Chapter 31
Dominic
The elevator doors opened, pale morning light spilling in through the windows and cutting through the loft in long lines.
Knox followed him out. There was no energy left in him. It showed in the way he moved, the slight drag of his steps, his body trailing behind the rest of him. The night had gotten its hands on him and left marks.
Dominic felt his jaw tighten—he didn’t fucking like it.
“Go sit down for a bit,” he said, moving toward the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water and a banana, something easy that Knox didn’t have to think about. He brought both back and put them in Knox’s hands. “You need to eat and drink something.”
Knox looked at them like he’d forgotten what food was for, then ate without argument. Bite by bite. Swallow by swallow. Like someone who’d been told to keep functioning and was doing his best.
Dominic stood there and watched him. He didn’t like seeing him like this.
He felt anger rise, aimed at the woman in the hospital bed who kept doing this to him.
He didn’t care that she was sick; that wasn’t a consideration he had room for right now.
All he could see was what it had done to the boy sitting on his couch looking like everything essential had been scraped out of him.
Knox had asked to stay here. Said he didn’t want to go back to his apartment. Dominic hadn’t needed to think about it. There was no chance in hell he would have taken him back there. Knox just didn’t need to know that.
“Come on,” Dominic said. “Let’s go to bed.”
Knox looked up at him. “Your bed?”
“Yeah,” Dominic said. “My bed.”
Whatever it meant, whatever it changed, it didn’t matter right now. Knox was staying with him, close enough that Dominic wouldn’t have to question if he was alright.
Knox looked away. “I can sleep on the couch.”
“No.”
“I don’t mind—”
“Knox.” He waited until those blue eyes came back up. “You’re not taking the couch.”
“It’s your bed,” Knox whispered.
“I know,” he said. “That’s why.”
Dominic didn’t look away. Didn’t pretend it was an ordinary offer. It wasn’t. Knox knew it too. Dominic saw it in the brief hesitation, in the way his gaze dropped and lingered. Like he understood the significance of it but didn’t quite know what to do with that understanding.
“Okay,” he said eventually.
Dominic turned before anything else could be said and headed for the bedroom. He pulled open a drawer, grabbed a clean shirt, and held it out. “You can put this on if you want.”
Knox took it, his fingers brushing Dominic’s before stepping back. “Thanks.”
Then Knox started undressing. Nothing deliberate about it. Just a tired boy pulling his shirt off, but it captured every shred of Dominic’s attention anyway.
His hand moved for his phone without his eyes ever leaving Knox. Cassian picked up on the second ring. “Yeah?”
“I just got home. Going to bed,” Dominic said, watching Knox’s shoulder blades move as he reached for the clean shirt. “Don’t call me for a while.”
“What happened?”
“I won’t be reachable for the next few hours.”
“You’re not going to tell me why?”
“No. Later.”
Cassian exhaled on the other end. “Alright.”
Dominic hung up. Knox was pulling the shirt over his head, fabric settling into place. It was too big on him, the collar sitting wide, exposing the line of his throat. A possessive thrill moved down his spine before he could stop it.
Mine.
The thought was there before he could catch it.
He shut it down. “Get in,” he said, already pulling the covers back for him.
Knox climbed under without arguing and turned onto his side, facing away.
Dominic stripped to his boxers, faster than necessary, and got into bed before he could think about it too hard. He was done talking himself out of things today.
He reached for Knox and pulled him back. Arms around him, chest to spine, no space left. Knox’s breath hitched and his entire body went rigid, shoulders locked and muscles braced.
“Relax,” Dominic whispered against the back of his neck.
Knox didn’t. Not immediately. The tension held for a few more seconds, and then, slowly, it gave. His shoulders dropped and the rest of him followed, easing back enough to settle against Dominic.
Dominic tightened his arms around him and pressed his face against Knox’s hair, breathing in.
What am I doing?
He didn’t know.
What is this?
He didn’t know that either.
All he knew was that Knox was warm against him and wearing his shirt, and that the thought of letting go was physically intolerable. He’d held dozens of people at arm’s length for his entire life without effort—and this boy had walked through every single barrier like they were made of paper.
Knox’s breathing evened out as he fell asleep.
Dominic lay awake in the dark, not able to deny it any longer. The boy meant something to him. And he had no idea what the fuck he was supposed to do with that.
* * *
A few hours later, the sound of a phone cut through the dark. Dominic woke instantly. For a second, he didn’t move, disoriented, aware only of warmth and the fact that he wasn’t alone.
Then it clicked.
Knox.
They were tangled together, closer than when they’d fallen asleep. Dominic’s arms were still wrapped around him, legs intertwined, Knox’s back pressed flush against his chest. Knox stirred, shifting against him with a soft inhale before going still again.
The phone kept ringing.
Knox jerked awake. He twisted enough to fumble for his phone on the nightstand. “Hello?” Voice rough, thick with sleep. “Yeah—yeah, I’m her son.”
Dominic watched his face change. Sleep gone. Focus snapping into place like a switch. “She’s awake?”
