Page 58

BANG.

Unfortunately, a single bullet would not only cost a life, but it just might have costed his and Maria’s future …

All of hell breaking loose in the reception hall, and unlike everyone else who could be heard screaming and trying to run for cover, he managed to like the woman before him, run for the door.

“Are you fucking crazy?” Dominic grabbed her before she managed to reveal the secret door.

“We can’t just stay in here and do nothing!” She fought him to leave.

Rolling his eyes, he lifted the pretty blonde off her pretty little heels, taking her backward through the kitchen. “If I let the boss’s daughter go out there and get hurt, then my family and I are as good as dead anyway.”

As he opened the deep freezer, she fought him fucking hard.

“Please, Maria,” he begged her to calm down.

Her anger was seething that he hadn’t let them run out to make sure their families were okay. It didn’t just hurt her; it hurt him just as fucking badly. His siblings and his men were out there, but he would have never forgiven himself if he let Maria walk out that door. His instincts told him to protect her first, and he always trusted them. They had yet to steer him wrong.

Placing her back down on the floor, in the safety of the frozen box, he snatched her face in his hands to get her to understand. “You’re drunk.”

“No, I’m …” Suddenly, he saw Maria realize that she was, but she continued to deny through her fumbled words. “Am not.”

“You are,” Dom told her firmly, deciding not to tell her that he’d made sure she was so many glasses deep before he’d even asked her to dance with him. Giving her that last glass of champagne had been for good measure. “And if I don’t protect you—”

“I don’t need protecting, Dominic. Why can’t anyone understand that!”

Looking at the perfectly sculptured face in his hands, his voice softened with his heart. “I don’t think you do, princess, but we both know, if I let you walk out of here like this, I’m dead, my brothers are dead, Kat’s dead.”

He prayed for her to understand with his begging eyes, not knowing if he could make her stay in there if she continued to resist. He didn’t doubt that she could handle herself, but he couldn’t risk her safety. Dominic needed to walk out of there knowing at least one person he cared about was safe.

Maria stared up at him for a few moments before she finally decided, “Fine.”

Thank you. He wanted to say the words to her but didn’t want her to know he would have given in.

To let Maria go when he had her in his hands almost broke his heart. He hadn’t had enough time with her yet … She didn’t yet know they were meant to be.

Removing his hand from her face one finger at a time, he could see, clear as day, in her eyes, that she hated it too.

“Here.” Dom removed his suit jacket, wishing it had been his leather one, because he wanted to see it wrapped around her and to take her scent with it. “Take this, and I’ll be back.”

“You’re leaving me?” A slight sadness marred her emerald eyes, making him wonder if she was beginning to feel their connection.

Wrapping the jacket over her slender shoulders, he regretted having to say his next words. “I can’t sit here with my family and my men out there.”

Finally, understanding shone on her face, but she had one request. “Will you make sure Leo’s okay?”

With a nod, he drifted his eyes to her perfectly pouty lips. He was beginning to feel desperate to get her to see their connection. With a death grip on the jacket around her shoulders, he wanted to pull her up in a kiss that would make sure her feet stayed planted in this very room until he came back to continue where they had left off, but he’d promised himself that he would wait for Maria to ask him.

He either needed Maria’s permission to place his lips on hers or she had to kiss him herself because, if he didn’t, the princess with no feelings, who hated all men, might pull away before giving their kiss a chance. If that happened, she would deny them any chance and any future they were bound to have would be gone forever.

That was exactly why he had to regretfully let her go.

“I’ll make sure someone comes to get you when it’s safe.” Walking toward the door, he couldn’t allow himself to look back.

Maria instantly sensed the shift in the air. “Don’t you dare lock me in here, Dominic.”

Dominic opened the freezer door …

“I swear to God, Dominic, if I go for that door when I think it’s safe and find it locked”—she paused, turning her warning into a promise—“I will never forgive you.”