86. Kiera
KIERA
As brutal as it was, whatever happened between me and Dom in the pantry had reset the equilibrium between us just a little bit. She was still annoying and stoic, and I was still tending to a bruised ego on top of my injuries, but at least we’d gotten out some of our frustrations.
Some of the sexual tension, too.
And lord knew we needed any kind of release we could get at this point. Two more weeks gone by put us two weeks past The Oracle’s deadline to transport us. But despite their promise, there hadn’t been a peep from their end since our visit to Delphi.
As annoyed as I was about being ghosted by those freaks, I could tell that no one was as bothered by it as Dom. I knew that for a fact because, despite her insistence we stay inside and heed The Oracle’s warnings for the past month, she was suddenly loosening our leashes.
Not far by any stretch — we were allowed back at Lucky Strike, and only at night when customers weren’t around. But after a month cooped up in the house, it felt like the universe had doubled in size.
Plus, more time from Gabe’s apartment meant the fervor to find me was starting to quiet. At least publicly. Dom was still certain that Zeus and Spyre were adding more and more resources to their hunt.
“God, it feels good to be home,” Leo stretched her arms as she headed back to the lockers.
But Spencer looked around the shop with a bit more arrogance. “It’s a wonder you were able to keep this place running without us.”
“I’ve got other employees, you know.” Dom crossed her arms.
“None as good as us,” Spencer corrected as she started toward the office in the back.
I never thought I’d miss hanging out in this shop — especially since one of my formative memories here was unwittingly cleaning up a murder vehicle — but much like Dom’s mansion, this place had started to feel like home in some strange way.
Most days, I’d love to sit around while my lovers worked and pretend to listen as they told me about the car parts and the tools and the repairs they were doing.
But someone needed to keep Lady company while they fixed up luxury rides. Plus, it had been a hot minute since I’d gotten to draw anything outside of the house. So today, I was parked on one of the small couches that made up our waiting area, sketching the three of them as they worked.
Spencer was doing an engine replacement on a vintage Mercedes, her muscles tensed and covered in grease as she got to work under the hood. A bit closer to me, Leo was doing some routine maintenance on Spencer and Dom’s bikes, along with some basic repairs on the motorcycles left by other Violence.
And just a few feet from my couch, Dom was completing one of the most intense detail jobs I’d ever seen on a shimmering black Jaguar. As I sketched her, I tried to capture the tension in her shoulders, the set of her jaw, and the focused furrow of her brow.
But she moved too much to be a good reference.
She’d probably hate that I was drawing her, too.
So instead, I turned my attention to the Lucky Strike cap Spencer had given me all those months back — the one Dom still made me wear each time I left the house without a wig.
I got to work copying over the logo, trying to nail the exact angles of the L and the S, when suddenly, a realization hit me.
“Lucky Strike…” I muttered, loud enough for only Dom to hear me.
“What about it?” She tilted her head, standing straighter as she turned to face me.
“Dad used to talk about it all the time. His retirement plan… he wanted to sell his shares and start a car shop. He was just waiting on his lucky strike before he clocked out.”
My heart warmed at the thought of my dad. He never did it of course and now I was starting to understand why. Just like Dom, he couldn’t walk away from Zeus until Isaac’s evil was extracted from the core of the company they built together.
My father just didn’t live long enough to see it happen.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who’d remembered his stories.
“Yeah well. It only felt fitting to give it a name that reminded me of him. He’s the first person who taught me anything about cars. Didn’t want scummy mechanics taking advantage of one of ‘his girls.’ But I also thought he’d appreciate the irony.”
“The irony?” I tilted my head.
“Well… no one who ends up at an autobody is all that lucky.”
The joke made me roll my eyes, but the laugh that bubbled from my chest was genuine. “Oh my god, that’s so corny. He would have loved it.”
And as Dom smirked back at me, I was overwhelmed with a feeling more clear than any I’d had in the past few months. Deep down to my core, I wanted to forgive Dom. To really forgive her.
So much of what had happened was out of her control. When we’d parted ways, she was just a kid trying to do her best. We both had been, and it wasn’t fair to hold our parents’ sins against her.
Even now, even as she sat in the belly of the beast day after day, all she was trying to do was fix her father’s mistakes while keeping her promise to mine. And I wasn’t sure that I could hate her for it.
It might be a while before I was able to fully move on from it, but I knew now with certainty that I wanted to try.
If nothing else, Dom had loved my father. And no matter how scary the world around us grew, at least that was something we would always share.
Looking into her eyes, I saw not glaciers, but clear blue skies. There was so much more that I wanted to say, so much I wanted to ask her about my father. But before I got the chance, a ping from her phone drew her attention.
“It’s time,” she frowned, scanning the text.
At their own stations, Leo and Spencer set down their tools, looking up at her in disbelief.
“Are you serious?” Spencer asked, holding her breath.
But Dom just started moving for the door. “Let’s go.”
