84. Dom
DOM
Every day I spent in that office was a drain on my soul. It had been one thing to hold it together when I could keep it separate from my home life. But now that Kiera knew, now that Spencer and Leo knew, it was growing harder and harder to pretend to myself that it wasn’t real.
The Oracle needs to burn that cesspool down already before I do it myself.
And the vitriol at home wasn’t making things any easier. Things with Kiera got better in bits and pieces before backsliding back to bad. Leo didn’t say a word about any of it, which was a comfort but not quite a relief. And Spencer…
Fucking Spencer.
She wasn’t interested in my apologies, my gifts, or any of my attempts to make it right. She claimed every inch of the house she could, every inch of Kiera she could, and tried to chase me off like I was some circling wolf.
And considering what my father had done to her family… I couldn’t really blame her.
I sighed as I reached for the front door knob, bracing myself for the waves of laughter from the living room — the happiness that was both so close, yet so far out of reach.
But as I swung the door open, I was surprised that there was no laughter or music or TV chatter. There was just dead silence, and then…
Thud, thud, thud!
Footsteps on the second floor, moving fast. My hackles raised instantly.
I shut the door silently behind me and reached for my pocket knife. The gun would be better, but that was upstairs. A kitchen knife, though… the blade would stab deeper.
Keeping my back pressed to the wall, I crept toward the kitchen, keeping an ear out for other intruders. I needed to know how many, where the fuck they were, and where the fuck was Kiera?
But before I could make it to the kitchen, I needed to pass the living room. And one look inside told me everything I needed to know.
“Those horny little fuckers…” I muttered, shutting my switchblade as I strode into the room.
Strewn all over the living room were skimpy piles of my roommates’ clothes. As I bent over to investigate, I didn’t have to guess which was Kiera’s. The little piped pajama shorts had been driving me wild for days.
No underwear. I’m guessing Leo will make a nice little trophy out of those…
My knuckles whitened as I clenched her shorts, resisting the urge to sniff them. I wasn’t sure what bothered me worse, that I’d been left out of their perverted little game, or that I wanted to take part in it.
The thought of Kiera running around my house naked, waiting, scared… it did more for me than I cared to admit.
Taking her in that train car had been a mistake. The second she wet my cock, it was like she’d infected my brain. If I thought she haunted my mind before, what had developed over the following weeks was a downright obsession.
And then the garage… I could still smell her spread out on my Camaro. She made me beg, she dangled herself just a few inches out of reach, and then she dared to take it away like this was some sort of game?
I’d been raring to make her pay for that one.
Time to show her that I play for keeps.
My thought was punctuated by the thunder of footsteps upstairs, more frantic this time. Their scrambling made me scoff.
They’re never going to find her. They don’t know where to look… But I do.
Tossing Kiera’s shorts back into the heap, I stalked through the hallway, dragging my fingers against the walls. When we were kids, Kiera and I had played hide-and-seek plenty, though the stakes were a bit different.
Hide, and you might make it through the night in one piece. Get caught, and be subjected to the monsters who were supposed to be our caretakers.
Not quite as fun as this. Though when I found Kiera, she probably wouldn’t think this version was very fun, either.
There was always this one spot Kiera would hide where no one else could find her… no one but me. And as the footsteps upstairs grew more frantic, I had a feeling that’s exactly where she was now.
Passing through the doorway to the kitchen, I took my time, letting my footsteps draw out. I knew that she could hear me — I could fucking smell her fear in the air, and I wanted to savor every last drop of it before I dragged her out and made her pay.
Drumming my fingertips along the counter, I stopped by one of the upper cabinets, opening in gently before slamming it shut again. As the bang reverberated through the walls, I could already picture her cowering, biting her lip to keep herself from whimpering.
God, I need to hear her begging for mercy.
Once I’d had my fill pacing through the kitchen, pretending to look through cabinets and behind bar stools, I turned on my heel and headed right for my final destination: the pantry.
It was a clever fucking spot, honestly. Behind all the shelves of dry goods and ceramic dishes, most people wouldn’t think to keep looking.
But I knew Kiera. I could feel her.
Kicking over a bag of sugar that was blocking my path, I sauntered to the very back of the pantry, to the cabinet tucked behind the last tall shelf. And though she tried to stay very, very still, I could still hear her shaky breathing through the door.
Jackpot.
I threw the dumbwaiter open and was elated to see my prey. It was a tighter squeeze than when we were younger, but Kiera’s flexible limbs let her tuck into the spot quite nicely. Though, even all curled up, she couldn’t hide herself from me.
“D-Dom?” Her eyes went wide with shock as she cowered against the wall of the dumbwaiter.
“Expecting someone else? I purred, my grin spreading from ear to ear as she shuddered. Her terror sent a buzz of excitement right through my core, and after the embarrassment she’d put me through, I wasn’t holding back. “What’s my prize, Viper?”