Clean Slate (New Mafia Trilogy #2) (10 page)

           
“Yeah, I had to tell her.”

Dom shook his head and
mumbled a few four lettered words under his breath. “Fine, we’ll work this all
out later, I need to get some sleep.” He stood and we followed suit, our chairs
scraping on the wooden deck. Jason led us into the house and we set our empty
bottles in the kitchen sink. He then took us upstairs to the bedrooms.

           
“So, sleeping arrangements?” he asked, looking at me
expectantly. Dom also turned and regarded me. I stopped in the hallway, my
stomach twisting in knots. Shit, how did I end up in this situation?

           
“Can we each have our own room?”

“I’d
feel better if you weren’t alone,” Dom said, reaching for my hand, which I
quickly moved to tuck a stray hair behind my ear.

“Nat,
you can crash with me,” Grant offered and I immediately felt relief. Dom and
Jason bore identical disappointed expressions and knew I needed to talk to them
both, I just didn’t have the energy to do it right then.

Once the bedroom door
clicked shut behind us, I thanked Grant for intervening. He shook his head and
smirked before throwing a pillow at me. “I’m used to cleaning up your messes,
Nat, but this one you need to handle on your own.”

           
“I know,” I admitted and sunk down on the edge of the
king sized bed. Grant crossed over to the window, opening it so fresh ocean air
drifted in. We got ready for bed and I lay there listening to the dull roar of
the surf and Grant’s deep, even breathing, but sleep refused to come. With a
heavy sigh I got up and went back downstairs for another beer.

           
“Can you grab me one too?” Jason said from behind and I
jumped, almost dropping my bottle on the tile floor.

           
“Can’t sleep either?” I handed him a beer and sat down
next to him on the sectional.

           
“No.” He took a long draw off his bottle and leaned back
against the pillows.

           
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but the fewer people who
know the better.”

           
“It explains a lot, especially your panic attacks.”

I nodded and stared out
the picture window. With the inside lights off, the ocean was more visible,
white caps occasionally breaking up the dark waters.

           
“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help you, but
have no idea how. This is more their territory,” Jason said pointing upstairs
where Dom and Grant were sleeping. “I think you need to listen to them. Not
that I want to push you closer to your ex or anything.” He grinned and placed a
hand on my leg that was pressing against his.

           
“Yeah, about that,” I said, leaning forward and setting
my empty bottle on the coffee table. “I packed up and ran away while Dominic
was at his parent’s house healing from two gunshot wounds. It was a cowardly
and heartless move. It’s not like we broke up. I left because I was scared and
felt trapped.” I told him how I found out about Grant’s involvement and how I
was sworn to stay quiet.

           
“Wow.” Jason sat up straighter and inched slightly away
from me, separating our legs that had been touching. “So you were living with
Dominic. Did you love him?”

I nodded, but wasn’t
able to look Jason in the eyes.

           
“What about Grant, doesn’t he want to see you get out of
this life?”

           
“Sure he does, but it’s out of his control. Besides, he’s
engaged to the Boss’ daughter and this has been his lifestyle for several years
now.”

           
“What about the cops?”

I sighed and sunk back
into the pillows. “I can’t rat on my own brother or Dominic. The FBI has
already tried to get to me. They were the first to locate me out here. Remember
that day you sent me flowers and I freaked out on the phone which caused you
rush over to my apartment?”

           
“Yeah, you said someone from Philly paid you a
surprise…”
 
He trailed off midsentence,
his mouth forming an “O” when he made the connection.

           
“I thought moving across the country would be enough, but
as much as I try to forget, I can’t and since there’s a hit out on me,
apparently I’m not so easily forgotten either.”

           
“It’s obvious your brother and Dominic want to protect
you. Like I said, they’re probably your best option. I’ve got nothing.”

           
“That’s not true!” I grabbed his hand and held it on my
lap. “You helped me to forget momentarily and you work magic when I start to
flip out.
 
Plus, you’re the best friend
with benefits I’ve ever had.” I gave him a shy smile.

Jason snorted and shook
his head. “Nat, I’m still your friend. With or without the benefits part,
although I’d prefer with,” he grinned at me and I laughed. “But, I see the way
you and Dom are around each other, it’s like there’s an electrical current
running between you two. I can’t compete with that.”

           
“I never stopped loving him and it hurt like hell to
leave him,” I admitted. “Which is why, even though I have feelings for you, I can’t
commit to anything more.”

           
“So you have feelings for me, huh?” Jason teased, running
his hand up my thigh. I stopped him when he reached the hem of my sleep shorts.

           
“Yes, but not right now. I can’t.”

           
“Because of Dominic?”

I nodded and slid over,
stretching out on the opposite end of the sofa so the nearest body part to
Jason was my toes. He got the hint and yawning, stood up.
 
Before he left, he bent over, lightly kissed
my lips, and said, “I have feelings for you too.”

Fuck, he was too good
for me and the trunk-load of emotional baggage I was carting around. After a
few sighs and adjusting the heap of pillows, I was finally able to fall asleep.

I woke the next morning
to sunshine streaming in through the picture window, the glare reflecting off
the glass coffee table directly into my sleep-deprived eyes. Groaning, I rolled
away, shoving my head in between the pillows. My other senses kicked in,
identifying the sounds of movement in the kitchen then the drool inducing
smells of bacon and coffee. This was enough motivation for me to face the
daylight.

