Page 57 of A Seed Of Peril

He was quite the actor.

“Lilith, what’s going on?” Bianca asked, keeping Katrina hidden behind her, speaking in that concerned, worried way mothers did.

“I told her about the trip,” Dominic admitted, sounding close but not close enough to be within arm’s reach.

Shaking and sniveling, I stood frozen, trailing my eyes over everyone, feeling cheated and hurt. Cheated out of a goodbye.What if tonight was the last time I saw them?They planned to up and leave without so much as a peep. I could’ve woken up tomorrow to an emptier home. To the man I loved miles away.

“We’re just scopin’ out the bastard,” Dino said. “We’re comin’ back.”

I stared at him for a couple of beats, my lip quivering, my vision blurred by tears. I wanted to be angry. I wanted to fly off the handle and give everyone a piece of my mind… But I didn’t have it in me.

So, I ran to my bedroom and slammed the door.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Stubbornness wasan unfortunate trait of mine. Well, in situations like this. Holding a grudge was another. I hadn’t spoken to anyone since breaking down over the news, and while Dominic was in our stupidly large walk-in closet changing into a suit and packing his bag, I lay in bed, silently crying into the pillow, still pissed that he was leaving, debating whether or not to try one last time to convince him to stay.

He would’ve only been a few hours away in New York, but anything could’ve happened on this trip. I knew Dominic was able to handle his own, especially with any wannabe gangsters he might’ve encountered or the occasional tweaker, but Nico Nasuti belonged to a dangerous family before he was forced to survive on his own. Nico could’ve easily whipped up his own family, so to speak, and brought into it with him everything Vincent DiSanti knew and hammered into his mens’ psyche’s. Nico already found patsies to stalk and attack us on his behalf.

Did any other DiSanti members survive? If so, did Nico recruit them, too?Dominic was readying to walk himself into a dark, gritty, volatile wolf’s den, and it angered and scared the fucking shit out of me all at once.

Dominic reentered the bedroom, closing the closet door. His eyes skimmed over my face as he set his bag down on the bench at the foot of the bed. After a moment, he cautiously approached me, bending over to sweep the stray hairs from my face with his fingertips. My eyes were closed the entire time, but I still shivered when his lips brushed my forehead.

“If we finish early, I’ll notify you. You have everything you need while I’m gone.” He put his hand on my belly. “If an emergency arises, I’ll make it back here as fast as I can.” He removed his hand from my belly and touched my hand that wasn’t under my cheek, sweeping up and down my thumb with his finger. His warm breath fanned my face. “Look at me.” It wasn’t a command but a gentle request.

I opened my eyes, immediately overcome with fresh tears.

“I love you,Bellissima.”

“D-Don’t go,” I choked out.

He kissed my face. “I have to.”

Life felt unsafe the moment I lost his touch. His scent. Those magnificent blue eyes.

“No,” I whined as he picked up his bag.

I was afraid to tell him I loved him for fear it would be our last exchange, and when I heard the bedroom door open and close, I flung the sheets and comforter off me and got out of bed as fast as I could, rushing toward the door. The door slammed against the wall as I yanked it open to rush into the foyer, the love of my life a blurred figure feet away from the front doors.

“I love you,” I whispered, squeezing out a stream of tears. The click of the latch of the double doors was loud.

Me and my stupid fucking stubbornness.

It was cold. Desolate without him. Without any of them. Hands together in front of me, I mindlessly wandered further into the foyer. Hopefully, he heard me tell him I loved him. He had to have. Vampires had scarily excellent hearing.

The walls closed in around me. The air was suffocating. My stomach twisted, and my heart raced. I opened my mouth to speak but closed it, repeating the motion as I stood under the wide, dulled strip of moonlight bleeding through the windows upstairs.

Rules were in place that I couldn’t call him unless it was an emergency, and the call had to be via Sonny or Lucas. They had disposable, untraceable phones for this assignment.

I couldn’t text.

I couldn’t call.

He was out of reach. It was just me, myself, and my guilt.

Dominic was more than capable of stalking and kidnapping Nico. He was bound to return from any mission. He knew how to fight. How to stay alive. Too much mattered here at home; he wasn’t going anywhere. I always underestimated him, secretly knowing the truth and secretly holding onto my act of my naivety to help fuel me to fight for his change of mind.

Knowing he was capable didn’t make the assignments easier to bear.

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