. Although if you hadn’t dated such an asshat in the first place—”

“Allen, knock it off,” John said, his voice loud and close to my ear. His hands slid from my shoulders to my upper arms and he gently rubbed up and down in a comforting gesture. “She’s scared enough as it is. Just leave her alone.”

Allen eyed the area where John’s hands were touching me with a look of overwhelming jealousy. John noticed it as well and let go, stepping back to keep from increasing his ire.

Mason looked between the three of us a few times before he finally shouted, “Holy fuck, I got it!”

“Mason!” Allen growled. “Shut the fuck up.”

“You three are—”

“None of your damn business,” John chimed in, cutting him off. “So lay off it.”

The other two men who lingered in the background looked between us all a number of times. Recognition dawned in the older man’s eyes, while the other’s just narrowed in confusion.

“I missed something,” he said, looking to the man beside him for answers. “What’s going on?”

He shook his bald head and patted the younger guy on the back. “Nothing that’s any of our business, Derek. Just forget about it.”

Allen’s eyes were still focused on me and I knew that I hadn’t been let off the hook just yet. His eyes flashed over my shoulder to John for a brief second and he jerked his chin, sending his friend some sort of silent signal.

When John started pushing me forward and leading me into the kitchen, it started to make sense. He led me to a chair at the dinner table and gestured for me to sit down, everyone else following suit and filling in around me.

From across the table, Allen sent me a grim smile as he said, “Since you’re so curious, you can stay for the rest of our conversation.”

For the hundredth time since I got to this city I wondered,
What the hell have I gotten myself into?

T
his was quite possibly
the stupidest idea I’d ever had.

For whatever reason, I had allowed myself to give in to my baser instincts and silently asked John to lead Amber into the kitchen with us. I thought that perhaps she would become so scared by the conversation that she would realize why I wanted her to stay up in the room and away from my business.

I didn’t even consider the fact that it might scare her away completely.

Derek was surprisingly silent as the conversation reopened, almost as if he was afraid to say the wrong thing in front of the new member of our little group. Mason didn’t give a fuck—he jumped right back to where we left off without a second thought. Troy was uncertain about Amber’s presence, but he didn’t hold back when he had something to add.

Meanwhile, John was sitting beside Amber and even though I couldn’t actually
see
it, I knew he had his hand resting on her knee in a comforting gesture. There was no other reason why he would have moved his chair so close to hers.

I grit my teeth together and tried to calm the jealousy that was making my blood boil. I knew I had no right to be pissed at John for wanting to ease Amber’s fears because if our roles had been reversed—if John had been the one to suggest this—I’d be doing the exact same thing that he was doing right now.

Which just made it all the more obvious to me that this was a
really
stupid idea. I just couldn’t seem to think straight wherever Amber was concerned.

“Boss?”

“Hmm?” I hummed, my mind snapping back into focus.

“So we’ve pretty much decided what we need to do, now we need to decide how to do it. What do you think?”

I cocked my head to the side and stared into space for a moment, considering the options.

“Do we know where the base of their operation is?”

Derek piped up for the first time since I brought Amber into the conversation. “Sort of. Dante and Mario do the selling half of their business out of an office in SoHo, but the safe house itself is in Queens. The Sanchez family owns all the warehouses in a three block radius and I’m certain it’s one of those, but I’m not sure which one.”

“That won’t do. We can’t just run through them all without starting a full-on war. We need to know which building.”

“What’s the goal?”

John answered for me. “Run through anyone associated with the family and free any captives.”

I hadn’t even thought about the fact that there would likely be innocent people in the building and while I agreed with the idea of setting them free, that caused another problem.

“We’ll have to wear masks. The captives will be witnesses we can’t afford if any of them decide to go to the cops.”

Derek frowned. “That would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? How will they know it’s us?”

“Assuming a few don’t manage to escape during the raid, then we’ll leave one alive with a message for Dante.”

