Prologue - Dominic #2
As we crept towards the edge of a dilapidated building, I heard a scuffing noise.
I threw up my hand, and the three of us came to a halt.
We stayed like that for an eternity, or maybe just a few minutes.
Out here, there was no real way to know.
Time didn’t follow the normal linear progression.
Hours could feel like days, seconds like hours.
Eventually, the silence had lasted long enough for us to chance moving. Inhaling slowly, I took a cautious step forward. A second. A third.
Nothing happened.
Behind me, Taff sighed. “Thank fuck. I really thought—”
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Moonlight reflecting off metal.
“Incoming!” I bellowed. “Get down!”
Raffle hit the ground like a bag of bricks. But Taff…Taff was frozen. His eyes were wide, fixed on a spot in the distance. Fear clutched my throat as I followed his gaze to the sniper. The rifle trained on Taff’s head.
I didn’t think.
That’s a lie.
I had two thoughts.
Not Taff.
He’s getting out and going home to his little girl.
My body slammed into his, throwing us towards the ground. A hiss went past my ear. Close. Too close.
Pain seared the side of my neck. A hot flash followed by icy numbness.
Way too fucking close.
“Shit,” Taff barked, finally leaping into action. Gunfire echoed as Taff’s face loomed over mine. “Hold on, Dom. You hold the fuck on now, you hear me?”
I didn’t respond. My mouth wouldn’t work. My hands would though. I lifted one to graze my neck. Wetness met my fingers, but I still felt the need to check. My entire frame shook as I held my hand in front of my eyes to confirm what I already knew.
I’d been hit.
The numbness was spreading. Not a good sign.
I tried to drag in a full breath, but someone had filled my lungs with cotton.
Dimly, I was aware of orders being barked into radios.
Something being pressed hard against the side of my neck.
Flashes of panicked voices surrounding me.
I latched on to one—the most familiar. The echo of the one I so desperately needed to hear right now.
“What the fuck happened?” the voice roared. “Tell me he’s okay.”
“I’m working on it,” Taff snapped back, his hands busy on my neck. “Medic’s on the way but…”
I didn’t know if his voice trailed off or if I just lost the ability to hear him. God, I was so tired all of a sudden. Fucking exhausted. If I closed my eyes then maybe—
Someone slapped my cheek, hard. “Wake the fuck up, Dominic! Don’t you dare close your eyes on me.”
I forced my eyes open. Who was waking me up? I just wanted to sleep.
Another slap. “Dominic, please. Don’t do this. You can’t. Not now.”
“Ryan?” I croaked. That didn’t make sense. Ryan couldn’t be here. He belonged thousands of miles away. Somewhere safe, where this hellscape couldn’t touch him.
A choked sob. “Ryan, yes. You need to stay alive to see Ryan.”
Max. Max was speaking. Not Ryan.
Reality slammed back into me. It took so much effort to lift my arm, and it sent pain ricocheting through me, but this was too important.
I tapped Max’s front pocket. “Ryan.”
“No.” Max’s expression was full of panic. “I don’t need to give it to him, Dominic. You’re going to get through this and tell him yourself. You fucking got that?”
I tapped again. No noise came out, but I mouthed his twin’s name.
“I’ll do it,” Max said fiercely, clutching my hand. “You know I will. But I won’t need to, okay? Keep fighting, Dominic. We don’t quit. That’s not what we do. You’re a fighter, and you keep fighting.”
Right now, I didn’t feel like fighting. My eyelids were heavy, my body numb.
I saw Ryan’s smile.
It soothed me as darkness swept in.
RYAN – ALSO TWO YEARS AGO
A phone ringing in the middle of the night was never a good sign.
I bolted upright, groping around on the unfamiliar bedside table for my device. My mouth went dry as I read the name on the screen.
Frank
There were only two reasons why he’d be calling me at this hour. Either he’d fallen off the wagon, or…
I couldn’t even let myself think it.
I answered and pressed the phone to my ear hard. “Frank?”
“Where are you, kid?”
His voice was clear. Sober. Which meant…
Oh god.
I clutched at the blankets, breathing hard through my nose. This couldn’t be happening. “Cardiff, for the conference.”
Frank cursed. “I thought you were back yesterday.”
I closed my eyes. “Tomorrow. Just tell me, Frank. Is he…?”
He couldn’t be. Dom might not have been a part of my life in eight years, but to conceive of a world he didn’t exist in? A sun he didn’t lift his face towards? Stars that didn’t watch over him?
That wasn’t possible.
