"I won't." I wrapped my arms around him and held him just as tightly. "I promise."
9
DOMINIC
My home was my sanctuary. More than that, it was the place I went to get away from all the politics, nonsense, and drama. Not to mention the longing I felt when I was at the main house with Andro or Cord's ever-growing families.
Sure, I was part of that family, but on the periphery. I was the one that was called when shit went sideways and they needed a problem taken care of. I wasn't the one they invited to birthday parties or to spend time with their children.
Then again, I had been invited to the kids' birthdays, but I missed them because I was on an assignment. Perhaps I was the only one who saw myself as outside the family circle. It was a necessary step back to protect my heart from wanting things I could not have. Not in my line of work.
Either way, home was where I went to unwind.
It was the only place I wanted to bring Carmine.
Taking him to a luxury hotel where we could be pampered for the next few days did cross my mind. We could order roomservice and lounge around in silk robes. Though I doubted Carmine would care about that sort of thing.
I wanted him in my space. I wanted my sheets to smell like him if he had to leave. When he had to leave.
We stepped inside my penthouse apartment, and Carmine slipped off his shoes and looked around the space. It was decorated simply, in that there were few decorations. I had two paintings, both had been gifts. One was a painting of an abandoned warehouse and hung over the back of the couch.
The walls were white, the carpet beige, the space was free of clutter because when I was here, I wanted calm. Andro's home had been calm once, now it was filled with laughter and children. And also sticky surfaces, which I always assumed was from children, but given the way that Andro and Joey looked at one another, I was beginning to question that.
"This is..."
"Boring?" I said.
Carmine chuckled. "Nice. It could use a bit more color, but it is nice." He stopped in front of the couch and looked up at the painting, studying it.
“Do you like art?” I slipped my hands in my pockets to keep them off him.
“Not in particular. I’m wondering why, of all the things you could hang in your home, you choose this?”
“It was a gift from Andro, actually. Commemorating some milestone year for the organization.”
“But why this picture? Why an old, decaying warehouse?”
I gripped his shoulders and gently moved him two steps over.
He gasped in surprise when he looked at the painting from the new angle. “It’s…restored.”
The painting was a trick of the light. From one angle it was an old, abandoned warehouse surrounded by an overcast sky. But from another angle, it was revitalized like it was just built, no broken windows or overgrown vines.
I kept my hands on Carmine and rubbed them down his biceps slowly. “That is the warehouse where I had my first kill.”
“Oh.”
I shrugged. “Kind of silly, I know. But–”
“No, I get it. I… I had my first kill in the holding cell at my boss’s mansion. But I… I took a piece of the wall, a brick that had chipped.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, gray rock. He turned to face me, holding out his palm. “I carry it with me at all times.”
I ran my fingers over the small stone. "What’s your place like?" I closed the space between us as my phone buzzed with a call. It was Cord. I almost didn't answer, but he'd just keep calling.
"Yeah?"
"What’s the update on the Bandino omega?" Cord's voice was all business.
Carmine walked to the window to check out the view like he had no concerns in the world.
