Page 83 of Darkest Retribution

Dominic moves, pressing me against the railing and caging me in by placing his hands on either side of me. We should be done kissing—we should definitely stop. But he isn’t making any move to.

And maybe I don’t want to, either.

He runs his tongue over my bottom lip, groaning. When I open my mouth, my tongue meets his, just lightly brushing, and it sends a shiver through me.

“Fuck.” Dominic pulls away, barely, but it’s enough that we’re no longer touching. “That... I didn’t mean for it to get that intense. Sorry.”

“I—same. I don’t know why I did that.”

It felt really good, that’s why.

“Um. Jade?”

“Yeah.”

“Your hands.”

I inhale sharply, tearing them away from where I was gripping his shoulders like he’s my lifeline. “Jesus. Sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I think I should—I should check on Rosie. Make sure she’s doing okay.”

“Right.”

Gently, I push him back, since he’s still caging me in. Once Dom steps out of my way, I rush back down the stairs, too flustered to look back.

Why the hell did I enjoy that so much?

It takes me until later that night, after I’ve comforted Rosie and put her bed, that I realize we completely forgot to look at Jackson to see his reaction.

Chapter nineteen

Dominic

Thenextcoupledaysare a blur.

I have to catch up on admin stuff at Grayson Security, especially since my focus has been split between managing the company and trying to find David. It takes a lot out of me, and I end up working late every night.

Unfortunately, it means I have no time or energy for Jade. Maybe it’s for the best. We’re both struggling to stick to our rules. She doesn’t want to get attached, and I’m not supposed to be, either. Not when she’s made it very clear that we’re nothing more than fuck buddies.

I just wish I knew what was holding her back. As soon as I’ve taken care of everything, I want her—allof her. And Rosie. Possibly forever. Over the past couple weeks, Jade has opened up to me in ways I never dreamed of. I don’t want to lose her.

Maybe that’s why I call Felix, Willow, and Alex into the spare conference room at Grayson Security. I need to put this David shit behind me. We all do. So once everyone is inside, I lock the door, telling everyone that we’re not leaving until we have a plan to end this once and for all.

After enough brainstorming I feel like I’m going to explode, Felix grabs something from the table and holds it up. It’s a phone. Based on the navy blue case with little daisies on it, I’m guessing it’s Brooke’s.

“We’ve still got this,” Felix says.

After David kidnapped her, Felix looked through it. Unsurprisingly, we found a tracking app on it. We’ve kept it off ever since, and Brooke got a different phone in case we ever needed this one.

“We could use it to trap David,” Felix says, setting the phone back on the table. “All we have to do is turn her phone on, and he’ll be notified of her location.”

“Think he’ll fall for that?” Alex asks.

“Do we have any other ideas? The man completely disappeared.” I stand from my chair and start pacing. “We’ve drawn this out for too long. I’m tired of having this hanging over all of our heads.”

Alex hums in agreement.

Willow drums her fingertips on the table, looking between the three of us. “I’d say it’s worth a shot. Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work.”

Or one of us gets killed.

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