"Get her to Wednesday."

"Get her to Wednesday."

That's what Max had said. "Get her to Wednesday."

"What's Wednesday?" I blurt out suddenly.

"What?" Dominic asks me confused, surely more by my sudden burst of talking than my question since he seemed to understand Max perfectly when he'd said it to Dominic.

My eyes turn to Dominic, having previously been watching the car journey from the side window as we left the bounds of New York city and began to head upstate. "Wednesday. Max said it. What is it?"

Dominic sighs. His eyes darted between me and the road, as he had been doing the entire drive so far. "A safe house. We have seven safe houses within the continent of America. Wednesday is one of them."

"You're taking me to a safe house?" I ask him quietly.

Dominic nods. "Your safety is everything to Max... and me." He tells me the last bit almost hushed as if he were afraid to confess it.

With Dominic's suit jacket wrapped around me, it provided me with his warmth and scent in order to calm me down enough to have pulled me out of my full panicked state. I am still in a mild state of panic, but Dominic is helping. 

I look over his appearance without his suit jacket, his top layer is now his vest that matches his trousers. It is now that I can see Dominic is wearing a shoulder holster, a gun strapped next to his ribs. 

I gulp and my eyes travel back up to his burning green ones. 

Dominic shakes his head at me. "They're not going to hurt you." He tells me calmly. They? "They're protection, I would never let them be used against you." He says a little more firmly. Dominic reaches his hand over and clasps mine tightly. "You're safe." He reassures me again.

I swallow harshly. I had thought I was safe before. I thought that he wouldn't be able to get to me from here. But I was wrong then, how could I trust that I was safe now?

My mind travels back to the incident at the restaurant with the man and his bloodshot eyes, his harsh tone appearance, and his threatening tone. Max was quick to insist Dominic get me out of there, he knew I wouldn't be able to face that man, he knew the effect he has on me. When Dominic hesitated, he didn't understand what was happening or why, Max turned to Pops for help. 

Dominic's father had insisted further than he got me out of there, why? Pops sided with Max instantly. Did he know it could go sideways easily? Is it because I'm basically an outsider and have no way to defend myself? Or did he know exactly what was going on, had he known who that man was and why he was there? Had Max confided in Pops?

"How close is Max to your Dad?" I ask Dominic.

He glances back over at me confused. His eyes searched my face and I could tell he was searching for the reason behind my questioning. "Max is like a son to him. My father took Max under his wing after I inducted Max to our Mafia." He pauses hesitantly as his eyes fix back on the road. "When Max first joined he went through training like anyone else, and part of that training is private psychosis checks which my father was present for. After that they were closer than I'd ever seen my father with anyone who wasn't blood."

I nod slowly. It was true, Max had told Pops. But one question remained, did Pops tell Dominic? "Do you know what they talked about during that part?"

"No." His eyes snap to mine quickly. "Is there something they talked about then that relates to tonight?" Dominic asks quickly as he seems to put the pieces together.

I let out a shaky breath. "You don't know?" I ask again.

Dominic shakes his head. "Ell... Shit." He says suddenly as his eyes watch my face carefully. His hand leaves mine and comes up to cup my face, his thumb dragging under one of my eyes and collecting tears I hadn't realised I'd begun to shed. He turns his full attention back to the road, his hand not leaving my face. "We're a few minutes out from Wednesday." He tells me softly.

I close my eyes and lean into the soothing touch of his hand for a minute before I pull away from his hand entirely and watch the road we're travelling down. I see a sign telling us we're leaving the limits of Kingston, I'm not sure how long we'd been driving for so I'm not sure how far away from New York city we'd gotten.

Dominic pulls into a private road just out of city limits, it winds around and every few miles I can see large historic looking houses on large properties. The car pulls into a driveway of a large brick house. Dominic turns off the car and unbuckles his seatbelt. "Let's get you inside." He suggests quietly.

I nod slowly. Pulling off my seatbelt before I open my door and climb down from the car. 

Dominic meets me around my side of the car, holding my scarf and coat in one of his hands. We walk side-by-side up to the front door of the house where Dominic pulls a key from a lockbox tucked inside a marble urn planter. He unlocks the door, pushing it open before ushering me inside first. 

The door closes behind me and a light flickers on illuminating the entranceway of the previously darkened house. 

Dominic punches in a code to the alarm box before setting my coat and scarf down on the entrance table. He takes my hand in his and leads me through the house, flicking on light switches throughout until he stops in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Dominic opens his mouth to say something when he shuts it and pulls his phone out from his trousers and holds it up to his ear. He must have it on vibrate as I hadn't heard it going off. "Yeah." He says in a short tone. Dominic swallows harshly, his eyes fixed solely on me as he listens to whoever is on the other end of the phone. "Ok." He says and hangs up, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"Who was it?" I ask, unable to stop myself.

"Where is your phone?" Dominic asks in a firm tone without even acknowledging my question.

"I..." I have to think about it for a second. "It's in my coat." I tell him.

Dominic nods and leads me back downstairs to where he'd left my phone at the entrance table. His hand drops mine as he searches the pockets of my coat until he pull out my phone. He holds it out to me. "Unlock it."

I take my phone from him and swipe the lock screen up, I haven't put a pass code onto my phone. I see I have a text from Liam waiting in my inbox. Without thinking I click into it and I feel myself blanch and begin to tremble again as I read his text.

A man stopped by the building for you, I went to drop dinner off to my Dad when he came in. He said he was looking for you since you and Max wouldn't answer your phones. I hope you don't mind but I sent him the link to your find my friend, it sounded important and he seemed worried about getting to you.

I feel like I'm going to be sick again. He tracked me, that's how he found me.