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Mumbling under his breath, his words were for him alone. “Try that when your big brother’s not around, see what the fuck will happen.”

Shaking his head, Dom saw that Lucca might have heard it as he went to close the door behind them. He watched as Maria took a step closer to the car that Leo was just a couple of feet away from now.

The world slid away, and all he could hear was the sound of the strange engine of the car …

Every fiber of his being knew what was coming before it even happened. His instinct to save Maria overwhelmed him as he ran to close the distance between them.

The engine suddenly clicked, shutting off. Then there was a single moment of silence …

Dominic wrapped his arms around Maria.

BOOM.

Dominic stood outside the hospital, letting the pouring rain beat at him. It had been one week since …

“Leo!”

Dominic had held her tightly as she screamed her baby brother’s name with a pang that went through him.

It hurt him to the core that he could only save one, that it wasn’t simply a choice he made, but it was one he made without a single thought. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since Leo was too close, and the blast would have only killed them.

Both Maria and he tensed at seeing Leo slowly stand. He had felt the sheer relief that washed through her body as he’d begun to turn, but Dominic had known better. You didn’t experience hell without coming back with a few scars.

Even though Dominic knew that, it still hadn’t prepared him for the damage he saw.

Turning to show his once-perfect face fully, the left side of Leo’s face was no longer immaculate. A shard had impaled itself into his left eye socket, leaving the right eye in perfect physical shape, yet it was filled with pain and sheer terror—a vision that would scar Dominic for life.

The cry from the woman who still lay in his arms would somehow cut even deeper. “No!”

Watching Maria exit the hospital, it was the first time he had seen her since that wretched day. Dominic could still feel the heat that burned on his back from the explosion when he managed to shield Maria’s body with his, the same way he could still feel the break in his heart that she had put there.

For not giving them a single chance.

He had been furious that day, his anger getting the best of him, but that explosion put things into perspective. And not seeing her beautiful face until right now only solidified it.

Maria took a step under the awning. It might’ve protected her from the rain, but it didn’t protect her from the violent winds as her beautiful gold hair spun. She still looked perfect, but only almost. A part of her looked broken or lost, most of all, she looked tired.

Dom understood, as he felt it too. He had waited every day out here for her, knowing she needed space from him…

“Maria, I’m so sorry,” Dominic whispered to her, holding her tightly when she began to shake while the paramedics drove away.

Something in Maria had snapped then. Pushing him back, she hit his chest. “Don’t you dare act like you care or give a fuck about me after how you just talked to me.”

All he could do was stand there as he watched her first tear fall … then another as she continued to hit him. It would be the first time the princess, made of ice, would cry.

That was the thing about ice …

It eventually melted.

Dom waited there to give her one last shot to see what he saw. Both were too worn down for a fight with each other, and all that was left for him to do was hold his hand out for her and pray that she’d take it ….

A car pulled up between them. Dominic didn’t have to look inside the navy blue Charger to know who it was. He had clocked the car waiting for her for the last thirty minutes. He knew because he had been standing out here for the last seven days.

Staring into her emerald eyes as her the hair whipped her face, he prayed for her to stop when she reached for the car door.

Please, Maria, don’t do this.

“You never finished telling me how you knew I was heartless.”

Hearing her beautiful voice yell out at him gave him an ounce of hope, something he hadn’t felt for a very long time.

“Don’t get in that car, princess, and I’ll tell you,” Dominic begged her, praying that her soul, that was a match to his, would hear it and come to him. She had to feel it—how much he fought going to her right now. Her body had to scream out for her to come to him too.