Page 47 of Where He Ended

- Chapter 19 -

Laiken

“Listen,” Dominic saysinto the phone. “It's over with. Joseph doesn't want to be found.” He shoots a glance at me. “Not by anyone.”

I keep my face emotionless. I don't want to be affected by his blunt words.Dad wants nothing to do with me.I need to get ready to move on. I only wish I knew what I was moving onto.All this time spent fretting over my father coming to rescue me. Bringing me back home. Fixing everything.

The night he fled without me wasn't an accident. He never planned to take me with him. Not me, not Kara.

Kara.

I chance a quick look at Dominic as he talks on the phone. We've been driving for a few hours, stopping once for gas. He said we'd be back to the estate by late tonight at this pace. I know now that Kara's hate for him is misplaced. I hope he'll come clean and tell her, and everyone else, what really happened to Bernard. I'm doubtful, though.

He only broke his promise because I admitted I loved him.He loves me, too,I remind myself, my heart strumming like the strings on a guitar. It warms me to my core. It makes colors brighter and the air itself taste better.

And it makes every worry I have sharper.

“Well,” he sighs, ending the call. “Dad didn't sound happy with the news.”

“What did he say?” I ask.

He parts his fingers through his hair then grips the wheel. “He kept asking me if I was sure. My gut says he believes me, though. At the end there he sounded . . .” he trails off, frowning thoughtfully. “Tired. Really tired, almost like he'd been defeated and was accepting it.”

I don't know how to feel about that. Sliding deeper in my seat, I play with the radio until I find some music I like. Dominic let's me blast it for a few minutes, before he pulls us off the road and parks the car. “Hey,” I say, sitting up to squint at him. “What's wrong?”

“That's what I want to ask you. Laiken, are you okay?”

I start to answer then stop myself. “I don't know,” I whisper. “I have this gnawing sensation in my stomach. I'm worried something awful is going to happen.”

Dominic curls one large hand around both of mine. He's trying to comfort me, but he can't quell this sense of foreboding. “Nothing bad is going to happen to youoryour sister,” he says firmly.

My hands twitch in his. I can't meet his eyes. “How do you know? Dominic, how can youpossibly know?” I'm unraveling the longer we talk. I wish we'd just kept driving, it made it easier not to think but now, holding still, I'm too aware of the rest of the world around us. Something inevitable is going to happen once the safety of my limbo, of this journey, is over with.

When he slides closer, blocking out the clouded light through the windshield, I'm reminded of the trees by the brook again. He's large and sturdy and he'll live forever, sheltering me. That's how I feel as he embraces me in his car.

“I know nothing bad will happen,” he says into my ear, “because I'll stop it. No matter how frightening or dangerous something is, I'm bigger than it. I'm better than it. The sky could fall right now, and somehow, I promise I'd find a way to keep you safe, Laiken.”

Dominic wears a light smile. But in his burnt-molasses eyes, I spot how serious he is. He's not a man who backs down. Not when he wants something. He really would find a way to keep me safe if the world crumbled around our heads.

He brushes my hair from my eyebrow. “I love you, Laiken Laurel.”

I stiffen when he says my full name. He never has before. I've probably only said it once in front of him. It's such a silly, little thing, but it turns my head into mush. “I love you too, Dominic Bradley.”

His last name has a different impact on us both. I tense up, and he frowns so hard he pulls his eyes shut. “I spent my whole life trying to be one of them,” he mutters. “It was the only thing I wanted. I didn't know I could want something else, something more, until you came into my life.”

Gripping his jaw, I make him kiss me. His mouth is hard. He doesn't open his eyes. “Run away with me,” I say, kissing him again. His lips become softer. “We'll sneak Kara out with us, and we'll just go.”

“Go where?” he asks, staring at me curiously.

“Home.” It pops out, surprising us both. “The cabin,” I say, making sense of my thoughts as they roll out of me. Even after everything my father did, I still think of that place as my home. If I can get back there, this time, it won't be to search for clues about him.

It will be to stay.

“Home,” he says, testing the word out. His eyebrows dip lower, his smile bittersweet. “I thought I knew what that word meant before all of this.”

All of this?He means me. What we've done together. What wewantto do.

I go to kiss him again, but he grabs me first, pushing me on the passenger window. He doesn't let me talk, barely lets me breathe. My brain doesn't fire right when he does this. All my fibers are spending their energy trying to handle the waves of pleasure he sends through me.

---