Chapter 32
DOMINIC
M axim stopped the car right across the entrance to her building. We left my place early in the morning since I had work, while Samaira needed to shower and reach Thunder Claw. While I was dressed in my suit, Maira had borrowed my T-shirt and sweatpants. To her utter dismay, they fit her perfectly.
I looked at her as she still sat beside me with a slightly miffed expression. I’d have to get some extra-large T-shirts. “Are you still mad at my clothes, baby?”
She only grumbled something under her breath, making me chuckle. “What was that?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m going to beat your ass in the ring, that’s what.”
My cock twitched in my pants at the thought.
I already wanted to cancel all my meetings for the day and get right into the ring, but I had some very important calls today.
So I held her cheeks and squished them, puckering her lips, and placed a soft kiss on them.
“I’ll see you tonight at Thunder Claw. Get ready to lose. ”
She snorted. “Sure.” She stopped smiling and bit her lip. “Um…I’ll talk to the girls about the apartments.”
“You do that. It’s all yours. Tell them there are no restrictions. No limits. You all can decorate them, furnish them, and make them into whatever suits your needs. All ten floors are yours.”
“You’re crazy.”
I kissed her. She didn’t know it, but I’d actually bought the top twenty floors. I knew she’d lose her mind if I gifted her twenty. “Only for you. Now, off you go before I ask Maxim to turn this car around.”
She laughed and launched herself out of the car.
I pushed my head outside the window and yelled at her retreating form. “I really thought you’d have chosen to turn the car back around.”
“Go to work. Leave me alone, you fool.”
“Ouch.”
She blew me a kiss. “Miss me.”
I caught it in my hand and showed her putting it in my jacket pocket. “I already do.”
Once she got inside the apartment and came to her window, I blew her one last kiss and asked Maxim to take us to work.
Maxim looked at me from the rearview mirror with a smile on his face. “Tell me you're gonna marry that woman.”
My heart burst out of my chest as I pulled out the ring from my pocket and raised it in my hand so he’d see it in the rearview mirror. “Already got the ring.”
His eyes widened, and he almost turned around. “Holy…Holy fuck. Congratulations, Dominic.”
I ran my hand through my hair as my heart pounded in a nervous beat. “She hasn’t said yes.”
Maxim shook his head, a wide smile still etched on his face. “You haven’t asked. ”
“She literally just said she loved me last night. She’d run off if I showed her this ring.”
He scoffed so loudly, it actually made me feel stupid. “You gifted her ten floors in the tallest building in Manhattan. She didn’t run off. And you think a ring would scare her off?”
I chewed my lip as I stared at the ring in my hand. “You think she won’t?”
He sighed as if I were the stupidest person he’d ever met. “She would take a bullet for you. Pretty sure she’d marry you.”
My heart pumped so loudly in my chest I was sure Maxim could hear it. “Fine. I’ll ask her…” He whooped, and I quickly finished my sentence, “In six months.”
He groaned. “Dominic. That’s too long. Do it in six weeks.”
I scoffed as my heart started to pound harder. “No chance. She’d bail.”
He shook his head and met my eyes from the rearview mirror with a smile when we were suddenly flung to the side.
My head crashed into the window, and my mind went hazy. “Maxim,” I groaned.
My vision was blurry when I heard the car door open.
A loud gunshot, followed by Maxim’s groan, had adrenaline shooting through my system.
My eyes widened. My body scrambled only to find a gun pointing at Maxim.
Before the shooter could take another shot at him, I slammed my car door open and stepped outside.
That had the shooter turning his gun from Maxim to me.
Before I could even attempt to fight him, three more cars came screeching to a halt, surrounding us.
Five men from each car came rushing out, their guns pointed at me.
The man who’d shot Maxim kept his gun pointed at me.
“Come with us, or I'll kill the driver.”
I raised my hands in surrender. My only goal was to keep the attention of these men off Maxim. I just had to hope someone would call 911 for him. I simply nodded at the man in front of me, and with his gun pointed at me, he led me to a large black SUV.
The moment I got inside, I was hit on the head with something heavy and blunt.
My vision once again turned hazy, and my last thought was Samaira, of what she’d do to these men if—no, when —she found out. Darkness soon enveloped me, but I had a smile on my face.
I woke up to the sharp sting of ice-cold water hitting my face, my body jerking against the restraints I didn’t remember being put on me. My body automatically pulled against the restraints, and I slowly realized that my arms were tied at my back, and my feet were tied to the chair I sat on.
My muscles burned as I pulled against the restraints harder, my teeth gritting against each other.
“Now, now, Dominic. I wouldn’t have put restraints on you if you could pull them open.”
My head snapped to the voice. A man I’d never seen before walked toward me, flanked by two huge fuckers who looked like they could smash my skull with their fist. I stared at the man, his six-foot, lean frame less than intimidating on its own.
“Who are you?” My voice was a croak. I didn’t even realize how long I was unconscious.
One of the men grabbed a chair for him and placed it a few feet away, right across from me. “Mr. Dominic Park, I am the man whose business you interfered with.”
“Could you be any more vague, Mr. Whoever the Fuck You Are?”
His eyes narrowed to slits, and he gave a mirthless chuckle.
It was too late before I noticed that the fucker had a gun in his hand, because in the next second, he raised his arm and pulled the trigger.
Blinding pain shot through my leg, and my ears rang like a motherfucker.
My chest heaved as I felt the wet trickle of blood rolling down my calf and ankle.
As if I were a huge inconvenience, the asshole in front of me sighed. “Now, let’s keep the attitude to a minimum, shall we?”
With gritted teeth and hazy vision, I stared at him, trying to remember if I’d ever seen him before. “Who are you?”
“Now, was that hard?” He cocked his head at me. When I continued to stare at him, he continued, “You killed four of my very important men.”
“State Attorney, his son, and the two friends?”
“Precisely, Mr. Park. You and your little girlfriend, or was it assistant? Both of you have proven to be extremely inconvenient for my business.”
“What business do you have with the state attorney?”
He laughed and turned to his bodyguards.
“This man doesn’t get it.” He turned to me with eyes that screamed danger and volatility.
“Like I said, it’s none of your goddamn business.
It took me fucking years to get that stupid Thomas Cooper appointed as the state attorney.
Even more fucking time to train his fucking incompetent son and his friends. ”
“They raped my sister,” I spoke through gritted teeth, the pain from the bullet wound making me dizzy.
The fucker waved his hand like it was nothing. “Did she die? That one girl has cost me millions, you prick.”
My body rattled against the restraints, the need to jam my fist in his mouth overpowering the shooting pain spreading through my calf. “Fuck. You.”
My vision turned darker, and I swayed forward. I heard the fucker tell his lackeys to tie up my wounds. “I need him alive to call his little girlfriend. A real powerhouse, that one.”
I grunted as one of the men wrapped a fucking cloth around my calf and tightened it to the point where I stopped feeling blood in my leg. Despite that, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“My little girlfriend is going to kill you.”