The Sacrificial Lamb (27 page)

Domenic decided to make dinner. Alex had been in charge of the meals lately, and that wasn’t fair to her. He pulled out a small barbeque from the shed and made some steaks with baked potatoes. That was an easy enough meal, and it didn’t heat up the cabin any more.

He debated knocking on Alex’s door to let her know dinner was ready, but then heard distinct movement coming from her room and knew she would be out soon. Sure enough, her door swung open a couple of minutes later, and she came out, rubbing her eyes. She sniffed the air appreciatively and gave him a tentative smile.

“Thanks for cooking dinner,” she said sleepily.

“I realized I haven’t been doing much around here.” Domenic shrugged and put the plates on the table.

They ate in silence, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. While in a way Alex was making it very easy for him to keep his pact, Domenic still found it difficult to maintain. He missed her. He missed her smiles and her laughter. He missed her pretty blushes when she caught him looking at her in a certain way. He missed their easy banter. He even missed arguing with her.

When both of them were done, he cleared the table and began cleaning up.

“I can take care of that,” Alex offered. Domenic shook his head and waved her off. She stood nearby, and it seemed like she was trying to get up the courage to talk to him. Then she sighed and turned away.

He finished wiping the dishes and putting them away, taking his time in the kitchen and looking out the window at the approaching night. The setting sun was throwing streaks of red, orange, and a deep bruised purple across the horizon. Twilight was now a sad time for him as it signaled the end of another day. One day closer to the end of his time with Alex.

A deep sense of melancholy accompanied him as he went to take a seat. Domenic couldn’t fight the feeling that his plan was utterly ridiculous. He was arguing with himself incessantly.
Why not just lay all my cards on the table and let the chips fall where they may?
He could tell Alex how he felt about her and see what her reaction was. What would be the harm? The harm would be when she scoffed at him and made him feel like an imbecile for being such a pussy.

“Okay, that’s
it!”
Alex’s voice broke through his mental debate, and he turned to look at her. “What the fuck is your problem?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You finally open up to me, and then you run away like a scared little girl!” Alex’s face was red and her hands were balled into fists. “At first I figured you were just a little freaked out about telling me all that stuff, but now you’re pissing me off.”

“Oh, well excuse me for pissing you off.” He snickered. “I’m just trying to keep us both safe from Liseni assassins. My apologies if it bothers you so much.”

“Oh no you don’t! You can’t play that card every time. That’s bullshit anyway!”

“What do you mean, bullshit?” His ire was beginning to rise. “We’re still in danger!”

“Yeah, well we were in danger before, and I didn’t have to sit through all this brooding crap!” Alex insisted, staring at him balefully.

“I am not brooding!”

“Yes, you are!” she said, throwing her hands in the air. “Ooh, big, bad mob guy gets a little vulnerable. Then all of a sudden Dom the Douche makes an appearance!”

“Dom the Douche? Who the fuck are you calling a douche!”

“You! You’re a douche!”

“Is that supposed to bother me?”

“It’s the truth!”

“What do you want from me, Alex?” Domenic yelled, reaching his maximum allowance of patience.

“I want you to stop acting like a dick! I want you to be Domenic from before!
My
Domenic!” She stopped yelling when the last words came sailing out of her mouth, shocked by her own admission.

“Sorry, Alex. That man doesn’t exist,” he answered, before getting up and walking to his room.

Alex yelled unintelligibly before something struck his door and bounced off. Domenic cringed at the noise and stood there waiting to calm down. Well, he’d wanted her to yell at him, and she hadn’t disappointed.

“Dom the Douche,” he said mockingly and went to the bed. He threw himself backward, frowning.

Alex’s words kept coming back to him. Of course she was able to hit right at the heart of the matter. He had shown an ounce of vulnerability and then ran away scared. She didn’t know the depth of his feelings toward her, but now Domenic wasn’t so sure that she would turn him away if he admitted how he felt.

What had she said?
I want
my
Domenic back.
Her Domenic. Yes, he was hers, in more ways than she even knew. Was it possible she wanted him the same way? Did she also feel this incredible connection between them? Why was he so scared to find out?

Domenic argued back and forth with himself for another half hour before he came to a decision. He was sick of trying to stay away from Alex.
Resistance is futile,
he thought, smiling to himself. Russell had been right—when you met the person you wanted to spend your life with, you just knew. Domenic didn’t know if it was possible for Alex to spend the rest of her life with him, but he was done squandering the time they did have together.

Getting up from the bed, he walked out to the living area. It was empty. Domenic looked at the bathroom door and it stood ajar. With growing unease, he stepped over to her bedroom and knocked on the door. Silence.

“Alexis?” he said, knocking once more. “Alex, I’m sorry. I was a jerk. Can I come in?” Still no answer. Domenic turned the knob, giving her a chance to stop him if she didn’t want him coming in, and pushed the door open. “Alex?” he called, poking his head in.

Domenic looked around the room and then stepped in fully. His stomach did a nauseating roll as he realized the room was empty. He turned frantically, knowing he wouldn’t find her anywhere in the cabin.

Alex was gone.

T
HAT
W
AS
I
T
. She’d had enough.

