OWNED by Dominic (Possessed #1) (9 page)

He thought she still shocked herself at times too, especially when she had to give him trouble for things. Like coloring on the wall the day before. He still wasn’t sure who cried more when she sent him for a time out. Case was still in the doghouse for laughing at how upset she was.

An hour after the incident, she’d sent the two of them to the hardware store to get chalk board paint for half of a wall in his room. Now Jax was happy as a clam to have somewhere to be more artistic, as he’d told them.

She worried she was doing everything wrong, but the difference they’d all seen in Jax since she’d arrived amazed them. He was slowing down while talking to sound out his words. He named the colors of his crayons as he grabbed them. She had him practicing tying his shoes for crying out loud. Something Angela had been trying to do for a few months now.

He was eating better, too. Trying new foods and helping her when she cooked. Choosing things for meals he never would have otherwise. She didn’t understand why they were all blown away because Jax did damn near everything she said.

When he’d asked Jaxson why, Dom had been floored.

“Because I want her to want to be my mommy. And she won’t want to if I’m a bad boy,” was what he’d told Dom.

When he told Deedee what he’d said, she’d been so upset about Jax thinking he had to be perfect for her to want him. They’d cuddled the entire afternoon watching every Lego movie known to man. If he weren’t so sick of those movies, he’d have been jealous.

Now she was in the kitchen making healthy snacks for Jax to grab on the go when he was playing and didn’t want to sit and eat. She read books to him at bed time. Told him stories to get him to lay down for a nap. She was everything he ever wanted his son to have in a mother.

When Dom had been growing up, his parents were absent on the best of days. They hadn’t paid much attention to him or his older sister Jesse. They were both lawyers and always had one case or another to get ready for; therefore, their children fell to the low side of importance until one day, when he was ten and his sister, then sixteen, had just gotten her driver’s license. While their parents were busy at the office late that night, she had decided the two of them would go for pizza. Little did anyone know they’d never get it.

A drunk driver had slammed into them so hard from behind at a red light. Their car had been pushed into the middle of traffic and right into an oncoming big rig truck going sixty miles per hour, hitting the driver’s side door.

Jesse died on impact, and he’d been touch and go for a couple of days. His sister had been full of life, always looking for the next big adventure. She was an optimist through and through. For years, Dom had suffered survivor’s guilt. Never understanding why he had lived and she died. To a ten-year-old, it just didn’t make sense. He wanted answers to questions that no one could give him, so he started acting out. He drank, smoked pot, and started stealing. It wasn’t long before his parents finally came out of their own grief and guilt to notice he was in a downward spiral.

When he was fourteen, he got caught vandalizing the high school with his friends; Casey included. Lucky for him, his folks worked in criminal law and were able to get the two of them community service. Dom was also forced to go into counselling.

His counselor understood him far better than anyone else because she’d suffered the same fate—losing a sibling in an accident they were both in. Only she’d turned to hard drugs and selling herself. He remembered being fascinated with her tales of hardship.

It hadn’t taken long before he understood why she was telling him such personal things. She at one time had become a statistic. No longer a victim of a random accident. She had turned herself into a victim of her own circumstances instead. From the day she realized what was happening to her, she worked hard to bring herself out of the gutter. But not before she contracted the HIV virus from a dirty, used needle. He’d been heartbroken upon hearing that and let the bitterness enter him again. She had been someone he started to look up to, and yet, she could be taken from him any day.

Two years later she was...

By a drive-by shooting.

*****

“Deep thoughts?” Deedee
asked Dom as she walked up to find him staring off into the air. Turning, he smiled at seeing her. Opening his comforting arms, she went to him. With him wrapped around her so securely, she felt wanted and worthy for the first time in years. Things she hadn’t felt since her mom left.

“Tell me something, Dee…”

“Anything.”

“Do you want to be here? Do you want to go back to Ireland?” She was taken aback by his questions. He’d basically forced her to come to Maryland with him. Looking deeply into his eyes, she wondered what his questions were really about. There was something there…

“What’s going on in your mind, Dom?”