“No,” Frank said, and all my breath left me in a whoosh. “He’s injured, but alive.”
The relief left as swiftly as it had arrived. “It’s not good if they’ve notified you.”
“No, kid, it’s not.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Tell me.”
“He caught a bullet in the neck during a mission. He went into emergency surgery an hour ago.”
I was out of bed in a second, striding for the small wardrobe and yanking out my case. I moved fast, throwing everything in haphazardly. “I’ll be in my car in under five minutes, Frank. Two hours and I’ll be there, okay?”
“Don’t be stupid,” he said, but his voice was so weak that I knew he didn’t mean it. “You don’t need to come rushing back here. It’s not going to change anything.”
I gripped my phone so hard I heard the case crack. “What do you think I’m going to do, Frank? Go back to sleep and head to my morning meeting later? Fucking give over.”
“Fine,” Frank grumbled. “Drive safely though, okay? Can’t take worrying about you too. It’ll put me in an early grave.”
“You’ll outlive us all. Stubborn gits always do.”
Frank was quiet for a moment. “Let’s hope that’s enough for Dominic to pull through.”
“It will be.”
It had to be.
I refused to accept any alternative.
There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the M4 at two in the morning, which was good, given I was attempting to break land speed records. I’d likely have more than one ticket drop through my letterbox in the coming weeks, but I didn’t give a fuck.
I had to get home.
Not to my place, but Dominic’s. The closest place I got to be to him. With his dad.
Frank and I were the two men he’d cut from his life with the same brutal efficiency he’d done everything else. I understood why he’d given Frank that treatment. But me? What had I done to deserve it? That question often kept me up at night.
Dawn was still hours off when I screeched to a stop outside Frank’s.
I didn’t remember turning the car off or running up to the front door, but somehow I was there, scrabbling with my keys, my hands shaking as I tried to find the right one.
I swore as they slipped through my fingers and hit the ground.
The door swung open as I picked them up. Frank was ashen, half-dressed, like he’d been getting ready for bed when he’d got the call. Or perhaps he’d thrown his clothes on like he could rush to his son’s side.
But he couldn’t. Neither of us could. Dominic was thousands of miles away.
The best we could do was wait for news together.
“Anything?” I whispered, searching Frank’s bloodshot eyes for a clue.
“Nothing.” He grabbed me in a rough hug. There was no lingering scent of alcohol, and my shoulders relaxed slightly. Guessed his red eyes were down to lack of sleep. Or tears.
Lord knew I’d shed a few during the journey, especially when I’d managed to get hold of Xander. My flatmate at uni, we’d formed an instant connection. He’d seen me at my lowest, picking me up and dusting me off more times than I could count.
Aside from the fucked-up triangle that was me, Dom, and Max, Xander was the only one who knew the full truth of what had happened. He’d patiently listened to me break down tonight, just as I had all those times in the past. I’d tried not to, but fear was about as logical as love.
Which is to say, not at all.
When Frank released me, I followed him through into the kitchen.
“I made a pot of tea, but it’s probably cold by now. Let me get a fresh one brewing.”
My hands weren’t the only ones shaking. Frank’s were vibrating so hard that the lid shook in its ceramic casing.
“Here,” I said, taking it from his hands. Now that I was here, now I had a purpose, I could focus. “Sit. I’ll do it.”
He slumped into a chair and dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t cope with this, Ryan.”
I was silent as I emptied the pot and filled the kettle. I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t cope either. I doubted tea would fix anything, but at least it gave me something to do.
When the tea was brewing, I slid into the seat opposite him. Between us, Frank’s mobile lay silent and still. “Did they say when they’d give an update?”
Frank shook his head, silver lining his eyes. “They didn’t sound optimistic, but said they’d give a call when he was out of surgery.”
He’d been in surgery an hour when Frank had called me.
Thanks to my dangerous driving, it’d only taken me ninety minutes to make it there.
Two and a half hours made sense for life-saving surgery, right?
If anything, I’d expect it to be a while yet before we heard anything.
“Okay. Let’s take that as a good sign. No news is good news. ”
Frank gave me a clipped nod, wringing his hands together on the tabletop. “Yeah. Suppose it is.”
He asked me a few questions about my conference.
I answered them as fully as I could, but honestly, there was only so much I could say about the latest updates in tax.
After that, we moved on to chit-chat about my mum and how she was doing following the divorce, then Xander’s experiences on board his new ship, before finishing up with plans for our next fishing trip.
All in all, it took up another hour.
After that, we lapsed into silence, the unimaginable looming over our heads.