Page 65 of Prince of Malice

“Just shut up and give me your keys.”

The way that they talk and argue is almost childish, sounding like little kidsfighting in some meaningless sibling squabble. They have tried so hard to appear more mature in the past, wanting to make sure people like my dad or Antonio Greco took them seriously, but when it’s just them being brothers, it’s like they’re still children. I have to admit it’s endearing. Growing up, I didn’t have any siblings or close friends my age, and so I never had this kind of dynamic with anyone.

“Fine. Just don’t scratch my car or I’ll call the Grecos on you,” he says, halfway between a joke and an honest threat.

Tossing his keys over, Gianni already walks away from the whole situation and leaves us to it. Dominic rolls his eyes and shakes his head to himself, clearly hating having to put up with his brother, but still doing so anyway.

My family would never.

“Come on.” Dominic ushers me toward the door. “Before you change your mind.”

Dominic drives us both through Montcove, taking the streets at a far more calm andrelaxed pace than I’ve gotten accustomed to over these last few days. Every time I’ve had to go anywhere recently, it has been a race against time, speeding dangerously around street corners and weaving between the other cars on the road to get to whatever emergency had arisen.

Today, we can take things slow, though, actually enjoy the drive and the quiet scenario of the city. Usually, this place seems so hectic, so to just be able to sit back in the passenger seat and let Dominic take control is a nice change of pace.

The passenger window is cracked open slightly, letting the cool breeze blow through it and on my face, soothing the warm aches of my bruises. I take long, deep breaths of the wind into my lungs and hold it in there to settle my stomach.

“You okay?” Dom asks me, glancing across to me briefly.

I take a few moments to answer. “Everything has been a lot recently. It’s just nice to have a moment to take it all in.”

“I get that,” he says slowly, taking a deep breath. “I can’t wait for this all to be over, so then we can just enjoy things for a while.”

“Yeah…” Dominic looks over to me again. “What was that?”

“What was what?” “Luca, I thought we’ve been through enough to not hide things from each other anymore.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I relent. “It’s just something your brother said.”

“Just ignore him. He’s an idiot,” he tries to assure me. “What even was it that he said?”

I wring my hands in my lap, already regretting getting into this conversation.

“Luca?” “It’s just, he called me your boyfriend…”

I know it’s a stupid thing to bring up, considering everything else we’ve been dealing with recently. Some dumb label that Dominic’s brother put on us as a joke means literally nothing. But Dom said it himself that we’ve been through enough together. This last week alone has felt like a trial through fire. Both of us have put our lives on the line to just try and keep the other safe. We’ve risked everything with our families to have a chance at staying together for just a little bit longer. Is it wrong for me to want to know what the hell that makes us?

“Oh, wow…” Dominic says. “I mean, we just told your family about us, and now we’re already on the way to let my dad in on the secret,” I elaborate. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of idea what exactly we are?”

Dominic nods awkwardly, drumming his fingers against the wheel. “Alright…what do you think we are?” he asks with a slight falter in his voice.

Despite being the one to ask the question, I don’t really seem to have an answer. “I mean, we have only been doing…whatever it is we’ve been doing for a few days now, but don’t you think we’ve been through too much together to keep things casual?”

“It has been a real trial-by-fire kind of deal, hasn’t it?” He chuckles slightly.

That’s also not an answer. Neither one of us seems to want to be the one to put a label on our relationship. Neither me nor Dominic is willing to take the risk of being too forward and scaring the other away.

“And it’s not like we can go to my father and tell him that I’ve risked the safety and security of my entire family for some casual fling, can I?”

Dominic shoots a short puff of airthrough his nose as he bobs his head back and smiles. “Right, so you don’t think we’re casual then?” he asks me with his proud smile.

I have to hand it to him; he did get me there. He managed to duck away from having to answer my question and force me to answer it for myself.

“Fine,” I let up. “I really like you. Hell, I love you, Dom; I really do,” I confess. I know we’ve already passed that milestone and admitted our feelings to each other, but that was in the heat of passion. And after we both said it, we both kind of pulled away from talking about it anymore. “So maybe I wouldn’t mind us having a label.”

“Alright, so maybe I wouldn’t mind it either,” he admits. “And maybe I don’t exactly disagree with what my brother said.”

He blushes slightly as he tries to not look me in the eyes and uses the road ahead as an excuse to divert his attention.

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