Sighing, he looked out over the fields of grass in the distance before answering. “I need to know if I’m doing you more harm than good by making you stay here.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? That’s it. Do you want to leave, Deedee?” His voice was harder, more demanding.

“It’s not that I want to leave, it’s just…” It was her turn to look away. “I have no idea what I want. For as long as I can remember, my only goal has been to get to my mam, and now…”

“Now?” he prompted.

“Now, there’s you…There’s Jaxson…There’s so many new opportunities, and I’m confused,” she told him bluntly.

He smiled at her answer. Happy that she was thinking about a future there with them but could understand her conflicting thoughts. For a while they stood in silence, enjoying the feel of being in each other’s arms. Knowing that they would figure things out in their own way.

“I can’t let you go, Princess,” he whispered into her ear. “You’re as essential to my life as breathing. I don’t know how it happened, Deidre, but you’re ingrained in my soul.”

Her eyes welled up with tears at his honesty. The fact he was such a big, strong man and a total badass made it all the more meaningful.

“Maireann lá go ruaig ach maireann an grá go huaigh.”

“What’s that mean?” he asked in her ear where he began to nuzzle her.

“A day lasts until it’s chased away, but a love lasts until the grave.” She was nervous about telling him the true meaning. Everything with them had been going at warp speed, but she was finally in tune with her heart. And her heart was telling her he was it for her.

“Oh yeah?”

Nodding her head quickly, he slowly lowered his mouth to hers. A simple meeting of lips, an intense feeling of lust, an overwhelming feeling of love. For them it was perfect.

“What’s a man gotta do to get some grub around here?” They heard Casey holler from inside the house.

“Fucking inbred...” Dom mumbled, shooting a glare at the house.

Laughing, she pulled from his arms slightly. “I’ve got to wake up Jax anyway.”

“You’re good with him.” He held a note of surprise in his voice.

“Am I not supposed to be?”

“I’m just shocked is all. He doesn’t normally take to people the way he has with you, and I had no clue how you would be with him, so ya, I was worried. At first.”

“Hmm,” she murmured walking away. Unsure of how to feel about his doubt.

“Wait a minute, Princess.” He tried to grab her arm as she walked in the house.

“It’s fine, Dominic.”

“Oh shit, what’d ya do, dude?” Casey laughed as Dom trailed her inside.

“Fuck off, Case.”

Ignoring them both, she went upstairs to wake up Jax. Entering his room, she loved the care and attention he paid to organizing everything. He had bins upon bins lined up against one wall all labeled for what toys went where. He was very proud the first time he’d shown her. His bookshelf had books going from largest to smallest and another shelf with all his teddy bears organized by character. It was one of the most innovative things she’d ever seen from someone so young.

She’d asked Dom about it a while go to see if he were the one who did it or maybe Casey or Angela. He’d told her it was all Jax. That’s been that way he’s done things since he started crawling. For him, everything had a place.

Leaning down beside the sweet, little boy’s toddler bed covered in Transformers bedding—because Optimus Prime was the bomb apparently—she started rubbing his back gently. She’d discovered that he was not happy when being awoken suddenly. He needed a slow wake up, and she was happy to do that for him.

“Jax, sweetheart, it’s time to wake up,” she whispered, kissing his head.

As her lips touched him, she realized he felt warmer than normal. Rolling him to his back gently, she felt his cheeks and continued onto his arms and chest. She knew that when he slept he was always warmer, but this felt different. He was clammy, and his face was slightly paler.

Shaking him a bit she called, “Jaxson, a stór, wake up, baby. Look at me.”

His eyes fluttered briefly before closing and he tried to roll back over. Panicking now, she picked him up and moved as fast as she could down the stairs to where Dom and Case were in the kitchen.

“Dominic!” she called in a quiet panic.

He turned, laughing at something Case had said, but all good humor faded as he took in how tense and upset she was. Looking to his son, he rushed over asking her, “What’s wrong?”

“He’s warm. Like warmer than usual. Is he ok? Is this normal? He won’t wake up!” Anxiety began rising within her. She’d never felt anything like it before. Her heart hurt from the thought of something being wrong with this sweet boy.

“Flu’s been going around,” Case supplied as he hovered over them.

