Chapter 6 - Ryan
Ryan
“Shadow?” Kate raised her brows. “What does that mean?”
Dom hummed. “It’s a nickname for someone very important in my life.”
Her petite nose wrinkled. “Quite an unusual one.”
“It’s because he’s my shadow,” Dom said, turning his arm back and forth so the light played over the ink.
“The man I love is part of me. I can’t escape him, can’t hide from him.
And even during my darkest moments, he’s with me.
I might not always see him, but he’s there all the same. The tattoo is a reminder of that.”
Kate smiled, patting the name on his arm. My name. “He sounds like a very special man.”
Dom’s smile was strained now. “He is.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. My tie was no longer knotted, but I still felt as though I were choking. “Excuse me.”
I turned and collided with a broad chest. A hand came up to steady me, and I found myself staring into Rafe’s cold face. “Going somewhere? If Kate were my intended, I wouldn’t be leaving her side during our engagement party.”
I blinked as Rafe’s fingers tightened on my shoulder. “Excuse me?”
Rafe’s smile was condescending. “Just saying that maybe you should pay more attention to your supposed fiancée.”
What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
A small hiss of air escaped me as Rafe’s grip tightened. I tried to jerk out of his hold but it was too firm. “What the fuck, man?”
Suddenly, Dominic was there, murder in his eyes. “You’re going to want to take your hands off him.”
Rafe tilted his head mockingly as his gaze slid to Dominic. “Or what?”
Max stepped up on my other side, Mimic next to him. Gone was his carefree attitude from earlier, only cool calculation remaining.
“Or this is going to get messy,” Dom said quietly. “Do you really want to cause a scene at Kate’s party?”
I noted that he didn’t include me in said party, but I was too stunned by the fact that the three of them were standing up for me to say anything. Dominic, I expected. But Max? Dom’s date?
“Rafe, stop.” Kate pushed her way between us, laying a hand on Rafe’s chest. When he didn’t let go of me, she touched his chin. “Raphael, stop.”
He blinked, like her words had finally pierced whatever bizarre fog had been clouding him. “Kit?”
“Stop,” she repeated firmly, pushing him backwards a step. Then another. “We need to talk.”
He nodded curtly and turned. Didn’t wait to see if she followed, just expected it.
“Kate.” I reached for her in alarm. “Should you be going with him?”
“He won’t hurt me,” she said distractedly, glancing over her shoulder at where the crowd was parting for her stepbrother. “He’s just upset.”
“I don’t understand why.” I frowned. “I feel like I’m missing something.”
“I just…” Her lips thinned as she glanced over again to see how far away he was. Almost to the doors. “I need to talk to him, okay? I’ll sort everything out. Trust me?”
“Of course.” I gave her a lopsided smile. “Always.”
“Well that was fucking weird,” Mimic said.
“Right?” I watched Kate disappear out of the door Rafe had just gone through. “It’s not just me?”
“Definitely not,” Max said.
“Surprised you’re not following them,” Dominic added.
I turned to see Mimic at his side once again. Dom’s arm, the one with my name etched into his skin, was around his shoulders. Mimic, meanwhile, was reclining into him like he’d done so a thousand times before.
All thoughts of Kate were erased. How could Dominic say that shit about his tattoos before going on to grope another man in front of me? Was he actually insane? Or was this all some part of his twisted plan to try and win me back?
If it was, it wasn’t fucking working.
“Maybe you have changed,” Dominic continued, a satisfied smirk on his lips as my fingers curled into fists.
“Or maybe I finally have someone I can actually trust,” I shot back. “Someone who would never lie to me or betray me. You should know what that’s like, Dom. After all, you had that once.”
Mimic gave a low whistle, extricating himself from Dom’s grip. “You know what? I’m getting a vibe that this is way deeper than I thought.”
Max snorted. “Mate, you’ve got no idea.”
“Fuck this,” I muttered. “I’m so done with this shit. Stay or leave, I don’t give a fuck. I’m going to get some air.”
I spun on my heel and made a beeline for the rear patio. I didn’t stop moving until the cold air whipped my cheeks and the sounds of the party faded away.
Fucking Dominic. How dare he show up with someone else? Was he trying to rub it in my face?
Like you asked him to, you mean?
I lit a cigarette and took a drag. Just because I’d asked him to move on, it didn’t mean I wanted to see it.
A door opened and closed behind me, the noise of the party rising before becoming muffled once again. “Funny interpretation of fresh air.”
I took another drag, ignoring Dominic as he came to stand beside me. I wasn’t surprised he’d followed me out here. Part of me wondered why it had taken him so long.
