“Thanks,” I mutter under my quaking breath. He gives me another grim smile and leaves me to my impending doom. I take a minute to get myself together, but the two hard knocks I intended to plant on the door are just as weak as I’m feeling.
“Come in,” I hear a man announce on the other side of the door.
I open it slowly and step inside, looking at the floor instead of the man I thirst to put my eyes on. I pinch my palms with my nails, raising the courage I need, and lift my head up to see a blond man almost as big and imposing as the one that brought me to his door. He’s sitting on a black leather couch, pinching the crown of his nose, and looking worse for wear. In his white dress shirt and black slacks, he looks far too sophisticated and handsome to be the one the Outfit turns to when it has enemies that need to be eliminated.
“I’m only going to ask this once, and I expect the truth out of you. Where did you find this bracelet?” Dominic growls, as he carefully traces each silver bead with tenderness, not once looking up at the girl he gave such a thoughtful gift to.
His roguish blond beard covers most of his angelic features, as do the small scars that weren’t there before, but I would have recognized my blue-eyed angel any day. My broken insides sing just by standing here, looking at the frown on his face growing wider as each second passes without me giving him a reply.
“You gave it to me on my eighteenth birthday,” I whisper, and his bowed head jerks up to cast his first sight on me. The corner of my mouth twitches when I see him pinch his wrist, to make sure he’s not hallucinating.
“Red?” he asks, his eyes wide in disbelief.
“Blondie, apparently,” I try to joke, but it falls flat on the hardwood floor.
He rises from his perched position and takes two steps in my direction, eating up most of the distance between us with those long strides.
“Red? Is it really you?” he questions again, his ocean-blue eyes resembling a perfect storm of tumultuous feelings.
“Hi, Dominic,” I whisper, my own greedy eyes taking in every large inch of him. I left him a boy, only to return to a marked, cut-up man.
“Jesus! Thank fuck!” he wails and takes me into his arms with such force it almost takes the wind out of me.
His hold is so tight, so warm and comforting, yet I feel myself trembling in his hold.
“Jesus, Red. I missed you so much,” he whispers in my ear, his fast heartbeat in symphony with my own. “So fucking much!”
And it’s in my angel’s embrace that I finally let myself shed tears for our lost youth.
For our lost love.
It’s in my protector’s arms that I shatter.
SEVEN
Dominic
“I thought you were fucking dead, Selene. Dead! Tell me I’m not losing my mind? Tell me it’s really you?” I beg as she holds onto my waist with such fervor, her silent tears inundating my chest, making it all the more difficult to keep my frail emotions at bay.
“It’s me, Dom. It’s really me,” she hiccups between tears and my own start to blind me from this glorious sight.
“Fuck!” I growl, holding her close, placing my head in the crook of her neck, savoring her scent.
I tried not to believe in the lies we told ourselves. That somehow The Butcher had gotten to her without our knowledge and had her killed before we could intervene. I never believed it, but as the years passed, I must have begun to, because what other option was there? That my girl left us all in the dead of night to live blissfully, not giving another thought to us or our pain? Death was cold comfort in comparison with such cruelty.
But here she is—broken and in my arms at last. Her sweet breath fans my cheek, and a burning shiver dances up my spine. She threads her fingers through my short, dark-blond hair and I relish each tender pull.
“You cut your hair.”
“Hmm. Let’s not start with the hair, babe. Or I’ll have some words of my own about the monstrosity you’ve done to yours,” I taunt, getting up and close to her new golden locks and taking in the familiar, vanilla aroma her naturally copper hair always held.
“Touché.” She chuckles between tears.
I lift her up from the ground, twirling my girl around the usually sullen room, like a love-struck fool.
“Damn, I missed you, babe.”
“Me too. So much,” she whispers in my ear, never once letting me go.
I wish I could freeze this moment and keep us both locked in it for eternity. How unkind this life has been; for me to have spent a single day without her in my arms; to have trudged on each day where her touch was absent from it. A malicious life forced on me, by the very one I can’t let go of now.
I place her back on to her feet, and put my finger under her chin, lifting her face so I can take in every change and still familiar feature she holds. My eyes wander all over her, memorizing each inch and comparing them to the image I have held dearly in my mind and tattooed to my heart.
“You’re even more beautiful,” I pledge, one hand on her curvier hip and the other on the nape of her long neck.
“It’s your eyes that fool you,” she falters, revealing that the damage she created also left her with scars where sight can’t reach.
“Nah, Red. It’s my heart. Always has been,” I declare sadly, finally breaking away from her and leading her to sit next to me on my office couch.
There is much I intend to say, and I’d rather have Selene off her feet for the long conversation to come. But if I’m honest with myself, I would gladly sit silently by her side, content in neither of us having to utter a word. Rehashing the past will only take the shine off this moment. Unfortunately, protectiveness speaks louder than my will to keep us in this enchanted limbo.
“It was risky, you coming here like this, Red. Someone might have seen you,” I explain, keeping her delicate hands in mine, perfectly satisfied with just stroking her soft skin for the time being.
“I know that,” she mumbles, leaning her head on my shoulder and allowing me to be as close as possible to the only girl I have ever loved. But my concern for her safety continues to take precedence to any loving caress I can offer.
“If your father gets wind of you being here, then what everyone in Chicago believes he’s done to you, he’ll make it a reality.”
“You thought my father killed me?” She questions, wide-eyed in puzzlement.
“We searched for you for two years straight. We searched high and low, Selene, and we couldn’t find a trace of you. After a couple of years, Big Sal ordered us back home and told the capos their services were better used to serve the syndicate needs on the street, not going after a spoiled principessa who was foolish enough to go against our code. But behind closed doors, he confessed to us a different reason as to why he called off the search. He told us that your father must have uncovered where you were and got to you before we could save you. It was the only possible explanation for an eighteen-year-old girl vanishing into thin air when she had never even been out in the real world before.”