Sitting up, I looked
into the kitchen to see Dominic over the stove, cooking. He didn’t have a shirt
on and his pajama bottoms hung low on his hips. What a glorious sight. I was
instantly transported back to when we lived together and he cooked for me,
preparing elaborate feasts with little effort. The man had inherited the
cooking gene from his aunt and uncle who owned Franco’s Ristorante.

I went over to join
him, opening several cabinets before locating the mugs. I handed Dom a steaming
cup of black coffee before adding cream and sweetener to mine. Instantly
falling into routine, I gathered plates and utensils, setting them next to the
stove where Dom was scrambling eggs.

“Where’s
Grant?” I asked.

“Still
sleeping.”

“And
Jason?”

           
“He left early - said he was going surfing then to talk
to his dad about us staying here.”

I stood near Dominic,
sipping my coffee and watching him cook. Well, actually watching him since his
shirtless and muscular chest demanded attention. Standing there, leaning
against the counter with the cool granite pressed against the small of my back,
it was like we had never separated. If it wasn’t for the crash of the surf in
the background, we could have been back at his condo in Philly. A timer beeped
and Dominic, hand sheathed in an oven mitt, retrieved a sizzling tray of bacon
from the oven.

           
“Are you hungry?” he asked, piling eggs onto each plate.

           
“I could eat.” My stomach growled and Dominic laughed,
adding an extra slice of bacon and scoop of eggs to my plate.

We walked outside to
the deck and sat at the table. Traces of early morning fog still clung to the
ocean, but seemed to be pulled further out to sea with each retreating wave.

           
“It’s pretty here,” Dom said.

           
“Yes, it is. I love the ocean.”

           
“I know you do; I remember those paintings you did of
Long Beach Island,” Dominic said, referencing my work he saw hanging on the
walls when he visited my bedroom for the first time.

           
“Jason’s teaching me how to surf.”

           
“Really?”

           
“Yeah, I’m not too bad either. Well, better than Chelsea
at least. She’s quite the spazz.” I chuckled and told Dom about the time when
Chelsea got tangled up in her leash and hit herself in the face with her
board.
 
He laughed, tilting his head back
and that’s when I caught a glimpse of the scar along his jawline. He noticed me
looking and stopped laughing. I stood up and walked around the table to stand
next to him. Lightly tracing the lines of the dark pink scar tissue, I noticed
his pulse was strong, not like the night he was shot when I felt it weakening
as his blood seeped through my fingertips. Moving from his stubble covered jaw
to the pucker mark below his right pectoral; a mark that matched the one on my
shoulder, I pressed my hand against his chest remembering how close I came to
losing him, yet I was the one who left. A lump formed in my throat and I
started to step away.

Dominic exhaled harshly
and pulled me onto his lap. Then he was kissing me and I was lost.

We separated upon
hearing the patio door slide open and a throat clear. “I am never going to get
used to seeing you guys kissing.” Grant said as he sat down at the table across
from us and started eating his breakfast. I went to get up from Dom’s lap, but
he had a firm grip on my hips and I felt something pressing into the back of my
thighs. Grant definitely didn’t need to see
that
, so I stayed put.

           
“Glad to see you guys have worked things out, though,”
Grant admitted, smirking around the rim of his coffee mug as he took a sip.

           
“There are still some things to work out,” I said. “Like,
what do we do now?”

           
“Honestly, I think we need to go back to Philly. At least
there we have more protection and weapons.”

The thought of
returning to Philadelphia caused my skin to break out in a layer of sweat and
my heart began to race, my pulse pounding in my temple. Dominic pulled me
against him, “Hey, are you okay?”

           
“I can’t,” I said with a stutter, struggling to get my
breathing under control. Images of Marco pinning me up against the wall with
his hand around my throat, Brittany’s battered face, Dominic bleeding out, and
of the man I shot crowded my mind and I started to shake. Philadelphia, while
it was home, was a place full of horrific memories. “I can’t go back. I’m
sorry!” Breaking free of Dom’s arms, I launched off of his lap and ran across
the deck to the stairs leading down to the beach. The sand was cool against the
bottom of my feet and I ran to the water’s edge and stopped. Small waves gently
lapped against my ankles. I stared out at the horizon, which was nothing but an
expanse of endless ocean.

I saw the shadow of the
person walking up to me before I heard him approach. “Dom, I need to be alone.”

           
“I’m not Dom,” Grant said and came to stand next to me.
He was barefoot too, but wearing jeans and the water quickly saturated the
bottoms, turning the denim almost black. Like Dom, he didn’t have a shirt on
and I noticed a woman, one of the few people on the secluded stretch of beach,
walk by with her dog check my brother out. Grant was built and didn’t have an
ounce of fat clinging to his six-pack abs. The woman’s gaze lingered on Grant’s
ass and I glared at her. She flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder and
sauntered off, trying to walk suggestively with the sand pulling at her every
step and her little fluffy ankle-biter attempting to yank her in multiple
directions.

Shaking my head, I
turned my attention back to the ocean. A large ship had appeared on the horizon
and I watched its slow progress.

           
“Nat, you have to come home with us. It’s not safe for
you here.”

           
“It’s not safe for me in Philly either,” I pointed out
and started walking down the beach away from the beach house. Grant caught up
to me in two long strides.

           
“Nat, can we at least talk about this, please?”

The pleading in his
tone gave me pause and I stopped, turning to face him. “Fine, but just you and
me, okay?”

Grant looked back at
the beach house. I could see Dominic leaning over the deck railing, watching
us, but he hadn’t tried to follow. Grant raised his arm and gave a wave in
Dom’s direction. After this, Dom stepped away from the railing then disappeared
into the house.