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“Sorry to show up unannounced. My trip was last minute.” Dominic grabbed my hand and bent low, hair brushing my skin as he pressed his lips to my wrist. “You look as beautiful as ever.”
From some men, I wouldn’t have believed the words, but Dominic had never lied to me. Not when we were kids hiding crushes from our parents, and not when he was torn from my life, spirited two thousand miles away overnight. He’d never laid false promises at my feet or played me to get what he wanted. I’d given it all freely and without reservation.
No, Dominic was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
“Thank you.” I moved to one of the seats in front of my desk, waving him to the other, while Grey took his place behind me. When we were settled, I finally asked the one thing I was dying to know. “Why are you here, Dominic?”
Honey-gold eyes bored into me. “I heard you’re in need of some help.”
The loss of an integral member of my family was crippling news, but in our world, it was dangerous too. Underbosses were essentially heirs. Without a younger sibling for me to pass the throne to, Rey had become mine by default. Despite his reluctance at first, he was good at it. He was also the only one I’d trusted to take over. We’d trained for years for him to replace me, and now it didn’t matter.
With Rey gone, not only did we have a hole in the line of succession, we also had a massive hole in the empire in general. I didn’t have any options for a second heir. Greyson refused, despite his family and mine being closer than blood. He didn’t want to rule; he wanted to advise me and only me. None of the other men in our family were the type to wield as much power as I did. Not when they all had the seeds of corruption planted in them. I’d give it to Moore or Tennessee, but we all knew they didn’t have the support to hold the territory even if they’d wanted to. The other families would cut them down before I was even cold in the ground.
If I died before I found a new underboss, my family’s legacy was over. The other territory leaders would scratch and claw until everything Marcosa was safely distributed between them. I didn’t want to interview replacements, but I had no choice. Someone had to take over, and there was no one in my family I trusted to continue the work I’d done in the city.
In the years since I’d taken over, we’d killed off the skin and drug trades. Sex was always for sale, but we had stricter standards for the health and safety of the sex workers. People were not property—they were employees. They couldn’t be bought or sold. Not without their permission. I’d also laid out a blanket rule: no opiates distributed within Seattle limits. Our focus was on imports and exports, usually art, jewels, and stolen goods. We made more than decent money, but it was nothing compared to the cash we’d raked in when my father was alive. I didn’t care. I didn’t mind living in the darkness, but drugs was too far in the black hole, even for me.
Still, I knew that the moment I died, everything would revert. All the sanctions I’d placed on the other families would disappear, and the city would return to what it was before. The worst part was, there was nothing I could do about it. Not without an heir.
Feigning a calm I didn’t feel, I settled back in my chair like we were discussing the weather instead of my life’s work. “Possibly. Do you know anyone up for the job?”
Dominic mimicked me, leaning back in his chair, legs spread like he was the king in the room. Grey snorted behind me. “Me.”
My first instinct was to say absolutely not. The last thing I needed was Grey and Dominic in close contact all the time. They wouldn’t last a week before someone was maimed or dead.
“You can’t be serious,” Grey snarled.
“What’s wrong, pup? Don’t want to share your master?”
Grey stepped so close I felt the warmth of him on my back, and his voice was low and deadly. “She’s never been yours, and you know it.”
Dominic’s lips quirked into a smirk, and I knew I was screwed. “On the contrary. She’s definitely been mine.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. That was one secret I’d never divulged to Greyson for a reason.
I felt his pause, his hot gaze on my skin like a brand when I didn’t refute it. Then all I felt was his heavy disappointment.
Why was that always worse than someone’s anger?
“Grey, give us the room, please?” Dominic’s smirk grew, and I threw him a glare that promised pain if he uttered another word. He mimed zipping his lips, leaning back in his chair like he hadn’t just detonated a man-sized bomb in my world.
For Greyson’s part, he didn’t say a thing. He was just gone, the ever-silent soldier. My heart ached, knowing that, for the first time ever, we were out of sync.
I turned on Dominic the moment the door shut. “You’re an asshole for that.”
He raised a petulant brow. “What? It’s not my fault you never told him.”
“He didn’t need to know,” I growled.
“That I deflowered his best friend? I thought you two told each other everything. Besides, if I were him, I’d want to know.” When I didn’t respond, he shrugged. “I’d tell you I’m sorry, but we both know I’m not.”
Unrepentant bastard.
Praying for patience, I glared at him. “Just keep your mouth shut about our history while you’re here.”
“So, forever, then? Long time to keep secrets.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that leaked out. “Let’s be honest, Dominic. You’ll be out of here in a week.”
