No oneshoved me like that. And quoting my own words back at me was a low blow. Especially given how wildly different these circumstances were. It was just like her to remember that, to hold my words against me. But like everything else I’d seen over the last few weeks, I was realizing that Dom’s cleaning exercise in the shop was preparation.
But face-to-face with Dom’s chiseled jaw and gritted teeth, I knew I didn’t have a choice. This is what The Oracle wanted and no amount of arguing with Dom would stop me from having to get my prints all over this shit.
Letting out a slow breath, I looked up into her icy eyes and hissed back, “Don’tevertouch me like that again.”
A sinister smirk took over Dom’s face. Licking her lips, she leaned closer to me. “I will touch my property howeverIlike.”
Unflinching, I knew I was wasting my time. Instead, I whipped around and grabbed a mop from the closet. “I’llneverbe yours.”
But before I could leave her reach, Dom gripped both of my shoulders and pulled me against her body. She was burning like a furnace through her thick tshirt, her muscles pinning me in place. She’d ditched her dress shirt for the cleanup, instead letting a tight undershirt strain against her body.
With a laugh, Dom tightened her grip. “Oh, but you always have been, Viper.” She shoved my shoulders as she released hergrip. Before I could come up with any sort of biting response, she turned into the darkness of the warehouse.
Fuck her.Fuck her. Fuck her.The thought repeated in my mind every few seconds the entire time I was cleaning.
It moved surprisingly fast with all four of us. After a minute of sulking, even Dom got to work. She’d shoved the barrel into a back room of the warehouse, somewhere The Oracle’s hunchmen would be sure to find.
Leo and Dom must have gotten the body into the barrel quickly, considering how little blood there was to clean up. Most of our time was spent flashing a black light over the space and hunting for fingerprints we had missed.
The work of making the place pristine kept my mind from replaying the images of what I’d done. I’d almost been able to shove the thought of his blood flowing from his neck, the feeling of the blade ripping into flesh from my mind entirely.
It was so perfectly cleaned I might have been able to convince myself none of this had happened. If I came back here in the morning, there’d be no trace. Just the itch in the back of my mind that I’d never be the same. That ithadbeen real. That I would never unsee it.
It wasn’t until we stepped back out into the cold night air that I remembered it was all real.
A light flurry fell from the sky, small snowflakes landing on my eyelashes as we walked to the bikes.
Wrapping me up in her arms, Leo looked down at my tired face. “Let’s get our little Princess back to the castle.”
We loaded ourselves onto the bikes, and headed back to Dom’s mansion. Even the rev of the loud engines wasn’t enough to quiet my mind.
I might never know peace again.
12
KIERA
It took morewashes than I would have expected to get clean. Given that I was behind him, I would have expected the mess to be relatively contained to his front. But even after two shampoos, I was seeing tinges of pink wash away with the suds.
Third time’s a charm.
Despite my little freakout, right now, I was feeling relatively calm. Away from the strange warehouse and back in my own room, it was easy for my brain to convince me that none of it had really happened.
If I just told myself that the red splatters running down my drain were paint, my brain was happy to fill in the blanks with a happier story. Or at least one that wouldn’t keep me up all night.
Does that make me broken?
I frowned, giving my scalp another scrub. The hot water ran over me, carrying a finally clear bunch of bubbles down the drain, but I barely felt it. It was like watching my body from just outside of itself, piloting an avatar in a video game rather than my own self.
I wasn’t sure what it said about me. But if my options were delusion or a complete shut down, I’d choose the type of crazy that kept me alive and functioning.
Lathering up one last layer of conditioner, I let out a sigh. If anything was bothering me at this point, it was that poor puppy that had gone scampering off into the night.
Dom would probably call me stupid if she knew, but I couldn’t help worrying about it. The poor thing looked young and emaciated on top of the wounds that fucker had given it. And if it stumbled onto the wrong farm in the middle of the night… I didn’t want to think about what might happen to it.
Rottweiler’s had a reputation, an unfair one. And the poor baby was going to be scared out there all alone.
While the conditioner set in, I rinsed my hands and reached to the small, inlaid shelf for my razor. But much to my confusion, it wasn’t there. “That’s… weird.”
