In Death I Live by Lindsay Becs
DOMONIC
Clumsily I pour moreamber liquid into the tumbler on my desk. More of it splashes over the sides than makes it into the glass pissing me off more than I already am. With a roar, I swipe my hand across the wood sending the crystal flying across the room until it shatters against the wall.
How did this happen? How in the actual fuck did he manage to hurt Grey one day and then take both River and Zora the next?
I spent the entire night after we barely made it back in one piece after the explosion scouring through everything. Each person we have working for us, every video of our surveillance, correspondence between tips and our coded messages. Every-fucking-thing. And nothing is out of place.
“Cruz!” I bark a yell at my friend who’s passed out on the floor. He’s been here with me all night looking through everything too. Except his ass drank too fast and he passed out an hour ago.
He didn’t wake from the glass I broke and my yell didn’t disturb him either. Standing up I go to him and kick my booted foot in his side. He grunts but only turns on his side, curling up into a ball. “Wake the fuck up,” I grunt at him in a slur as I wobble on my own drunk legs. I kick him again but this time I lose my balance and fall in a booming thud onto the floor.
“Get off me, you ogre. I only want baby girl to cuddle with me,” Cruz grumbles, tucking his hands under his cheek.
Shoving his shoulder, I roll to my stomach. “We need to sober up. We have to find them, asshole.”
Rolling to this back he rubs his palms in his eyes and then looks at me. “Do you think we will?”
My throat tightens. They’ve had them for more than half a day and we don’t have any leads to go on. It doesn’t look good. “We aren’t giving up on them.” Pushing up onto my hands and knees with another grunt and shove him again. “Get up. There’s something we’re missing. We need to look again.”
Cruz sits up and then slaps a hand over his mouth as he crawls to the trash can by my desk and pukes his guts out. “Better?” I ask with a raised brow when he falls back down on his ass.
“Let me shower. I’ll meet you in the kitchen and make some greasy food to help break down all that shitty whiskey you gave me.”
“Shitty whiskey?” I scoff. “You drank a hundred-dollar bottle all on your own, shit head.” Pushing up to my feet, I head for the door. “I’m going to get Grey to join us.” Cruz gives me a mock salute as I head over to Grey’s wing of the house.
The blast from last night hadn’t done Greyson’s already cracked ribs any favors. We shoved pain pills down his throat to knock his ass out when we got back and left him to sleep while Cruz and I attempted to find something.
Now, though, we needed his help. He was our people guy. If someone wasn’t where they were supposed to be or were being shady fucks, he’d figure it out. Between his connections and Cruz’s expert technical skills we have to be able to find something—anything.
* * *
An hour later,after taking a cold shower, I make my way to the kitchen. The smell of coffee and bacon hit me making my stomach growl.
Cruz lifts his chin in greeting toward me but he’s still looking rough after the night we had. I give a similar hello to Greyson who’s sitting at the bar counter sipping on coffee.
“How you feeling this morning?” I ask Grey, pouring a cup of Joe for myself.
He huffs a laugh into his mug. “I think better than you two.”
“Yeah. Probably.”
Cruz pushes plates in front of us piled high with eggs, bacon and toast. Walking to the fridge I pull out hot sauce and ketchup, handing them to Cruz and Grey, who both grunt their thanks dousing their eggs with their preferred shit.
We eat in silence, all of us shoveling food in our faces, each of us feeling guilty for eating a hot meal not knowing what is happening to River and Zora.
“Did you find any leads?” Grey asks after setting his plate in the sink.
Shaking my head, I mimic his movements setting my plate on top of his. “Nothing.” I refill my mug of coffee and sit at the table. “And it’s pissing me off.”
“Is Swan still at the cabin?” Grey asks, sitting down across from me, his arm wrapped around his ribs in a protective gesture but he doesn’t complain.
Running my hands through my damp hair I let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t even fucking know. He was the last thing on my mind after we took off after them last night.”
As if he was introduced, the man in question saunters into the kitchen looking a bit too chipper for my liking. “The fuck you so happy about?” I ask him.
His lips curve up into a grin that sends chills down my spine. “Just got word that something I ask for was delivered.”
“What did you fucking do? Where are they?” I ask as anger rises in me, vibrating through every cell of my body. This motherfucker.
“I simply showed you your weakness.” Swan says walking to the fridge and pulling out a jug of orange juice and pouring himself a glass. “I told you not to fuck up. You simply couldn’t listen and your girl was taken right from under your nose.” He passes a quick glance to Greyson as he says it.
Standing abruptly, I push up into him, bumping him chest to chest. “Where. Are. They?” I ask through clenched teeth.
He just stands there with an amused grin on his face, unphased. “Being tested on loyalty. Something you’d do good to put in check too, son.” His smile falls as he says the last word. I feel his hatred. His wish that I wasn’t here because I will never live up to what he wants me to be. No matter what I do, how evil I turn, how many lives I take… it will never be enough.
I raise my fist to hit him but he’s faster, pulling his gun on me. The cool metal hits under my chin. His head tilts to the side as he studies me. Cruz and Grey both watch, not moving to help now that I have a gun on me.
“Do as your fucking told, Domonic. For once in your miserable life, stay out of my way.”
“Why? What gain do you get out of having River and Zora?”
“It would seem that Mr. Vos stumbled across some… funds that he wasn’t supposed to.” His eyes glint in joy as he smiles again. “I see, you aren’t the only one keeping secrets from your friends.” He huffs a laugh but doesn’t move away from me or lower his gun. “And your Zora has something of value to me. I intend on getting it from her by any means necessary.”
I don’t say or react. I keep my cold dark eyes locked on his as he tries and fails to rile me up more. “How do you know this?”
“I received an interesting phone call last night.” He smiles wickedly. “Too bad you were dumb enough to fall into their trap. Maybe if you’d taken your cocks out of the equation you would have actually gotten them back. Now, they’re nothing but pawns. A means to an end for me. And for Shadows. It seems we might be able to work something out after all.”
“You didn’t have to do this.”
“Well, when a son goes against his father, it doesn’t leave me much choice, now does it?”
He lowers his gun only to lift it again and whip it across my face. My jaw aches from gritting it so tightly as I turn my head back to look at him, wiping blood from my face.
“Stay out of it, Domonic. If you need a pussy to sink into, there are still plenty out at the dying bonfire for you to choose from.” My hands clench into fists at my sides as he walks around me. “That goes for all you boys,” Swan adds as he leaves.
Once I hear the front door slam shut, I turn around and spit the blood that’s pooled in my mouth in the direction that he went. Then, picking up my mug of now cold coffee I throw it, shattering the second cup for the day.
I stand there, staring at the brown liquid drip down the wall, trying to reign in all the emotions at war inside me. A hand slides up onto my shoulder. “Sit. Let’s go through everything we know. We’ll find them.”
Turning my head to look at Greyson I feel myself beginning to crumble. Pressing my head against his, I give myself this one second of self-pity. Then, picking my head back up I look over at Cruz and then back to Grey, “Sit.”
We spend the next three hours combing through everything to see if we can find somewhere that Swan messed up. The only good thing to come out of this little chat earlier is that at least we know that Shadows wasn’t acting alone and that makes me feel a little better about myself and my abilities. But now that Swan is on his side, it makes everything more difficult. And urgent.