Page 49 of Text Me, Take Me

“Oh my God, Dom.”

“Wait, Keepsake. I didn’t hurt him. I’m not explaining this very well.”

“Then you need to make it make sense,” she grits out.

I want to take her hands, but I don’t allow myself. Affection radiates from her, and I know that touching would make it more difficult for her to think clearly. Just like it’s difficult for me to think around her.

“I questioned him – I didn’t hurt him – and he led us to the cave where The Vultures were hiding. They had off-road bikes, fled,and I shot out the tires to one of their bikes. The man fell and hit his head. His name was Justin. OrJustice. That’s what he liked to be called, apparently.”

Her expression changes, fear flickering in her beautiful honey colored eyes.

“You knew him?”

She nods, wrapping her arms across her midriff. “He wasn’t a good man. That’s not a revelation withThe Vultures, but he was one of the terrible ones.”

“They left some women behind, Crystal and a few others. One of them kicked his corpse and called him a rapist.”

She shivers. “That tracks with what I’ve heard. Are you okay?”

I wave a hand. “Don’t worry about me.”

“But I worry about you, Dom.” She lowers her voice. “I know I shouldn’t, but I do. What was ‘the kids’ name?”

“Bobby.”

She shakes her head. “He must’ve joined after I left. What happens to him now?”

“The mob would torture him for information. They’d do sick things – things that I won’t repeat to you. But I turned him over to the cops. I left the mob for a reason. I refuse to be like my father.”

She gasps, her eyebrows shooting up. “Yourfather?”

I grind my teeth. I didn’t mean to share that. “Let’s get some coffee.”

She takes my hand, squeezes it, giving me a meaningful look. Some of the tension flows out of me as I hold her hand as gently as a man like me can. Together, with Meatball trailing after us, we leave her studio and step into the kitchen.

As I make the coffees, she sits on the other side of the obsidian kitchen island.

“My father is the Don of the mob,” I tell her. “From a young age, he tried to groom me for power. But when I was a teenager, I became sick with it all. Sick of the bullying.The crime. Thestinkof it. Mob guys take what they want, just take and take, and don’t give a damn about the consequences.”

I stop, realizing what I’ve just said.

She tilts her head with a knowing smile, but there’s sadness in her expression that threatens to break my heart: a heart I thought was past being broken before I met Evie.

“Now, I’m doing the same.”

She stands, walks around the island, takes my hand and looks up at me with tears glistening in her eyes. “I can’t condone you taking me, Dom. But I can’t ignore the truth, either. I could’ve run today. I carried stepladders to the perimeter walls, and I knew I could make a break for it. But I didn’t. I stayed. Because–and this is hard for me to say–I wanted to. Iwantto.”

She pulls me in for a hug. I hold her tightly, gently smoothing my hand through her hair.

“Maybe we can forget about it for the rest of the night?” she whispers. “For a little while, we can steal this time, make it ours, pretend The Vultures and the mob and none of it exists. Just me, you, and Meatball.”

I clear my throat, shocked by how choked up I’m getting. “I’d like that.”

She looks up at me, seeming as surprised by the emotion in my voice as I am. “Wait here–I forgot your gift.”

CHAPTER 18

EVIE

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