Page 95 of The Club

Again, distantly, I hear Dominic’s muffled shout as I’m hauled into a kneeling position, sitting back on my heels. The guard is behind me to my left, his gun still at my head.

And behind me to the right, I hear whispered words. “Would you be a good boy if I let him live?”

“Y-yes.”

“How can I believe you if you don’t prove it?”

I hear his buckle. I hear his zipper.

Distantly, I also hear Dominic scream, but that feels like it’s a thousand miles away.

I’m shaking so hard that I can barely stay upright. But I’ll do this. I’ve done it a thousand times.

Across the pool, Dominic is thrashing in his bonds. His chair scrapes and shifts. The guard behind him tries to grab the chair, but one leg of it jumps over the edge of the pool. The chair falls. Bound to it, Dominic crashes through the ice into the water.

I hear bullets cracking around me as I burst up. I see, vaguely, how much taller I am than the Collector. It’s bizarre to me. It tips reality upside down.

But none of that matters. Even my glimpse of him is fleeting and unimportant. I dive into the pool, where the shattered ice bobs on the broken surface.

The icy shock tears through my body as I swim desperately in the direction I saw Dominic fall. It’s so dark I can’t see a thing.

I hunt blindly, frantic, until my kicking foot strikes something solid. I scrabble at my boot for my knife then feel around for the bonds, slicing through duct tape until Dominic can yank the gag from his mouth and kick free of the chair.

We both break the surface with a gasp. I grab at him and try to haul him to the edge. He’s doing the same to me.

Clumsy with cold, I get my elbows up on the ledge and scramble. Dominic isn’t quite out, so I grab his belt and haul him up. He falls into me, squashing me flat on the concrete.

Dominic doesn’t get up. He keeps me pinned me there, covering me with his body as he looks around for threats. I am beyond thinking that clearly, but the threats must be gone because he shouts in my face, “Goddamn it, Rafael! Why the hell did you—”

I shut him up by crushing my mouth against his. I have to know that he’s here, that he’s alive, that I’m alive—that this is actually real.

Dominic doesn’t so much yield as attack me in return, biting and dominating and practically devouring me. The relief is indescribable. He drives away the horror. He puts the past back in its place.

I wrap my arms around him. He hauls me up and rocks back onto his ass. I’m in his lap, my legs sticking out behind him. We’re soaked and freezing, but we stay there. Right now,I wouldn’t care if we froze on the spot. I don’t want to move. I don’t want him apart from me.

“Jesus Christ, get up, both of you. Get inside. You’re freezing.”

I ignore Noah as he approaches. I ignore the distant sound of a car crash then gunfire.

I won’t let go.

When Noah tugs at me, Dominic growls. Noah smacks the back of Dominic’s head then smacks mine.

“Up! Now!”

We do what he says. We let him lead us to safety. Like he always does.

TWENTY-NINE

Dominic

“Good,” Noah says into his phone as I disable the security system and somehow get my numb hand to open the front door. “Thank god. Yeah, they’re both okay.”

I’m not so sure about that. When I hit the switch and the chandelier floods the entryway with light, I see Rafael’s pale skin and soaked clothes and how he’s shivering. I see his haunted eyes.

I’m furious with him. I want to scream at him. I want to shake him and hit him and throw him on the floor. But mostly, I want to get him warm.

Rafael asks, “The others? Are they …”

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