“Have you seen your dad yet?”
My question caught him off guard, and his face paled. “What? Why the fuck would I visit that wanker?”
I shrugged. It wasn’t my place to try and mend their relationship, but after all Frank had done for me over the years… “You keep telling me you’ve changed. Maybe he has too.”
“And how would you know that?”
I didn’t answer him. The topic of how I’d become close to his dad wasn’t one I ever planned on getting into with Dominic.
“I don’t want to talk about him,” Dominic said. He leaned against the railing that surrounded the patio, his gaze burning a hole in the side of my face. “You okay, Shadow?”
I laughed bitterly, flicking ash onto the ground. “I’m so fucking far from okay that it’s not even in sight.”
“I’m sorry.” Dom nudged his shoulder against mine. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ry.”
“If that were true you wouldn’t be here.”
Dom was quiet for a beat, staring off into the darkness. “Something I’ve learned over the past few years is that short-term pain is worth it if it leads to long-term happiness.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“Take this.” Dom tapped at the scar on his neck. “Sure, it hurt like fuck, but knowing Taff made it home to his daughter? That made it worth it. Short-term pain for long-term happiness.”
No longer interested in the cigarette, I put it out on the rail and chucked it into a nearby bin. “Wouldn’t call nearly dying short-term pain.”
Dom shrugged. “It’s all about perspective. I recovered, therefore it was short term.”
I twisted to face him, leaning on the rail just like he was. “I fail to see how you being back in my life is the same.”
“Well, we’re both hurting right now, but it’ll be worth it when we’re back together. Our foundation will be stronger than ever, because we’ll have built it on the back of our suffering.”
“You’re deluded,” I whispered, somewhat distracted by how close he was. Had he moved? Or had I? “Deluded and insane. This is my engagement party, Dom. I’m getting married and, newsflash, it’s not to you.”
Dom grinned. “Not to me yet.”
God, he was impossible. I didn’t know whether to tear my hair out or punch him. For some bizarre reason, what I found myself doing was smiling. “You drive me fucking crazy.”
“And you love it. You hate it, but you love it too.”
“I don’t.”
“Sure,” he drawled, letting a finger brush down my forearm where it rested against the metal. “That’s why you’re still out here.”
My smile fell away. “I’m out here because you’re clearly not going to leave me alone until you’ve said whatever you came here to say.”
“No, I’m not going to leave you alone until we’re back together.”
I gritted my teeth, trying with all my might to ignore the fire licking along the path Dom’s finger was tracing on my skin. “We aren’t getting back together, Dom. Even if I wasn’t getting married in three weeks, I wouldn’t even consider it.”
“All these lies, Shadow,” he said mockingly. “It’s a good thing you’re so terrible at it. I might get offended otherwise.”
His hand fell away as I straightened. “It’s been ten years, Dominic. You can’t possibly think I still have feelings for you.”
“I don’t think you have feelings for me.” Dom straightened to his full height. “I know you do.”
God, he pissed me off so much. Why was he the person I could never back down from? With anyone else, I would’ve walked away already. Something about Dominic always kept me here. Fighting him. “Oh yeah, how?”
Dominic flashed his teeth. “Let’s start with how you looked like you wanted to kill someone when you saw my arm around Mimic.”
“You flatter yourself,” I said calmly. So long as Dom didn’t know about the fury pulsing beneath my skin at the memory, everything would be okay. “I don’t give a shit who you give yourself to. You can go back and fuck him tonight and I won’t lose a second of sleep over it.”
“God, you’re too good.” Dom laughed. “Anyone else might actually believe you.”
I gripped the railing to stop myself planting my fist in Dom’s face.
He stepped so close that our shoulders brushed. “I haven’t slept with Mimic, Shadow. Never will, either. Guy’s one of my closest friends.”
“Sure looked friendly with how he was draped all over you.”
Dom stretched his little finger out to linger against mine. “Mimic has no sense of personal boundaries and a propensity to shit stir.”
“He’s not the only one,” I said pointedly, drawing my hand away until the connection was broken. “Good to know you’ve aired all our dirty laundry with yet another person and not told me about it.”
Dom grabbed my shoulders, spinning me to face him. “That’s where you’re wrong. Mimic knows nothing about what went down between us, just that you’re important to me. I swear.”
I refused to meet his gaze. “If you say so.”
“I do say so,” Dom said, searching my face. “I don’t hide my past with you out of shame, but because I don’t want to share it. What we had is ours. Mine and yours.”
My eyes locked with his coolly. “Shame you didn’t always think like that.”
He flinched like I’d hit him. “It’s a lesson I learned the hard way.”
“We both did.”