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Putting more pressure on the wound, he asked again, “Who?” When he refused to answer, Dom was fed up, pissed, and ready to blow his head off. So he whipped out his gun and stuck it between the guy’s legs, telling him, “Five seconds and I pull the trigger.”

“You can’t do that!” he protested.

“I can. Five…”

“This is police brutality!’

“Four…”

“Officer are you just gonna let him shoot me dick off?”

“Three…”

“Answer the man’s questions,” the officer suggested with a sick smile on his face.

“Two…”

“Fuck!”

“Dominic?” Deedee’s quiet question halted his progress.

“Not now, Princess,” he told her, not taking his eyes off the man with the muzzle of his gun implanted between his nuts.

“I know him,” was her quiet response.

That stopped everyone cold.

“What do you mean you know him, Deidre?”

“That’s Brock Simons. He’s my da’s cousin.”

“Nice to see you again, Deidre,” Simons snarled. The sick light in his eyes told another story.

“Shut the fuck up,” Dom snarled at him.

Turning to face Deedee, he asked her, “He works for Bradshaw?”

Her eyes didn’t leave the injured man’s face. When Dom truly looked at her, she seemed paler, heart-broken, like someone had kicked her puppy or something. It was more than what had just gone down. Her emotions were bone deep. “Princess?”

Clearing her throat, she finally looked at him. “He used to work for my mam.”

Well that fucking changes things. He pulled her into his arms as they made their way to where Jax was laying on a gurney.

*****

The second the ambulance pulled into the parking bay, doctors rushed over taking Casey right to surgery. He was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the bicep. Blood was pouring from his wounds like a leaky faucet. Deedee was covered in so much of it that she couldn’t imagine him making it.

Everyone was rushed and frantic, and she didn’t know who was coming or who was going. Dom had followed the doctor to an examination room with Jax. She told him to go, that she’d be fine and wait on word about Casey. Now she had time to think, and all she could dwell on was the fact that it was all her fault. Casey being shot. Jax hitting his head on the bottom of the dashboard as her father’s goons shot out the tires of the truck she tried to control. Everyone was hurt and the blame lay on her shoulders.

People she cared about deeply were hurting, and she could have prevented it. Right now, they were at the hospital with one person in surgery and another with a probable concussion. She had to leave. She had go back to Ireland before something more serious happened.

If Dom were ever hurt, she would never forgive herself. Just the thought had her heart clenching so hard she couldn’t breathe. Besides, she was the reason Jax was now going through multiple tests. Not like he’d want her to stick around anyway.

Decision made and thoughts jumbled, she took a quick peek in on Jax to see him. There was a nurse taking his vitals while a doctor checked his pupil reaction. He sat there so stoically trying to be a strong little man, but she could see the fear in his eyes. It tore at her soul, ripped her heart to shreds. She’d done that to him.

Looking to where Dom stood to the side, his body was hard, tense, and coiled for action. He watched every movement in the room. Anytime someone came close to Jax,

his eyes never left them. The anger that lingered in his green depths scared her. She’d always been able to see a softening around the edge, but there was nothing but dark rage now.