47
We couldn’t stay back at the Cabin after the gunfight, so we left. If Vaughn could have sent assassins to where we considered our safe place, then more could and would surely still come to finish up the unfinished work.
We barreled into Dominic’s rattling Isuzu and left the woods, none of us saying even a word to each other. Dominic looked mad—no—furious, as we drove down the road, his hands gripping the wheels so tight his knuckles turned white. His eyes were wild, glazed with anger, fear, and tears. He didn’t let them fall though and I dared not to try to console him, at that moment, he was racing down the empty road the fastest, the engine of the vehicle roaring in protest. The piece of crap rattling, the seat rumbling beneath me, the tires screeching against the asphalt floor like strangled banshees.
I gripped the seat beneath me, my back pressed against the leather, my nails digging, burning from clenching too tight. My chest heaved, my wide eyes stared into the darkness ahead, where the headlights could reach, and prayed we didn’t ram into any oncoming vehicle ahead. The rain had long stopped, and all that was left behind was the cold, damp air to remind us of the heavy downpours that lasted hours and ended with gunshots and bloodshed.
“We need to stop,” I muttered, my voice barely above a whisper. It got lost in the noise.
Dominic didn’t hear me, or he didn’t care. His foot stayed glued to the gas, and the car kept tearing down the road like it was trying to outrun a ghost.
“Dominic,” I tried again, louder this time, my voice shaking. “Slow down. Slow down!”
He didn’t even flinch.
I sucked in a breath, my nails digging harder into the seat. “Dominic, slow the fuck down!” I finally yelled, the words ripping out of me like a scream.
And then he slammed the brakes.
The tires screamed against the wet road, the car jolting so hard it felt like it might flip over. My body lurched forward, and I was thrown against the dashboard, my hands slamming into it with a dull thud. I didn’t have a seatbelt on, and for a second, I thought I was about to fly straight through the windshield.
“Shit!” I screamed, bracing myself, but before I could crash forward, Dominic’s hand shot out, grabbing my shoulder and yanking me back into the seat. The force of his grip made me gasp, my body shuddering against him as I clung to the door for balance.
The car skidded to a stop, the wheels grinding against the asphalt before finally settling into an eerie, tense silence.
For a second, all I could hear was the sound of my own breathing, shaky and uneven. My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath, my head spinning. My arms ached from where I’d braced myself, and my shoulder throbbed from the way Dominic had grabbed me.
I opened my mouth to say something. To yell, to scream, to cry, but before I could, another car roared past us, so close it made the Isuzu shudder.
The headlights flashed into the vehicle for just a second, blinding me, and then a voice followed—angry, loud, like a aging smoker. “Get the hell off the road, you idiots!” the driver yelled, his words sharp and strained.
I turned my head, still dazed, and saw the car slow just enough for the driver to roll his window down. “Park somewhere, or get the fuck out of the way!” he screamed, his voice echoing in the night.
And then he was gone, speeding off into the darkness, his taillights glowing like angry red eyes.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Dominic still hadn’t moved, his hand gripping the wheel so tightly it looked like he might rip it off. His chest was heaving, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts.
I sank back into my seat, my hands shaking, my heart still racing. The air felt heavy, thick with everything that had just happened and everything that still might. I glanced at him, but his face was unreadable now, his eyes fixed straight ahead like he couldn’t bear to look at me or the world outside.
“Dominic…” I started, my voice trembling, but the words wouldn’t come. All I could do was sit there, my whole body shaking, and wonder how much more we could take before one of us completely broke.
He didn’t say a word. Not immediately. He didn’t move, wouldn't move. But when he eventually did, his hands unclasped from the steering and he leaned back, slowly, almost as if he moved too fast he would snap into two. He pressed against the seat, his head tilted up, and that’s when the scream tore through his throat.
He screamed. Loud, barely suppressed, his voice near cracking, his voice…tears blurred my vision as I watched him. His hands trembled, shaking, unsteady as he raised them to his head and gripped his hair like he wanted to rip every strand out of his scalp. I couldn’t properly see him, but the headlights flashing into the road reflected against the windshield enough for me to see how beet red his face had become, to see how the tears poured down his face.
Dominic… looked mad with anger. He was fuming, so much he even inflicted the pain on himself by tugging at his hair like he was bent on ripping them out of his scalp. I had never seen him like this. We’ve had our share of traumatic backgrounds but I’d never seen him this way. It hurt me. It hurt me.
“Dominic,” I said. He wouldn’t or couldn’t hear me. I reached out, hesitantly, my hand hovering inches from his shoulder. I didn’t know if he wanted comfort or distance. But I reached out. “Dominic. Dominic.” My chest heaved, my breath quickened. He wasn’t listening. He wasn’t looking at me. “Hey, Hey! Dominic," I persisted, my voice barely steady as I reached out farther, my fingers brushing the edge of his shoulder. He froze at the touch, his trembling hands loosening their grip on his hair. Slowly, almost robotically, his arms dropped to his sides, the raw tension in his body unraveling like a frayed rope.
He turned his head toward me, his movements slow, deliberate, as if every second was dragging him through hell. When his eyes met mine, my breath hitched. His face was flushed, streaked with tears, his usually sharp and controlled gaze now rimmed with red and filled with something fragile and broken.
I couldn’t stop myself. My hand slid up to his hair, fingers gently weaving through the strands he’d been yanking at moments before. I pressed lightly against his scalp, my thumb moving in soft, circular motions like I was trying to soothe the ache he’d inflicted on himself.
That was it. His dam broke.
A strangled sound escaped him, halfway between a sob and a gasp, and his whole body shook. “Ellie…” he wheezed, his voice raw, almost childlike. “Ellie…”
I leaned in closer, instinctively, my own tears spilling over as I wrapped my arm around him. His head dropped forward, his forehead resting against my chest, and the next sob ripped through him so violently it made my heart shatter.
His shoulders quaked, his entire frame trembling as he clung to me, his hands fisting the fabric of my shirt like I was the only thing tethering him to this world. His cries were loud, unrestrained, each one breaking down the tough walls he’d built around himself for so long.
I held him tighter, one hand still stroking his hair, the other wrapping around his back. “I’ve got you,” I whispered, though my voice cracked under the weight of my own emotions. “I’ve got you, Dominic. I’m here.”
He buried his face deeper into my chest, his breath hot and ragged against me. “Ellie, I—” His voice broke completely, and another sob tore from him, his words drowned by the sheer force of his grief.
I didn’t say anything else. I didn’t need to. All I could do was hold him, rocking him slightly as his cries filled the silence of the car. The weight of everything—of Vaughn, of Analia, of the chaos we’d been running from—poured out of him like a flood, and I could feel it in the way his body shook, the way his fingers clung to me like I was his anchor.
It was the most vulnerable I’d ever seen him, the strong, fearless Dominic reduced to this fragile, broken version of himself. And it broke me.
Tears streamed down my own face as I pressed my cheek against the top of his head. “We’ll get through this,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince him or myself. “We’ll figure it out, Dom. I promise.”
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