Page 33 of Murder & Mayhem
I was a little confused and a whole lot intrigued as I tried to casually watch him out of the corner of my eye. And yeah, maybe from this angle, I had the perfect view of his ass, which looked thick and round and all kinds of sexy in those pants. My thoughts began to drift away from whatever he was doing and completely focused on that.
I didn’t get it together quickly enough for Dominic not to notice. He grinned wolfishly. “Like what you see, boy?”
I scoffed, cheeks probably tomato red. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Dominic licked his lips. “Mm-hmm. For the record, you can look at my ass whenever you want. It’s a pretty nice one.”
Pretty nice was an understatement. His ass was a work of art, but there was no way in hell I was telling him that. “Whatever. Being conceited is unbecoming.”
Dominic stepped close, crowding me in. My heart began racing, but it wasn’t the usual fear I felt. I looked up at him, swallowing rapidly. Dominic was a pure predator as he stared me down. “It’s not conceited if I can back it up.”
I didn’t know the validity of that statement, but it wasn’t like he was wrong. I wished I had something witty or flirty to say back, but Dominic being this close had officially shut me down. He overpowered everything and stole every single one of my brain cells with one glance.
We were staring at each other, waiting for one of us to fold, and knowing damn well it was going to be me. I cleared my throat and looked past him at the car. “What was that all about?” Yes, I was changing the subject.Don’t judge me.
Dominic’s lip ticked but he otherwise let it go. “I wanted to make sure there were no bugs or tracking devices. Like I said, there’s no reason for us to be connected, and Ari hasn’t found anything, but it never hurts to be careful.”
I stared at the vehicle like I expected to see something, but it looked perfectly normal to me. “I didn’t find anything,” he clarified as I continued to squint at the thing.
Embarrassed, I grumped under my breath and headed to the passenger door. I hadn’t even reached for it yet when Dominic was there, opening it for me. I gave him a weird look but still climbed in. He walked around the other side with a goofy smile on his face. Once we were buckled, he drove out of the parking garage without turning on the GPS.
I tried to watch Dominic discreetly from the corner of my eye. He was focused on the road mostly, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and humming along to the music . . . which was fucking questionable.
“What is this crap?” I gestured toward the radio. He had put on some playlist that was so slow and depressing, I wanted to rip my hair out.
He glanced at me. “What are you talking about? My music?”
“Yeah, what kind of depressing millennial crap is this?”
Dominic snorted. “Oh, I’m sorry that my early 2000s alt rock isn’t up to your superior Gen Z ears. Also, I’m barely a millennial. I’m on the cusp.”
I rolled my eyes. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Dominic huffed, pretending to be annoyed, but I could see the hint of a smile he couldn’t hide and the amusement in his eyes. He handed me his phone. “Fine then. Pick something.”
I unsuccessfully tried to hide the giddy feeling I had when Dominic casually handed me his phone. It was hard to explain. Most of my life, Joey had done his best to keep us away from technology he didn’t have full control over. No phones, computers, tablets, whatever. We hadn’t even been allowed to watch streaming services, and the couple of times he’d let us watch TV, it had been on a laptop with no internet access and whatever old DVD he’d handed us.
I had some experience, obviously. I had gone to school on and off, and it was pretty much impossible to keep a kid completely away from technology. But either way, I’d never had true freedom with that kind of thing until I’d finally gotten us away. I remembered vividly how overwhelmed Bailey and I had been when I’d gotten us some cheap burner phones from Walmart. It had been a lot.
I’d gotten used to it for the most part. But still, I always expected other people to restrict me, like they were afraid I would try to get help. It had taken me months to use the computer at work without being paranoid that my boss would catch me and punish me for doing something I shouldn’t be.Even though using it was part of my job. So, while the gesture meant less than nothing to Dominic, it meant a lot to me. It was a level of trust no one had ever given me before. Especially coming from someone like Dominic, who was risking something by trusting anyone with his phone.
I pulled up his Spotify and began scrolling. Dominic didn’t rush me or question a thing. It took some time—I wasn’t completely familiar with the app—but eventually I found the perfect playlist. Music was another thing I was starting to discover, and I was learning that I had . . . opinions. The first time Bailey and I had ever had a fight had been over the musical talent of Post Malone. Afterward, we’d both lay on the rickety futon, holding each other and crying. It had felt so fucking normal to fight about something so trivial, to even have the headspace, we’d been hot messes after.
I was grinning like a fool, feeling lighter than I had in ages when what I’d picked started playing. Dominic laughed, and fuck, it was perfect. I wanted to take a picture of this moment and keep it in my mind forever. This. This was how I wanted to remember Dominic. When our time together ended and he moved on with his life and left Bailey and me to ours, I would remember us driving in his SUV, his dark sunglasses on, and the look on his face as he teased me mercilessly about “this generation.”
CHAPTER 13
DOMINIC
The Wraiths had bases all throughout the city, and even beyond. While this chapter was on the smaller side, the organization was one of the bigger crime syndicates in the nation. A mesh between an MC, a gang, and the mafia, it had its fingers in all pots and connections all through the criminal underbelly. It meant even their lesser chapters had the resources for multiple headquarters and safe houses, as well as business organizations, both legal and illegal. Flame, the leader of this chapter of the Wraiths, was mostly concerned with prostitution and drugs. He liked running under the radar and for the most part kept his crew out of weapons and human trafficking. Not to say he didn’t straddle the line. What we believed he wanted with Bailey was to groom him to be one of his loyal men. That was right up his alley. But international human trafficking? It was something he stayed the fuck away from.
We met Gideon right outside the property lines. The place was a dump, literally. It was an actual garbage dump. Therewas a large fence surrounding the property, but there was a gate that allowed outside traffic in. It wasn’t open to the public per se, but regular civilians could come to drop stuff off, and towing companies and other autobody shops came to dump cars all the time.
We planned to just drive in. I was sure the Wraiths had cameras on us, but sneaking into a property like this wasn’t feasible.
Gideon was leaning against his Harley, playing on his phone when we pulled up. He gave me an upnod, and then his eyes locked in on Jamie as he climbed out of the SUV, his bright blue eyes already gleaming with mischief.
I didn’t even get a chance to warn the fucker off before he was running his mouth. “So, this is the pretty boy who has my brother’s dick in a chokehold.”
