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He vanishes back inside the room and reappears a moment later.
“I have a key,” he says, holding it up. “Let’s check.”
Of course he does.
“I tried asking her mom if she’d seen Mack, but she said Mack’s not talking to her.” I chew on my lower lip. “We really fucked up their relationship.”
“We didn’t do that,” Dom growls. “We just told Mack the truth. It’s not our fault her mother is a fucking bitch. Isn’t it better she knows?”
“Sure,” I say, though I don’t believe it.
Sometimes not knowing is better.
I think then that maybe Mackenzie is right, and I do let Dom walk all over me at times. Not because I’m scared of him, but because he’s such a volatile fucker and half the time I can’t be bothered to get into it with him. In the future, I ought to say my piece more.
He opens her bedroom door to reveal an empty room. I step inside and blow out a breath. She’s not here. Just as I’d expected.
So, where the hell is she?
“Did she move rooms?” I suggest. “She might not have wanted to be so close to you all.”
Dom goes to her nightstand, opening drawers, rifling through her belongings. He makes no effort to hide that he’s going through her shit. Mack’s not going to be happy when she sees the mess.
“What are you looking for?” I ask.
He doesn’t reply but goes to the bathroom. Through the open door, I catch his reflection in the mirror and wince. His dad really did a number on him. Maybe in any other world, it would be considered a terrible thing, but we’ve all come from families where the patriarchal men are handy with their fists. Kirill has never told us in any great details about how his father treated him, but I’ve seen the scars—the white stripes from a whip, and the circles that are cigarette burns. His father beat him since he was old enough to walk.
A part of me resents Dom.
I don’t want to—he’s like a brother to me—but I can’t help it. I know I need to take responsibility for my own part in what happened, too. I should never have told him about what I’d filmed when I’d been spying on Nataniele and Lucia. If I’d only kept my mouth shut, none of this would have happened. We’d all be playing happy families, wouldn’t we, and I’d have Mackenzie’s heavenly body beneath mine every night.
Except Dom wouldn’t be happy. Lucia and Nataniele would be married, his mom would have been permanently replaced, and Mackenzie would officially be his stepsister. I almost envy him a little for having had that as a possibility. To be tied to her forever.
But then I’d opened my big mouth and fucked everything up.
And Dom still isn’t fucking happy.
Asshole.
Dom turns back to face me. “Her toothbrush is gone, and so are most of her toiletries.”
“She probably switched rooms.”
He arches one eyebrow. “And only took a few of her things? Why would she leave everything else here?”
I still don’t understand what he’s getting at.
He lets out a frustrated sigh. “She’s gone, Tino. Gone, gone. She’s left Verona Falls.”
If he’d punched me in the guts, I wouldn’t have been more shocked. “Fuck, no. With Lucia? She can’t have. I only just saw Mack’s mom.”
He shakes his head. “No, she must have gone alone.”
Anger surges up inside me. “Then you got what you wanted, didn’t you, D? She left. Are you fucking happy now?”
I want to punch him, to add to the bruises and grazes and swollen lip.
“Yeah,” he says, not looking at me. “I got what I wanted. Her bitch of a mother is still here, but I doubt she will be for much longer. She’s bound to go after her daughter, and it’s not as though Mackenzie is small enough to be physically dragged back.” His voice is flat, lifeless.
