Page 86 of Dominion

His hands dragged over my upper arms, and I knew he could feel how cold I was, but there was nothing I could do to warmmyself up. I thought we would have enough time to drag Dylan out, to have him with us before we tried to lock up Judah and Danny, but that wasn’t happening.

I was terrified that Casimir would take one look at Dylan and kill him on the spot, especially given their history and the way Cas behaved toward him. I hated the fact that I couldn’t go with them, but I wasn’t a fighter. I was nowhere near as trained as those other guys and if I ended up being a liability, it would only be harder for the guys to focus on the task at hand.

If they had to protect me and care about my stupid ass, then what was the point of anyone going.

“I’m scared,” I murmured, pressing my back to Ash’s front, stealing some of the warmth he emanated. I wished we could spend the day snuggled in the cute little room that Casimir assigned to us. “I’m terrified that something bad will happen. I can’t shake off this feeling, Ash. It’s like... It’s like we’re about to walk into a fucked-up situation.”

He pressed his chin on top of my head, wrapping his arms around me, understanding even without words spoken that I needed this.

My eyes were frozen on the ten SUVs lining the front driveway, with men in tactical uniforms running around, filling the vehicles with supplies. Casimir was right there as well, his arms moving animatedly, barking orders, and making them run even faster.

In and out, they went through the house, and before I knew it, they were ready to leave.

Casimir looked up just as he stopped next to his car, his eyes finding mine, and some sort of mutual understanding passed between us. We didn’t have time to talk about things, not properly. Since we came here last night, well, since he came into the massive room that looked more like a ballroom than anything else, we only talked about the plan, about the fact thatone of his teams would check the surrounding forest to make sure that none of Judah’s mercenaries were there, and the rest of the teams would surround the church.

But all those words were cold, detached, both of us lost in the job that needed to be done, and we didn’t have time to talk. I didn’t have time to tell him that he should be careful. I didn’t have time to thank him for doing this.

“Casimir is going to be okay,” Ash said.

“I know,” I lied, but maybe if I said it enough times out loud, I would be able to convince myself that everything would be okay. I would be able to create an illusion that today wouldn’t be a bad day. I would be able to hold on to that hope that by sunset tonight, Dylan would be back with us, and we would laugh about everything that had happened because Judah would be behind bars and Danny would hopefully be dead.

“You didn’t eat,” he added, probably trying to preoccupy my mind with something else, especially because the cars were slowly moving from the driveway, raising dust in their wake. The metal gate opened for them, and all ten pushed through, leaving us behind.

Leaving me behind with this heaviness in my gut.

“I’m not really hungry,” I told him, turning in his arms and pressing my cheek to his chest. His heart beat steadily, distracting me from the fact that we still had a million uncertainties and that nothing was set in stone. “I think I’m going to go outside and walk for a bit.”

“Do you want some company?”

“No, I... I think I need to be alone.”

“Sky—”

“It’s not a bad thing.” I looked up at him, keeping my hands on his waist. “I just need to think and clear my mind. I’ll join you for lunch, okay?” What I couldn’t say out loud was that I hoped by lunchtime they would be back. I hoped that in just a couple ofhours I’d be able to see Kane’s and Rowan’s faces, and I would be able to hug them, to tell them how sorry I was for being such a shitty friend.

I would tell them that I should’ve been here, that I shouldn’t have left them behind. I would apologize to Kane for destroying his entire life, and I would see him then. Dylan. Walking toward us because Ash would be there with me as well.

We would walk into the sunset together and live fucking happily ever after.

“Okay,” Ash simply said, not pushing to be with me, and my love for him grew a couple of inches just for the sole fact that he wasn’t pushing. He knew when to push, but he also knew when to let me be alone, which was something I didn’t know I would appreciate until now. “I’m gonna go and get something to eat. I didn’t want to take any space in the kitchen when the crew was eating.”

“You mean…” I started laughing. “You didn’t want to get your ass beaten if one of them was cranky before their morning coffee.”

“Have you seen the size of those guys?” he exclaimed, making me laugh even harder. “I swear, the Scottish dude that came in had thighs the size of tree trunks. He looked mean.”

“He has a scar on his face, that doesn’t make him look mean.”

“Babe,” he drawled. “He looked at me as if he wanted to wipe the floor with me. Then I heard the other guy silently push a cup of coffee toward the giant, and boom, he started talking.”

“Oh, Ash.” Tears were now welling in my eyes from the laughter. “You can’t be serious.”

“But I am.” He laughed alongside. “So, instead of waiting around for them to come back, I’m gonna go and eat now.”

“Okay,” I mumbled, pressing my lips to his jaw. “Could you get me a coffee once you’re done, please? We can maybe sit down and just drink something on the back patio?”

His eyes misted, emotions taking over, and then he was hugging me, making it almost impossible to breathe. “I’ll make you a thousand coffees if you’re gonna keep smiling like that.”

“W-what?”

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