Page 148 of A Lethal Game of Trust

Dom promised he would find a way to right it, but I knew Roc was already on the case.

Dom offered his hand for me to take, but I didn’t hold it. Instead, I dropped the car key in his palm. He frowned at it before glancing up at me with a dry look. “No.”

“You promised to drive her one day,” I reminded him. “This is your last chance.”

He didn’t say anything but rolled his eyes and took my hand.

At the garage, he hesitated before getting in with a drawn-out sigh.

The car dealership was in Osburn and I settled in for the long drive, feeding him blackberry-flavoured sweets as he complained about the wheel being stiff, the breaks being slow, the way the car guzzled petrol.

“I should have set this thing alight along with the house,” he grumbled.

I couldn’t help but laugh and he had a chuffed smile as I did. The east wing of my family home had been burnt to a crisp, along with the bodies of Anton and Firdman.

Some people in my shoes might be devastated, but it had been my idea.

Now, I could go back inside without my heart beating so fast it might give out. We had remodelled that side of the house: the kitchen, my parents’ bedroom, the library and my room. We’d built an annexe at the back for my mum to join us on weekends too.

The fire had been cleansing.

“Did you know…” I asked before taking a bite of my sweet.

I paused, chewing for too long, so Dom said, “I didn’t, honestly.”

I slapped him lightly. “Did you know I find you driving ridiculously attractive?”

His smile was amused. “Even in this thing?”

Nodding eagerly, I threw another sweet in my mouth, admiring him. Lately, a smile came easily to his features. It made me giddy. His dimples, the way his eyes creased with humour. The way he enjoyed life.

He was still broody, threatening and lethal and made my knees weak, my breaths hitch and turned my insides to fluttering butterflies with those dark looks.

“Knew I had you as soon as you climbed on my lap in the car,” he bragged.

“Oh, really?” I teased.

“Didn’t doubt it for a second. I’m a cocky bastard.” His eyebrows pinched together. “We do have a lot of car sex now that you mention it. We going to break in the new one?” Those brows rose with a half-smile that had my body tighten.

“Yes.”

He chuckled at how quickly I answered and pulled into the car dealership. “Say goodbye, Leonie Lion.”

I leaned over to pat the wheel. “Bye.”

We picked up the new car, which was like driving a spaceship compared to my beat-up four wheels, grabbed lunch and picked up my mum from Coalhaven. She was in one of those moods in the back of the car, fidgeting, hardly responding to the friendly questions Dom or the nurse asked.

She was as nervous as I was about spending our first nightin the old house.

She’d wanted to move in permanently, and with live-in nurses, I wanted that, too. But we needed to build up to it. Only four months ago, she’d seen in a newspaper about the house burning down, which had set her back.

The front of the house was much the same, apart from the paint job. It was now back to the pristine white of its prime.

I watched Mum carefully. Her eyes roved over the house. She seemed to be in awe, but her tone was concerned. “The door was blue. I thought there was a fire.”

“We cleaned it all up,” Dom said, a hand on her shoulder. “There are a few changes, but we showed you the pictures, remember?”

She nodded once, not taking her eyes off the front door. “The kitchen is all dark now. The window is fixed. I want to see the fixed window.”

“Yeah,” I said and guided her up the steps. She looked around feebly. “Remember, this is just a first visit, Mum. We’re going to take it as slow as you want and if you want to go back home at any point, we can do that.”

But she frowned at me. “This is home.”

Dom slung his arm over my shoulder and pulled me close to him as he kissed my temple. “This is home,” he agreed, but he wasn’t looking up at the building, instead down at me.

Home.