Page 84 of Corrupted Heir (Mafia Kings: Corrupted 1)

And then he was gone, and I was alone in the war room. I tried to draw Vincent’s confidence into myself, but my fingers still trembled as the minutes since Dominic left stretched on. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

***

“Fallon,” a deep voice whispered in my ear.

It felt like I’d only just drifted off.

“Fallon,” the voice whispered again, and this time, warm fingers ghosted across my jaw.

I could remember curling up in the big armchair in our bedroom sometime just before dawn, but even with my eyes closed, I could feel the bright light of morning against my eyelids.

I struggled against sleep and forced them open, and Dominic was there, right in front of me. He was alive. Safe. The vise that had been squeezing my heart let go, and I flew out of the chair, making him stumble back.

“You’re safe,” I breathed, throwing my arms around him.

He grunted but wrapped his arms around my waist. “Of course, I am.”

His voice sounded strained. I leaned away to look at him and gasped.

“Jesus, you look like shit.”

“Grazie,limone,” he said with a wry grin. “I didn’t think I’d be coming home to your sour side.”

Gently, I held his chin to move his face as I inspected it. Someone hadtriedto beat the shit out of him. His left cheekbone, once a glorious defined work of art, was swollen and cut. An angry black and blue contusion marred his perfect jaw, and a long cut down his temple had already begun trying to scab over. It was still new enough that I could clean him up to make sure it didn’t get infected.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that. Do you have a first aid kit somewhere?” I asked.

“In the bathroom.” He pointed toward the ensuite, wincing as he lifted his arm. He was in worse shape than I thought.

When I got back, I zipped the red bag open and laid out the tools. Dominic’s left eye had swollen even more in the last few minutes. It was nearly swollen shut. I’d get a cold compress on it soon, but first, I disinfected the wounds with antiseptic.

“Putting those veterinarian skills to use, huh?” Dominic chuckled but stopped quickly. He must have taken a beating to the ribs as well.

“Now that I think of it, I guess so.” I dabbed around a wound with a warm, damp cloth to clean off the dried blood. “This isn’t much different, is it?”

Once his face was ready to be patched up, I took out a bandage.

He scoffed. “You’re not putting a damn Band-Aid on my face. Absolutely not.”

“You have no choice in the matter,” I said, staring him down.

He laughed then grimaced at the movement.

“Like hell I don’t,” he said then rummaged through the kit with one hand and came up with a bottle of liquid bandage. He smiled triumphantly, though the bruising all over his face kind of mocked his victory.

I stuck out my tongue at him but took the tube and applied it along the shallow four-inch cut. “Satisfied?”

His eyes grazed over me, sparking with heat. “Not really, but I suppose it’ll do for now.” He laughed, but then his expression grew serious. “Thank you.”

He took my hand in his and pressed it against his less-swollen cheek.

I shrugged, trying to ignore the shiver of electricity that rippled through my veins. “A girl’s got to be useful, right?”

He shook his head, still holding my hand against him. “You’re useful just by being you, Fallon. Always remember that.” His voice was low and deep, and his words seemed to rumble pleasantly through my chest. “But you shouldn’t have waited up.”

“I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know what was happening, if you were okay…”

“And I couldn’t stop worrying about you,” he said.

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