“Okay.” I try to process everything he’s saying.
“Good.” Dom nods. “Do you have any questions?”
Overwhelmed, I start to shake my head but stop. “You’ll still let me leave, though, right? Like to go to my office.” I lift my shoulder. “Stuff like that,” I add, even though I don’t really have anywhere to go except the office.
“You’re not trapped here, Angel. You can go to the office when you need to. Just let me know ahead of time so I can arrange to have Rob take you.” His hands flex on my shoulders. “But you can’t just leave by yourself. That isn’t me being a dick. That’s to keep you safe.”
I know enough about this world to know I’d rather be here than kidnapped by someone Dom deems an enemy.
I swallow. “When I emailed my boss yesterday about the move, I said I’d come in for the Wednesday morning staff meeting.”
“That’s fine,” Dom says like I’m a kid asking to borrow the family car.
“Rob can’t come up to the office with me,” I add. It’s going to be a big enough deal that I moved here on a whim. I can’t possibly explain a round-the-clock bodyguard to my coworkers.
“He won’t,” Dom says, but I’m not sure he means it.
He stares into my eyes, and I feel like I’m looking at old Dominic again.
I shake my head. “For the record, I haven’t forgiven you. I understand why you did what you did. But it was shitty, Dom. It’s all super shitty. And you should have warned me about the funeral. You should have warned me about everything.” All the feelings from earlier war inside me. “I don’t deserve this.”
“You don’t.” Dom slides his hands up from my shoulders until his thumbs are lightly pressing against the front of my neck. “You deserve better.” He strokes his thumbs up, then down. “But you’re mine now. And I’ll always keep you safe. Someday you’ll accept that.”
He starts to drop his hands away but drags his thumbs down my body in the process.
I’m too slow to react, and his thumbs brush over my pebbled nipples through the fabric of my bra and dress, showing that he knows just how much I’m affected when his body is pressed against mine.
I move to shove his hands away, but he’s already stepping back.
“Now quit distracting me.” He puts his hand on the door handle. “I have work to do. I’ll be late, so order dinner when you’re hungry.”
“And when you say work…？” I cross my arms back over my chest.
Dom’s lips pull up. “I mean hunting.”
CHAPTER 29
Val
I pace past the bed. Again.
It’s almost midnight.
Dom has been gone for ten hours, and I don’t know if this is normal behavior for him or if I should be worried.
My hands ball into fists, making the tender skin on my left ring finger throb.
“This asshole,” I hiss, shaking out my hand.
It finally sank in, around the time the armed guard in the hallway handed over my bag of takeout, that I’m really in it. Like, really in it.
I stare at the four Dominics circling my finger, making a point to avoid looking at the Til Death below my nail.
I can’t believe he did this to me.
Seriously, can’t believe it.
And I can’t believe I’m not more angry about it.
Really, I’m more embarrassed than anything, because, eventually, I’m going to be back out in public, and it looks so out of place on me that I’m sure every person I pass will stare at it.
Maybe if I get a sleeve tattoo and paint my nails black, it won’t stand out so much.
After Dom left me here, I stood in the living room for a weird amount of time, then gave up trying to feel comfortable in the giant space and came back up to the bedroom.
I showered off the funeral. Then I got into my comfiest sweatpants, and because it looked soft, I pulled a Yale sweatshirt off one of Dom’s hangers and put that on, too.
Then I sat on the bed with my laptop and caught up on work. And Dominic still wasn’t home.
So then I sat on the overstuffed chair in the corner of the bedroom and googled Dominic Gonzalez.
Mostly photos of him at big city events. One article title speculated about his involvement in the Chicago mafia. But overall, there was surprisingly little.
So, of course, then I did a search for The Alliance.
Which led to a text from King asking why I’m looking them up online. Which then led to me slamming my laptop shut and turning my phone off.