One Last Rainy Day: The Legacy of a Prince

Kate Stewart, author of One Last Rainy Day (2023), is a New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling romance author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where this novel is set. With parallels to the legend of Robin Hood and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the novel tells the story of Dominic King, a member of a “club” that works to neutralize the corrupt power wielded by society’s elite. Like Robin Hood, Dom steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Like Romeo, he falls in love with the daughter of his family’s sworn enemy, thus setting off a cycle of violence that ends in tragedy. Stewart weaves in themes about The Fantasy of the American Dream, The Corrosive Power of Vengeance, The Healing Nature of Emotional Intimacy, and The Moral Ambiguity of Vigilante Justice.

This guide refers to the 2023 Kensington Books paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child abuse, substance abuse, cursing, graphic violence, addiction, illness, and death.

Plot Summary

Dom, a member of a secret “club” that enacts vigilante justice against powerful evildoers, is hiding some information he recently learned so as not to burden others with knowledge of how extensively the elite abuse the innocent. He wants to act to punish the people responsible for these abuses, but his older brother, Tobias, who acts as leader of the club, will not allow him. Frustrated, Dom gathers evidence and waits for Tobias’s signal. While in his bedroom at the club’s new townhouse, Tyler tells him that Sean brought Cecelia Horner home from work. Dom is angry because Cecelia is the daughter of, Roman, a powerful figure whom Dom and Tobias blame for the deaths of their parents. They have been seeking a way to get revenge against Roman for years. Roman recently offered to pay for Cecelia’s college tuition and give her an inheritance if she came to work for him for a year. Dom has a premonition, but he shakes it off and makes a beeline for Cecelia downstairs, confronting and insulting her. Dom recalls how the group formed when he, Sean, and Tyler were teens, sitting at a campfire with Tobias. Tobias and Dom blame Roman for their parents’ deaths, and their club’s primary goal is to ruin him. Dom is sure Cecelia’s relationship with Sean will end poorly.

Led by Dom, a group of “birds”—what club members call themselves—rob a warehouse belonging to Anthony Spencer, a corrupt businessman. They find military-grade guns, ammunition, and gear. Dom tells them to take and hide the guns. Later, he confronts Sean about how much Sean is distracted by Cecelia, and he says that he and Tyler will drive her home. The club needs a way to get into Roman’s house, and Cecelia might be the answer. Again, Dom ignores his premonition about her.

A few days later, Dom realizes that he has unintentionally caught a local evil-doer in his cyber web, and he hacks into the man’s computer to trace his activities. Later that afternoon, Dom catches Sean and Cecelia being intimate in the hallway. It arouses him. The media reports a huge donation made to a women’s shelter, and Dom is pleased by the good the club did with the money from Spencer’s illegal goods. He gets a call from the hospital: His Aunt Delphine is days early for her chemotherapy appointment. Tobias keeps Dom on a tight leash, and Dom sees every day that he can’t act to avenge innocent lives lost. Dom tells Sean that they are “moving forward” with the plan to use Cecelia to gain access to Roman’s house. The next day, Sean, Dom, and Tyler are with Cecelia at Roman’s pool. Dom asks to use the bathroom, and while Sean distracts Cecelia, Dom downloads a bunch of spyware to her laptop. Later, Tyler brings Dom a gift from Tobias: an extremely expensive, customized laptop. Tobias’s note refers to a childhood memory in which Dom asked if they’d always be brothers.

Sean admits he’s falling in love with Cecelia, and he wishes Dom would acknowledge his own attraction to her. Dom picks her up later, and they hit a gas station so Dom can check on Zach, the 11-year-old son of the owner, Tim. When Dom sees fingerprints on Zach’s neck, he attacks and threatens Tim. He gives Zach some cash and tells Tim not to touch it. Then Dom and Cecelia check on Delphine, the aunt who raised him and Tobias. She was cruel at times, but she’s been trying to do better. Delphine tells Dom that Cecelia will be his ruin. Within a few days, Dom and Cecelia sleep together, and he is shocked by her effect on him. With her help, he reconnects with himself and relaxes. Later, he goes to Denny’s house and sleeps for 18 hours. When he gets back to the townhouse, Sean is worried that Dom will hurt Cecelia, and Dom reminds him they have no future with her anyway. Once Cecelia learns the truth, she’ll run.

When the Miami chapter skips a meet-up, Dom is irate. He says the Miami chapter has switched from vigilantism to killing innocents because it pays more. Dom calls Tobias, but Tobias doesn’t respond as he hoped. Cecelia tells Dominic that her rainy days are his; sunny days are Sean’s. Dom wonders how he, Cecelia, and Sean are going to make this work. To Tyler, Dom expresses his frustration with Tobias, but then a storm breaks and Cecelia appears. They have sex again, and Dom realizes that she makes him feel whole. Dom knows Sean is attached to her, and his own feelings are growing. However, Dom swears he won’t allow himself to fall in love. He knows this good time can’t last. Cecelia even tries to make him a birthday cake and breakfast, but everything gets ruined. Dom realizes, with some trepidation, that he adores her.