Mason leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table as he grinned. “Can we carve the message into their skin?”

While we were pretty much used to the sadistic pleasure Mason got out of shit like this, I watched as Amber’s eyes grew wide with horror. She jerked violently in her chair, freeing herself from John’s grip before she stood up.

“I don’t want to hear any more. I’m sorry for eavesdropping—it won’t happen again,” she muttered before spinning around on her heel and rushing for the stairs.

“Let her go,” John said as I started to stand.

I turned incredulous eyes to him, but he only shook his head. “I get it—believe me, I do—but right now, business takes precedence. She’ll be fine.”

The fact that he was right just pissed me off more. I lowered myself back into the seat, ignoring the stunned looks from Derek and Troy. Mason didn’t look surprised by my reaction in the least, which raised a ton of questions in my mind.

Ones that were answered when he dropped the grin and opened his mouth to speak.

“Sorry, but the girl doesn’t need to hear this shit. I was doing her a favor.”

“Agreed,” John said pointedly, turning to glare at me. “Her curiosity is explainable, but she shouldn’t be drug into this any more than is necessary.”

My shoulder slumped and I let out a heavy sigh. “I was trying to make a point.”

“What point is that?” John asked, clearly pissed.

“The point that she shouldn’t be listening in on this because it’s just going to scare the shit out of her!” I yelled, slamming my fist down on the table and startling everyone with the noise. I nodded to Mason and said, “Thank you for proving me right.”

“Not a problem. Now, let’s get back to business. Troy, think you can figure out which warehouse they’re in?”

“I can do you one better. I already know.”

My eyebrows raised with surprise. “How’s that?”

He shrugged non-committedly and I could feel the tension in my body rise as it became clear that he was hiding something. Nevertheless, I wasn’t planning on holding it against him at the moment if he had useful information.

“I’ve been keeping track of them for months.”

“Why?”

He sent Derek a dry look. “Because I knew this shaky alliance wasn’t going to last forever. In my down time, I’ve been mapping their base of operations so we’d have a leg up if they ever declared war.”

John raised his hands in the air and laughed. “Man, I would be
pissed
at you for keeping this a secret if I wasn’t so damn grateful. You got a map?”

“Yeah, at my place. But if you want my opinion...” he said before trailing off and looking pointedly at me. “I think we shouldn’t throw down first. It would be a more strategic maneuver to contact them without violence first—to both make sure that there’s no chance to resolve this peacefully and to make it clear that we won’t take any threats lightly.”

Mason leaned back in his chair, nodding in agreement. “And if
they
make it clear that our alliance is broken, they’ll know it was us once we make our move.”

“Exactly. Win-win.”

“So let’s do it,” I said as I rose my from chair and glanced down at my watch. “In three hours, there’s only one place Dante and Mario will be.”

“Club Monaco,” Troy confirmed with a nod.

“And we won’t be at risk of an attack there.”

John stood up and stared me down. “Someone needs to keep her safe.”

Much as it pained me to say, I knew the person I trusted most with Amber’s well-being was John himself. Not that I particularly
liked
the idea of them together and alone. But I wouldn’t put her safety at risk for my own selfish reasons.

“You stay with Amber. The rest of you—let’s get moving. We’ll drop by your places first to load up and grab Troy’s maps. Until the threat is over, I want everyone staying here.”

“Agreed. This house is the most fortified and we’ll be better off together.”

All at once, the rest of the men stood up and started making their way to the front door. I waited until they were out of earshot before I turned back to John.

“Don’t let—”

“I’ll keep her safe. You know I will.”

With a hesitant nod, I turned around and moved to follow the rest of the team out the front door. I paused when I looked down at my bare chest and rolled my eyes before turning back to John.

“Can I borrow your shirt? If I go upstairs and see her, I might not come back down.”

John laughed and pulled it over his head, tossing it to me before he followed me to the door. I gave him a sharp nod and went outside, trying not to think about what was probably going to happen between them as I pulled the shirt over my head and listened to the sounds of the deadbolts being thrown into place.

