Dom’s brow furrowed as her jaw tensed. “I didn’t know about your mother until after you graduated. Long after I took you in and Violence brought you into the fold.”
Opening her mouth to fight back, Dom held up a soft hand. “Isaac is very good at covering his tracks. By the time I found out what he’d done to your mother, I knew you wouldn’t want any of my blood money. You wouldn’t want anything to do with me,”
“I thought the best way I could help was to help you build from the ashes that Isaac left. I know it sounds patronizing and shitty. But it is the truth.”
A laugh ripped through Spencer’s chest. “Real easy to act like the generous patron while sitting on top of a pile of gold. Couldn’t just give me a cut? Had to make me bust my ass at Lucky Strike, at Glass Cannon? Too fun to watch the poor kid grovel, huh? Your fathertraffickedandsexually abusedmy mother, you piece of shit.”
Dom’s head tilted in shock, her eyes an icy blue. “You know I wouldn’t do that to you. But I swear to you, this money… you don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Well, I sure would’ve,” I cut in, annoyed by Dom’s privileged bullshit. “You let me and my mother get kicked out on our asses. Never came to help me, did you? No, instead, you tried to do it again. Tried to send me back to that abusive asshole. And youknewhow terrible he was.”
Shaking her head, Dom got heated again. “No, Kiera. That isn’t true. I was trying to get you extracted, trying to get The Oracle to protect you. I wanted you far from all of this.”
The rain was coming down harder now, pounding the roof overhead as I raised my voice with a scoff. “Sounds like you’re quite the hero, since you deigned to save poor little Spencer and me.”
“A hero?” Dom snarled back, moving closer to me now. She towered over me as she hissed in my face. “I’m no fucking hero, Viper. My hands are soaked in the blood of hundreds of the innocent lives my fatherruined.What little agency I’ve had over my life, I’ve used to help as many of his victims as I could. Every ounce of power I have, I clawed from his grasp. I’m no fucking hero. But I’ll be damned if I let him turn me into a monster.”
I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes.Too late for that.
All I’d seen since I’d arrived at this mansion was Dom’s shitty attitude and rudeness. She was unwelcoming, cruel, and overly secretive.
She’d cornered me into the counter. I had to fucking bite her to get away.
“Grow up, fucking martyr bullshit.” I scoffed as I crossed my arms.
But my words incensed her. Fury took over her face as she stepped toward me. “You ungrateful bitch.”
“I’m ungrateful? Oh, please, spare me the theatrics, Dom.” The name felt odd on my lips now, my brain oscillating between the Madeline I knew and the Dom that stood in front of me.
But as she hissed in my face, I knew exactly who I was dealing with. “You have no idea what I did to save you, Kiera.”
And I couldn’t stop myself from roaring back. “Then fucking tell me!”
45
KIERA
A heavy silencefell over the foyer as Dom stood up straighter, finally ready to show her cards. But I felt like my heart was racing so fast that all of my captors could hear it through the patter of rain on the roof.
“I was 15, there was a party here. Your mother was shitfaced on the couch with some new boyfriend.” Dom shook her head, annoyance at Maura washing over her even in memory. “I went looking for you. I was worried. Because we were friends and I cared about you.”
Her tone made me want to interrupt, wanting to smack her down a few levels.
“I… foundhimupstairs, trying to…” Dom’s eyes darted to Leo and Spencer before stopping herself. “You were in trouble and I took care of it. I got rid of him.”
A pit the size of a black hole grew inside me.
What happened to me?
I didn’t remember any of it. And I knew she would see that on my face.
Continuing, Dom’s jaw tensed. “Your mother is such a fucking leech, I didn’t have a choice but to kick you out. Chasedyou out of this house and told both of you to never come back.” A dark laugh came from Dom’s chest. “She wouldn’t have stayed away if I hadn’t made her. She wouldn’t have cared whattheytried to do to you.”
My mouth hung open, my eyes blinking quickly. I didn’t remember any of it. Except what came back in flashes — tears on my cheeks, Dom’s bloodied face, running downstairs.
“You don’t remember?” Dom’s temples bulged as she squeezed her jaw tighter.
More than anything I wanted to wipe that fucking look off of her face. Fucking know it all. The pity lurking in those icy blue eyes. It made me want to throw up. Or was that the memories flooding back to me?
