Dominic (Saint Brothers #1) (10 page)

Chapter Seven

Dominic

“Can we play with my dolls, daddy?” Lily beamed a smile up at me, which was something I could never resist. She was the sweetest kid in the world. Even when everything else was going down the shitter in my life, that smile never failed to brighten my day.

“Sure we can, baby girl.”

“YAY!” She jumped up to run into her bedroom to get her toys, shouting all the way to her bedroom.

It was getting close to the time when my father would be coming to pick her up. It was Friday night and it was a weekly ritual for Lily stay over there. If she wasn’t allowed to stay over at Grampy and Nanna’s, there was hell to pay.

At least it gave me a night to myself. As much as I loved being a dad and wouldn’t give it up for the world, as any parent knows, sometimes you need some time to yourself. This was my night to chill with my bros, knowing that my girl and my businesses were in good hands.

I needed it tonight, I really did. The last few weeks had been hectic and I needed some time to blow off the cobwebs. It hadn’t felt like I’d sat down in a month. When I wasn’t tied up with the bars, I was helping my brothers out and then when I got home, Lily occupied all my time until I fell into bed exhausted.

I hadn’t even had time to think about Fallon. Well, that’s not strictly true. I went out of my way to find out from Maze and the other guys watching over Lauren whether her friend had been staying with her at all.

I wanted to see her again, but was it really worth the complication? She was the kind of girl that went to Decadence, which wasn’t my type at all. But seeing her again in Sinners? That had shocked the living shit out of me.

Where would she fit into my life? I wasn’t sure. Since Lily had come along, I hadn’t even contemplated juggling a relationship into my already overly hectic life. Was there room for Fallon in it all?

Would she even be interested? Sure, the sex had been out of this world, but was that all she was looking for, too?

In the past, I’d stuck to nameless one night stands with the girls that came into Sinners. Obviously, they weren’t all nameless seeing as we knew the regulars that came in, but that didn’t mean that it was anything more than instant gratification.

I’d never brought anyone back to the house. There was no way I was going to try and explain something like that to Lily, and anyway, I hadn’t met anyone I liked enough to want to introduce them to my daughter.

Would having Lily scare Fallon off? I didn’t know anything about her so I didn’t know her views on single parents. It wasn’t something I’d ever had to worry about before, but now the thoughts kept crossing my mind. Would she and Lily get on? Where would Fallon fit into our lives? Lily was a little cutie but she was a miniature stick of dynamite when she wanted to be.

She had been completely wired when she came home from nursery. I don’t know what they did with her in there, but she was acting like they had been shoving sweets down her throat all day. I knew that my dad was going to have a hard time getting her to sleep tonight and didn’t envy them one bit.

Not that they would care. My dad was a big badass who turned to mush around his granddaughter. In his day, he’d been a cage-fighter and still kept in shape, but all that went out of the window when little Lily wanted to play makeovers, much to the amusement of Gemma, my step-mother. She still had the photos to hold him to ransom if he didn’t do the chores.

My phone rang just as I was going to check on Lily. From the sounds that were coming from the direction of her room, she was ransacking the place to find the toys she wanted. “Yeah?”

“Bro, it’s me.” It was Kellin.

“What’s up?” It was Friday night. I’d be seeing him at the bar in a few, so I wondered what was so important for him to be calling now.

“There’s some shit going down at the bar.”

“Oh, crap.” Just what I didn’t need tonight. All it had been lately was one problem after another and I’d been looking forward to a stress-free night, on the fun side of the bar as opposed to behind it. It looked like that wasn’t going to happen. “What’s going on now?”

“Nothing yet, but there are some little shits who have been hitting the bars all over town causing as shit tonne of trouble over the last couple of weeks.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Smashing stuff up, fighting, that sort of shit.”

“And, what does that have to do with Sinners? Has anyone come in causing any trouble yet?” I knew that there wouldn’t be any problem with Decadence. No way would anyone like that be able to get in there to cause trouble.

“I just got here and nothing yet. Only regulars so far, I think. But the pattern shows that they have been hitting every bar in this area.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. If the bar had been like it had been years ago, I don’t think they would have even thought to touch this place. As it is, we have now got a hell of a reputation because of the girls flocking to this place. It’s an ideal hit for these low-lives. They will see it as a challenge because everyone knows how protective we are over the place.” Kellin sneered.

It was true. If I hadn’t taken over the place and done it up, it wouldn’t even come up on anyone’s radar. The place had been a complete dive before I ploughed my money into it. Now? It was more than good enough to rival any of the other bars in the area. But, Sinners had something else special that it was often hard to find in a bar. The atmosphere couldn’t be rivalled. Therefore, I knew that Kel was right. If the others’ had been hit, we sure as fuck would be too.

“Would you be able to call in a few extra of your boys to come in tonight? It might be an idea to have a few extra sets of eyes in there.”  I knew that some of the boys on the security business books would welcome the extra cash. Plus, they would be getting paid to hang out with a bunch of beautiful girls, so who was going to complain about that?

“Already on it, bro. They’re on their way as we speak. Plus, we’re waiting for photos of the trouble-makers to be emailed through to us so we know who we’re looking out for.”

“I’ll be down as soon as I can.”

“What time is dad coming for Lily?”

“In about an hour.” When I was met with silence, I knew that Kel didn’t want me to wait that long to get to the bar. “I can see if Rachael will come over to watch her if you need me sooner?”

“That might be a good idea.” Kellin sounded relieved. “We need to be vigilant.” He may not have a monetary share in the business, but it was our family’s place and my brothers would protect it just as well as I would.

Kellin hung up the phone without another word and I quickly put the call through to Rachael. This sounded like the shit was going to hit the fan and I would rather be there to deal with it myself than be left in the aftermath.

