10. Kiera
KIERA
“Like hell you are!” All the easy-going air vanished from Viv’s face. Her perpetual smirk was quickly replaced by the stoney ire of a lawyer ready to decimate the opposition counsel.
Her strong brows furrowed into a deep rut, her lips flattened into a tightly pressed line, and her arms crossed over her chest. It was the most Dom-like she’d looked all day.
A step higher on the porch, she glared directly into Dom’s eyes as her voice hardened to ice. “You think you’re too good to share?”
Dom took a half-step back, ceding ground to Viv as she tried to reconcile the prosecutor across from her with the homely woman who’d been so eager to show off her garden. “That’s not what I —”
But before she could lodge a defense, Viv turned on her heel to face the rest of us. “No need to divvy up the floor. Kiera and Dom will share a room.”
“Seriously?” Dom balked. The suggestion alone looked like it made her sick, which only made Viv double down.
“Seriously. I don’t know what you’re used to, but entitlement won’t serve you well here.
And the look on your face is enough to tell me that you haven’t accomplished what the Oracle set out for you two.
You can barely tolerate each other through a thirty minute garden tour, and you want me to believe that you’re an effective enough team to take down Zeus? ”
That was only thirty minutes? It felt like hours…
Maybe she had a point. But surely there was another way we could accomplish team bonding.
“Miss, um…?” I stalled out. I’d only ever called her Mrs. Dumont as a child, but given the circumstances, I was guessing she didn’t use that name anymore.
“You can just call me Viv.”
“Viv…” I offered awkwardly, “I’m totally okay to share a room with Spencer and Leo. If Dom wants her privacy, then—”
“It’s not happening.” Vivienne cut me off. “Think of it as exposure therapy.”
The walls were closing in. There was no way to explain to her what a bad idea this was. I turned to Spencer and Leo for help, but Leo just shrugged her shoulders. “She’s not entirely wrong, Kier.”
“What?!” My jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
“We’ll miss you.” Spencer offered sheepishly. “But it’ll only be a few nights.”
I couldn’t believe it. My two angels were throwing me to the big bad wolf without a hint of regret. As I looked between them and Viv, I couldn’t make any sense of this situation. It seemed like I didn’t have a single sane ally left in the state of Washington.
No one understood my despair besides Dom. In fact, the suffering seemed doubled on her face. And somehow, that pissed me off even more.
I don’t know why she’s acting like I’m some big fucking punishment. This is her fault anyway.
But that’s when it hit me: Dom hated this even more than I did.
It was written all over the set of her jaw, the shifting eyes, the slight hunch of her shoulders. So as she flicked her icy blue eyes down to meet mine, I welcomed them with a warm grin.
Because if I had to suffer, I would make certain that Dom suffered more.