Dominion (Alpha Domain #1)

T
he door
to my office opened slowly—hesitantly— and I looked up from the screen of my laptop. I pursed my lips together when I locked eyes with John and gave him a sharp nod, silently indicating that it alright for him to enter.

As he stepped inside, I closed the lid of my laptop and said, “Close the door.”

“What’s going on?”

I folded my hands together on the desk and considered the best way to phrase my request. The mission I had for John wasn’t a job I’d typically assign to him and I knew the moment I told him what I needed, he’d fight me on it with the fact this type of work was well below his station.

Which was true. But his ranking wasn’t the point.

“John, I trust you more than anyone else. You know that, right?”

He folded his arms across his chest and nodded. “I suppose so.”

“Don’t give me that ‘
I suppose
’ crap. You’re my best friend and you know that. Which is why I need you to do a very personal favor for me. It’s not something suited to your ranking, but I need someone I can trust on this job.”

John seemed to sense my hesitation to say more so he prodded, “I understand. What do you need?”

I studied him for a long moment. Even though he seemed willing to do whatever I requested, I knew that the second I handed him the manila folder containing the details of his task, his blind acceptance would falter. I lifted the folder and he reached for it, but I yanked it back at the last second.

“Promise me that you’ll at least hear me out on this one, alright?”

John nodded and reached for the folder again, yanking it out of my hand with a frown. He flipped open the cover and took one look at the photograph inside before closing it and dropping it to my desk.

“No.”

“John—”

“I don’t do women, you know that.”

“It’s not a hit, John.”

His eyebrows raised in surprise. “No? Well, I don’t do kidnappings either.”

“It’s not—Damn it, John. Just sit down and listen to me, alright?”

He rolled his eyes but pulled the chair in front of my desk out and plopped down, regarding me with cool disinterest. Honestly, I was surprised he was even willing to sit down and listen. I had expected him to take off.

Not that he would’ve gotten far since I planned on chasing him.

He really was the only man in my employment who I trusted with this case.

“This,” I started, flipping open the folder and spinning it around so he could look at the photograph as I spoke, “Is Amber Fredrick.”

“Fredrick? Like—”

“Like me, yes. Amber is my stepfather’s daughter.”

Even though this work was below his station, I could sense that his curiosity had piqued. He lifted the photograph into the air with two raised eyebrows, carefully regarding Amber’s face.

“Your stepsister, huh?” He paused to let out a low whistle of appreciation. “She’s a looker.”

“That’s beside the point,” I said dryly, not liking that he had the gall to point that out as if I didn’t already know. “Amber is in town for the next week and I need a set of eyes on her. She’s not a stupid girl—I need someone who I know can keep a safe distance and also manage to get the information I need.”

John leveled me with a sour look and I sighed when I realized what was coming. Amber wasn’t a stupid girl and John wasn’t a stupid man. He knew something was up.

“You were right, this
is
way below my ranking. So level with me— Why do you need your sister watched?”

“
Step
-sister,” I growled, then immediately regretted it when his lips curled into a smirk.

“Ahhh, now I see. You got a thing for this girl? Is that why you never want to talk about your family?”

“That’s not important.”

“It is if you want me to do this job,” he argued, tossing the folder back on my desk—the ball in my proverbial court.

I could feel my nostrils flaring as I slowly inhaled and grit my teeth together to keep from snapping. John was far more level-headed than I was and it showed— he propped his feet on the edge of the desk and shot me a cocky grin as he waited for my response.

“Fine,” I bit out with a roll of my eyes. “Yes. I have a...
thing
... for Amber. Always have. So, I need you to watch her for me.”

“Is she in trouble?”

“I think so, yes,” I said, keeping my voice as even as possible. “I have reason to believe that she’s visiting the city with her... boyfriend.”

“Her boyfriend,” John repeated dryly. “And?”

“And I also have reason to believe that her boyfriend is deep in debt to the Sanchez family.”

The grin disappeared from John’s face and he removed his feet from my desk in favor of leaning over it. “Wait,
what
? Do you have ‘
reason to believe
’ or do you
know
?”

“I know.”

“And you know what the Sanchez’s do when someone skips out on their payments?”

“I do. Which is why I need you to watch her.”

I could see the gears turning in John’s head as he started putting together the pieces of the puzzle.

“Wait. If it’s that serious, why don’t you just tell Amber so she can get the hell away from him? Why go through all this trouble?”

I sighed and looked down at the picture of my stepsister— the only woman in the world I’d ever love.

“It’s complicated. Amber and I didn’t exactly part on good terms the last time we saw each other and she wouldn’t be happy if she knew I was getting involved in her life.”

“You gonna tell me the whole story?”

“I’d rather not,” I admitted, looking back up at him and sliding the indifferent mask back onto my face. “I’d prefer if you’d just do me this favor and I’ll tell you all about what happened over drinks after I know she’s safe and out of town.”

John sat back in his chair, his eyes going unfocused as he likely ran through the list of supplies he would need to do a recon job. After a long moment of tense silence, he finally nodded.

“Alright, alright. I’ll watch your girl. Where is she?”

I smiled, grateful that he didn’t push any further for the reason behind why I couldn’t get involved.

