“You can’t be here, you need to leave,” she deflects.
“I’m not going anywhere, Em.”
Her gaze snaps back to me. “If he comes back?—”
“Let him. I hope he does. I’ll teach that piece of shit a lesson for putting his hands on you.”
“He didn’t?—”
“Stop covering for him. You and I both know he’s the one leaving those marks on you.”
“You should go,” she says, her voice cracking as she speaks.
When she attempts to close the door on me, I stick myfoot out, stopping her. “I can’t,” I admit. She has no idea how deep I’m in. How, even if I wanted to walk away, I couldn’t.
“You can’t be here, Dom. Please. You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you know.”
“How did you even find out where I lived?”
“The owner of La Riviera is also my boss,” I reply, because telling her that I knew where she lived long before he handed me that slip of paper this morning is only going to scare her, and I don’t want that.
I can’t help her if she doesn’t trust me.
“He gave you my address? Seriously? I’m pretty sure it’s against HR policy to hand out my personal information like that.”
A small smile tugs at my lips. “He’s a mob boss, Em. I’m guessing his version of HR doesn’t leave much of a paper trail.”
“I …” She tries to suck in a deep breath, and that’s when I hear the whistle.
Shit, her asthma.
“Where’s your inhaler?”
“What?”
“I can hear the wheeze when you breathe.”
“I have it right here,” she says, releasing the door and pulling it out of her pocket, holding it up for me to see.
The sight settles me somewhat. “Let me see the rest of your face.”
“What? No!”
A low rumble bubbles in the back of my throat. “Let me in, Emily!”
Her eye widens again, but I know she’s hiding the rest of her face for a reason. I’m not fucking stupid.
Even as a kid, when my father used to slap my mother around, I had enough sense to notice when mum was hiding bruises from us … from her friends … from anyone who cared to look. You learn early what fear looks like when it’s hidden behind a smile.
“Dom, you can’t come in. I’m begging you, please leave.”
“Let me see for myself that you’re okay, and I’ll go,” I lie, because there’s no way in hell I’m leaving her here so he can come back and finish the job.
“You’re looking at me right now.”
“I’m looking at your fucking eye, Emily. Open the door and let me see the rest of your face.” I blow out a long breath, scraping my hand down my face, trying to calm down. “Please.”