“
A
mber
? Sweetheart, please open the door.”

“No!”

I braced my palms against the heavy wood of Allen’s bathroom door, wondering why the hell she went back to this room and locked herself in the tiny bathroom instead of going to her own bedroom.

The lock to her bedroom door would’ve been easy to get inside considering there was a key lying for it. But if she wouldn’t unlock this door, I’d have to break it down.

“Everyone else is gone. It’s just you and me,” I told her, hoping it would put her at ease.

There was a long pause then—

“Where did Allen go?”

“Open the door and I’ll tell you.”

Another pause, this one even longer than the first. Just as I was about to give up and rear back to force my way in, the lock twisted and the knob slowly turned.

The light from the bedroom illuminated her face and I frowned when I saw she had been crying again. She was
still
crying, actually.

“Baby, no,” I murmured as I cupped her cheeks with my hands. “Don’t cry. I hate seeing you cry.”

“I’m s-sorry,” she breathed out, her voice cracking with the words. “I-I can’t st-stop.”

That damn string around my heart tightened and I did the only thing I could think to do—I reached out and pulled her into my arms, smoothing her hair with my hands and hoping to calm her with the motions. Instead, it seemed to upset her more and I desperately look around the room, trying to figure out what the hell to do.

Even with all my previous experience with women, comforting one was definitely an area I lacked in. I had never been emotionally involved enough with a woman to ever get to this point in the relationship.

“Amber. Will you lay down with me so I can hold you?” I whispered, hoping that she wouldn’t take my offer the wrong way.

Her sobs softened and she nodded against my chest. A long sigh of relief escaped past my lips, thankful that I had apparently done something right. I scooped her up and carried her to the bed, lying her gently on the mattress before climbing in beside her and pulling the covers up around us.

I didn’t even get a chance to fully adjust the pillows behind me before Amber curled up to me, laying her head against my chest and one of her small hands right over my heart as she continued to softly cry against my t-shirt.

Both of us were half dressed—me in my jeans and her in Allen’s shirt—but this was easily the most intimate moment I had ever shared with a woman. I released a shaky breath and twisted my body to curl over her, hoping the protective gesture would ensure her that she was safe with me.

I wanted—
needed
—her to know that she would always be safe with me.

So even though my body was twisted at an awkward angle that made my bones ache, I decided to hold her like that for as long as she needed. Even with the discomfort, I’d never felt such a sense of satisfaction and love.

Fuck, it’s way too soon to think like that.

My mind argued with my heart as I held her for a long while, up until her cries eventually died off, fading into only an occasional sniffle. Once she was out of tears, her chin tilted up and she looked at me through bloodshot eyes.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Any time,” I replied, hoping she would be able to sense the sincerity of my statement.

Amber gave me a small smile before she rolled onto her back, finally giving me the space I needed to move into a comfortable position. I sighed with relief as my bones cracked, then turned my head to look at her with a frown.

“You should get some sleep. I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

Amber let out a small snort and shook her head before she turned her head towards me.

“I don’t think it’s possible for me to sleep. I’m somehow both exhausted and totally wired.”

“Adrenaline,” I said knowingly.

I thought about how hard it was to get to sleep after completing a job. Even ones that required me to be awake for forty-odd hours had been difficult to manage—my mind and body exhausted but so fueled by the rush I got after a kill that the only way to get to sleep was to burn out every last bit of physical energy I had left.

Which usually meant—

“If you’re up for it, I can show you my trick.”

Intrigued, she propped herself up on her elbows and raised an eyebrow at me. “A trick?”

I sat up and crouched on my knees facing her. “Mm-hmm. Something that will override the adrenaline in your system and allow you to get some rest.”

She looked wary, but she still asked, “What is it?”

A grin curled at the corners of my lips as I shifted closer to her and gently nudged her thighs open. As I positioned myself between them, her eyes lit up with realization and she softly gasped.