Knox was already sitting up, pushing the covers back, moving before the call ended. “I’ll be there. I’m coming now.”
He hung up and swung his legs off the bed, running a hand through his hair, adrenaline replacing sleep in an instant. “They said she’s awake,” he said, like he needed to say it out loud to believe it. “I need to go.”
“I’ll take you,” Dominic said.
Knox glanced at him. “You don’t have to—”
“Knox.”
He shut up, nodded, and got dressed.
* * *
Dominic leaned against the hospital wall outside the room, arms crossed, eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
Knox had gone in a few minutes ago. The door had closed behind him, shutting Dominic out from whatever was happening inside. He didn’t try to listen. Whatever was being said in there wasn’t his. Not his place, not his business. Still, his gaze flicked to the door more often than he’d admit.
When it opened again, Knox stepped out looking worse than when he’d gone in. Dominic pushed off the wall. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah. She’ll survive.”
That should’ve sounded better than it did.
A doctor approached before Dominic could respond. “Mr. Wolfe? I’m the attending physician. I wanted to go over what happens next—”
“I know how it works,” Knox said. “Seventy-two-hour hold. Evaluation. Clearance before discharge.” He didn’t look at either of them, his hand dragging over the back of his neck. “It’s not the first time,” he mumbled.
Dominic went still.
The doctor adjusted smoothly. “Then you understand. We’ll keep you updated on her condition.” Knox just nodded, and the doctor moved on.
Dominic didn’t look away from Knox. “Not the first time?” he repeated.
Knox didn’t answer right away, eyes fixed somewhere down the hall.
Dominic took a step closer. “How many times?”
Knox let out a short breath, like it caught on the way out. “Fourth.”
Four times.
Dominic’s stomach twisted. “You found her all those times?” Disbelief bleeding into his voice.
Knox shook his head. “No. Once my dad did.”
That didn’t make it better.
“How old were you?” The question came out sharper than intended. “The first time.”
Knox hesitated. “Eleven.”
Dominic looked away. Had to. The anger came up fast and hot. He exhaled through his nose and forced himself to keep his voice level. “And what happens after?”
Knox gave a small shrug. “It’s always the same. Seventy-two hours. They monitor her, talk to her. She says all the right things.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”
“That she’s fine. That it was a mistake. That she won’t do it again.”
“And they believe her?”
Knox’s gaze flicked to the closed door. “They can’t keep her if she doesn’t meet the criteria.”
Of course they can’t.
“They offer her a longer stay,” Knox went on. “Voluntary.”
“Let me guess. She says no.”
“Every time. They also offer a therapy plan. She doesn’t go. And she’s already on everything they can put her on.”
Dominic looked at him properly. At how steady his voice was, how practiced all of it sounded. Like he’d lived it too many times to react to it anymore.
Eleven years old.
Four times.
And a woman who walked out every single time like nothing had to change.
“I want you out of that house,” Dominic said.
Knox blinked. “I can’t…”
“Yes, you can,” Dominic said, voice low but firm. “It’s not your job to keep her alive, Knox. That’s hers.”
Knox shook his head, pulling back. “You don’t get it.”
“I get it just fine,” Dominic said. “You’ve been doing this since you were a kid. That doesn’t make it your responsibility.”
Knox didn’t answer.
Dominic exhaled through his nose, forcing the anger down enough to keep control. “I’ve got an empty apartment. On the third floor of my building. Cassian’s got one up there too. It’s yours.”
Knox stared at him. “Even if I could leave her… I can’t pay rent on her place and my own.”
“You don’t have to pay me rent.”
Knox just looked at him. “Why?”
Dominic didn’t have an answer. Nothing that sounded rational, nothing that didn’t circle back to the same thing he couldn’t fully explain to himself. “I’m not letting you go back there,” he said instead.
“That’s not—” Knox shook his head, stepping back. “People don’t just do this for someone.”
“I do.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Yeah,” Dominic muttered. “Tell me about it.”
Knox paced, running both hands through his hair, tension radiating off him. “Dom, this is too much. I can’t just take your apartment. I can’t just—what, let you handle everything? That’s not how life works.”
“It’s just a place. It’s sitting empty. Nobody’s using it.”
Knox stopped moving, but the resistance was still written all over him. “What about her?” he asked. “What happens the next time this happens and I’m not there?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened. “She gets help.”
“She won’t go,” Knox shot back. “That’s how this always goes.”
Dominic stepped closer, voice dropping. “Then I’ll pay for it and make sure it actually happens. I’ll put people on it.”
Knox frowned. “You can’t—”
“I can,” Dominic said. “But not while you’re still there. Not while you’re the one thing standing between her and the next time.”
Knox’s eyes met his. The resistance was still there—the kind that came from years of being the only person who showed up.
But beneath it, barely visible, there was something that looked like relief.
Like exhaustion. Like a boy who’d been carrying too much since he was eleven years old and had just been told, for the first time, that he didn’t have to.
Dominic didn’t look away. “I’m not asking."