17. Kira
17
KIRA
A ll conversation grinds to a halt and eyes swing my way the second I step foot into the kitchen.
I blush. Can’t help it. After what Dom and I did last night, and again in the shower before we dressed and came downstairs, it’s hard not to blush at all that focused attention.
Dom, a step behind me, gently nudges me forward with his hands on my shoulders. “Go on in, Kira.”
I suspect he does a bit of glaring because suddenly everyone decides now is the time to look at their plate. When I peer over my shoulder, Dom’s expression is serious but calm.
Dom is in a pair of black sweatpants and a T-shirt he pulled from his dresser, and I’m wearing one of the new midi dresses he bought for me, including the new lingerie he must have had Tricia pick out for me.
It was embarrassing to have so little that Dom felt like he needed to get me everything. He’d seen my red cheeks and said, “I couldn’t take care of you before, but I can now, and I want to.”
That was why a quick shower together had ended with him pinning me to the wall, extending it by at least ten minutes.
I sit down to eat, Dom pulling the chair out for me. Everyone is digging into their breakfast with gusto, but I can’t shake the sense they’re paying a lot more attention to me than their breakfast.
“That was some storm last night,” Rose says.
Galen is looking at my throat. He can’t see Dom’s bite because of the cut of my dress, but it’s like he knows Dom bit me. I blush again and sink down into my seat, embarrassed he knows exactly what we were doing last night. And this morning.
“Yep,” Jones agrees. “You’d have thought that?—”
“Dom. A word.” Galen shoves his chair back. His face is so stern that I forget all about my breakfast. It sounds like Dom is in trouble.
Which is weird, because that would mean Galen was his boss. I’d thought they were friends who lived together rather than, well, employer and employee. This makes me wonder.
“Is something wrong?” I lower my fork, frowning.
“Nothing is wrong,” Galen assures me, as he grips Dom’s shoulder and pulls him out of his seat before literally walking him out of the room.
Something is badly wrong for him to be dragging Dom out of the kitchen like that.
“Are you sure?—”
“He’s perfectly sure,” Sierra interrupts. “Maybe everyone could give us the room.”
Everyone clears the room in under thirty seconds, taking their plates with them.
I put down my fork, my appetite evaporating. “What is it?”
Sierra nudges her half-finished breakfast to one side. “Maybe we should talk.”
“About?”
“You and Dom.”
“What about us?”
“I couldn’t help but notice that you two… you know?” She waggles her eyebrows suggestively.
I stare at her in dawning horror. Everyone stared at me as soon as I walked in, and last night, someone nearly caught me with my legs wrapped around Dom’s hips while he was naked on the porch.
Maybe they didn’t nearly catch us. Maybe they saw Dom carrying me up the stairs. It’s not like it wasn’t obvious what we were doing. I didn’t try to hide, and neither did he.
And he was naked.
What if they heard us?
Was it Sierra? Did she see?
I don’t regret what I did with Dom. Not for one second do I regret it, but I absolutely do not need to know that everyone heard us going at it like?—
Stop thinking about it, Kira. Thinking about it is not helping.
“Oh, God.” I put my hands on my hot cheeks. “This is so embarrassing.”
“There’s no reason to be embarrassed.” She drags her chair closer to mine. “I mean. This was something you wanted, right?”
I frown, confused. “I don’t… why would you think this was something I didn’t want?”
Does she think Dom hurt me? Dom ?
“No reason, no reason,” she says quickly and takes a sip from her mug.
I study her through narrowed eyes, sensing there’s something I’m not getting. “But you think something is wrong. Galen too, since he dragged Dom out of here like that.”
She clears her throat and asks casually, “Did Dom tell you something about himself last night?”
What a weird subject change. “Something like what?”
She stares at me blankly. “Oh, boy.”
I shift around in my seat, getting increasingly anxious. “What do you mean, oh boy? Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m not trying to panic you, Kira. I’m just curious if Dom told you something about himself last night.”
“Like what?”
Her gaze slides away from mine. “Uh, like anything.”
I study her for a beat as I think back to last night.
When I woke up, Dom had been getting ready to leave. I thought it was because I’d done something wrong, but it hadn’t been that at all. “He thought I wouldn’t want him.”
Sierra’s eyes snap back to mine. “Why would he think that?”
I shrug and sit back in my seat as I pick at the skin on my fingers, embarrassed.
“He said he wasn’t the man I thought he was, but he’s wrong.” I look down at my unpolished nails, and I miss when I used to paint them. I’m not sure when I stopped, or why, but I think I can guess. Bryce must have made some comment about it being not appropriate for his sweet wife.
“I thought Dom hated me back in Missouri because he kept avoiding me, but he was always kind to everyone else. He was always helping my brother with his car, and if anyone needed anything, he would always volunteer. Like when we’d have a storm, he’d be there. Or he’d donate stuff to the soup kitchen, and actually help out on Sundays instead of dumping things and running off because he didn’t want to miss the football game. And he nearly died saving his platoon, so they gave him a medal, and… what?”
I realize then how long I spent quietly admiring Dom from a distance, and all the things he would do in town. He did them quietly, without shouting about it, or expecting to be thanked. He was kind.
I also realize that Sierra is staring at me. Probably because I’ve spent a good long while rambling like a lovesick fool. “Uh, sorry.”
“I didn’t know that,” she whispers. “And he was a hero? He never said.”
My smile is wry. “He didn’t tell me either. I found out at my brother’s funeral. Some of his platoon were there. He was—he is—modest. And selfless. I think that’s why I never thought to go anywhere but here when I needed help.”