“You up for it?” I asked huskily, my voice already deepening from the sheer amount of want I felt for her.

“Y-Yeah,” she breathed out, letting herself fall back to the pillows as I pushed Allen’s t-shirt up her thighs, letting the hem rest on her navel.

I propped her legs up and apart and craned my neck to look between them, my grin widening when I caught sight of her pink lips.

“Didn’t put any panties on before you started your spy games?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

Her cheeks flushed as she shook her head. “Thongs don’t cover anything anyways. I might as well just go commando all the time.”

“I wouldn’t complain about that,” I whispered as I trailed a finger up her slit and groaned when I felt her wetness. “How do you want to come, gorgeous?”

She looked stumped by the question, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion as she stuttered, “I-I don’t—”

“Do you want to come like this?” I quietly asked, gathering some of her wetness on my fingertip before I began to gently work her clit. Amber moaned and arched her back, her hands moving up to twist in the sheets.

I slid my finger down and slipped it into her core as I whispered, “Or like
this
?”

Bending down, I spread open the lips of her sex with my free hand and flicked my tongue over her swollen nub, grinning wickedly when she cried out in a mixture of surprise and bliss. I pointed the tip of my tongue and roughly flicked it back and forth a few times before pulling back and laving it with short, wet strokes all while pumping a single digit in and out of her slick walls.

I switched my methods back and forth a number of times—drawing her close to the edge one way then pulling her back from the brink with a sudden change in speed. She let out frustrated huffs every time I did it, moaning and begging for me to let her come.

This time, as she drew near to the edge and I felt her body tense while she prepared herself for the change that would stop her orgasm again—I pursed my lips together and sucked hard on her clit, keeping the circling movement of my tongue going even as she screamed my name in ecstasy.

Feeling her tight pussy coming around my finger was nearly enough to make me insane with lust, but I managed to hold myself back from outright attacking her. This wasn’t about me at all and the second she started coming down from her high, I slipped a second finger inside and twisted them up to rub against her g-spot.

“Ohhh god,
John!
I can’t—I can’t take it,” she whimpered as she rolled her head around on the pillow.

“Yes you can, baby. Just relax,” I soothingly whispered, leaning back down to softly swipe my tongue against her clit a few times. Amber’s hips bucked hard and I pulled away with a soft chuckle. “Let me make you come again, baby. You’re so fucking gorgeous when you come.”

“P-Please,” she begged, opening her eyes to look at me pleadingly. “John,
please
.”

“Please what?” I asked, keeping my eyes on her face even as I directed my tongue to rapidly flick back and forth over her nubbin again.

Her words died in her throat—overpowered by the loud cries of pleasure as I worked her. A third finger was easy to push in considering how wet she was and I groaned at the feeling of her walls flexing against my digits.

Keeping my tongue on her clit, I lowered my hand down to my own jeans and rubbed my palm again my cock through the fabric. Even though this was all about her, I couldn’t deny my own needs for very much longer. I needed some sort of friction to ease the pain of arousal.

Amber’s breathy moans weren’t helping my predicament. I wished I had arranged myself in a position where I could grind my hips down against the bed, but I hadn’t had the foresight to do that.

No longer caring about whether it was appropriate or not, I jerkily managed to undo the button of my jeans with one hand and shove them down just enough to free my cock. I grunted against Amber’s clit, twirling my fingers inside her as I took my cock in my hand and began to jerk myself off in time with the flicks of my tongue.

When I looked back up at her flushed face, I groaned when I realized she was watching me with hooded eyes.

Our gazes met and she breathed out, “Fuck me, John.
Please
. I’ll do anything.”

I was a goner. There was no way in hell I could deny her, not when she was looking at me with such blatant desire and practically begging me to put my cock in her.

I pulled my fingers out and drew back, nodding at her once before I got off the bed and jogged over to the nightstand for a condom. I kicked off my jeans after I rolled the latex over my cock then turned back to the bed to look at her.