“The flu? This can’t be the flu? Feel him,” Deedee demanded. Surely the flu doesn’t make a person that warm.

Dom’s hand on her neck had her looking up at him, tears hovered on her lashes. “He’s fine, Princess. We’ll get some meds into him, and he’ll be up and driving us nuts in no time. You’ll see.”

He’s his father.
She should trust him, but everything in her screamed something was wrong. “Please, Dom, please can we take him to a doctor?” Her voice quivered in fear.

“Alright, Dee, we’ll take him.”

She sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

*****

When Deedee had
come rushing downstairs with Jax in her arms, his heart had nearly burst from his chest at the panic written across her delicate features. As soon as he felt his sons head, he knew it was just a fever. There was no labored breathing, nothing to indicate it could be more.

With the flu rolling through the state, he knew it was only a matter of time. Every year, with or without the flu shot, Jax always contracted it. So while he knew his son’s medical quirks, she didn’t; therefore, now they were on their way into town to see his pediatrician, who thankfully could fit them in. As soon as they walked into the office, him carrying Jax who was now awake but still sleepy, Deedee rushed to the reception demanding for him to be seen immediately.

“Princess,” he growled behind her.

“Don’t you princess me, Dominic Slade,” she told him with such fierce anger and worry that he let her be. Jax may not be her son, and she may have only known him a little over a week, but she was in full-on mama bear mode. He was proud as fuck.

Cradling Jaxson in one arm, he wrapped his other around Dee’s neck seeing she was nearly in tears again. “I called for Jaxson Slade about an hour ago. Doc Mullins said he could get us in,” he explained to the receptionist.

“No problem. Please have seat, and I’ll tell him you’re here.”

As she walked away, he strong armed Dee into sitting down. “He’ll be fine,” he murmured to her again as she rubbed Jax’s forehead.

“How you feeling,
a stór
?”

“Tiwed,” he mumbled.

“Do you hurt anywhere?”

Shaking his head, no, he reached for her, and she gladly took him in her arms. Running his own fingers through her hair, Dom didn’t think life could be more perfect.

It wasn’t long before Doctor Mullins came out to greet them. “Mr. Slade, how are you?”

“Hey doc, I’m good. Jax here seems to have quite the fever, though.” He indicated his son who’d fallen asleep on Dee’s chest while she rocked him.

“Follow me back if you can then.” He laughed watching Dee struggle to get up without waking him.

Helping her up, they followed him to one of the patient rooms where Dom laid Jax on the exam table as the door closed.

“Now, tell me the problem,” he asked after washing his hands.

“I went to wake him from his nap, and he felt warmer than Dom said he normally does, and his face is pale. He was clammy, and I couldn’t wake him up either,” Dee said in one short breath making it sound like one long word.

“Deidre,” Dom called her. When she looked to him, he told her, “Take a breath, he’ll be fine.” Turning to the doctor, he said to him, “I tried to explain about the flu, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“Dominic!” Dee scolded him.

Chuckling, Dr. Mullins began his examination and all the while, Jax barely moved. Which did start to worry Dom.

“Jaxson? How are you feeling, buddy?” Mullins asked him as he shook him awake for the second time.

Seeing Deedee twisting her hands together, he stepped behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders giving a light squeeze.

“I tiwed, doc,” Jax murmured weakly.

“Does anything hurt?”

“My tummy.”

“He hasn’t eaten since breakfast and only very little.” Dee filled the doctor in. She was practically vibrating in her worry.

“Okay. How long has your tummy hurt?”

“Uhhh.”

“Before you had breakfast?” Jax shook his head no. “After breakfast then?”

“It stawted to hurt while I was eating.”

Dee’s startled gasp drew everyone’s attention to her. “Oh my God! Did I give him food poisoning? Oh Jax, baby, I’m so sorry.” She cried, going to him and holding his hand.

“What did you give him, miss?”

“We had bananas and yogurt with a glass of apple juice. I bought it all yesterday. It was fresh.” She had tears trailing down her face now. He knew nothing he said or did was going to make her feel better, so he cuddled her into his arms. Her little body was shaking in her upset.