Page 10 of Murder & Mayhem
Dominic pressed the screen of his phone a few times before turning it toward me. “This guy?” he asked gently without answering my question.
I looked at the picture and was immediately assaulted with memories that were better left buried. That one cold, dead-inside blue eye, the other covered by a patch that had the younger me calling him a pirate in my head. I’d never known his real name. We’d always called him pirate pervert, but there was no doubt that it was him, standing in the gravel lot of one of the shadiest bars in the city, shaking hands with my stepfather. Behind him were two beefy men who also looked familiar, but I couldn’t place why, and between them stood my brother.
The picture was grainy, taken from security footage, but Bailey looked uninjured and was standing of his own accord, staring directly into the camera in the lot. A wave of pride flooded through me. Smart fucking kid.
“I-I know him,” I finally confirmed for Dominic. “But I didn’t know his name. We called him pirate pervert.” I lightly touched my eye so he got the reference.
Something dark flashed on Dominic’s face before he calmed himself. “You got that, Ari?”
Ari must’ve responded because Dominic then said, “Yeah, I’ll see what he knows. We gotta finish up here first. Shut the fuck up, Gid. Seriously, do you have anything intelligent to add?” I felt extremely left out as Dominic laughed at whatever was said.
“Gid?” He had only mentioned an Ari.
“My other brother. Gideon. He’s there too. But for what reason, I have no idea. Not to be helpful, that’s for sure.” He said it lightly, his tone amused and fond, and Gideon must’ve known that because Dominic laughed before saying something else snarky.
They had a strong bond, Dominic and his brothers. I could tell without meeting them. Fuck, I hadn’t even heard them. But it was still obvious that he trusted them implicitly. It was like Bailey and me, and it made that hole in my chest that had been there from the moment I’d realized he was missing grow even wider.
Fingers against my chin had me flinching and jumping away from them, even though they were gentle. My wild eyes fell on Dominic, who met them calmly, hands in front of him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you without permission, but you seemed to get lost in your head again and didn’t hear me.”
My cheeks were probably tomato red with embarrassment. What the fuck was wrong with me that I’d reacted like that over the simplest touch?
“I-it’s okay.”
I focused on Dominic’s chest. He had rolled the sleeves up on his dress shirt and unbuttoned a few of the buttons, exposing dark, soft curls across his pecs. Chest hair usually freaked me out, but not on Dominic, and I stared, too humiliated to look at his face and the pity or annoyance that was probably there.
“It’s really not. No one should touch you without your permission, even if it’s innocent.”
I wanted to laugh at the ridiculous notion. Like I’d ever had a fucking choice? But . . . Dominic seemed so sincere, the words got locked in my throat, and all I could do was give him a shaky nod.
“You were trying to ask me something?” I reminded him, desperate to move on and maybe ease some of the tension that was building between us.
Dominic blinked, like coming out of a haze.
“Right. Ari got a hit on the plate in the security footage, and there’s an address. 774 Oak Plains Rd. Does that sound familiar to you?”
I shook my head. “No. But I never saw where we were going when Joey took us on jobs. So who knows.”
That intense rage flashed through Dominic’s dark eyes again. I couldn’t understand it. I was used to anger being directed at me, and yeah, my heart raced when it looked like he was about to lose control. It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize on reflex. But then his expression softened, making him look almost protective, like maybe he was angry on my behalf? It was practically impossible for me to wrap my mind around that, but nothing else made sense.
Dominic’s nostrils flared and he cocked his head to the side as he tried to figure out how to respond to that. Finally, he managed to reply, “That’s fine. It looks like your brother got in the car with O’Malley, but Ari lost track of them afterwards. CCTV footage in that area is spotty at best.” Yeah, no shit. “I need to finish up with fuckface over there and then we’ll go check out the house. Gideon is gonna do cleanup for us.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you going with me to pirate pervert’s house? Why do you even care?” All the distrust I initially felt came back with a vengeance. I could reason away why Dominic was willing to help me get information about Bailey. What was a little extra torture to a guy breaking in with the intent to commit murder?
Anything more than that had all the warning bells goingoff in my brain. Just him and his brother helping me here was wracking me up a debt I probably couldn’t pay. I couldn’t even imagine what he’d want for more than that. I didn’t care what he said; there would be a price.
Then, there was the abject terror I felt at the idea of leaving here with a stranger. Things that had happened to me in this house had been awful, but nothing compared to the shit that had occurred outside the walls. I would be completely at Dominic’s mercy if I left with him. That might not be rational. This guy had had plenty of opportunities to hurt or kill me already and he hadn’t. But my brain was primed for survival, and those instincts said to stay with the evil I knew. Six months away from my stepfather hadn’t been enough for me to forget everything or quell the suspicions.
“Jamie . . .”
I backed up, my back hitting the doorframe between the living room and kitchen. Fuck, was this all some kind of scheme to get me to trust him, and then he was gonna take me to wherever they had Bailey? Was it even his brother on the line? It could be anyone. I would have no way of knowing, and if I let my guard down, even for a second . . .
Dominic stepped closer. “Don’t!” I screamed. Years of survival instincts and valid paranoia all came slamming into me like a tidal wave. It was time to go. I had a lead on Bailey. More than I probably ever would have gotten from Joey on my own. I’d thought I’d be willing to pay the price for Dominic and his brother’s help, but that was before he’d said he wanted to leave with me. Nothing good ever came from leaving this place with a stranger.
Dominic froze, once again with his hands out in front of him, trying to show me he wouldn’t hurt me. Fuck, how I wanted that to be true. “Jamie, I know you don’t believe me, but I won’t hurt you, sweetheart. My brothers and I, we only hurt people like your stepfather. Not you. Never you.”