“Take off that shirt, baby. Let me see those perky tits again.”

She sat up and peeled off the t-shirt and I watched as her breasts bounced from the motion. I crawled up the bed and settled myself between her legs before leaning forward to capture one of her perfect pink nipples between my lips.

Her fingers threaded into my hair when I gently bit down and rolled the stiff peak between my teeth, then moved to her other breast to repeat the ministration. While I was fairly certain that I could play with her tits for hours and not get bored—my erection throbbed with need and reminded me of what she really wanted.

My lips left her nipple with an obscene pop and I moved further up her body to capture her lips in a searing kiss. When her lips parted and she moaned into my mouth, I slipped my tongue between them and mimicked the motion of my cock as I aligned it with her entrance and sunk inside.

Our combined groans of pleasure were muffled and I pulled back to stare into her eyes as I began to thrust. I didn’t have it in me to be slow and gentle—the need to fuck her was too strong to deny. She clung to my shoulders like a lifeline as I rapidly pulled out and slammed back in, setting a pace that would surely have me blowing my load in record time.

“Fucking hell,” I cursed when I realized I was too far gone to slow down.

My cock throbbed in her—begging to release into her sweet, willing body. I ground my teeth together as I imagined how she’d feel without the rubber between us, how it’d feel with her walls greedily milking the cum from my balls and up into her body. A sharp shock of pleasure shot straight to the head of my cock and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer.

“I’m gonna come,” I panted in warning, searching her eyes for permission.

Amber moaned and arched her back, pushing my hips up a little so she could slip her hand between us. I let out a choked grunt as she worked her clit and her walls began to squeeze me, quickly realizing that she was just as close to orgasm as I was.

“John, John, John,” she panted deliriously, her voice rising in pitch with every word. “I—Oh fuck, come with me!”

A hoarse shout of her name rose out of me uncontrollably as I lost myself in the moment, thrusting erratically into the wet heat that seemed to be getting tighter and tighter. Her walls squeezed down on me hard as she screamed my name, more heat flooding my cock and pulling the orgasm out of me instantly.

I groaned as I buried myself to the hilt and let her walls do the work, flexing and clenching around my cock hard enough to pull out every drop of cum I had. I leaned my forehead against her chest as the shocks shot through my dick and my entire body shuddered as my climax began to subside.

“Jesus Christ,” I whispered against her, sleepily dipping my head down to lap at her tight nipple even though I felt completely spent. Amber mewled and arched her breasts up, pushing further against my mouth.

“That was amazing,” she whimpered as she weaved her hand into my hair and held me against her.

I murmured an agreement as I sucked the rosy nub into my mouth and rolled it between my teeth again, a pitiful whimper coming out of me when I felt her tighten around my softening cock.

Not wanting to keep making embarrassing noises as I worked her, I slowly pulled out and sighed with relief. If I had stayed inside her, there was no way I that I wouldn’t have gotten hard again and I was pretty damn sure there wasn’t a drop left in my balls to give.

But I certainly didn’t mind the idea of getting her off with my hands and mouth again. I wanted to hear my name falling from those sweet lips all day, every day.

I moved to slide down her body and spread her knees with my hands. She screamed when I licked a long line up her slit and I moaned at the taste of her juices. Her clit was hard and swollen—probably oversensitive from the last two orgasms—but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

I lapped at it with my tongue and held her hips still with a tight grip, forcing another orgasm from her as she tried in vain to wiggle away from my mouth.

Once the juices from her third orgasm were coating my lips and her body had gone slack with exhaustion, I propped up on my elbow and asked, “You want more, angel?”

“I need sleep,” she pleadingly whispered. “Come here.”

I crawled up beside her and laid on my back and she curled up to my side and stretched her arm across my stomach. Moments later, I could feel her breathing even out and I smiled with contentment.

Mission accomplished
, I thought as the darkness started to pull me under right along with her.