The four of us plus Lady hopped into Dom’s Camaro, me and Spencer squishing together to ensure that the dog got a window seat.
On the drive over, Dom grumbled that it was ridiculous for us to bring her with us, but I could tell deep down that even she felt too guilty to leave her with a babysitter again.
We drove for a long time, leaving Valemont behind along with any other signs of life as we headed deep into the wilderness, past the mountains and toward the big open fields beyond.
I wasn’t sure how long the drive would be, and I wasn’t sure when I’d get a chance to use the bathroom again. How far away could his lawyer have been? But before I could ask, the sight of an airfield up ahead stole the question from my lips.
“...Is that a fucking jet?” I gaped.
“It’s not a train.” Dom quipped back.
In the middle of a vast chained field was a long stretch of asphalt with a jetblack airplane waiting to board: not a little two-seater, but a full-fledged private jet.
Before I knew it, Dom was pulling off the road and down the dusty road to the airfield gate — only the headlights illuminating our path. She’d hardly come to a stop when a security officer approached the car, taking a peek at all the passengers inside. “Name?”
“Dom Dumont.” Dom grumbled, flexing her fingers against the steering wheel.
“Business?”
“Ask your bird-brained bosses. They want us to meet with some lawyer.”
Looking down at a clipboard in her hand, the security guard nodded. “Come on through. And have a safe flight, ladies.”
She pressed a button in the control station, causing the chain link fence to part up ahead. Dom drove through like this was any random Tuesday, like she rode on private jets everywhere she went.
But while I’d seen tons of expensive houses, I’d never seen anything quite like this. The size alone was shocking, even in the dark of night. The tarmac was lit up by overhead lights and flashing LEDs embedded in the concrete.
The jet was smaller than the commercial airliners I’d been on before, but I’d always entered those through the tunnel. Approaching an airplane from the outside, it was hard to grasp how something so hulking was supposed to defy gravity.
Or how something like this could be just for us.
Once we were within walking distance of the jet, Dom pulled the Camaro off to the side, gesturing for all of us to get out.
A chipper attendant in a black windbreaker hustled over just in time for Dom to toss her the keys.
“Put a single mile on this car, and I’ll show you what the undercarriage looks like. ”
Her smile faded as she swallowed hard. “Noted.”
Before Dom could lodge any further threats at our poor helper, a flight attendant in a black pantsuit with a silk scarf around her neck stepped down the staircase leading up to the jet. “Good evening, Ms. Dumont. My name is Ashley, and I’ll be your flight attendant. Can we help you with any bags?”
“No, thank you,” Dom murmured. “This should be a short trip.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off of the flight attendant as she led the way up the stairs. She was so elegant and poised — the type of beauty that, in a different life, might have teased out my insecurities just through her proximity. I’d grown so wary of beautiful women in Gabe’s company.
But, while they were as sweet and kind as ever, my lovers gave me no reason to worry about their intentions. They were all about me, helping me up the stairs, making sure Lady was attended to.
And in all the stress of this meeting and The Oracle and the dangers surrounding us, I was surprised at how much relief I felt. It was nice having partners whose respect for me wasn’t just a performance, but a part of every little thing they did.
As we boarded the plane, the air escaped right out of my lungs.
The cabin was spacious despite its relatively small footprint.
On the left side of the aisle, four white leather recliners were grouped around a polished wooden table.
On the right, two more leather seats were set apart with a perfect view out one of the windows.
Gleaming wood accents along the baseboard and back wall brought much needed warmth into the space.
Excited to explore, Lady hopped right up onto the leather seats, taking up two seats on her own as she stared out the window at the employees jutting around below.
While the rest of us got settled in, Dom made her way straight to the cockpit, grumbling a brief greeting before instructing the pilot to hide our flight path.
“Jesus…” Spencer grumbled, “Can she just let a woman do her job?”
“She’s just trying to keep our little Princess safe,” Leo murmured, pulling me into the seat beside her. As my head nestled into the crook of her neck, warmth tickled through my chest.
There were few things that felt as good as my lovers’ hands pulling me closer. And everything about this jet just felt so sexy and luxurious. If I weren’t so exhausted. I’d be tempted to do a little more than just cuddle.
It’d be as good a place as any to join the mile high club.
But as the doors sealed and the jet prepared for takeoff, the reality of what we were doing quickly crushed those naughty desires. What waited for me on the other side of this plane ride was a world of danger.
Once the lawyer got through the paperwork, I would officially take my place on Zeus’ board, right next to Dom. We’d have to kick Isaac out of the company, seize control, and turn the entire operation over to the authorities.
And that assumed that we could survive whatever Gabe and Isaac had in store for us once we showed our hand.
The thought of facing them down again — the two men who’d been controlling my life from the shadows all of these years — was enough to make my chest burn. But if I had to face them, at least I knew I could count on my angels to keep me safe.