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“I’m saving your ass.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pocketknife to cut through the bindings. But before he could even touch the blade to the plastic, Rowe’s hard grip wrapped around his wrist, stopping him.
“You sure that’s our boy?” Rowe demanded.
Abe wanted to snap at Rowe, but he couldn’t blame the man for his caution. Just a moment earlier, he’d had the exact same thought. “He’s got the scar on his cheek. It has to be Dom.”
“No! He cut himself! He fucking cut himself!” Dom started shouting. He violently struggled in the chair; Abe had to draw the knife away for fear of Dom rocking the chair forward and accidentally hurting himself on Abe’s knife.
“Whoa! Whoa! What are you talking about?” Rowe placed both of his hands on Dom’s shoulders, gently forcing him to sit still in his chair. More footsteps echoed across the room, and Abe looked up to find Garrett crossing to stand on the other side of Dom. A worried expression dug deep furrows in his forehead.
“Q, Seth, how we looking out there?” Garrett asked.
“Everything is quiet,” Seth replied.
“Nothing on the police bands,” Quinn added.
“Dom,” Rowe said evenly, drawing Dom’s desperate gaze back to his boss. Abe’s heart went out to the man. He looked utterly panicked and terrified. “What happened?”
“James fucking cut his face. He’s got a scar like mine. You can’t trust the scar. We look the same again.”
Abe’s breath caught in his throat. He was still sure that the man sitting before him was Dom. Because he knew him on a deep level. And the old scar was still visible mostly under the new cut. Plus, only Dom would point out that James now looked like him, right? But if his brother was running around free, how long would it be before James crossed his path, attempting to impersonate Dom? He was sure that he would be able to tell the two men apart.
“Fuck,” Rowe muttered.
“Then tell us something that only we would know about you,” Garrett said. “If that would make you feel better since you think we don’t know you.”
Dom’s wide, frantic eyes darted between the three of them, pain clear on his face.
“How did we meet?” Abe prodded. He was sure that there was no way that James would be able to answer that question.
“I chased Rowe around the office in my underwear,” Dom instantly replied.
“What? That’s not how we met,” Abe said.
Rowe just snorted. “Yeah, it was.”
Dom looked at Abe and a little smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “I was sidelined after getting injured helping Sven. I chased Rowe through the office with my pants around my ankles, demanding that he put me on a case, or I wouldn’t put my pants on again. Rowe gave in and put me on Quinn’s case, protecting him when things went bad. That brought us together.”
Abe couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his lips as he looked up at Dom. “It all comes back to you not wanting to wear pants. I really shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Oh, God!” Quinn moaned over the earpiece. Both Rowe and Garrett laughed while Abe could feel his face turning bright red.
Dom looked from Abe to Rowe and Garrett. “What? What am I missing? It’s the truth.”
Abe lifted the knife to the zip tie and carefully cut through it, watching to avoid nicking Dom. “Quinn is listening in. We’re all wearing earwigs,” Abe explained.
Dom cringed. “I guess it’s time you have a little chat with your son.”
“He knows. He was there when we decoded that stick figure cipher,” he admitted as he cut through the last tie.
Reaching out, Dom cupped the side of Abe’s face and pulled him in close. His warm lips brushed tentatively across Abe’s as if he wasn’t quite sure that Abe would welcome his touch. Abe immediately opened his mouth, capturing Dom’s in a demanding, possessive kiss. He needed this, needed to know that Dom was truly safe and well. Dom melted, relinquishing himself over to Abe, letting his mouth be dominated.
Rowe cleared his throat, breaking off the kiss. “As lovely as this is, we need to get going.”
“Are you calling the cops?” Abe asked. He winced as he pushed back to his feet. His knees definitely didn’t appreciate the hard, stone floor.
“Boss, there was a body in the back,” Garrett said, his voice growing hard and serious. “One shot to the back of the head, execution style. Probably the owner of the bar.”
Rowe frowned at Dom, who was also standing with a protective hand to his ribs. He winced with each movement, and Abe was dying to get his hands on the man to make sure that he was truly okay. “I’ll take Dom and Abe back to the office. Maybe see if Jude or Snow’s free to take a look at him.”
