Page 84 of Gemini
The place was dark, save for a light on in the kitchen and the TV in the living room. We made our way over to a screendoor at the back.
On a deck overlooking the river was a patio table with a laptop, some files, and a bottle of beer on top. Beside the table, Dom sat in a wheelchair, leg up in a cast, a joint in his hand. He looked over at us, a bandage across one side of his brow, one arm still wrapped.
I went to him first and put my arm around him in greeting before signing, “Hey.”
“Hey,” he signed back, smiling. Leslie came up beside him and gripped his shoulder.
“How’s the man of steel?”
That was Leslie’s nickname for Dom ever since he woke up. Dom only had one surgery and the doctors were astounded at how fast he was healing. The surgeon had said it was almost supernatural, since the way the car crashed Dom should technically be in pieces.
Dom smirked as he took his phone and typed. “Less like I got hit by a brick wall every day.”
Even with the knowledge of their unique abilities, I was also stunned by his fast recovery. A regular person would have still been bedridden. Not Dom.
“I was certain he’d make it through, the question was when,” Andrea had said the day he woke. “They’ll never go down easily.”
I’d never wish for them to go through what they did to obtain that sort of strength. But I was grateful they had it, relieved to know that whatever fights they got into, they would always pull through.
Leslie patted Dom on the back, making him flinch. “I knew you could do it, Dommy.”
Dom’s smile tightened. “I might be disabled for now,” he signed. “But I can still choke you out if I have to, brother.”
Leslie swiped Dom’s joint and took a hit, blowing the smoke upward as he smirked. “I’d love to see you try.”
The way they talked made my head spin, Leslie taunting his brother and Dom never being fazed in the slightest.
“How’d it feel to get obliterated in a Mustang?” Leslie had said the day after Dom woke.
“I don’t know,” Dom texted. “How did it feel to eat shit on your bike?”
“Felt like Satan's piss burning up my back.”
They both laughed, and I stood there shaking my head. I won’t even dwell on the gruesome details Leslie had told Dom about what he’d done to Jasper and his gang.
The only thing that kept me from scolding Leslie was the day Dom was to be released from the hospital. I’d gone downstairs to grab a drink from a vending machine, giving them a moment. When I came back, I heard them talking from the hall. When I peeked inside, I noticed Leslie gripping Dom’s hand as he spoke. Whatever was said, they both looked on the edge of tears before Leslie pulled Dom into a hug and Dom wrapped his good arm tightly around him. I remember watching and feeling so relieved as they held each other. That moment, and the days I stayed with him, helped Leslie to be himself again.
“We should be able to bring you back to the clubhouse soon, don’t you think?” I said, pulling up a chair.
“Probably,” Dom signed. “I told Kris I’d stay here for another couple days.”
Kris’s place was well away from the city, enough to keep Dom hidden until everything settled down. Leslie had caught the Serpent in their den before he’d come to save me. He called an emergency meeting, forcing every member to be locked inside the clubhouse. Then he had Leo, who had been taking hacking lessons from Dom, go through every phone to find anything incriminating. Leslie told the group that, once he found theculprit, he was going to gut them and feed them to his cats. It was bait really, seeing as it would have taken forever to actually go through the phones. It only took an hour for Leslie’s psychotic act to scare one member enough to confess. Ricardo.
Surprisingly, Leslie let him live—with a few scars to show for it—to make him spill everything he knew and where the Serpents might have taken me. Leo pulled up addresses, then cameras nearby, and found the lodge, the only place the black SUV had been coming in and out of for several weeks. It didn’t take long for Leslie to set his plans in motion.
Dom remembered something and typed quickly before showing Leslie. Taking another hit, Leslie gave him back his joint. “Perfect.”
“What is?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” He went back into the house. I watched him go, frowning in confusion before turning back to Dom who only had a sort of proud look on his face.
Before I could grill him, Leslie returned with his hands behind his back. “Close your eyes, sweetums.”
My smile thinned at the nickname, but I did as he asked, sitting straight and keeping my eyes shut. A moment later, I felt something heavy and warm slip over my shoulders. I opened my eyes and looked down to see a leather jacket.
“We meant to give you one when we returned from interrogating Jasper,” Leslie explained. “But then everything went down and that got put on the backburner. We decided we’d have one customized just for you.”
I took off the jacket and flipped it to the back. It was like the one the others had in Gemini with the twin knives. Only mine had an extra knife between the blades, and at the top in engraved letters said “Queen B”.
