But he doesn’t look at me. His eyes are still locked on King.
King takes another step closer until he’s within arm’s reach.
“What do you want?” King grits out the question, squaring off with Dominic, waiting for his answer.
Me.
Please say you want me.
“To join The Alliance.”
My knees weaken.
No. No, no, no, no.
This can’t be happening.
I thought…
Dom’s grip on my arm tightens, and I realize I’ve sagged against him.
I thought he…
I try to jerk away from Dominic, but his hold doesn’t budge.
“Not a chance,” King growls. “Did you seriously think you could pull a stunt like this and—”
Dom cuts him off, taking a step forward and bringing me with him. “There is no stunt. This little sister of yours has been wedded and bedded. That makes me family, and if you have any honor at all, King Vass, you know that means I’m a part of The Alliance now.”
Sorrow, like I’ve never felt before, blankets over me. And those last tiny pieces of hope, the little broken shards I’ve been carrying since I was nine, finally crumble into sand.
I was so close.
Tears form and fall in the space of a heartbeat.
I was so goddamn close to having what I’ve always wanted.
And it was all a fucking lie.
I have to tell my lungs to fill. Have to force them to suck in air.
It was all a setup.
A trick.
More tears roll down my cheeks.
I thought I could make him love me.
A strange sound comes out of my throat, but no one hears it.
No one is paying attention to me.
I thought someone finally cared.
But Dom never cared about me.
He did this for The Alliance.
He married me for The Alliance.
King darts his hand out and grips the front of Dom’s shirt. But Dom does the same back to King, not backing down from King’s fury.
I don’t want to be this close.
I don’t want to be this close to these dangerous men.
I try to shrink away, but Dom won’t let me go.
“Tricking Val into your bed doesn’t mean shit,” King snaps.
And his words slice between my ribs.
Tricking Val.
It’s exactly what Dominic did, so why does hearing King say it hurt so much?
And what does he mean doesn’t mean shit? What part doesn’t mean shit? The sex part?
Or the me part?
Dread hits me.
What if Dom did all this, only to find out I’m not family enough?
What if his plan doesn’t work?
What will happen to me then?
I reach up with my right hand and press it over my heart.
I’m already a nobody.
“You owe me. Remember?” Dom says slowly. “A wife for a wife, King. Val is mine now.”
Val.
I don’t think he’s ever called me that. It was always Valentine. Or Angel. Or Shorty. Or…
When he called me Mama at the airport.
My eyes squeeze shut.
When I followed him into that little room. When I had sex with him.
Numbness starts to wash through me. Starting at my toes. Up to my ankles.
I’m such a fool.
It’s at my knees.
Such a sad, pathetic, love-starved fool.
My hips.
So desperate for love, I believed that the hot man on the airplane was desperate to be with me.
My belly button.
So goddamn broken, I believed every compliment.
I clung to every nice thing he said.
My rib cage.
So fucking lonely, I drunkenly married him and…
A fresh layer of sadness sinks into my chest, and I look up at Dominic Gonzalez.
“Were you even drunk?” I ask the thought out loud.
I have to blink to see through the tears, but I know the answer in my heart.
And the blank expression on Dom’s face as he looks down at me is all the confirmation I need.
So I nod.
He wasn’t drunk. Just me. Because he needed me to be. Because he needed me to marry him.
It was never about me.
The numbness rises to my shoulders, the horrible ache in my heart finally dulling as I let the disassociation win.
He’ll never love me.
No one ever has.
King lets go of Dom’s shirt with a shove. “Get out of my fucking house.”
I don’t look up to see if he’s talking to just Dom or to both of us.
Because it doesn’t really matter, does it?
I don’t belong here either.
I don’t belong anywhere.
CHAPTER 16
Dom
Val comes with me willingly.
She walks at my side, not flinching away from my hold on her arm. Not shoving me away when I put my hand on her back. Not protesting when I help her up into the vehicle. She doesn’t so much as look at me when I reach across her to buckle her in.