After throwing the book at Domenic’s door, Alex got up and paced back and forth. She considered barging into his room but then changed her mind. She wasn’t interested in talking to the emo bitch who had replaced Domenic.

“Screw this noise,” she muttered to herself, and headed toward the door.

She wasn’t a prisoner—Domenic had said that himself the first night they were here. He’d also said it was too dangerous to be on her own, but at this moment, she just wanted away from him. Since he had been coming and going lately, the door alarm was disabled, so she charged out the door and stalked down the steps.

Looking around, Alex wondered what direction to go. She didn’t trust herself not to get horribly lost in the woods, so the rutted path leading out of the forest seemed to be the safest bet. She marched toward it, and without even a glance back, started on the path to freedom.

Real freedom this time. I’m an American, damn it! I have a right to go wherever the hell I damn well please, and no one can stop me. The Liseni? Pah! Fuck them, too. I am woman—hear me roar!

Her inner diatribe went on like this for about the first fifteen minutes down the road. The night began to close in around her, and her body cooled along with her attitude. It was still hot, but without the sun, there was a noticeable difference. Still, Alex kept walking. Her father always complained about how stubborn she was as a child, and it was something she’d never grown out of. It wasn’t her most virtuous of traits, but it was part of her makeup.

Alex’s pace slowed and took on a less determined gait. The anger was dissipating with each step she took away from Domenic even though she tried to hold on to it. She kicked rocks out of her way and stubbed her toe on a tree branch, which helped rekindle the flame, but it wasn’t as all-consuming as before. Alex thought about Domenic’s attitude toward her over the last couple of days to see if that would bring it back in full force, but it made her sad instead.

Domenic’s rejection of her had hurt. Badly. Alex thought they had made a little bit of progress. That his opening up to her would have brought them even closer together, but it had been the complete opposite. After she’d had her epiphany, she was
ready
to get closer to Domenic. She thought for a moment he’d wanted the same thing—until he left her holding air and disappeared without so much as a by your leave.

Alex supposed things would have been fine if it had just been that one time, but his repeated rebuffs had twisted the knife deeper and deeper. Domenic had been upset because he’d shown her a more vulnerable side of himself, but that had endeared him to her. It had made him seem much more human, much more like her. For once they were on the same footing. And then he slammed the door in her face.

By this point, she had slowed to a crawl. The darkness of the night pressed in closer, and she looked up at the sky above her. Her sadness increased as she remembered stargazing with Domenic. How he’d wanted to make her feel better by getting her mind off her mother. How he’d shared something of himself with her that night.

Snatches of conversations ran through her head, and Alex realized Domenic had been doing that since the moment they left the warehouse. He
had
been telling her about himself, about the man behind the mask. Most likely he had trusted her with more information than he had anyone in a long time. That must have been frightening for him, and it went a long way toward explaining why he’d pulled a complete one-eighty.

“Ugh!” Alex exclaimed loudly. She debated returning to the cabin. Perhaps Domenic hadn’t noticed she was missing.

Just as she was considering this, a black shape materialized from the trees. Alex screamed, turned, and started running back to the cabin. A pair of hands grabbed her from behind and spun her around. Everything Domenic had taught her flew right from her head, and she began slapping at her attacker.

“Alex!” Domenic said, shaking her. “Stop!”

She stopped struggling and looked up at him dumbfounded. “How did you find me?”

“Never mind that,” he snapped. “Why the fuck do you keep trying to run away from me!” He gave her another shake that almost made her teeth rattle, and her eyes filled with tears.

“Because I’m afraid!”

Domenic blinked, obviously not expecting that answer. “You’re still afraid of me?”

“I’m afraid of the way you make me
feel
,” she said in desperation, looking up at him. When what she said sunk in, Domenic’s expression changed to one of torment.

“Ah, Alex,” he said, letting go of her and turning away. “This is wrong.”

“Why? Why is it wrong?”

“Because I’m all wrong for you.” Domenic turned back around, the moonlight throwing his features into relief.

“I don’t care!”

“You don’t
care?”
he asked incredulously. “You don’t care about who I am?”

“No.”

“Alex…” Domenic’s shoulders slumped, indecision warring on his face.

“Please don’t push me away, Domenic.” Alex took a step toward him and placed her hands on his chest. His eyes were dark and unfathomable. One of his hands came up to cup her face, and his thumb traced her cheekbone. Domenic stared down at her, and his features relaxed into a tender expression.

“Okay,” he said simply.

They stayed as they were, her hands resting on his chest and Domenic caressing her face. Every movement he made sent tiny shockwaves through her midsection. His other hand came up and covered hers, which was over his beating heart. Lacing their fingers together, he brought their joined hands down. Then Domenic dropped his other hand from her face and turned to walk back into the forest. He kept their hands linked, and she followed him.

“Where are we going?”

“It’s too hot to go back into the cabin,” Domenic said over his shoulder.

He slowed so they were walking side by side, his thumb tracing mindless patterns over the back of her hand. They didn’t speak, but she felt no need to fill the silence with chatter. The heat had abated somewhat, and a small breeze blew, offering some relief. Domenic was right, it would still be stifling in the cabin, and she much preferred to be out here in the fresh air. Crickets and other night creatures were serenading them with a symphony of sound. As background noise, there was the snap and crackle of their progress through the trees.