Dominic (Made Men Book 8)

by Sarah Brianne

“Cool,” Cassius and Kat said in unison as they went up to the gate, already dying to get inside.

  Angel smiled. Unlike his twin who he went after, he wasn’t scared of ghosts.

  The truth was the Luciano family was about the only family who could live in that house unafraid. Their real ghosts walked the home they already lived in.

  “Is that okay?” She nervously looked up at him.

  Grabbing her hips, Dom brought her closer to him where he sat on his car. “It’s an awfully big, haunted house, princess.” Leaning closer to her lips, his dimples were on display. “You plan on giving me children to fill it up?”

  Maria nodded her head. “One.”

  Dominic stopped his lips from coming any closer.

  Okay … “Two.”

  His lips went slightly closer but not close enough.

  Final answer … “Three.”

  Again, just a little bit closer, but his lips hadn’t yet touched hers.

  “Fine!” she grumbled, giving in. “Four.”

  Winning, Dominic’s lips finally fell on hers in a kiss that had Maria’s breath disappear, despite having fucked the man all night.

  “Sorry to interrupt.” Matthias came back over, breaking up their kiss rather rudely. “But what happens when we fucking find out there really are damn ghosts in there and that Blue Manor actually is fucking haunted?”

  “Well”—Maria turned back around to look at the manor that her gut had told her to buy ever since she had first seen it—“we’re not going in to find the money; we’re going in to make a home.”

  Epilogue

  The Call

  The cherry blossoms were at the height of their beauty. Sitting on a bench, a blossom fell onto her lap, already beginning to die.

  Taking out her cell phone, Maria dialed a number that she was never going to dial again ….

  “This is Kayne Evans. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  Beep.

  Listening to her ghost for the final time, it no longer brought any feelings of missed chances, regret, rage, or grief.

  Nothing was there anymore.

  “It’s been a while,” Maria began. “I came to see the cherry blossoms. It’s beautiful, Kayne. I remembered the day I came here with you one year ago, and you told me there was a lot about you I didn’t know. Not only did you deceive me …

  “You deceived Leo.

  “You deceived Nero, Elle, Chloe … every student you had into believing you were a good person.

  “I put my heart on the line and thought you were worth giving everything for …

  “When you went out for that jog, I fell back asleep, planning a future with you. It was a future that would have lasted as long as the cherry blossoms do, because none of the time I spent with you was real. Even if you hadn’t been a cop and just been a teacher, it wouldn’t have lasted.

  “You told me you loved me. There wasn’t any more truth to that than any other lie you told me. I was a coldhearted bitch, yet I believed you. At least I wasn’t the only woman who’d been taken in by that lie. Bristol believed you, too, didn’t she? How many others were there who believed in your lies? At least you won’t be around to spread your lies any longer. At least your son will never be hurt by you or your lies.

  “Your love was as fragile as the cherry blossoms and lasted just as long. What I have with Dominic will last years, growing through the seasons and, year by year, grow stronger. That’s real love, Kayne … and not what I had with you.

  “When I hang up, I’m deleting your number. I don’t need to call anymore. I don’t even have the regret of thinking I loved you. That’s how little I care about you and how much I love Dom.”

  Taking a breath, she finally said the last words as she let her ghost go. “Good-bye, Kayne.”

  Dominic stood under a cherry blossom tree far behind his wife. He watched her sitting on the bench.

  Hearing the ding, he pulled the cracked phone out of his jacket pocket, seeing the call and voicemail.

  He brought it because he knew Maria would call, knowing she and Kayne had visited here one year ago. She hadn’t called Kayne’s phone in so long, and he feared what she might say.

  Holding the phone in his hand, he finally let it go ….

  As the phone fell in the trash can, he walked to his wife and sat down beside her.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Maria said as the blossoms showered down on them.

  He placed his hand on her … “It is.”

  “I love you … so much,” she whispered, placing her hands over his tatted one that rested on her expectant belly, tears brimming her emerald eyes as she stared at her name written in beautiful cursive letters on his neck.

  Dominic didn’t need to listen to the message, because the wind that carried the cherry blossoms had whispered it to his soul.

  “I love you, too, princess.”

  Epilogue

  Daddy

  Dominic held the little hand in his as they entered the school and pretended to be strong.

  “Daddy ….”

  Feeling his hand tugged down when they grew nearer to the classroom that he once sent Katarina off to, he bent down to look in his daughter’s eyes.

  “Do I have to go?”

  As badly as he didn’t want her to go to kindergarten, he had to. “Yes, you do, my angel.”

  She looked at the classroom with her little dimpled cheeks. It was full of kids, already running around.

  Dominic turned her cheek with a soft finger. “What is it?”

