Page 87 of Hard Bargain

Dominic didn’t flinch. Something almost thoughtful crossed his expression. “I do.”

Knox went still.

“I love it,” he continued, without apology. “The control, the risk, the moment when things tip from calm to chaos and you have to decide what happens next.”

“You’re serious?”

Dominic looked almost amused by the question. “Completely.”

Knox shook his head, trying to process that. “You don’t ever want something normal?”

“Define normal.”

“I don’t know,” Knox said, exasperated. “A quiet life. A job where people aren’t trying to kill you. A house that doesn’t require a private holding cell in the basement.”

Dominic laughed. “No. That sounds incredibly boring.”

Knox stared at him like he’d grown another head. He pushed away from the counter and paced a few steps across the kitchen before turning back. “How did you become like this?”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he said, “but there’s no tragic origin story. No movie-villain childhood. I grew up in a very normal house. Family dinners. Birthdays. Holidays. Nothing traumatic.”

“Then how?” Knox asked. “How does someone build all this? How does that happen?”

Dominic was quiet for a moment. “There’s no explanation that’s going to satisfy you,” he said at last. “I started with legal businesses. Ran them well. Made good money. And I was bored out of my fucking mind.” He held Knox’s gaze, utterly unapologetic. “Then something more dangerous came along, and I took it. Because I needed the rush. That’s all it was, at first.”

Knox didn’t move.

“And then you’re in a world you never planned to be a part of,” Dominic went on. “Only it feels more like home than the one you came from. You cross one line, and nothing happens. So you cross another. Then another.” His voice remained calm, almost detached. “You keep waiting to feel it. The guilt. The remorse. Whatever you’re supposed to feel when you do the things I do.”

“And you don’t?” Knox asked.

“No. I don’t. At some point you stop waiting for it and start wondering maybe this is just where you were always meant to end up.”

That only made Knox stare harder. “That doesn’t explain anything. That’s not how men like you are made. There’s supposed to be a reason. Something happens. Something breaks.”

Dominic shrugged. “I guess this is just who I am.” His gaze pierced through him. “Aren’t you the same?”

Knox opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

Dominic’s eyes dropped to Knox’s hands, the faint stain of dried blood still clinging there. “You weren’t afraid tonight,” he said. “So tell me, Wolfe. Did any of it really bother you… or did you enjoy the rush as much as I did?”

Knox didn’t answer. The truth was sitting in his chest like a loaded gun.

When nothing came, Dominic’s mouth twitched. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” He pushed off the stool and headed toward the bathroom, like the conversation had reached its natural end. “I’m taking a shower,” he said over his shoulder. “The couch is still free.”

Knox stayed exactly where he was.

Aren’t you the same?

The question kept circling. He looked down at his hands. The blood had turned dark against his skin. He crossed to the sink and turned on the water, scrubbing harder than necessary, watching the water run pink before disappearing down the drain.

He shut off the faucet and dried his hands slowly. He should leave. That was the obvious choice, the sensible one. Go home, sleep in his own bed, and put as much distance between himself and Dominic as possible.

Behind the bathroom door, the shower started running.

He stood there in the quiet kitchen and didn’t move.