Page 106 of Tethered

Dominik is a handsome man, with sharp cheekbones, expressive green eyes and thick hair. When I first met him, he oozed charm, but he doesn’t need to depend on that anymore, so now he exudes wealth. His loosened tie suggests he’s off the clock—as much as he ever is. I can see his office in the background, hear muted activity.

It’s the first time being face to face with him in years. I feel only loathing.

“What do you want, Dominik?”

“Imagine my surprise when I found out you were aboard my ship,” he says. His voice is cold and impersonal and, as always, strikes me with dissonance. There was a time when it was all youthful arrogance, warmth and excitement; when he still dropped his t’s and stumbled over certain words. He looks entirely uninterested, and I can’t imagine why he wanted to speak to me.

I try my hardest to stay calm; I want to coax him, not rile him. “The ship you used to abduct my son?” My tone is carefully deadpan.

“Ourson.”

“Okay, our son. The son that you had your assistant drop off at the hangar in secrecy. The son you’re trying to relocate to another fucking planet without my permission, which is, again, abduction.”

Dominik does that thing I despise, where he narrows his eyes and tilts his head just enough to make me feel like a bug under a microscope. The older Vee gets, the more I see his father in his features, and the more I dread the day he starts to adopt these affectations.

“I knew you were up to something; you were too quiet. Do you know what I can do, now you’ve done this?” Dominik asks.

I hold my head up and wait, something I know pisses him off. His lips tighten infinitesimally in the corners, a grimace that he’s usually very good at suppressing. Still, his voice is soft, almost silken, when he carries on.

“You’re trespassing, Lowe.”

The nickname almost pulls a flinch out of me. Those wounds aren’t raw anymore, but when Dominik looks at me with Vee’s eyes and calls me that, it’s like a knife to the gut.

“I could have you detained the second theMidastouches down at Red Horizon. That’s a hefty prison sentence, but even if it wasn’t, I’d still win custody of Harvey. If I tell the authorities that you trespassedandtried to steal the ship?” Dominik shrugs those expensively clad shoulders and leans back in his chair. “You’d never see daylight again. I certainly wouldn’t allow Harvey to visit you.”

It takes all my willpower not to react. I bite down on my tongue and taste blood, let the pain ground me. Cursed stars, why am I surprised?

“Do you even care how Vee is?” I force through my teeth. “You set a team of thugs on us like a pack of dogs.”

Dominik’s eyes narrow. “That’smyflesh and blood. I wouldn’t have needed to hire anyone if you had an iota of common sense; if I could rely on my staff to do their fucking jobs.”

“Turns out other people object to abduction. What do you know?” I shrug.

“Will you look so smug when I’ve fired them all and made it my personal mission to ensure they never work in this galaxy again?”

“The crew have nothing to do with this! It’s between you and me, you arrogant bastard. You claim to care about Vee? Prove it.”

“The days of me proving myself are long behind me, Lowe.” Dominik says. “You’re in no position to make demands. But, because I respect you, I’ll offer a trade.”

My stomach clenches, my face hot. A trade? I will burn this fucking ship down before I let him use Vee like a pawn.

“What kind of father uses his son—”

“This isn’t about Harvey. This has always been about you.”

I freeze, trying to make sense of his words. Me?

He sits forward, almost eagerly.

“Come home. Be by my side, where you belong. We can be a family again—as we always should have been. You’ll like the house; I left plenty undecorated so you can make it right for us.”

I stare at the face that looms above me with new eyes. Wide eyes. I hate how fucking hungry Dominik looks, and I can see that he really, truly means it. Now, I realise Dominik wasn’t disinterested: he wasrestraininghimself. With the facade stripped away, his skin has pinkened, and his eyes devour me. He looks at me in a way that feels invasive, that rakes me all the way down to my bones.

Sweet Gaia.All this time?

“Dom—”

He slams his fist on the desk, and something goes flying, landing with a harsh crash. I wince, stepping back. He was never violent, but I don’t know this version of Dominik. My nerves are strung taut.