Best Friend's Ex Box Set

“Hey!” Cheese protested. “I’m not an idiot!”

Dominic rolled his eyes and turned his attention back toward me, and suddenly a glimmer of hope peeked through the curtain of darkness. I knew what I could do to turn the situation in my favor and get Brian and I out of there, but first I had to get Brian to regain consciousness, and then somehow get him to play along with my little game.

“Dom, tell me how we’re going to get out of here, please?” I flirted and smiled at him. “I haven’t been alone with you in so long.”

“No, you haven’t, have you?” he smiled as he reached out and ran his fingers lightly down my cheek. “You must be so very lonely.”

“You have no idea,” I said. “It’s been the longest time since anyone has even touched me.”

“You mean you and the bodyguard didn’t get your groove on?” he asked with a surprised.

“Who? Me and him?” I said incredulously. “What on earth are you thinking?”

“Well, I figured that close quarters with a handsome, yet simple hunk might wear you down,” Dominic mused.

“Um, have you forgotten that he was hired by my father?” I asked as I rolled my eyes as far back in my head as I could. I had to channel my inner teenager to get this one right. I’d been a child in an adult’s world my entire life and I wasn’t sure I had it in me, but for Brian’s sake and mine, I had to try.

“True,” Dominic replied. “Daddy dearest would not like you mingling with the help one bit.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Brian’s fingers moving. The other two hadn’t seen it, and I was determined to make sure they didn’t notice him regaining consciousness. I shifted my focus and said, “Dom, let the room server go. He’s nothing. We don’t need him, do we?”

Dominic looked over at the teenager lying facedown on the carpet with a blindfold covering his eyes as if he’d forgotten he was even there. “Hmmm,” he murmured. “You might be right, but I’m not taking any chances, my dear. I’ve got a plan, and I’m sticking to it.”

“What kind of plan, Dom?” I asked eagerly. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Oh, we most definitely are,” he smiled. “You and me, that is, after we take care of the problem.”

“What problem?” I asked as my heart sunk into my stomach. I’d been lulled into a sense of false security because Dominic was calm, but the reality was that he was more dangerous when he wasn’t actively angry.

“Well, you see, my dear,” he smiled. “We can’t have the nosy bodyguard reporting back to your father and screwing everything up, now can we?”

“No, we most definitely cannot have that happen,” I said as I forced a smile and stole a peek at Brian. He was still out cold, and I was starting to sweat. Wake up, wake up, wake up.

“Good, I’m glad we agree.” Dominic smiled in a reptilian way as he moved across the room to Cheese and said, “Get him up off the floor and into that chair.”

“How, dude?” Cheese asked genuinely confused.

“I don’t care how you do it, just do it,” Dominic intoned. “And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me dude?”

“Sorry, du—Dom,” Cheese replied as he bent down and slid his arms under Brian’s armpits and hoisted him up off the floor. As he lifted, Brian’s head dropped forward. I kept hoping for a miracle; that Brian would wake up and take on our captors and free us from this nightmare. But he only groaned a little as Cheese propped him up in the chair and secured him to the back of it using another length of rope. I watched him as he tied it and realized that he had no idea how to tie knots. If I could get Brian conscious, there was still hope.

“What are you going to do, baby?” I asked sweetly.

Dominic walked around behind Brian, rested his hands on his shoulders, and said with a smile, “He will no longer be an issue, pretty girl. You will be mine and he will cease to be.”

My stomach turned as I heard Dominic discuss his horrible plan to ensure that we would have a beautiful future. He would make sure he got what he wanted even if he had to kill Brian in the process, and my brain spun as I tried to figure out a way to talk him out of his disgusting plan.

“Dom, do you think that’s the best idea?” I asked sweetly. “I mean, he’s really kind of a nobody, and if you off him then he becomes somebody, right?”

“Ava, Ava, Ava, you’re so very naive. Sweet, but naive,” he chuckled. “You see, if I off this jarhead, then I will also make sure that no one knows I’ve done it. He will simply disappear into nothingness and no one will know what happened to him, so he will still be a nobody. Do you see, my darling? I’ve got it all planned out.”

“Oh, okay!” I said as brightly as I could and smiled a big, fake smile. “Well, if you’ve got it all planned out then I guess it’s done, right?”

“Yes, except for one thing,” Dominic smiled. I didn’t like that smile, it was the one he always used on me when he was about to punish me for some imagined infraction and then blame me for the pain he was forced to cause me. “I need him to be conscious so that he understands that I’m making the choice to end him. I need him to look me in the eye as I lead him out of this world and into the next one.”

I knew now that Dominic had gone completely mad. Up to this moment I wondered if it was just grief and ego that drove him to try and reclaim me, but now I knew for certain that he had descended into madness and that he really was going to kill Brian. I quickly worked to come up with an alternate plan that might give us a little time. If I could buy us time, Brian might be able to figure out a way to break free and disarm Dominic and Cheese. Cheese. Shoot. I’d forgotten about him and the fact that he was now holding Brian’s gun.

“Wake him up,” Dominic orde