Page 115 of Hard Bargain

Dominic didn’t get unsettled. Not ever.

“What was that?” Knox asked.

Dominic didn’t answer. He was already pulling himself back together. Knox could see it happening in real time, the tension smoothing out, the expression resetting, everything sliding back into place like nothing had just slipped.

Knox’s confusion burned off fast. “No,” he said, pushing off the wall. “Don’t do that.”

Dominic’s gaze settled on him. Controlled again. “Let it go.”

Knox let out a short breath. “Are you serious right now?”

No response, just that same maddening stillness.

That made it worse. Knox stepped forward, anger rising properly now, cutting through everything else. “You just—what—you lose your head for a second and then decide it didn’t happen?”

“I didn’t lose anything.”

Knox barked out a laugh. “Yeah? Then why did you look like that?”

Dominic didn’t try to answer. He just stood there like the question didn’t matter.

Knox felt an unpleasant twist in his chest. “Right,” he muttered, dragging a hand through his hair. “Of course.”

He exhaled sharply through his nose and pushed it down. He wasn’t doing this. Not now. Not in a hallway. “I need to check on my mom,” he said, voice flat.

He bent down for his keys, grip tightening around them. When he straightened, he unlocked the door without looking at Dominic again. He pushed it open and stepped inside. He heard Dominic follow anyway, the door closing softly behind him.

The apartment felt wrong. Not in a way he could name immediately, but it settled under his skin all the same. The TV was on, casting flickering lights across the living room. The couch was empty. “Mom?” His voice carried through the apartment.

No answer.

A knot formed in his stomach, pushing his body into motion before his brain had caught up. He moved down the hallway, faster now, steps uneven. Her bedroom door was partially open, showing darkness beyond. He pushed it wide.

Everything inside him dropped.

She was on the bed. Too still. One arm hanging off the side, fingers brushing the floor. Her face looked wrong, too pale and slack.

For a second, Knox just—stalled. His brain tried to reject it. Like if he didn’t move, didn’t react, it wouldn’t be real.

Not again.

Not again, not again, not again.

It looped, loud and frantic, dragging something old and buried up with it. Nights he’d tried to forget. Nights filled with the same kind of stillness, the same kind of fear.

He moved across the room in two strides, grabbing her shoulders. “Mom—” His voice cracked as he shook her. “Mom, hey—”

Her head rolled with the movement, her body loose under his hands. A cold spike of panic hit hard. “No, no—” His fingers pressed to her neck, searching, slipping once before he found it.

There.

Still there.

Very weak, but there.

Relief didn’t come. It couldn’t—not with how faint it felt under his fingertips, like it could disappear if he lost focus for a single second.

“Knox.”