Chapter 39 Dominic
DOMINIC
I waited impatiently at the restaurant, the whole damn place reserved just for us. A small, quiet spot by the lake on the far edge of the city. Not many eyes, no prying onlookers. Just the way I like it.
Twenty thousand dollars later, the owner practically disappeared.
Food was prepared, served, then vanished like ghosts, exactly as I paid for.
I slid my fingers over the velvet box in my pocket.
The ring inside was heavy with meaning — one of the few things I salvaged when our house burned down to ash.
It had belonged to my grandmother, a gift from my grandfather.
Mom used to say: “When the time’s right, and you meet the one, you’ll know. You’ll want to propose with that ring.”
I laughed then. Well, I laughed a lot.
Every woman I’d ever known was hollow—hungry for my money, my power, my name. I used them, broke them, and discarded them. None of them mattered.
Until Athena King. She turned my world upside down and held my attention like no one else. She feared nothing — not me, not my threats, not the danger that came with crossing Dominic Stone. She matched my madness, step for step.
That night at the park, she got me. Used me for her pleasure, and when she came, I was the one left trembling, desperate, hooked, and now?
I’m obsessed. Obsessed enough to force a marriage.
Obsessed enough to keep her at any cost. I’d kill every man breathing before she’s anyone but mine.
The table was set with every dish on the menu, but the only thing I hungered for was her.
Spread bare across this table, trembling, mine to devour.
The clock struck eight and the door swung open. My finger drummed the table, eyes scanning for her. But it wasn’t Athena, it was a man I knew too well.
Ace King.
He took the seat across from me without a word. Slow and deliberate, Ace drew a gun from his belt and slammed it on the table, pointing the barrel at me, his icy gaze locked onto mine. I didn’t blink when I slid my own gun onto the table, mirroring him.
Up close, he’s like a younger version of Maddox King—same cold eyes, same fire, just taller, less worn by the darkness his father carries like a shadow.
For years, I studied them all. The press loves The Kings, their faces splashed across magazines and headlines, and every time I saw them, a fire of rage and disgust burned through me.
I wanted them all dead, but now, staring at Ace across this table, I don’t feel that usual hatred. Just confusion.
His hand rests near the gun, fingers tapping against the cold metal like he’s deciding if he should raise it and pull the trigger. I know that hesitation. I nod toward the weapon.
‘‘Do you even know how to use that thing?” A slow grin spreads across my face. “Did your daddy teach you his tricks?”
“Enough to blow your brains out,” he spits.
I lean back, amused. Cute. He had no idea I would kill him before he could even blink.
Maddox King is a monster like me, but Ace King?
He’s nothing like that. I doubt Maddox even let him near the darkest parts of his world.
Ace is trying to look tough, but I see the sweat beading on his forehead.
He’s out of his depth, acting on instinct.
It would be so easy to kill him right now.
He’s practically handing himself over. He grew up in a castle, wrapped in luxury and protection.
I clawed my way up from the mud. We are not alike.
“Where is Athena?” I ask.
“Somewhere you won’t reach her anymore. No more hurting or brainwashing her.”
“Hurt her?” I tilted my head. “I never laid a finger on her.”
Ace’s jaw tightens. He leans forward, eyes blazing.
“Are you behind Athena’s kidnapping?”
“Yes.’’
“Are you behind the shootings that put my uncle in a coma?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” His voice cracks with fury.
“What is this? Twenty questions?” I scoff. Then I leaned in, my patience snapping. “Last chance, pretty boy. Where is Athena?”
He slammed his fist onto the table. “You don’t get to say her name! Not after everything you’ve done. You dirtied her. Turned her against us. And you think she’d ever choose you?”
My hands ball into fists. Breathe, Dominic. Breathe.
“She has a boyfriend, you bastard,” he spits. “Do you think that’s going to change? That she wants a monster like you, someone who brings only destruction and death?”
His words hit harder than any punch ever did, because it’s the truth.
I’m the monster, the villain, and I’ve always owned it.
But then Athena King tore down the walls I built around myself, made me believe maybe there’s something more inside me.
Something worth fighting for. She’s the golden princess.
Why would she even look twice at me? The beast with the scarred face, the monster everyone fears? But against all odds, she did.
She is my cure, and I’d rather burn the world red than let Mason Rivera stand beside her. Ace’s words echo in my mind like poison. She always wanted him. Him.
“Keep talking, pretty boy, and I’ll show you what a monster really looks like.”
He shot to his feet, gun in hand, pointing it at my head. His hand shakes, unlike the steady calm I was raised on.
“You deserve to die,” Ace hisses. “You deserve to suffer like you made my family suffer.”
The cold muzzle presses against my forehead, and I don’t flinch. I just stare him down.
“I don’t give a fuck what you say, just don’t bring Athena into this. I may stand behind the suffering of many, but she’s never been one of them.”
He won’t pull the trigger. Not while sweat drips down his face and his body shakes. But I let him have his moment. If he wants to play with the gun, fine.
“Don’t say her name again,” he growled.
Ace presses the gun to my cheek, leaning in, eyes wild, almost as if possessed. And like the psychopath I am, I grin.
“Come on, pretty boy. Pull the trigger.”
His mind races, and I tap my fingers on the table, waiting. It’d be ironic to die by the hand of a kid who can’t even hold a gun right, but if I raise my gun now, I lose Athena, and that’s worse than death.
“Put the gun down, Ace.”
Maddox King stepped out of the shadows, his presence swallowing the room whole, and just like that, the game changed.