55. Epilogue

Leonie

Seven months later

Dom had been grinning since he woke me at 6 am. He crept around his apartment we now both called home and popped his head around doorways to grin at me before scampering off with little laughs.

Only I saw this weird side of him.

But he was ecstatic today.

And annoying.

Rocco groaned as I smiled to myself when Dom peered into the kitchen for a second, made eye contact with me and then sang as he walked away, “The death trap is going, going… gone!”

“Not yet,” I called after him. “I can still change my mind!”

“No, you cannot,” Roc argued on my laptop screen. “Every time I drive behind you in that thing, my heart is racing. It needs one of those ejector seats.”

I raised and lowered a shoulder. “It’s done me well.”

“It will be the death of you, Leonie.”

“I have a fancy new car to get today,” I moaned. I was grateful I could afford a brand-new car, but it felt like the end of an era.

Dom came back into the kitchen, placing my trainers by my feet. “Sorry, Roc, we’ve got to go and put the death trap in a museum.”

He laughed through the screen. “Let me know if you’re not going to make it back in time and I’ll grab your mum.”

“Thanks, Roc,” I said, grabbing my car keys off the side for the last time. “Let me know how that other thing goes.”

He gave a knowing nod and disconnected.

I slid my shoes on, using Dom’s outstretched arm for support and ignored his cocked brow.

“Well? What is this other thing?”

“Issy,” I admitted, avoiding eye contact. This topic would only dampen his mood. “He’s going to try and persuade her to come to our housewarming.”

Dom made a drama of glancing left and right. “Well, good luck to him.”

She hadn’t spoken to me in person since that night in Ivan’s kitchen when two bodies hit the ground. All of my texts were ignored and then my number was blocked. She refused to see Dom if I was there, but they met for coffee weekly in Osburn during his lunch break.

When she saw Dom, she forbade my name.

Whether it was leaving her, being with Dom, or the fact I had kept that we were related a secret for months, I wasn’t sure. She could take her pick.

Gone for months, I’d had anger to keep myself together. I’d held her accountable like Dom and everyone else.

But every day without fail, I found something I wanted to tell her about. Whether it was sending her a funny video or a memory of something stupid.

And not being able to stung my eyes on the best of days.

Dom promised he would find a way to right it, but I knew Roc was already on the case.

Dom offered his hand for me to take, but I didn’t hold it. Instead, I dropped the car key in his palm. He frowned at it before glancing up at me with a dry look. “No.”

“You promised to drive her one day,” I reminded him. “This is your last chance.”

He didn’t say anything but rolled his eyes and took my hand.

At the garage, he hesitated before getting in with a drawn-out sigh.

The car dealership was in Osburn and I settled in for the long drive, feeding him blackberry-flavoured sweets as he complained about the wheel being stiff, the breaks being slow, the way the car guzzled petrol.

“I should have set this thing alight along with the house,” he grumbled.

I couldn’t help but laugh and he had a chuffed smile as I did. The east wing of my family home had been burnt to a crisp, along with the bodies of Anton and Firdman.

Some people in my shoes might be devastated, but it had been my idea.

Now, I could go back inside without my heart beating so fast it might give out. We had remodelled that side of the house: the kitchen, my parents’ bedroom, the library and my room. We’d built an annexe at the back for my mum to join us on weekends too.

The fire had been cleansing.

“Did you know…” I asked before taking a bite of my sweet.

I paused, chewing for too long, so Dom said, “I didn’t, honestly.”

I slapped him lightly. “Did you know I find you driving ridiculously attractive?”

His smile was amused. “Even in this thing?”

Nodding eagerly, I threw another sweet in my mouth, admiring him. Lately, a smile came easily to his features. It made me giddy. His dimples, the way his eyes creased with humour. The way he enjoyed life.

He was still broody, threatening and lethal and made my knees weak, my breaths hitch and turned my insides to fluttering butterflies with those dark looks.

“Knew I had you as soon as you climbed on my lap in the car,” he bragged.

“Oh, really?” I teased.

“Didn’t doubt it for a second. I’m a cocky bastard.” His eyebrows pinched together. “We do have a lot of car sex now that you mention it. We going to break in the new one?” Those brows rose with a half-smile that had my body tighten.

“Yes.”

He chuckled at how quickly I answered and pulled into the car dealership. “Say goodbye, Leonie Lion.”

I leaned over to pat the wheel. “Bye.”

We picked up the new car, which was like driving a spaceship compared to my beat-up four wheels, grabbed lunch and picked up my mum from Coalhaven. She was in one of those moods in the back of the car, fidgeting, hardly responding to the friendly questions Dom or the nurse asked.

She was as nervous as I was about spending our first night in the old house.

She’d wanted to move in permanently, and with live-in nurses, I wanted that, too. But we needed to build up to it. Only four months ago, she’d seen in a newspaper about the house burning down, which had set her back.

The front of the house was much the same, apart from the paint job. It was now back to the pristine white of its prime.

I watched Mum carefully. Her eyes roved over the house. She seemed to be in awe, but her tone was concerned. “The door was blue. I thought there was a fire.”

“We cleaned it all up,” Dom said, a hand on her shoulder. “There are a few changes, but we showed you the pictures, remember?”

She nodded once, not taking her eyes off the front door. “The kitchen is all dark now. The window is fixed. I want to see the fixed window.”

“Yeah,” I said and guided her up the steps. She looked around feebly. “Remember, this is just a first visit, Mum. We’re going to take it as slow as you want and if you want to go back home at any point, we can do that.”

But she frowned at me. “This is home.”

Dom slung his arm over my shoulder and pulled me close to him as he kissed my temple. “This is home,” he agreed, but he wasn’t looking up at the building, instead down at me.

Home.