Dom #4
“And I don’t need to know the details of whether you did it to your exact wording,” I said, giving him a warning look.
I really didn’t need to know if the first dead guy had died screaming or not.
..I really, really didn’t. I was finding ways to accept the two different versions of Levi, but that didn’t mean I needed to have every detail.
Every couple was allowed to have their secrets after all, right?
“But you definitely did everything in your goddamn power to follow through on the spirit of the promise. So, trust me, I’m not going to let them push you out, even if they don’t understand or believe. I’m not losing you, not again.”
Levi grimaced. “Dom, I don’t like that tone. I don’t want you pushing your family away, not for me. I’m not worth it.”
“We’re going to talk about this whole you not being worth it thing too, because like hell am I going to deal with you almost blowing yourself up again,” I scowled. “And who the fuck said anything about pushing them away?”
“If they don’t want me around—”
“Then they’ll get over it. Maybe I won’t talk to them for a bit, or maybe I’ll fight with them all the time. I don’t know, but I’m not losing them, and I’m not losing you. I’m going to be a greedy motherfucker and have both, even if I have to fight tooth and nail.”
“Dom—”
“Seriously? You just took on Los Muertos and Augustine to keep me and them safe, and you’re worried about me taking on my family?”
“Mm, your family is scarier.”
Which was, of course, the exact moment I heard a lot of loud voices coming closer, and every single one of them sounded familiar. I glanced at him, smirking. “Just how scary?”
“How many of them are here?” he asked, eyes going wide and horrified.
“Kinda sounds like all of them.”
“How did they all get in? Isn’t there supposed to be a limit? Capacity? A time when I shouldn’t have to worry about visitors?”
“I think by their power combined, they can get just about anything done.”
“Oh God.”
I turned to Will and nodded. “Run.”
Will might have found enough strength to walk away from The Family, but clearly, he wasn’t prepared to face my family, especially when Levi was being so obvious in how scared he was of them.
Not that I thought my family was any threat, but they definitely hadn’t left him with a good impression the last time he’d seen them.
Of course, that was when I was comatose and not able to speak up for myself, which completely changed things.
“Oooh,” I heard Milo coo as I watched shadows move closer to the door. “Hello there.”
“Are you serious right now?” Moira snapped.
They filed in, and I heard Levi sigh when he realized it was, in fact, everyone, even Jace, Kayden, and Ward. Milo was all smiles. “Whaaaat? He was like...a hot, older version of Levi, that deserves a hello.”
“Oh,” I heard Levi breathe, and I didn’t need to look to know he was holding back laughter.
“You do realize Eli is standing right there, right?” Moira asked, but a glance at Eli told me she was far more offended by Milo’s wandering eye than Eli was.
Milo blinked. “Okay?”
She looked him up and down, then glanced at Eli. “This doesn’t bother you?”
Eli snorted. “Should it?”
“I sure as shit would be madder than hell if Kayden did something like that.”
Kayden frowned. “I told you about the time I tried to hit on someone when I was drunk and tried to make it up to you.”
Moira shook her head. “And I have told you that was me you were hitting on, you inebriated idiot.”
“Oh...right.”
“Watch,” Eli said, turning to Milo. “Babe, do you want to sleep with that sexy dilf?”
Milo’s eyes went wide. “Ooh, do you want to share? Are you finally up for sharing?”
“Elijah,” Moira scolded.
“No, I do not want to share, I was asking if you’d like to go sleep with him right now,” Eli said and then muttered. “Sorry, should have seen that coming.”
Milo’s eyes somehow got wider, horror replacing the eagerness. “What? God no. Not unless you’re there. That would be fun. You and—”
“And thank you,” Eli said, pushing his hand gently under Milo’s chin to stop him from speaking further. “New subject.”
“Is he...drunk?” I wondered as everyone found a place to sit or stand without crowding each other. It was Marcus who thought to close the door, which was probably a good thing. The whole group had already attracted enough attention without waking the entire ward.
“We were at an influencer gathering,” Elijah explained apologetically. “Someone thought they were drinking light drinks, but they were made by someone with about the same level of hide the booze that Mason has.”
