9. Dominic

CHAPTER 9

Dominic

“ I have a question,” Madelyn starts, stepping through the doorway of my office awfully early on a Friday morning.

I was in the middle of taking off my jacket. I turn to look at her as she saunters in, her every curve on display in one of those tight dresses she insists on wearing at the expense of my sanity.

“Yes, you should absolutely knock before walking into my office, Flowers. Glad I could help,” I say dryly.

“The door was open,” she points out.

“You could still knock.”

“Whatever,” she says, brushing off my complaint. “This is serious, Dominic.”

She’s acting a little too hyper for eight o’clock in the morning.

“How many cups of coffee have you had already today?”

She pauses to think about it, then replies, “One… and a half.”

I level her with a hard look. “One day you’re going to drop into a coffee-induced coma and I’m going to have to find a way to wake you up.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” she says, her lips twitching.

I roll my eyes. “What’s your serious question, Flowers?”

“Oh, right. Which one do you prefer? Tinsel or glitter snowflakes for the corner of your desk?”

I stare at her like she’s grown two heads. “What are you going on about now?”

“I noticed there weren’t any Christmas decorations in here so I’m taking it upon myself to inflect some festiveness. So, tinsel or glitter?”

“Neither,” I deadpan.

“Tinsel it is, then,” she says on a grin.

“Keep your paws away from my office, Madelyn.”

“Uh-huh, I’m going to pretend to actually listen to you,” she states.

I simply sigh before falling into my chair. She’s still in the office when I look up.

“Can I help you with anything else?” I question.

She nods. “Yeah, I’m waiting so we can go to the morning debrief together.”

“I’m not interested,” I say blandly. Anything of importance can be relayed to me by Joshua later.

“Come on, Dominic. I know you’re best friends with Joshua and all, but you could at least put in some effort into interacting with your other coworkers.”

I shoot her an inquisitive look. “Why?”

“Because,” she flounders for a response for a couple of seconds before saying, “it’s nice.”

“If I’ve ever given you the impression that I care about being nice, then I fully apologize. My bad.”

“Okay, good point. You’re an asshole,” she says in agreement. “But you’re also coming to the meeting with me. It’s fun. There’ll be donuts after.”

“I don’t like donuts.”

She gasps like I just threatened to kill her puppy. “Donuts are an essential part of the job. Are you sure you’re even FBI?”

“Madelyn, you’re bothering me. Shoo,” I say with a wave of my hand.

“Why don’t you like donuts?” she questions, focusing on that little tidbit for some reason.

“I’m not a fan of sugary things.”

She blinks, then says without skipping a beat, “But it’s scientific, Dominic. Sugar solves approximately ninety percent of stress-related issues. The other ten percent? Punching someone in the face.”

I nod in agreement. “The other ten percent works well enough for me, thanks.”

She just stares at me like I’m an alien for several moments before rounding the desk to grab my arm. Her hands wrap around it and despite the layer of clothing, it’s impossible to ignore the current of electricity that rolls through me at her touch. And she must feel it too, because her grip slackens and then she lets me go all together.

“Just come to the meeting with me,” she murmurs, avoiding my gaze.

I sigh. I thought Joshua and Carly were bad, but Madelyn is definitely the most infuriating person I’ve ever met.

“Fine,” I mutter, getting to my feet. “Let’s go to your stupid meeting.”

Her eyes brighten with triumph and she leads the way out of my office. We’re the last ones to arrive for the debrief. It would seem they were waiting for us, actually. Or at least waiting for her since she’s the one that usually attends the meeting. Madelyn offers Joshua an apologetic smile before we take our seats.

“Now that our wonderful intelligence analysts are here, we can begin,” Joshua says.

They start by talking about a recovery operation slated for later that day. I tune out the conversation, seeing as I am not a field agent and it doesn’t concern me. They’ll need surveillance for the operation, but I’m sure Madelyn’s got that.

Soon after, Joshua’s attention turns to us both.

“Hale, Flores, please tell me you’ve had some sort of breakthrough on the Torres case,” he prompts.

I speak up before Madelyn can. “I’ve been working to recover the doctored footage. So far, I think I can narrow down the possible locations for his hideout. I’m sure we’ll smoke him out soon enough.”

Joshua smiles, offering me a small nod. As soon as he’s turned away, Madelyn leans in closer to whisper.

“Is it just me, or is someone trying awfully hard to be the teacher’s pet?”

“Or maybe someone’s focusing on the job instead of… tinsel arrangements.”

She wrinkles her nose. “We’ll see who saves the world faster, won’t we?”

It’s not a competition but it’s genuinely amusing to see her working so hard to be better than me. I don’t mind, though. I’m down for anything that brings out that fire in her eyes.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Madelyn says to me once Joshua ends the meeting twenty minutes later.

“As expected, it was a waste of my time.”

She shakes her head with a sigh. “You have no joy.”

Everyone immediately heads over to the small table in the room where donuts of every flavor have been placed. I curl my lips in distaste as I watch them fawning over the different kinds. Madelyn practically weeps when she spots a cinnamon one.

I shake my head once before starting to walk out of the room. My steps fall to a stop, however, when that fucker Kenneth approaches Madelyn. She bites into her donut as she looks up at him, listening to whatever the fuck he has to say.

I stare at them both for only a couple seconds later before leaving. I will eventually have to deal with Kenneth. Let’s just hope I don’t have to use drastic methods to do so.

