Johnny grabs my hand, his grip tighter than I would have thought he had the strength for. “Take care of my girl. I picked you for Regina because you were the son I always wanted. You came to me at fifteen already a man when you should have still been a boy, and demanded I give you what you were due.”
He coughs and the machine he’s hooked up to sputters. “You worked your ass off, made me proud I gave you your entry when it should have been your father. The day Regina was born, she came into the world screaming at the top of her lungs, demanding to be heard. She almost died but she fought the same way you fought. I knew then, she was meant for you.” The machine sputters, his gr
ip loosens on me. “I knew it, Dom.”
The machine sputters again. His eyes close. The machine flatlines. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. He wasn’t a good man; he wasn’t a bad man either. Johnny had existed in that gray area somewhere in between like so much of the world did.
From behind me the door opens, it’s a nurse. Her eyes filled with sympathy, she looks to Johnny. “Let me know when you’re ready.”
I shake my head. “My wife, his daughter, she should be on her way.”
Nodding, she closes the door.
Pulling out my phone, I text Vincent asking where the fuck he is.
The door opens with Vincent shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve been here, Boss. I dropped Regina at the entrance almost five minutes ago.”
No, I go cold. Had I fucked up enough for her to run?
Vincent answers the question I didn’t realize I had asked. “I watched her go through the doors to the hospital. She wasn’t going to run anywhere but to be at Johnny’s side.”
I bring up her tracker. Regina is in the hospital, less than five hundred feet from me. Relief shoots through me, but where is she? I follow the tracker—it’s taking me to the stairwell. Damn it, did she fall? Is she hurt? I push open the door then go still.
Taylor is there, yelling at her.
Vincent hears it. I motion him to go down to the first floor. The ice slips over me, running through my veins. A quick rundown, both my knife and gun are on me, right where they should be. Thank fuck for dressing on autopilot today. I lose my jacket, then undo my cuff links, dropping them in my pocket, rolling up my sleeves to just under the knife. Now I’m ready, I enter the stairwell, careful to close the door with as little sound as I can manage. I make it down one set of stairs, hugging the wall, then another. That’s as far as I get.
I freeze at the sight of Regina in Taylor’s arms. A gun is at her head. His smile is demented.
“Look what I got, Dom. Tell me, I’m dying to know, how was she? I wanted to bust her cherry so bad. You’re going to owe me extra for doing it first. I’m thinking a virgin runs for around fifty K on the open market. This virgin, though, she was special—all Catholic, and I wanted to make her dirty. I wanted to make it filthy for her, hear her scream in pain while she bled all over my cock. You owe me for taking that from me.”
He’s yelling so loudly he doesn’t hear Vincent enter the stairwell behind him. Keeping my face bland isn’t easy when I want to break every bone in his body. Except I can’t lose it. If I do, he’ll hurt her. “You didn’t miss much. No blood, no pain. I wondered if she was really a virgin. She swears she was, who knows? Maybe she lied.”
Taylor yanks her head back; for a split second the gun isn’t pressed against her head. “Were you lying, bitch?”
The fear in Regina’s eyes, the whimpers escaping her yanks me into movement against my damn will. He catches me moving. His grip on her loosens as he points the gun at me. Thank fuck, that gun is wobbling from how damn tight his grip is on it, he’s probably on two or three different drugs to stay standing. I let my eyes go big at the gun as if it’s my whole focus even though it’s right where I want it to be.
“No, you don’t. You wear a piece on your ankle, Benny told me that. Benny told me a lot of things about you, Dom the bomb. He was scared of you, so scared he was going to kill me to keep me from coming after Regina. Can you believe that fucker was going to kill me? He didn’t think I had it in me to kill him. But I did,” he’s proud of himself. His grin is freakishly wide, I’ve seen the look before. Now that he’s killed, he can’t wait to kill again. “I’ll kill you too, if you don’t fucking do exactly as I say. Take off your gun, real slow.”
“Okay, be cool. Nobody has to die today. I got plenty of money if that’s what you want. I’m going to tell you right now you’re not missing anything with her. She was boring, like I said I think she was broken in already and a cold fish. Use the money to find a better fuck than her.” I move to kneel down.
“Toss the gun. Don’t try anything. I want your money. If I can’t have it, I’ll settle for hers. She has some money, not a lot but enough to skip town on. That doesn’t really surprise me, I thought she was gonna be a mouse in bed. You can tell. I was sure I was going to have to make her scream when I busted her to get off.” His eyes are on Regina as he frowns, barely watching me.
I go to kneel, removing my gun, I toss it right toward Vincent. In the same motion, I release my knife. Vincent ducks under Taylor, grabbing Regina and pulling her down. Taylor fires right into my chest. The pain flashes but I focus on releasing the knife and bring it right up into his neck, sending it all the way through until it hits the cement wall behind him.
Regina is screaming, blood is every fucking where. I should have gone for his chest but my rage wouldn’t let me do less than destroy him. With a gurgle Taylor grabs his neck and sinks to the floor. Vincent groans out a curse word, then gives up trying to keep a hold on Regina. She’s on me, her hands running over my chest. I gasp from the pain of her touching the now spreading bruise.
“He shot you. There’s blood.”
I shake my head. “Bulletproof, hurts like hell. I think he might have cracked a rib. I’m fine.”
“Boss, I told you the shirt isn’t enough. You have to wear the shirt and the jacket.” He looks down at Taylor. “Why did you go for the neck? It’s going to take forever to clean this up. Get her home. I’ll take care of this.”
“Regina, sweetheart, did you want to see Johnny before we go home? He’s gone but...”
She shakes her head, sobbing as she clings to me.
I get Regina home, carrying her into my bedroom, our bedroom now. Earlier today Mary moved all her stuff in here. She’s still crying, thankfully her sobs have stopped. Now the tears are silent. Gradually, she falls asleep. When she does, I only give it a minute before I’m out of bed.