“Sorry,” Milo said, and he was leaning on the back of the chair Micah was sitting in, slowly scooting it along the floor. “We didn’t think you were gonna pop back up for like...another couple of days.”
“I don’t need you to wait around for me...or hunt me down,” I said, glaring at Arlo. “Thanks for telling me you always knew where I was.”
Arlo stared back, utterly unfazed by my annoyance. “I do hope you aren’t waiting for an apology. There are only so many years in a human lifetime to hold onto something that will never come.”
“If it makes you feel any better, he wouldn’t let anyone see where you were,” Ward said with a shrug, bumping Arlo’s shoulder lightly. “Not even me. I don’t think he trusted me.”
“I trust you with my life,” Arlo said gravely.
“Yeah, well, I trust Milo completely, but that doesn’t mean I trust him around a bar,” Eli said.
Moira glanced over her shoulder. “I’ve got one of those.”
Kayden grinned sheepishly. “I know my limits.”
“And yet you seem to sail right past them with regular abandon.”
“You said you like drunk me. You said it was cute.”
Jace frowned. “You’ve never said I was cute.”
Mason laughed. “Jace, I love you to the ends of the earth and back, but cute is not a word I would use to describe you...ever.”
“I should be happy about that,” Jace said with a scowl.
Matty and Marcus had said nothing, and she approached slowly, looking over me and then Levi. I waited, letting her make whatever decision was weighing on her mind before smiling as she laid a hand over Levi’s arm before reaching up to run gentle fingers over the uninjured side of my head.
“Before I give you the hell you deserve for the scare you gave us...was it worth it?” she asked softly.
“Absolutely,” I said in an instant. “I...well, I did what I set out to do.”
“He saved me,” Levi admitted. “My life, I mean...and in another way too. The way that really counts.”
“You and I are going to have a long talk about doing things on your own,” Matty told me.
“Or the cops,” Kayden complained from the back. “Seriously, Dom. I get Mr. Mob Boss not wanting to get the cops involved, but man, your man has kept us running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and you couldn’t even let us back you up?”
“You better not mean Jace,” Mason said with a frown. “He’s not active duty, remember?”
“He can still crack heads if he needs to.”
“Fuck off.”
Matty ignored them. “They do have a point.”
“It happened the way it had to happen,” I said. I couldn’t be sure because there was still too much I didn’t understand, but I knew enough to know that dragging anyone else into the mess would have been a disaster, and it had been close enough as it was. “I’m sorry I scared all of you.”
“But not that you did it,” she said, clearly not looking to see if I was going to agree or not as she looked at Levi. “And you? You made a promise to my family, a couple, actually. One of them you clearly didn’t fulfill since you’re here with my son.”
Levi winced and then hissed, his hand twitching like he wanted to pull away to put it on his face, but gripped the blanket instead. “I made three promises, the two important ones I fulfilled. Dom wasn’t exactly letting me keep the last one. You’re safe. All of you.”
“Uh-huh,” Moira said with a frown, and I could see Mason frowning doubtfully. “You’ve kept important stuff from us before. Why should we believe anything you say?”
“The people attempting to kill me, and willing to go through the people around me, will not touch you,” he said with complete confidence.
“And that goes for those in the Marelli Family as well. In fact, you are safer than just about anyone in this city at the moment, and most people in this country. You will not be touched, or the consequences of their bloodlust will, uh...cost some very important people their lives. And those people very much wish to hold onto their lives.”
“And you?” Mason asked coolly, and I glared at him. He stared back, not ashamed in the slightest that he wasn’t relenting even though Levi had clearly been through the wringer. I didn’t know where this protective older brother shit was coming from, but it was getting on my nerves.
Levi laughed. “Do you really think Augustine would let me stay in The Family after everything I’ve done?
If he had, it would have left him with two choices.
Either be honest about what I did right and what I did wrong, or try to bury everything so no one would find out.
The former would be showing favoritism, which undermines his entire persona.
The latter wouldn’t have held up forever, and not only would it have undermined his authority, but it would have made everyone start coming up with their own explanations, explanations he wouldn’t be able to influence that could snowball out of his control.
After I started my...plan, I was never going to return to the fold. ”