Chapter 18
SAMAIRA
O ne moment, I was walking behind Sophie and Dom, smiling at Kai’s constant commentary on Dominic and the way he tortured him. The next, I saw a red dot on Dominic’s head as he turned around to look at me, a soft smile on his face that threatened to melt my heart.
The last time I’d felt a similar bone-deep panic was thirteen years ago when I was a helpless young girl. Only one word rang loudly in my head as I saw that red dot threatening to destroy the very thing that was filling my life with excitement and color and fucking giddiness.
Protect.
Protect.
Protect.
It was only my years of experience and pure adrenaline spiking through my body that had me pushing Sophie and Kai to the ground and flying at Dominic to protect him from the bullet. I’d just pushed us down when the bullet shattered his car’s window, glass raining on us as I fell on top of him .
The wave of crimson fucking rage tore through my body, consuming every one of my senses.
Someone had dared to touch what was mine .
Someone had dared to harm the man who was all mine .
Someone had tried to kill Dominic Park, and they were going to fucking pay.
Every single thought evaporated from my mind except one.
Revenge.
Once I quickly checked for injuries and verified he was unharmed, I jumped off him and whirled around to where the shot came from.
I saw the tiny movement of a man retreating from the roof of a brownstone.
My body shot across the road, my senses zoned in on my target, my legs pumping harder to get to the man who had just signed off his death at my hands.
I jumped over a brownstone fence to find him running across the opposite street. I ran faster, my legs burning, my vision sharpening. I crossed the street, following the guy who had the sniper case slung over his shoulder.
He kept running, but I knew I would catch him. It was only a matter of time. He didn’t know he’d woken up a beast. He would know. He would know what happened when someone tried to mess with a tiger.
They hunt you down and tear you apart. Limb by fucking limb.
People moved out of my way as I chased the guy.
I pumped my legs faster as I almost caught up to him, just a few feet of distance separating us.
The thought of losing Dominic to the man in front of me had rage pouring out of me, my need to tear apart the man overwhelming my senses and narrowing my vision.
Luck wasn’t on his side because the next turn he took into an alley led to a dead end with a tall fence separating the other side of the road.
While his own fear had him clambering up the tall metal fence, it took me a mere moment to follow him.
Before he could turn around to climb down, I grabbed his shirt and threw him on the ground from about fifteen feet high, dropping on him with my knee landing in his stomach.
A loud oomph escaped him, but I had no patience to let this man live for another breath. He took a shot at the one man who made my heart flutter. And this motherfucker would pay with his life for trying to take him away from me.
I punched him over and over again. My knuckles slammed into his cheek, making him cough up blood and a tooth. With every punch I landed on his face, my skin coated with his blood, the proof of the life I was draining from his body for trying to harm what was mine.
“St…Stop…pl…please,” he whimpered, his voice a wet rasp.
Wrath, unlike anything I’d experienced, pumped through my blood, my mind failing to form words. I pulled out my knife from my boot and slashed across his chest, blood instantly seeping through his shirt, his painful cries fueling my rage.
I clutched my knife, ready to plunge it into the center of his chest when a loud voice—a voice that made me smile, a voice that made my heart sing, a voice that belonged to me —shouted my name.
My narrowed vision expanded as my gaze landed on the car at the end of the alley about twenty feet away from me. My eyes landed on Dominic, his lips curled in fury, his eyes blazing like wild thunder, his voice booming. “Get in the car, now. Hurry the fuck up.”
Everything within me wanted to grab the little head of the man at my feet and twist his tiny neck. My mind roared at me to just do it when another thunderous roar came from Dominic. “Now, Tigress. Or I swear to fucking God.”
With a frustrated growl, I backhanded the guy, rendering him unconscious.
I lifted his limp body onto my shoulder and ran toward the car.
As soon as I neared the car, the back door opened, and I dropped him on the floor of the car, his head colliding with Kai’s feet, and got in, slamming the door behind me.
