The Ideal Deal

39

A cool breeze brushed across my cheeks as I stepped off the final step on the jet. Dominic followed behind me with both of our duffels in his hands. Our chauffeur were parked in front the jet, and the person we were supposed to hand the flash drive over to was parked in front of the our ride. The door to the car parked in front of the one Dominic and I would take opened, and a woman exited.

"Summer and Dominic," she smiled. "Pleasure meeting you both. I'm Valorie Zhang. I run a skincare company here."

In unison, Dominic and I smiled, "It's nice to meet you."

Valorie gave a warm nod and reached into her car. She then pulled out a briefcase and a red folder. She informed, "The red folder is for the two of you to keep. It contains information about your parents' assassinators. The briefcase is for the Circle."

"Thanks," I smiled while taking both the folder and briefcase. I then handed her the flash drive and checked the briefcase, which happened to be stacked with hundred dollar bills in rubber bands.

"Enjoy your stay," she smiled before departing. Dominic and I then entered our own ride, and the driver drove off to the location Dominic gave.

An hour and a half after

Dominic and I climbed into bed and turned on our night lamps. We then sat closely beside each other so that we could see the file I had in my hands. I opened the folder, and my eyes immediately flickered to the picture at the far left of the paper. There was a hand in the picture, but the eye-catching thing about it was the tattoo that was on the person's wrist.

"That looks strangely familiar," Dominic said while pointing to the tattoo. "I'm pretty sure I've seen it before."

"Yeah," I agreed through a low huff. "I can't wrap my mind around it either." There was something about it that was clawing at my tongue, but I couldn't pin the hand to a face. All I knew was that the hand looked like a man's. Upon deciding to take my mind off the tattoo for a while. I carefully read and observed the other information given to us in the file, but they weren't of much help because- besides the tattoo- the information we gained could've been received from a cop or detective if Dominic or I were to pay one off. In exasperation, I sighed, "That's it?!"

Dominic shrugged, "Maybe we'll find out more info the more missions we complete."

"So what- we be puppets for the Circle only to be fed a fraction of feeding each time?" I complained. "We were better off trying to find out answers for ourselves. This was so pointless!" Pissed that we didn't find out the information we wanted, I rolled my eyes and shoved the file onto Dominic's laps and got ready to climb off the bed. Dominic grabbed my hand and tugged my body to his, causing me to fall horizontally across his laps. I motioned to get up, but he took the file up, placed it on his nightstand, and adjusted my body to straddle him. "Dom, I'm really not in the m-"

"I didn't place you on me because I want to have sex. I did so because you need to calm down. You're getting too riled up about this," he replied while looking into my eyes with concern and tucking my hair behind my ears.

I defended, "We're being exploited, basically. We made a deal for the purpose of getting answers, and now, it just seems as if all of that was pointless."

A hint of hurt flashed in Dominic's eyes as he stared at me. He then frowned, "So is this," he said while wagging his fingers between the two of us, "pointless as well?"

I sighed, "That's not what I meant."

"Well, you didn't exclude our relationship from it," he shrugged, hurt still evident in his eyes.

I cupped his cheek and assured, "Our relationship is the best thing that happened to me in a while, Dom. I don't regret it at all." I then smooched his lips, and he nodded while placing his hands on my hips.

"We're gonna get the answers we want. It might take a while, but we're going to get it," he assured while running his hand through my hair. "Patience, my love."

Soothed and with blush-filled cheeks, I nodded, "Okay." I then rested my forehead on his and stared into his warm eyes that I wished I could melt in. "I love you, just in case you forgot."

We both chuckled, and he shook his head, "I would never." He then smooched my lips before professing, "I love you too."