Chapter Thirty-Seven
Dominic
I rushed back home as quickly as I could.
It’s almost night when I get in, so not quick enough by my standards when I’m being told Candace is acting weird.
It was the best I could do, given the circumstances.Two of our enforcers picked up Kazimir again on the radar.This time we wanted to get him while we could, but it turned out to be another fruitless mission.
When I get inside my apartment and see Candace by the balcony, I know we've hit the ceiling of shit just from the sight of her.
Cory told me she’d been drinking heavily all afternoon.He just left but had been keeping a close eye on her.Now that I see her, I wish I’d gotten back sooner.
Her hair’s a mess and the straps of her camisole top barely on her shoulders.Thankfully, she’s wearing a bra but her skirt has ridden so far up her legs it’s practically around her hips and I can see her panties.
“Hi baby,” she bubbles with a giggle.
Just from those two words, I know she’s wasted.
I walk right over to her, and she giggles again.
“Candace. Come on. You should lie down.”
“What? You don't want to fuck tonight?Bored with me already, Dominic D’Agostino?” She shakes her head and grabs a bottle of wine.She drinks straight from the bottle and clears her throat.There are six empty wine bottles on the table before her.
This isn’t her at all. She doesn’t do shit like this.I don't even remember Candace ever getting drunk.
“No, doll, come on. Let me take care of you.”
She stares at me and shakes her head.“Oh please. Don’t tell me that you’ll take care of me because you won’t.”
“You know I will.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know Dominic.That’s why I shouldn’t trust you.Every time I get my hopes up, you do something.Every time. I don’t know why I bother.” She goes to grab the bottle again, but I take it from her and she smacks my hands away.
“No more Candace.”
“You selfish bastard.”
“Talk to me.” I hate that she’s drunk, but I know there's more to find out about her that I won't like.I haven't stopped thinking about that horrible realization from the other night.
The days that have followed since have only cemented my fears.
Hurt and pain run in the depths of those champagne eyes.Neither of which I wanted for her.
“Talk to you? Really?”
“Yes.”
“There’s too much, far too much.”
I hold her gaze. “Start with one thing.”
She laughs, off-key this time.“One thing… it’s hard to pick one thing when there are so many.But maybe I could start with the question of why it took you so long to notice me.”
I grit my teeth. This is the shit I knew would follow with the promise I made to her father.This. The perception that I never knew she existed.
"I’ve been in your life forever and it wasn’t until two years ago that you noticed me," she adds."Why? Why did you treat me like a shadow before, or like the help?”