  “What happens if they don’t like me?”

  “At first, they might not,” he told her truth of what bearing the last name Luciano was like. “But I know, once they get to know you, they will come to love you, Angelica Luciano.”

  Looking down at his firstborn, he smiled when she finally nodded. She was a mixture of both him and his wife, which had shaken him to his core.

  Hugging her to him, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to let go. “I’ll be waiting right here when school is over, okay?”

  “I love you, Daddy.” She tightly squeezed his neck.

  It was everything Dom could do to keep the tears back on his daughter’s first day of school.

  The man no longer deserved to wear the leather coat he still wore every day of his life … because he’d been turned into a puddle of mush by a single little girl.

  Maria squeezed the hand in hers for dear life. “I can’t believe I let you do this to me again!” she screamed out in pain.

  “You’re doing so good. Just a few more pushes, princess.” He smiled, giving her his dimples as he swept her gold hair off her face. “I told you four, and it’s the last one I’ll ever make you give me.”

  “I swear to God, Dominic, I’m tying my tubes after th—ahhhh!!” she screamed, trying to shove the head out of her. She wanted to strangle her husband’s neck when all she had was his tatted hand to murder.

  “She’s almost out … just one more push,” he told her, looking down as his final child was being born.

  For the very last time, Maria did the last big push she would ever fucking do.

  Dominic’s silence when the baby came out frightened Maria. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  She felt her worse fears come to life.

  “It’s a,” He practically croaked out the word, “boy.”

  “A boy?” Maria’s eyes went wide, wondering how in the hell her doctor had missed that little fact. All three of their children were girls, and they were supposed to be adding another.

  She didn’t even know how she was supposed to feel, unprepared for this moment. What if she couldn’t love a son like her daughters? But then the doctor laid her newborn son down on her chest.

  Three children before this, and while she teared up with each one, none of them had her tears falling in streams down her cheeks.

  Softly, she ran her hand through his blond, fuzzy hair as more tears fell. Her son reminded her of wha
t used to be … as he was the spitting image of her once sweet baby brother …

  Leo.

  The Story Of Blue Manor

  “What are you doing?” Maria asked, stopping the worker before he took off the big letter B from the gate. The remodel had just begun, and they had a hell of a long way to go, considering the company that agreed to do it wasn’t from Blue Park and came at a high price. They had said they would not be working any time after the sun started to go down.

  “You don’t want to remove it? We can replace it with the letter L—”

  “No.” Maria shook her head. “I want to keep it the way it is.”….

  “It will be more cost effective to replace the flooring, Ms. Caruso,” the contractor informed her.

  “No.” Maria shook her head. “I want the original hardwood restored.”….

  “The crack in the water fountain is unfortunately apart of the foundation. It will need to be repl—”

  “No.” Maria shook her head. “I want it fixed.”….

  “Mommy! Daddy!”

  Maria ran into the good-sized room that had been transformed into a playroom. “Where are you?”

  Dominic ran into the room a moment later as she called out again, “Come here! Come here!”

  Hearing her youngest daughter, they followed her voice to inside a closet.

  “What is it—”

  Maria’s mouth dropped open.

  “Look, Mommy!”

  Seeing a little door cracked open, they watched their daughter push it back into the wall.

  “Why don’t you go find your uncle Matthias, sweetie,” she told her.

  Waiting for her to run off, Dominic and Maria stepped inside the closet. Kneeling down, they stared at the obvious crack in the wall.

  “Do you remember this being here?” Maria asked. They had lived in this house for many years now and had checked every inch of it as it was remodeled, but Maria did not ever remember seeing this.

  His brows furrowed as he pushed it back to crack it open. “No.”

  Slowly opening the tiny door, they both looked at each other again when they saw the old, heavy brown trunk that wasn’t much bigger than the hidden room.

  Dominic grabbed the handle and slid it out of the crawlspace. “Should we open it?”

  Maria nodded. She had always felt the energy of places and homes and knew this one wanted her to open it.

  Flipping the latch on one side, he then flipped the latch of the other and slowly lifted the top of the trunk.

  “Holy shit …,” Dominic whispered.

  Maria’s eyes went wide at the sight. The amount of cash that rested inside was probably enough to pay back every cent she had spent on bringing the manor back to its former glory. It was as if the house itself was thanking her … or the …

  A scream had them turning their heads to see a man who had been tatted hundreds of times over jump back ten feet. Matthias looked as if he had seen a ghost … “Aw, hell no!”

  Made

  The weight reminds me of …

  what rests on my shoulders.

  The warmth reminds me …

  to Hell, I have been.

  I was told the coat makes the man …

  But what is it …

  that Made you?

  Sarah Brianne

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