Dominic floored the car as I kicked the guy lying at my feet, red-hot rage slamming against my skin, wanting to tear the guy apart with my bare hands. My chest heaved as I tightened my fists, resisting the urge to pound into him, my mind dizzy with the overwhelming emotions coursing through me.
The car swerved, and Dominic’s hard-edged voice hit my ear. “Where to, Samaira? We need to hurry.”
“Safe house.”
Since he already knew the location, I sent a quick message to the Wildcats, informing them about the attack and our intended destination. In the next few seconds, I received several pings from them, letting me know they were headed to the safe house and would meet us there.
I stared at Dominic, cataloging his body, his arms, his shoulder, his chest, and his beautiful face. Everything looked unharmed. “Are you okay, Dominic?”
Because I was sitting behind Sophie, he turned his head to look at me. His eyes were narrowed into slits as he stared at me with so much anger and disbelief, I was taken aback. “Look down at your fucking arm, Samaira. You are shot. I am one second away from driving you to the nearest hospital.”
My eyes widened as I looked at the streaks of dark red blood streaking down my arm.
My body was pumping with so much adrenaline, so much anger, that I couldn’t feel a thing.
When I looked closer, the bullet hadn’t hit me.
Otherwise, I’d probably be having a stroke from all the blood loss.
“I guess the bullet managed to slightly graze me. No need for a hospital.”
“You stupid, stupid girl,” he growled, his hands clenched tight around the steering wheel.
Sophie simply looked between her angry brother and then at me, not saying anything at all.
Whereas Kai’s wide eyes were glued to the trickle of blood running down my arm.
I looked down at the unconscious body and kicked him once more in his stomach.
This time, for managing to graze his bullet on my arm, which was now starting to burn.
“Do you have a handkerchief or something?”
Kai quickly pulled it out from his pocket, and with a shaky voice, he asked, “Umm…can I?”
I grunted and extended my arm.
He moved quickly, wrapping the cloth tightly around the injury. Turning to Sophie, he asked, “Do you have any extra? I think we should add one more.”
My mind was clouded with so much anger, but the way Kai’s hand shook and his voice trembled, a hint of amusement trickled down my mind. “It’s fine, Kai.”
He gulped. “I’d prefer it if we could wrap it up in one more layer.”
Before I could protest, Dominic barked from the driver’s seat, “Don’t you argue, Samaira.”
Sophie handed him a large napkin, her eyes shining with tears as Kai wrapped it around my arm.
Dominic drove like a madman, constantly looking behind at me, getting madder and madder with every passing minute.
I kept my eyes trained on him, nothing else holding any importance to me at the moment.
Had I been looking elsewhere, I’d have lost Dominic.
Had he been even a little farther away from me, I’d have lost him to a fucking bullet to his head.
How long had he been followed? Was he the aim, or was the kill meant for Sophie?
Who hired this fucker? How many more would they hire?
What if I wasn't around to protect him? What would happen when he went to work?
Each and every scenario brought me pain that was far worse than the graze of a bullet. Anger and panic collided in my chest, sending jolts of violence and darkness to creep at the edge of my vision, the need to protect Dominic suffocating me from the inside.
Nothing and no one should be able to reach Dominic Park. They would have to go through me first.
I looked at the man lying in his own pool of blood and bent down to inspect his pockets. I unmercifully turned him around, deliberately banging his head, as I found a burner phone in his back pocket.
It was a very old model and was easy enough to unlock. Idiot didn’t even have password protection. Looking through the phone, he had zero contacts. A few unknown callers in the history. I put the phone in my pocket to give it to Tara later.
“Do not fucking carry him,” Dominic growled at me as he parked the car in the same spot we’d parked it last time. I was just going to drag him by his arm, but whatever. I’d let him have this.
He opened the opposite side of the door. Kai quickly got out of the car, and Dominic leaned over the seat to look at the unconscious body. “Is he alive?” he asked, pulling the guy out from the small space.
I looked at the pathetic excuse of a human, his chest rising and falling slowly. “Unlucky for him, yes.”
With that, I left the car, slamming the door behind me. I needed a drink.