I slid the folder back towards him and said, “It’s all in here. Estimated time of arrival, where she’s staying, her phone number… the
boyfriend’
s number... and everything else you should need to keep tabs on her.”

John nodded, ignoring my snarl of the word ‘boyfriend’ as he flipped through the paperwork. After scanning through it for another brief moment, he stood up and tucked the folder beneath his arm.

“Alright, consider it done. I’ll keep watch like a good dog.”

As he moved to leave the room, I called, “John?”

“Yeah?” he asked as he turned around in the doorway.

“Don’t forget what I said,” I warned, making my voice as threatening as possible. “Amber isn’t stupid. She
can’t
see you. If she does, it’s just going to dig my hole even deeper. Do
not
engage with her. Just watch from a distance.”

“Yeah, yeah. Low profile, I got it. See you later, man.”

“Later.”

I inhaled deeply after he closed the door behind him and let it out in a quick, harsh breath. Now that I was alone again, I let the mask slip and nervously ran my hands through my hair.

While I was thankful that John had agreed to help me out with this, it didn’t feel like I was doing enough. I considered calling in a favor to Arnold, my contact within the Sanchez family, but I had a gut feeling that alerting anyone in the group would be akin to digging Amber’s grave myself. Even though I felt like I could trust the guy, most of what I had asked him so far was to keep my group off their radar.

So far, he’d succeeded. Any time the Sanchez family started looking for threats to their business, they were cleverly misdirected to another, more prominent threat. They were
aware
of my team, but didn’t know enough to consider us a threat to their bottom line.

But calling in to ask Arnold to redirect attention from Amber and her dumbass boyfriend would raise a lot of eyebrows from the higher ups over there. They didn’t look past debts without a damn good reason.

No, I can’t do that. It’s too big of a risk.

But I
could
call Arnold just to find out how deep the hole had been dug. If I could somehow manage to arrange an anonymous drop of the money he owed, then both him and Amber would fall off their radar.

I needed the peace of mind. I pulled my cell from my pocket and scrolled down my contacts list, stopping on Arnold’s name and pressing the call button. He answered on the third ring.

“I need information on a debt owed.”

“Name?”

“Chris Maurer.”

“Give me twenty minutes.”

The line went dead and I placed the cell phone on my desk, folding my hands together and patiently waiting for it to ring again while I contemplated how I could make the payment without being glaringly obvious that the money wasn’t really from Chris.

“
H
ey
, John! What’s good, man?”

I tore my eyes away from the folder and looked up as Derek came strolling into my office.

I grunted and shook my head. “Nothing at the moment. I’m on watchdog duty for the next fucking week.”

“What?
You
? Fuck that noise, man. Pass it on to one of the newbies.”

“Would if I could,” I mumbled as I refocused my attention on learning all I could from the pages Allen had given me. “But we’re shorthanded at the moment and this job came straight from the boss.”

Derek plopped down on the free chair in front of my desk. “I thought you two were partners.”

“We are,” I said with a wry smile. “But someone always winds up being top dog.”

“You cool with that?” he curiously inquired.

I tilted my head to the side as I considered the question. It wasn’t something anyone had ever asked me before, save for Allen himself when the team first started to expand and bring in new people. At first, I hadn’t been happy with the idea of stepping down from the boss position at all—even if it was only half a step.

But it wasn’t like everyone here didn’t still treat me like a boss. It had just warped into Allen being the General and I would up as his Lieutenant.

“I wasn’t at first, but after seeing all the bullshit Allen puts up with on a daily basis—I’m cool being second in command.”

“You’re still the boss to me,” Derek said with a laugh. “So what’d you do to piss Allen off enough to saddle you with watchdog duty?”

I shook my head and frowned. “It’s not like that. This is a delicate one.”

Derek leaned over my desk and let out a low whistle when he saw the photo of Amber. “Oh, I can see that. Delicate indeed. Allen shopping for a new girlfriend?”

“It’s his sister.”

Derek’s eyebrows practically shot to the roof and I couldn’t fight back the chuckle that came out at the sight.

“Allen has a
sister
? How the hell did I not know this?”

“She’s his stepsister, actually. And don’t feel bad, I barely knew anything about her before today. They have a complicated relationship, at best.”

Derek nodded and I suddenly felt surprised by the fact that I had somehow gone from researching my next job to gossiping about my best friend and the target. I shook my head and waved a hand towards the door.

“Fuck off, yeah? I need to finish up here and you’re distracting me.”

Derek grinned and stood up. “No problem, boss. Need me to get you anything before I take off for the night?”

I looked between him and the folder a few times, pursing my lips as I considered what I’d need to prepare for Amber’s arrival tomorrow. Derek was the resident tech geek of the team, not to mention our best arms expert. If you needed anything—guns, equipment, or technology to make spying easier—he was the man to talk to.

“Actually, yeah,” I replied as I stood up and walked around the desk. “I could use a few things from the tech room.”

Derek grinned. He might have been our weapons expert, but it always excited him to show off whatever new tech he’d either bought or put together himself. We made our way to the equipment room in silence, but once the door opened, Derek launched into a spiel regarding all the newest gadgets he’d gotten.

As he showed me the items we had in stock, I smiled along with him.

This job will be easier than I thought.