Page 86 of Hard Bargain

Dominic raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

“That you’re hurting.”

Dominic flexed his fingers, slow and deliberate. “I didn’t say it didn’t hurt.”

“You just act like it doesn’t.”

“Pain is information,” Dominic said. “It shows others your weaknesses, your breaking points.”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“Works for me.”

Knox closed the lid of the kit and rested his palms flat on the counter.

“You look like you’re arguing with your own brain,” Dominic said.

Knox rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I am.”

Dominic watched him. “You handled yourself well tonight.”

Knox didn’t answer, because the truth was more complicated than that. The part that bothered him wasn’t that he hadn’t panicked. It was the sick realization that watching Dominic handle that knife—the blood, the control, the absolute finality of it—hadn’t scared him at all.

Not even slightly.

Something dark had stirred awake instead, and Knox had no idea what the hell to do with that. He exhaled slowly and pushed away from the counter. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

Knox leaned his hip against the island, arms crossing like he needed to hold himself together. “How do you do that?”

Dominic cocked his head. “Do what?”

Knox gestured vaguely toward him. “All of it.”

Dominic waited.

Knox shook his head, frustration creeping into his voice. “Tonight. The cell. The guy with the knife. You act like it’s just… another day.”

“It is,” Dominic said, leaning back on the stool.

Knox stared at him. “None of it bothers you?”

Dominic’s expression barely shifted.

“The violence,” Knox clarified. “The way you live. The things you do.”

“No. It doesn’t bother me,” he said in an unnervingly calm tone.

“That’s crazy.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” Knox said immediately. “Normal people don’t—”

Dominic’s mouth twitched. “Don’t what?”

Knox gestured again, bigger this time. “They don’t willingly walk into situations that end up with others bleeding all over the damn place.”