Chapter 13 #3
Dominic nodded. He understood that mindset. Maybe respected it more than he should. Part of him wanted to keep digging. To ask more. To pry Knox open until he understood every hidden bruise. Instead, he forced himself to pull back.
For now.
“You’ll be paid well,” he said. “I don’t let my people struggle.”
Knox’s posture changed instantly, the vulnerability gone as fast as it had appeared. “Right,” he said coldly. “Because money solves everything. You can’t just throw cash at someone and expect them to be loyal.”
Dominic’s patience thinned, his eyes narrowing. “You want something more than that? Money’s what keeps you breathing. Keeps your mother’s pills coming. Or would you rather I sit here and cry with you about how unfair it all is?”
Knox recoiled like he’d been struck. His mouth twisted, wounded and angry.
Something ugly twisted in Dominic’s gut. Not regret, but something adjacent to it. He needed Knox to understand the world didn’t owe him kindness, and Dominic sure as hell didn’t either.
Knox’s voice was furious when he spoke. “You think because you can pay for shit, you get to decide what people owe you.”
Dominic felt the now-familiar spark of irritation. And something else. That relentless defiance should’ve made Knox easier to dismiss. Instead, it kept pulling Dominic in. “This isn’t charity,” he snapped. “You think I give a damn about saving you?”
Knox looked straight at him. “You’re right. You don’t care. So why am I here?”
For a while, Dominic just stared at him, pulse pounding hard enough to feel in his throat.
He didn’t have an answer. Not one that made any sense.
The easy lie would’ve been about business, control, and keeping order.
But sitting there with Knox glaring at him, furious and broken, those excuses felt thin.
This wasn’t about work. It was about the way Knox refused to bend. The way he pushed back, again and again, daring Dominic to meet that fire head-on. Every defiant look and refusal to cower awakened something electric inside him.
It pissed him off how easily Knox got under his skin.
He sure as hell wasn’t about to start dissecting that now.
So instead, he did what came easiest. He turned the blade outward.
His voice dropped, cold enough to cut. “You’re here because I made it that way.
Don’t fool yourself. If you had anywhere better to run, you’d already be gone. ”
Knox shot to his feet. “You think I won’t hate you for this?”
The anger in his voice hit Dominic like a spark to gasoline. He stood too, the distance between them gone before thought could intervene. Suddenly they were almost chest to chest, the argument alive in the space between them.
Dominic’s jaw flexed. “Hate me all you want. I’m not here to make you feel better.”
“I’ve watched five men die since I met you,” Knox shot back. “Five! Do you even hear how insane that sounds?”
He was looking at Dominic like he was the worst kind of monster. Yes, five was excessive. Messy. Far from the norm, even in Dominic’s world. But regret was pointless. Every one of those deaths had served a purpose.
“It’s not normal,” Dominic said evenly. “And it’s not how things usually go. You showed up at the wrong time.”
Knox let out a bitter sound. “Yeah. Guess I’m just unlucky.”
“Or maybe,” Dominic said, “you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
That landed heavier than he intended. Neither of them moved.
Fury was radiating off Knox in waves, his breathing rough and uneven.
Dominic became aware of everything at once.
The heat of Knox’s body. The intoxicating scent of him.
The way his eyes burned with something wild and utterly alive.
And with a jolt of disbelief, he felt the unmistakable tension low in his body.
Jesus fuckin Christ.
Why the hell is my dick paying attention?
As if things weren’t already fucked enough.
Knox stood too close, practically vibrating with anger, and Dominic’s body had chosen this moment to become interested.
His hands curled into fists to keep from doing something stupid.
The urge that hit him was deeply unhelpful and pointed in two equally bad directions—shoving Knox away to reclaim some breathing room, or dragging him closer and seeing exactly what happened if all that fire got redirected somewhere else.
“You want to keep acting like you don’t want this?” His eyes dragged over Knox, daring him to flinch. “You’re not fooling anyone.”
Knox glared back, shoulders rigid. “You don’t know shit about what I want.”
“No?” Dominic stepped closer, crowding him deliberately, forcing Knox to yield or stand his ground. “Then enlighten me.”
Knox stayed exactly where he was.
Dominic leaned in, his mouth close enough to Knox’s ear that the next words were little more than a whisper. “If you hate this so much… walk away.”
His own pulse was hammering, every instinct in him telling him he was pushing this too far and not nearly far enough. He didn’t know what he wanted—for Knox to storm out and end this, or to stay and shatter everything that was supposed to make sense.
Knox didn’t move.
Not an inch.
Dominic’s breath caught, control slipping through his fingers. His voice came out dark, stripped of everything but intent. “If you stay, you follow orders.”
Knox just stared at him, a war raging behind his eyes. Then he gave the smallest nod, a wordless surrender.
He wasn’t running.
He was choosing.
That was it. Dominic’s heart slammed against his ribs. He was hard—really fucking hard. His body making its interest brutally clear.
Fuck.
That’s when Knox’s gaze dropped to the unmistakable bulge pressing hard against Dominic’s pants, and he froze.
Dominic saw the realization flash across his face.
He watched the effect ripple through him: the flush crawling up his neck, the shaky inhale, the way his lips parted like he might say something before closing them again.
When Knox dragged his eyes back up, his pupils were blown, dark and hungry. That look sent a jolt through Dominic so fast it almost hurt.
Suddenly he needed to know. Needed proof this wasn’t just in his head. That whatever twisted, impossible thing had taken hold of him wasn’t his alone. So he let his eyes flick down, and there it was: Knox, just as hard.
They stared, the truth laid bare between them. Both of them were too far gone to take a step back. His mind screamed no, no, no, not possible—but his body had already decided.
He tried to breathe, to cling to the certainty he always carried, but it shattered under the weight of Knox’s nearness. None of this was supposed to happen. The confusion hit hard, loud and disorienting. He wasn’t supposed to want this; he was straight. He’d always been straight.
Instead of examining the crack splitting through his certainty, he did what came most naturally. He reached for control. If the ground was shifting beneath him, he’d make the rules.
Knox’s breathing had gone shallow, his chest rising and falling too fast. Dominic held his gaze for another beat, then delivered the command with unmistakable authority. “On your knees.”
Knox’s breath hitched. For a moment, Dominic thought he’d pushed too far. He was sure Knox would snap, tell him exactly where to shove his orders, walk away and leave Dominic alone with the wreckage of whatever this was.
Instead, Knox moved.
Slowly.
Never breaking eye contact.
He lowered himself inch by inch until his knees touched the floor between them.
The sight damn near broke him. Something fierce and possessive surged through him. This was reckless. He knew that. But knowing didn’t make the feeling disappear. If anything, it only fed it.
Knox tilted his head back to look up at him, jaw clenched tight, eyes blazing with pride, fury, and humiliation—along with something that looked far too much like want.
Then, because he’d already gone too far to stop now, he finished in a voice so low it barely sounded like his own. “Good boy. Now prove it. Make me come.”
In that breathless moment, nothing in the world existed except that order, and the boy on his knees who’d chosen to obey.