Page 45 of Murder & Mayhem
“Yes. Luca and one of his partners, Wes, are former SEALs. They all have some kind of training, and this is literally the shit that they do. As much as I hate to admit it, their new hacker, Diego, is better than I am. Trust me when I say your brother is in safe hands. If anyone can get him out, it’s them.”
That made me feel better. My brain was a contradictory mess, which honestly wasn’t new. It could never fucking settle on anything. Most of me understood I had to trust these people because I couldn’t do it on my own. But there was still that voice in my head screaming to run far and fast. That I’d never be able to pay all these people back and that maybe both Bailey and I would be better dead than wracking up these debts. I shut down that voice fucking quick. I wouldn’t say I’d never considered ending it all, but then Bailey would grab my hand and offer me a small smile, and I would remember I had something worth fighting for. And Bailey? He had his whole fucking life. I would do everything, sacrifice anything to make sure he had a chance to live that.
Someone squeezed my knee, and I smiled up at Dominic. Then, there was this man. I had no idea what to make of him or the feelings that were brewing for him. The stuff he was talking about, the Daddy stuff, it intrigued me more than I could ever have expected. I was a little scared, but something about it sounded so right, and if I was exploring it with Dominic, I knew I would be safe. I had no right even thinking about something like that in this situation, but maybe it was okay to have a selfish thought now and then. I wouldn’t act on it, not till Bailey was found and safe, but thinking about it, fantasizing, well, there was nothing wrong with that, right?
I turned to the phone so I could look at Ari. He had his head down, doing whatever he was doing, but I knew he was listening. “So, what do we do now?”
“Unfortunately, we have to wait till we hear from Luca or for Ari to get more information. Then we can make a plan,” Dominic told me, annoyed.
That sucked, but I got it. I blew out a breath, slumping in my chair. I still felt so tired, and I didn’t get it. I hadn’t done anything, yet I was so fucking exhausted. I yawned.
“Let’s finish up here, and then we can get some rest,” Dominic inserted. “There’s nothing else we can do anyway.”
I shrugged, having no energy to do anything else but secretly relieved Dominic had suggested it. Hopefully, he was willing to cuddle in the bed with me. That sounded really nice.
The four of us talked a little longer before Ari hung up, promising to call us if he had any other news.
After that, Gideon left to run some errands and get us food. I was worried that he would get followed again, but the brothers seemed confident that the Wraiths had lost our trail and had likely turned back home. Flame was known to be cautious and was willing to admit when he was in over his head. It always made me wonder how much he’d known about Joey’s side business. He never got involved with kids, and I saw him firsthand deal with Wraiths who’d been caught messing with them. But I guessed since Joey had always been on the outskirts, he either hadn’t tracked what he’d done or hadn’t wanted to get involved.
Dominic stood with a groan and an exaggerated stretch. “Let’s go up to the room for a while. I think we can both use some rest.”
I accepted his outstretched hand, loving how well mine fit in it, and let him lead me out of the room.
Since there was finally a lull, it seemed like the perfect time to get some of the questions I had answered.
“So, how do you guys know all this shit? You know, the killing and the hacking? Weren’t you foster care kids?” Generally, kids like that didn’t get access to the kinds of things that would lead to the skills they had, especially Ari.
“We were,” Dominic started. “After we killed our foster dad, we were on the run for a while. Living on the streets and squatting in abandoned buildings. We worked odd jobs under the table, saving up until we could get an apartment. Ari wasworking at this restaurant, washing dishes. But the owner accidentally downloaded a virus on his computer and it shut down everything in the fucking place, leaving them frantic. Ari just walked right up to it and fixed it. The owner was so impressed, he paid for Ari to take all these IT classes and helped him get a much better job.
“He kept working odd jobs too,” Dominic continued. “But then they were all tech related. It didn’t take long for him to be able to transfer the skills he got from the IT courses into other things, and he became skilled at hacking and cybersecurity. One of the people he worked for ran an underground fighting ring. Gid and I would always tag along with Ari to make sure he was safe. I don’t think his clients liked it, but we didn’t give a fuck. He didn’t go alone, period,” Dominic asserted, sounding firm, like he was right back in the past while they’d struggled to get control of their lives. “So, we’d often watch the fights while Ari did whatever the fuck he did. One of the trainers took one look at us and asked if we wanted to learn to fight for real. We said yes.”
Dominic laughed. He led me to the stairs, and we started up them. “Ari was so fucking pissed. But it ended up being a good skill to have, once we started our side business.”
This time, it was my turn to laugh. It was hysterical that they considered murder a side business.
“Gid and I fought for a while. We were fucking good too. A lot of our initial winnings, we used to get started in this life. It paid for both Gideon and me to go to college after we got our GEDs. We got our first car with it too. But once the whole murder thing started, we both agreed to stop. It was too risky. We needed to keep a low profile and stay out of the cops’ radar. With everything we’ve managed up to this point, it’s in our best interests to keep it thatway. We still train regularly, often with Adam, the guy who trained us as kids,” he added almost as an afterthought.
That explained a lot. Dominic brought us down a hallway and opened a door that led to a nice bedroom that was decorated very similarly to the one at his apartment.
Dominic’s eyes widened and he halted. “This is my room. I don’t know why I brought you here. I mean, I do. But I should’ve asked. If you want your own, there are two guest rooms here. I can set one up for you. I shouldn’t have assumed you wanted to share a room with me—” He was rambling, and it was fucking adorable. It was kind of nice not to be the hot mess for a change.
“Dominic?”
He stopped and looked at me with a sheepish expression on his face. “Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him, hopefully erasing the worry right out of his brain.
CHAPTER 17
DOMINIC
Jamie’s lips were soft and sweet against mine. If his plan was to short-circuit my brain so I stopped stressing, it had worked. I was on autopilot after that. Fingers threading into Jamie’s hair, I pushed him against the doorframe and crowded him.
His pupils dilated as he watched me with hungry eyes. I brushed my lips against his, licking across his bottom one. They parted, welcoming me in.
Before I lost control, I pulled away and looked Jamie right in the eyes.
