Page 103 of When We Fall: Part Two
“I know it seems like the end of the world, but I promise it’s not. Don’t think such things. I was there once. It’s an awful place to be. If you find yourself going there, call me. I’ll come to you.” He crinkled his brows as he stared at me. “If you died, it would kill Enzo and Cole. If you love them, you stay.”
“Do you regret trying…?”
He gave me a sad smile. “Some days I do. But I mostly don’t, and that’s only because it made Drake bring her back to us. It brought my family back together. Had it not, it wouldn’t have mattered because I wouldn’t have been around to feel any of it.” He licked his lips. “That’s not you, Rosalie. Fox and Ethan are out there, and they’re coming home to you. Believe it, OK?”
I nodded, a tear trickling down my cheek.
He reached out and swiped it away without another word before going back to brushing my hair.
Neither of us said anything while he worked. When he was done, he placed my brush back into my bathroom and left the room.
He was a man of few words, which I appreciated in these moments, but I also enjoyed his company since I felt so lonely. He was the only one I knew who had been through anything close to this.
I was surprised when he came back into my room a moment later, holding a box of pizza and a couple of bottles of water.
“Put on your favorite movie,” Dominic said gruffly, opening the box to show me the contents. “Get a slice.”
“I’m not?—”
“I will baby bird you this shit, Rosalie. Don’t test me,” he said without blinking an eye. “That means I’ll chew this shit up and hold you down and spit it into your damn mouth. Get a piece. You’re eating.”
I winced and took a piece out of the box, grateful it was my favorite kind.
He put the box on my bedside table and helped me slide back into bed. Carefully, he tucked me in before grabbing the box of pizza and crawling onto the mattress. He placed the box of pizza between us before looking over at me pointedly.
Quickly, I bit into the pizza and chewed. Dominic De Santis was nice, but he also scared me. I had no doubts he really would hold me down and spit into my mouth.
“What movie?” Dominic asked.
“You pick,” I mumbled.
“No, you pick,” he said. “You won’t like shit I watch.”
“What do you watch?”
He shrugged as he ate. “I’m into educational videos. Shit like documentaries and stuff.”
“Really?” I widened my eyes at him. “Me too.”
He actually smiled. “Well, then, how about three hours on how the Hoover Dam was built?”
I nodded.
“Perfect. I have just the program for you.”
And that was it.
We settled in and learned about a dam while eating vegetable pizza and drinking bottles of water.
It was the best night I’d had in a month.
THIRTY
COLE
Sometime between the engagement party and last Wednesday, I’d finally lost my mind.
I knew this because I’d killed more people in that amount of time than I’d had sex in my life. That was saying something.
