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“Even when you think people love you, they’ll abandon you anyway.”

“What crack are you smoking, you moron?” He was getting more pissed the longer Bradshaw spoke. But he knew the more he talked the higher he would hang himself.

“Oh, please, I’ve been teaching that bit–. Fuck!” he bellowed as Dom kneed his calf wound for daring to call Dee anything but her name.

“Don’t,” he warned.

They were quiet the rest of the way to the car. When he opened the trunk, Bradshaw tried to put up a fight over going in, but Dom was pissed off, tired, and had some bodies to torch, so he wasn’t interested in his whiney mumblings. Balling his fist, he wound up and nailed him in the temple, knocking him out in one shot. Not bothering to catch the body as he fell to the ground, he gathered the gas can, torch, and small tool kit he kept for just these types of emergencies.

Placing those on the ground, he bound Bradshaw’s hands and feet together, tossing him in the trunk. Slamming the lid shut, he picked up his items and went back to the bodies in the warehouse.

*****

Slamming doors and stomping feet woke Deidre from her fitful sleep. When her door smashed open lodging the handle in the wall, she jumped from bed screaming in terror. Trying to run for her bathroom, she felt a tug on her arm. Crashing to the ground with a thud, she looked up at the men surrounding her taking in every detail she could so when Dominic found her, they wouldn’t get away.

“Wh...who are you?” she stuttered out.

“Get up,” one of them demanded.

The shadows were too dark for her to make out any features other than big. Shaking her head no, another one of the men took a menacing step towards her, snarling at her. “Get up now before I make you.” The threat was clear.

“Me da won’t let you get away with this,” she said weakly.

“Who do ya think sent us?”

Shock worked its way through her. Her da sent these men? What were they going to do with her? Where was Dom? “I want Dominic,” she whined.

Harsh laughter was her only answer.

*****

Pulling up to Bradshaw’s mansion, he shut the car off and went around to the trunk, popping the lid open while keeping his gun drawn waiting for Bradshaw to make a move. Nothing came but a sickening smile to his face when he saw where Dom had taken him.

“Home sweet home,” he mumbled as Dom nudged him up the steps.

Once inside, he pushed him onto the foyer stairs making sure he landed hard. “Deedee!” Dom called, needing to know she was okay.

Laughter caught his attention. “She’s gone,” Bradshaw sang out.

“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?” Dom hadn’t actually believed him when he said he had already sent her away.

“I mean, I sent her away the minute we left the house.”

“Where?”

“Why should I tell you? You’re just going to kill me.” His voice held triumph. Like he knew he was going to get out of this.

“Tell me where she is and maybe I won’t.” The impatience was vibrating off of him, and his trigger finger was getting itchy.

“You can have her…”

“She’s already fucking mine.”

“…If you let me live…” he trailed off.

“Her life for yours?” A fucking waste of breath. He was still trying to trade his daughter.

“When she’s 18.”