“He is.” Sierra stares at me a little longer, then shakes her head, as if stunned. “Wow. He had this entire life and none of us ever knew it.”
“But you knew he was in the Marines?”
She nods. “He held me together at a pretty terrifying moment in my life.”
“He did?”
She twists her engagement ring around her finger. “Someone hurt Galen, and Dom was the only reason I didn’t completely fall apart. He’s very good at steadying you without you even realizing it. He’s a good man.”
“That’s why I know he’s wrong when he said he wasn’t the man I thought he was. Because he is.”
Maybe I wouldn’t be so willing to believe it if Bryce hadn’t spent years grinding me down. He didn’t just make me call myself a fuck up, or a useless wife. He made me believe it, but I don’t think I am. I think Bryce is the one with standards so high no one could ever meet them. Not even him.
“I’m not sure how much Dom has told you about us,” Sierra says so seriously, I straighten in my seat.
“Nick said not family, but chosen family.”
A small, pleased smile softens her serious expression. “Really? I like that.”
“But there’s more to it than that?” I tilt my head, trying to read between the lines. There’s something she wants to tell me, but she doesn’t know how.
She doesn’t speak for several seconds. “Dom doesn’t talk about his past. Like, ever. The only reason we know he was a Marine is because he was drunk when he met Galen. Otherwise, I doubt he’d have told him even that much.”
“Why do I get the sense this is leading somewhere?”
“Because it is.” She takes a sip of orange juice. “He’s scared of losing you.”
I nearly knock over my juice as I reach for it. “ Lose me ? Why would he think he would lose me?”
“Well, let’s just say he has this side that is… well, a little more growly than the other.”
Is she on drugs?
“Uh…”
A grin splits her face. “No need to look at me like that. I’m talking sense. Promise. I just meant there’s a side of him that he thinks you won’t want.”
I think of how loving Bryce was initially, and I forget about my juice, sitting back in my seat as icy fear sweeps through me. “Oh.”
Sierra puts her glass aside and reaches across the table to snag my hand, gently squeezing it. “I don’t mean it’s bad. Not like…”
I have got to work harder at hiding my emotions. I’m an open book to everyone around me.
“Well.” She pats my hand again. “I mean, that side of him is protective. More so than the Dom, you know.”
I shake my head. “I don’t see how that could be.”
Dom is the most protective guy I’ve ever met.
She winks. “Well, then you’ll love his other side. He’s also surprisingly cuddly.”
I study her for a beat, confused, then I shake my head and pull my hand back as I get to my feet. All this talk of Dom has made me realize we need to talk. Not just about this surprisingly cuddly, protective, and growly side of him, but about us. And what happens now.
Bryce signed the divorce papers, but I still need to speak to my attorney and figure out the next steps. And I have most of my possessions in Missouri, including Aaron’s Ford Mustang, which I can’t leave there.
I’d rather not go back, especially if it means coming face to face with Bryce, but I can’t live on Dom’s charity forever, even if he says he doesn’t mind buying stuff for me.
“I’m going for a walk.”
Sierra pops to her feet. “I can?—”
“No, that’s okay,” I interrupt. “But thanks.”
I leave her in the kitchen, briefly smiling when I pass the den and living room where everyone has settled on the navy couches to finish their breakfast.
Outside, I rub my bare arms, shivering, when a sudden gust of wind whips my skirt up. The sky is a deeper shade of blue, and dark gray clouds are forming. It will rain today. Not soon, but maybe later there will be another lightning storm like last night.
There’s no sign of Dom. But that growly side of him Sierra told me was so protective has seriously stirred my curiosity.
Thinking he’s in the outbuilding, I head toward it, hoping to find him there. The door is slightly open. When I push it the rest of the way open and yell his name, he doesn’t respond.
I hope Dom and Galen didn’t go off to fight each other.
Galen was definitely pissed at Dom. I’m not sure why I think it has to do with me, but I don’t want to be the cause of any problems between Dom and his friends.
As I wander back to the house, the hum of an approaching car engine grows louder. Through a gap in the trees, I spot a white post office truck slow to a halt feet from the front porch.
Excited there might be another letter, this time from my attorney with news about speeding up the divorce process, I hurry toward the white truck as the driver’s side door swings open, and come to a screeching halt as I choke back my panic.
It’s not the postman, though the blond man is wearing a postman’s uniform.
It’s Bryce, and he did not come unarmed.
I open my mouth to scream.
“Do it, and I will kill you, Kira,” Bryce warns, pointing his gun at me. “Get in and you might just survive this.”
I hesitate.
I thought he signed the divorce papers because he was letting me go.
He wasn’t. It was an alibi. That’s all it was. I told the attorney if anything ever happened to me, it would be Bryce who did it. But now, with proof that he signed the divorce form without hesitation, if anyone asks any questions, he can say he had nothing to do with my death. That he let me go, and I went off and got myself killed by someone else.
Why else would he be here in disguise?
“Or you can scream, and Dom —” he spits out Dom’s name like a curse, “—can come running and I kill him instead.”
Me or Dom.
There’s no choice.
I walk toward the truck. Bryce opens the back and motions the gun toward it, a sign for me to get in. My heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear myself think, and my palms are sweating.
As I move to get in, a burst of pain explodes at the back of my head.
My world tips and sways as I smack onto a hard surface with a grunt.
I’m lying on something cold and hard as a door slams shut, then seconds later, we’re moving.