Dom's Absolution

Ch. 48 - Damn Those Eyes

As I entered into the diner, I already heard the police sirens in the distance.

On the floor laid numerous bodies. A few belonged to severely injured Mexican men, while the other motionless figures were clearly dead. The scent of fear and blood was thick in the air.

What made me stop in my tracks was seeing Blaire on the ground in a pool of her own blood, dead, in the middle of the walkway more towards the back of the diner. I felt as though I were dreaming, as I could not believe what I was seeing.

"No, no, no..." I mumbled to myself.

Running to her, I abruptly dropped down to my knees, not caring that my pants were getting stained with her blood as I turned her body over and held her.

There was blood, so much fucking blood.

Looking down at her unmoving face, seeing her light brown eyes unmoving broke my heart all over again and a soft sound of despair escaped past my lips. Damn those eyes of hers, so beautiful, once full of life now staring blankly up at me.

Those eyes of hers would haunt me forever.

I held her to me as I whispered, "Oh Blaire, I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you my love."

Unknowing to anyone, I had had feelings for Blaire.

Naturally, I had suspected that Jade and Quintin may have known of my hidden emotions, as they would often tease me about her over the years. I knew that Blaire had liked me, but she had been a teenager when we had first met, so I had never encouraged her behaviour.

Although, to be fair, within recent years, I had secretly enjoyed our witty exchanges, especially whenever she teased me or tried to irritate me to get some form of response. Over time, I had found myself looking forward to our sibling-like banters.

Also, because of my duties to the Calvetti organisation, I felt that it was better to keep my distance as I did not want to bring Blaire into the mafia life.

One could only imagine my surprise when she started hooking up with James.

It had eaten away at me, but knowing Blaire's promiscuous behaviour, I had just chalked her time with James up as a short fling. I had not expected their relationship to last and so I had decided that, whenever she grew bored of the Irishman, I would admit my feelings to her.

Unfortunately, as fate would have it, I never got the chance as Blaire and James ended up falling in love.

To be honest, I had been truly happy for her, but I would be lying if I said that I did not regret never telling her how I felt. Especially as everyone around me was seemingly taking a leap of faith where their emotions were concerned.

Now, as I held her dead body in my arms, I could not help but feel my eyes burn as I rapidly blinked back the unshed tears.

My eyes noticed the edge of something dangling out of Blaire's closed fist. Slowly peeling back her fingers, I realised that it was Jade's charm bracelet. It would appear that Jade must have left it there for us to find.

When Nigel entered, the large Irishman immediately ran and came to Blaire's side. A string of Gaeilge curses fell from his mouth.

Not wanting to get any more blood on the trinket, I took out my handkerchief. I then removed the bracelet and pocketed it before getting out of the way to give the larger man some space as he held Blaire's body.

Wiping my bloodied hands on my pants, I immediately walked over to the counter. The customers and owners were still visibly shaken, paralysed with fear.