Hopefully, if she was free, it would only be for an hour, maybe less if I called my dad to come for Lily a bit earlier. It was just my luck that they were due to pick her up a bit later tonight. Gemma was going to swing by after they’d been to some church thing just before Lily’s bedtime and they were going to keep her a little longer tomorrow to make it up to her.

“Dominic? Is everything okay?” she asked as soon as she answered the phone.

“Hey, Rach. Sorry to dump this on you at the last minute, but are you free for an hour or so?”

“Of course.” She chuckled. “You want me to watch Lily?”

“If you could. I’m really sorry about all this.”

“Don’t even think about it. When do you need me?”

“Now?” I hated pushing my luck with her, but there was no way I would take Lily to the bar with me. Even if she stayed in the office, it still wasn’t a suitable environment for her to be in. I wasn’t that irresponsible with her safety.

“I’m on my way.”

Putting my boots on while I waited for her, I sent Gemma a text to let her know I had to leave early and she replied saying she would be over as quickly as possible to relieve Rachael. I was damn lucky I had such a good support network to help me with my daughter or I would have drowned under the stress of it all.

Walking into Lily’s bedroom, it looked like a bomb had hit it. “What on earth is going on in here, young lady?”

“I can’t find my dolly. The one with the pink hair. I need my dolly.” Lily pouted, getting ready to let the tears flow. That was one of the main problems with her when she got all hyper like this, all of her emotions were heightened and the littlest thing set her off.

“You mean that dolly with pink hair over there?” I pointed over to her bed where her favourite doll lay next to one with blonde hair.

As she spotted the doll she called Sylvia, a beaming smile broke out over her face. Finding that doll she had been searching for was better than finding a stash of gold in her little world.

Lily made her way across the bedroom, dodging all the toys she had scattered all over the floor. As soon as she got to the door, she stopped dead and looked at my feet. “Are you going out, daddy?”

I bent down in front of her so I could look her in the eye, well nearly. “Daddy’s got to go out to work for a bit. Uncle Kellin needs my help.” Getting ready for the tears, I pushed back a lock of hair from her sweet face.

Her bottom lip wobbled. “Am I not going to Grampy’s house?”

“Of course you are, sweetheart. It’s Friday, isn’t it?” Her smile instantly returned. “And Rachael is going to come and watch you until Nanny gets here.”

Hearing that, her face lit up. “Rachael? Yay! She plays even better than you do.” And she raced off into the living room to get ready for her impromptu playdate with Rachael, the wonder neighbour.

Relieved that she was happy again, I grabbed my coat and car keys. Lily was racing around getting all of her dolls together and generally making a mess of the house. That comment about Rachael playing with dolls better than me should have hurt, but she was right. I was a dude and I sucked at playing shit like that, even though I tried for her sake.

When there was a knock at the door, I had to race to beat Lily to it. She knew better than to open the door, but knowing it was Rachael, her excitement ran away with her.

“Hey cutie!” Rachael said as soon as Lily threw herself at her, before throwing a smile at me.

“Thank you for doing this at such short notice. Things have been crazy lately.” I said over Lily’s head before she raced off into the living room.

“I’ve told you, it’s not a problem. She’s a great kid.”

“That she is.” I grinned as I walked her back into the living room, seeing a couple of dozen dolls lined up, ready to attend a wedding or something.

“Don’t worry about the mess. I can clean it all up in the morning. Gemma should be here to pick her up within the hour.”

“I’ll lock up after us when she comes.” Lily came running at her again, pulling at her hands. “Whoa! Slow down.” Rachael laughed as Lily giggled.

“I should probably have warned you when I called you that she’s as hyper as hell tonight. I don’t know what the fuck they do to them at that nursery, but she’s been like this since she got home.”

“Daddy!” Lily giggled before turning to Rachael. “Daddy said a bad word.”

“Sorry, sweetheart.” I rolled my eyes at Rachael. Honestly, I tried to curb my language around the impressionable little girl, but sometimes the words just slipped on out.

Rachael laughed, watching as Lily threw herself down on the floor and got ready to play, “I expected it. My niece goes to the same nursery, remember? They had some kind of arts and craft day and for some reason, all the kids came out like that. I guess it was all the fun that drove them over the edge.”

“Or they were all sniffing glue.” I sniggered. “Anyway, hopefully Gemma won’t be too long and you can get back to your Friday night.”

“It’s not like I had anything planned.”

“You should pop down to the bar sometime.” I suggested, although tonight wouldn’t be the best idea if we were going to have some trouble going down.

“Maybe I will. Tonight I have to study, though. So maybe another time.”

“You’re welcome whenever you want. Drinks are on me.” I grinned at her. It was the least I could do with all the help she gave me.

“Lily? Why don’t you give your daddy a goodnight kiss before he has to go to work?”

My daughter jumped down from the floor and wrapped her chubby little arms around my legs in a death grip. “Night night, Daddy.”

Scooping her up so she didn’t cut the circulation off to my legs, I gave her a big sloppy kiss which made her laugh. “Goodnight, baby girl. Be good for Rachael, yeah?”

“Okay, Daddy.” She wriggled to be let down, eager to get rid of me to start playing.

“I’ll be back in a minute, pumpkin.” Rachael ruffled her hair before following me out of the room.

“I’ll try and get her to tidy up a little before Gemma gets here.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I shook my head. “She ransacked her bedroom looking for a doll, so I can deal with it all tomorrow.”

Rachael smiled, knowing she was in for a hectic hour before my step-mother came to pick her up. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

“Thanks, babe.” I kissed her on the forehead before walking out the door.