Cruel Journey

[10] Astonished

Dominic's P.O.V.

"Man, what the fuck were you thinking?" I yelled at Lance as I paced back in forth in his home office. At the same time, he was thumbing through patients' files, preparing himself for tomorrow's workload.

"I blacked out." He said calmly as he kept on doing what he was doing. He was pissing me off with how nonchalant he was being.

"Well, your blackout scared my daughter." That made him stop immediately and give me the eye contact I deserve. He set the files on the table and leaned back into his chair, using his left hand that was all scratched and cut up as a resting post for his chin. "She's already fucked, and you're little out burst set her back." He offered me no response. " I'm not saying what you did wasn't justified, but you could have left Allie at school, my dude. Anything could have." Before I could finish my sentence, Lance was cutting me off.

"I blacked out! " He yelled. " I fucked up, man, I fucked up." He said, bringing both of his hands to his face rubbing it. Lance was a calm person, and to see him like this was different. I knew Lance had a crazy side if pushed. But, usually, he was good at controlling it. "I fucked up in front of Allie and Tasha." I watched him drop his hands from his face. "I was this close." He said, smashing his thumb and index finger close together. "To killing that muthafucka man. If I didn't think about Allie sitting in that car or Tasha standing next to me. I wouldn't have allowed them to pull me off." He yelled, " They was beating her, and I knew something wasn't right when I dropped her off." He whispered this part under his breath. At that point, I knew Lance only did what he did because he was blaming himself. He told me what happened back when he dropped Ciara off. It had him on edge to the point he asked Allie about her often and would even volunteer to take Allie to school so he can see for himself if she was good.

The way Lance reacted didn't bother me. If that were Allie, I would have done the same damn thing. Shit, for any child I would have because they are innocent and can't defend themselves. But all I was worried about was my daughter's safety. That incident that happened a few months ago still had her on edge and me as well.

"And Tasha man, the look on her face. She looked horrified. It was like the Lance she got to know, and love went out the window. She doesn't like violence. She grew up around it. She is probably comparing me to her father and shit." Lance being my friend, shared some of Tasha's childhood traumas with me, and it made me see why she's a tuff cookie.

"Did she say that, Lance?" I responded back because I knew Lance could overthink.

"She didn't have to. The look in her eyes told it all."

"Well, if you didn't hear her say that, then don't." Before I could finish, my phone was going off. I pulled it out of my pocket, thinking it was Autumn calling, but I was disappointed when I saw Sam calling the third time tonight. His nightly routine was to call Allie, which I didn't mind because my baby girl loved talking to her uncle. But, with everything taking place today, she had crashed immediately after dinner. I decided to answer because I knew he was not going to let up. " Allie is sleep." I said, jumping straight to the point. I didn't want to be on this phone with him longer than I had to.

"Yup." He paused for a bit before speaking. " I'm going to be in town tomorrow. I was wondering if I could pick Allie up and take her out since it's going to be Friday." Sam still rubbed me the wrong way. It was something about him I couldn't trust, but I didn't want that to affect my decision on what's best for my daughter. I was just going to keep a close eye on him. Trust, I didn't forget about our last interaction with my mother. He's lucky my daughter was there because Allie wouldn't have had an Uncle if he stepped any closer to my mom. That man had some childhood demons in his closet. He needed to sort them out because that's where all his anger stemmed from.