After work, I drive to a café in the middle of the city. It’s a popular spot and was intentionally picked for that reason. I navigate through the crowd until I’m inside the restaurant.

I find the person I’m looking for in less than five seconds. Her platinum blonde hair is a dead giveaway. She gets to her feet when I reach her and I allow her to pull me into a hug.

“I can’t believe we haven’t seen each other in two months,” Camila says against my neck.

She releases me and I smile before taking the seat opposite her. “We’re both busy people, cousin.”

“Yes, but still. I miss my baby cousin.”

I roll my eyes at that. She’s been calling me that since we were younger despite us only been two years apart. She and I grew up together. Marco Vitelli might be a slimy piece of shit, but he was kind enough to raise both Camila and I. We both lost our parents when we were young. Camila was his niece, so he might not have had much of a choice with her, but I wasn’t directly related to him.

She’s my cousin on her mother’s side, and her mother was married to Marco’s brother. It’s all pretty fucking complicated but the point is, Marco’s not my uncle. Every member of my family is dead apart from Camila.

“So, what have you been up to?” Camila asks excitedly.

I shrug. “Just the usual stuff.”

She makes a face. “We’ve talked about this, Dom. I’m family. You can tell me anything.”

I stare at her for a couple of moments, my eyes meeting her brown ones. Then I sigh. She’s right. If I can’t trust her, then I can’t trust anyone.

“I found her,” I finally say.

Camila doesn’t even need to ask me to clarify who I’m talking about. It’s a testament to how hard I was searching for Madelyn that she immediately knows that it’s her. Her eyes grow wide and she places a hand over her mouth.

“Oh my god. I can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad thing that you found her,” my cousin states.

“The jury’s still out on that one,” I mutter.

“You’re playing with fire, Dom. Just be careful, okay.”

“You know I always am.”

She’s still frowning, her brows furrowed. “Is she the reason you joined the FBI? What’s the relationship between you two?”

“We’re.. friends.”

“Seriously?” she asks, disbelief gracing her features.

“No. Not seriously,” I admit. “Every day I struggle between wanting to throw her onto a bed and claim every inch of her, and also stay the fuck away and never go near her again. Friendship is more of a temporary compromise.”

Camila’s lips part. “Oh, okay. I see the situation’s already a clusterfuck.”

“Tell me about it.” I smirk. “But enough about me. What’s going on with you?”

Her eyes immediately brighten. “Oh yeah. The real reason I wanted to meet up with you was to tell you that I’m pregnant, Dom.”

I hear the happiness clear as day in her voice. And I’m so glad because if there’s anyone who deserves to be happy, it’s her. Camila’s been through a lot, from losing her parents in a fire at a young age to fighting and clawing her way to the top of an organization that barely respected her.

She’s strong as fuck and I admire her for it. Like me, she currently has a seat at the most coveted table in the Cosa Nostra. Not many people have the balls to do what she does.

“Congratulations, cousin,” I tell her. “You’ll be an amazing mother. Give me a call if Lukas does anything wrong, I’ll take care of him immediately.”

“‘Lukas’ and ‘wrong’ don’t go together in the same sentence,” she says, defending her husband.

The two of them are disgustingly in love. The brooding, silent Russian practically worships the ground she walks on. Camila starts telling me about all the plans for the baby. She wants a girl but she’s almost sure the baby will be a boy just to fuck with her.

I listen to her attentively as she speaks, glad to still be able to have moments like this with her.

“I’ve been thinking, Dominic. Why don’t you just come out?”

I arch an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware I was gay or in need of coming out.”

“Funny,” Camila deadpans. “I meant why don’t you just reveal your identity? It’s time to come out of the shadows. It’s been years, Dominic. You shouldn’t have to hide anymore.”

My jaw tightens. “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been lying in wait.”

Camila offers me a sympathetic look that makes it clear she doesn’t believe me. She shouldn’t—even I don’t believe that bullshit.

“If you reveal yourself, he might come for you, and then you can end it all once and for all. You don’t have to keep living in torment, Dom,” she says softly, placing a hand on mine.

I don’t jerk away from her hold. I lean into it, in fact, before exhaling a soft breath.

“What if I deserve that torment?”

“You don’t,” she quickly says, her expression pained.

I count three breaths before looking into her eyes. “What would coming out entail, exactly?”

“Nothing much,” Camila assures me. “You could simply show up physically to table meetings. And maybe I could see you more frequently instead of meeting in crowded places like this.”

The reason we don’t meet up often is because she’s a pretty high-profile woman in the Cosa Nostra, which means eyes are always on her. And my identity is meant to be a secret. No one is supposed to know our connection to each other.

“Fine. I’ll consider it,” I inform her.

She beams. “You’d better. I hate that you keep having to go through life like a ghost. Reclaim your identity, Dominic. You’re a real person, not a shadow.”

I don’t mention to her that the shadows are a part of me. The only reason I’m going to do as she suggests because I really do think it’s time to draw that bastard out of hiding.

Soon enough, Camila has to leave. We both get to our feet and she gives me a hug once again. When we pull apart, she stares at me hesitantly for a second.

“Just spit it out,” I prompt when she doesn’t speak.

“It’s about her,” she says tentatively. “You realize it’s going to hurt, don’t you, Dominic?”

I let out a harsh exhale. “Actually, cousin, I’m counting on it.”