Years ago, Tobias won so much money at the racetrack that he and Dom became rich, and Dom loves giving the money away. One day, Cecelia accompanies Tyler to deliver checks to struggling families, and she is so touched that she cries and says Dom deserves to know the good he’s doing. She confides in him about her childhood and her mother, who had an addiction to alcohol, saying she’s here to get her inheritance and then get her mom some help. Cecelia rubs his shoulders and asks why he’s so tense. He tries to explain the injustices he sees in the American economy and way of life. When he gets a text though, he leaps into action. Sean tries to stop him from leaving, and Dom agrees to meet him at the junkyard later. Dom drives into a different town and watches the man he calls “the fly” park and retrieve something from his backseat. Dom confronts the man, a stadium security guard, and trades a sack of guns for what the man carries. As the man walks away, Dom fires, killing him. Later, Dom burns the car, his clothes, and shoes. When Tyler learns what Dom did, he is furious because they had a plan. Sean is shocked, but Dom says he had no choice and that he took precautions to make sure he won’t be caught.

Later, Sean comforts Dom by reminding him that he saved many lives: “the fly” was clearly planning a mass murder at a July 4th fireworks celebration. Dom fears that Tobias will see Sean and Dom’s choice to be with Cecelia as unforgivable. Then, when she gets frustrated with Dom and tells him to stop holding back, he says some cruel things just to drive her away. Later, Sean says the difference between him and Dom is that Sean has accepted their love triangle. Dom finds Cecelia, who is still downstairs, waiting for the rain to end. They make love.

Delphine wants to see the sunset, so Dom takes her to a good spot. She apologizes for how she treated him and encourages him to keep an open heart. Later, he sees that someone has cleaned up her house and guesses it was Cecelia. That night, he tells Cecelia he loves her. Soon, though, they learn that someone in their inner circle told Tobias about their love triangle, so Sean takes her home. For three weeks, Tobias ignores their calls. Finally, Tobias returns and exiles Sean and Dom for 10 months for their deception; they can have no contact with Cecelia. As they are just about to go to the airport, Cecelia comes, begging Dom not to leave. He remembers Tobias’s warning and says nothing, choosing his brother over her.

In France, Dom and Sean have chaperones, Julien and Albert. Julien is a great ally, helping Dom access information he needs. A powerful, unscrupulous man called Antoine has built the largest club in France. Dom is saddened that Tobias never felt the kind of love Cecelia gave him. He believes now that he made a mistake and decides to go home to Cecelia. With Tyler’s help, Sean and Dom escape and fly home. There, they find Cecelia and Tobias together and in love. Tobias let Cecelia believe that Dom and Sean left by choice. After they arrive, Tobias drugs Cecelia and has her tattooed without her consent. Delphine’s cancer is back, and Dom curses their fate. Then Cecelia shows up, in a rage, starting a fire in the garage and demanding to know who’s responsible for her tattoo. Tobias calls to say the Miami club is on its way and that Roman didn’t kill their parents. Dom follows Cecelia to Roman’s house, where Matteo, from Miami, waits. Tobias and Andre arrive, and Dom knows it is his fate to protect Cecelia. She begs him not to do something stupid. Tobias orders Dom to stand down, but Matteo shoots, and Dom dies in Cecelia’s arms.

The rest of the chapters are unnumbered, instead named for the bird who narrates. Denny vows to kill every person without a tattoo in Roman’s house. The Miamians run, and the birds take them down. Dom’s death is agony for Tyler, and he can feel Sean’s contempt for Tobias. Delphine mourns Dom like a son. At the funeral, Russell spots Zach, and he says Dom was the only person who ever cared about him. Russell tells Zach he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be. Sean feels completely lost without his best friend.

Eight years later, Tyler still can’t unlock Dom’s laptop. He and Tobias figured out the first password—Always Brothers—but they can’t get the second. It occurs to Tyler that Dom programmed it to require Cecelia’s fingerprint too, and she easily guesses the second password. The evidence they find is sickening, and they finally understand the inhuman strength it took Dom to bear this burden alone. For two months, Tyler watches the news that shows all the human traffickers, A-listers, and military officials who have been arrested. Dom left everything they needed to reveal these monsters who trafficked children. Tyler has adopted Zach, who just recently got his own tattoo. The final chapter, titled “Dom,” consists of a series of images: some recognizable, some not. There are snippets of speech from various characters, references to weddings, to new babies. There are promises from Tobias, references to Cecelia, and fragments of speech from her and Dom’s mother. It suggests peace.