Robin des Bois ✓

thirty-six. & Beginnings

Tina and Tyler didn't give me too hard of a time. I'd worn a long-sleeved shirt and leggings so that they wouldn't see the abrasions around my wrists and ankles, and their only reaction was to tease me about what they assumed was a sex-filled weekend at Gabe's place. I didn't correct them. They had enough to worry about as it was.

My father was a lot less pleased and let me know that if I intended to spend such long periods of time with a man, the least I could do would be to introduce him. I made a face at that idea.

Gabe and my father in the same room would make for an... interesting encounter. I could just imagine my father's disapproving gaze taking in all the tattoos and the sheer amount of attitude that rolled off him.

I simply acquiesced sheepishly and promised that they would all meet him soon.

Amanda simply watched me curiously, perched at the kitchen counter.

"I'm sure he's an amazing young man." She said in a placating tone, a hand resting on my father's shoulder.

I smiled at her thankfully and then went to Tina's room, and proceeded, with a certain amount of dread, to call Nirvana.

I had no choice but to tell her a slightly altered version of the truth. I told her that Dominic slipped me a roofie, but I left out the whole blackmailing plot as well as the less savory parts of the story involving drugs, theft and my involvement in all of it.

She had been shocked into silence and then she'd burst into tears, begging me to tell her that what she think had happened hadn't actually happened, unable to even say the right word to describe it.

I reassured her, and she calmed down a bit, and then proceeded to apologize profusely, beating herself over the fact that she hadn't kept me safe.

"No one could've seen it coming," I said truthfully –even I had been blindsided by Dominic's plot. I never would have suspected him of being capable of such a thing. Aidan? Yes, definitely. I wouldn't have put that kind of twisted deed past him, but quiet, handsome, unassuming Dominic? Never.

I promised her that we'd go to lunch together tomorrow, assured her that I didn't blame her for anything than had happened and we hung up after one last tearful apology on her part.

"I'll make it up to you, I swear," she said fervently in guise of goodbyes. "I'll bake you more cookies, and I'll chop his balls off, if you want."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'd be more than down for the cookies, but maybe skip the ball-chopping part."

"We'll see about that," was as much as she conceded.

~~

Gabe kept dodging me by telling me he was busy.

He kept me updated on the whole Dominic situation, but other than that, it was as though I was trying to establish communication with a brick wall.

Dominic's father had not at all been pleased with his son's machinations, all done behind his back. From what Gabe told me, he'd been furious and had pretty much immediately shipped Dominic off to the UK. With some sizable donations, he'd made sure that he would continue his studies at a top notch university –Oxford, to be precise -but far away from his father's business.

Marco Belmonte had also assigned Gabriel to check in on Dominic's activity from time to time, and Gabriel had enlisted his cousin Alexander's help to keep track of Dominic's phone and bank accounts. He assured me that Dominic would never cross paths with me again, and I believed him. We'd spoken on the phone and the steel in his voice had been inflexible.