Shell Shocked

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

He wasn’t sure why he followed Kiko, but he couldn’t stay behind listening to Katie’s frightened and confused voice on the phone. Dom pulled open the door and went after the sound of Kiko’s footsteps, finding him bending down behind a truck partly filled with boxes. Chad was bleeding on the ground.

“Help?” he asked, but Kiko shook his head.

“I’ve got pressure on his arm, but he’s passed out,” he said, voice quavering. Dom glanced around.

“Another explosion?”

“Looks like it.” Kiko breathed out, the sound loud and strange. “I don’t understand.”

Dom bent down, unable to look at Chad for more than a few moments before focusing on Kiko’s face instead. He was clearly concerned with his worker, but there was something else there, too, something Dom understood because he felt it at the moment. Fear.

“Someone’s trying to kill people,” he said. Speaking it aloud made his stomach churn.

“I don’t know,” said Kiko. “The ambulance could get here faster.”

“If you’d called them they’d be talking to you about that now. Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t keep my phone on me during work hours,” said Kiko. He bit his lip. “This kid can’t die, Dom. I can’t look at his parents and tell them he…While at work?”

“You didn’t do this,” said Dom, hoping he was right about that. It made little sense for Kiko to try to kill his own employees, after all.

“Yeah. You should get back inside. Those kids probably need you, after I came in there yelling like that.”

“They have their father,” said Dom, but he knew Kiko was right. “You’re all right here alone?”

Kiko swallowed, nodded. Dom hesitated a moment more. If Kiko was the person planting explosives, then he absolutely shouldn’t be left alone with Chad. But Dom just didn’t feel he was a murderer. He took a breath, stood.

“How is he?” asked Katie when he entered, and he relayed Chad’s current state for her to tell the operator. Glancing around, he saw Alec shaking at a table, the kids trying to reach through the fencing to touch the goose. The kids were his first concern; he grabbed a few coloring books off the shelves—egg-themed, of course—and a package of crayons and sat them down at a table within view of where Alec was, silently promising to reimburse Kiko for the items later. He then approached Alec.

“Alec,” he said as he sat across from him. Alec’s eyes traveled to Dom’s, wide.

“What…” he said. Dom scowled.

“There was another explosion. You heard.”

“Is someone dead?”

Dom opened his mouth to reply, but the ambulance sirens cut through the air and into the store. He didn’t know how bad off Chad was anyway. Instead he simply sat and watched as Alec grew paler staring out the window. The police had arrived, too; one was out with Kiko and the ambulance, the other speaking with Katie.

“Oh, God,” said Alec, shaking. He looked ill.

Dom wondered on that, on how odd it was for Alec to completely lose it when he had always seemed so cocky and in control. But then, he had never been what Dom had expected in bed, either. Thinking of the time he’d spent with Alec made him feel just as ill, though, so he leaned back and stared at the movements around the ambulance outside.

Chad was being loaded into the back of the vehicle, which Dom took as a good sign, or at least a sign that he wasn’t dead. Kiko had appeared deeply upset; still did, that Dom could see through the window. The man was well-groomed, hair cut short, face smooth, so that even with his upset motions he couldn’t mess himself up too much. There was blood on his hands, which he was allowed to clean away after a few photos, and it had stained his shirt. Dom felt his eyes drawn to those tawny hands again and again, then Kiko’s face. He considered the possibility Kiko had actually been interested last night at the bar, weighed it against the fact that he’d had more to drink than he should have and probably wanted to get laid to spite Alec.

He was still puzzling over whether there was actually anything building between himself and the occasionally-annoying owner of a store named Yolks on You, or whether he was reacting to the stress of the past day, when the officer that had been speaking with Katie approached the table.

“You are?” he asked, sounding less friendly than Dom would have liked. He flipped a paper up on his pad.

Dom had to speak to the cop for both himself and Alec, who seemed to have decided to stop talking. The cop was more interested in what Dom had to say anyway, curious about what he had seen when dashing out to assist Kiko. When he’d finished, he sent a paramedic over to have a look at Alec. Dom watched him indignantly snap out of his stupor and insist he was fine, then glanced over at where Katie had resumed reading stories to Alyssa and Gabe at the goose display.

“So you’re fine now, then?” he asked. Alec scowled.

“There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“You expect me to believe that, too?” asked Dom, finding it difficult to hold back his fury. After everything Alec had already done to him, to keep lying like this, expecting Dom to simply deal with it…How he had not seen him for the d**k he was months ago he didn’t know. “You’re a damn coward, Alec. And a liar. And—”

“What is it you want from me?” asked Alec, voice rising. “To tell you you’re right? To beg your forgiveness because your feelings are hurt? What?”

“Call Megan,” said Dom, trying to keep his voice lower. “Or text her. I don’t care. Get her to come up here and take care of her kids.”

“We’re doing fine.”

“No, Alec, I’m doing fine. You can’t handle the thought of anything blowing up,” said Dom, watching Alec swallow and clench his hands to prevent further shaking.

“I’m not asking her for help,” said Alec through clenched teeth. Dom rolled his eyes.

“Please. You need it. Don’t be stubborn.”

“She—” began Alec, but Dom was through with weak excuses.

“You know what? I don’t care. And those kids deserve a responsible adult looking out for them. Guess what? It’s not me. We’re through, remember? You’re supposed to look after them. If you can’t, get someone who can. It’s not going to be me, not anymore. It can’t be me. So call her.” He stood. “I’ll go get you something to drink. For your nerves.”

Dom left Alec to glare after him, glad they were in public. Alec liked to yell during a fight. If denying him that was something Dom could do with the last of their time together, he would enjoy it as much as possible.