Las Vegas Sidewinders: Dominic Read Free Page B

do,” she
whispered before doubling over in pain.
    “Bitch!” He went to kick her
again but Dom moved so fast the man never had a chance. Grabbing the man by the
scruff of the neck, he growled, “You don’t know how lucky you are. On any other
day, I’d break you in half. Today, however, I have a boss to impress and can’t
afford to go to jail. Now get out of here!” He shoved the other man, hard, in
the opposite direction. The two men stared each other down for a moment before
the policeman turned and jogged away.
    “What can we do for you,
miss? You need to go to a hospital and—” Dom knelt before the crying woman.
    “No!” Though one eye was now
swollen shut, the other one, which was bright green, widened in horror. “He
knows everyone at the hospitals. He’ll find a way to make it look like this was
my fault!  Please, just leave. I can find a way home later, after he cools
down.”
    “You’re bleeding, one eye is
swollen shut and you might have some broken ribs.” Dom spoke gently. “We play
for the new NHL team that’s coming to Las Vegas—we’re not going to hurt you. We
can help.”
    For a moment their gaze
locked, her one good thick-lashed green eye and his dark brown ones, and Dom
felt something deep in his gut. There was something about her that made his
whole body yearn to hold her tightly and make all her pain go away.
    Finally, she spoke in a tiny
voice. “There's no one who can help me—he’ll hurt anyone who tries. It’s better
for you to just let me be. He has a lot of friends on the force—helping me will
bring nothing but trouble to your life.”
    For the first time in weeks,
Dominic laughed. “Sweetheart, that tiny little man has no idea what trouble is
if he thinks I’m going to leave you here or let a cop torment his wife.” He
reached out his hand. “Come with Cody and me—I’m Dominic, by the way.”
    “Molly,” she said
automatically. When someone introduced themselves to you, you told them your
name too, even though it seemed kind of ridiculous under the current
circumstances.
    “Let us help you.”
    “It won’t matter,” she said
after a long moment. “He’ll find me, and I have nowhere to go. I can’t go to my
friends because he’ll cause trouble for them, and the longer I stay gone, the
more he’ll beat me when I get back.”
    “So don’t go back,” Dom said
simply.
    “I have nowhere else to go.
No money, no savings, no family. I’m all alone.”
    Dom and Cody looked at each
other. There was no way they could leave her here, but where could they take
her? Finally, Dom reached out both his hands.
    “Come with me. I just moved
here—literally today—and I have a big apartment all to myself. You can lock
yourself in my guest room and never see anyone. He’ll never be able to find
you, and in the meantime, we can figure out a way to help you.”
    Cody was gaping at him and
Molly just stared at him with her one beautiful green eye. “Why would you do
that for me?” she asked at last. “You don’t even know me.”
    He sighed and looked away.
For a long time, there was silence. Then he said, “Because once upon a time I
knew someone who needed to be saved, and I couldn’t save him. I’m not letting
it happen again.”
    While Cody ran to get his
SUV, Dom sat beside Molly and gently asked her questions about where she could
go or if she needed medical attention. She said very little, grimacing from the
pain in her abdomen where Tim had hit her. He’d been hitting her for so long,
she couldn’t even remember a time when there was no pain. Usually there was a
big blowup about once every month or so, but today had been bad. There was a
chance she was pregnant, and Tim had forbidden her to leave the house because
she’d had so many miscarriages. He insisted that if she stayed home she might
actually carry this child to term, but they'd needed groceries. He expected
dinner on the table when he got home, no matter what, so she’d gone to the