Chapter 6 - The Night Dominic Vale Broke His Own RulesDominic moved before the intruder could raise his gun.
He struck the man's wrist, sending the weapon clattering beneath the bed. Marcus appeared behind him, grabbed the intruder, and slammed him against the wall.
A second man rushed through the doorway.
Dominic turned, but the attacker fired first.
The bullet tore through Dominic's upper arm.
He staggered.
I screamed his name.
For one terrible second, he looked almost surprised. Then he pushed the door shut with his shoulder and fired twice into the hallway.
The second attacker dropped out of sight.
Marcus dragged the first man to the floor, cuffed him, and shouted for reinforcements.
Dominic pressed a hand against his bleeding arm.
“Lily, get down.”
I ignored him.
“You're bleeding!”
“It's a scratch.”
“You've been shot!”
“Technically, those are different things.”
I stared at him.
“Are you trying to be funny right now?”
“Apparently not successfully.”
His knees weakened.
I caught him before he fell.
The instant my hand touched his cheek, he went rigid.
His breath caught. Every muscle in his body tightened, and for a moment I thought he was going to push me away.
Instead, he looked at me.
I could see the struggle behind his eyes, the old instinct telling him to recoil from the warmth of another person's hand.
“Dominic,” I whispered. “Look at me.”
He did.
“Stay with me.”
His expression changed.
The resistance didn't disappear, but something inside him loosened.
He let me guide him toward a chair.
Marcus returned with a medical kit.
“Boss, the corridor is secure. We need to move.”
“My mother isn't going anywhere,” I said.
Dominic nodded.
“Take Claire to the armored vehicle. No one approaches her without Marcus's authorization.”
My mother protested, but Marcus was already helping her into a wheelchair.
A few minutes later, we were inside a private treatment room. Dominic sat with his shirt sleeve cut open, exposing the wound. A physician cleaned it while two armed men guarded the door.
I stood nearby, still trembling.
When the doctor finished dressing the wound, Dominic dismissed everyone except Marcus.
Then he looked at me.
“You shouldn't have touched me.”
I stiffened.
“I know. I'm sorry.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You don't understand. I wasn't angry.”
“Then what was that?”
He looked down at his hands.
“When I was twenty-three, my uncle's men held me in a basement for three days. They wanted me to sign over my father's company. Every time I refused, they hurt me.”
I said nothing.
“One of them was particularly fond of holding my face while he threatened to break my jaw. He wanted me to understand that my body belonged to him.”
Dominic's voice became quieter.
“After I escaped, I couldn't stand anyone touching my face. Even my doctor couldn't examine the scar beneath my eye without sedating me.”
He glanced toward the bandage on his arm.
“Claire was the first person who managed to help me. She used to clean my wounds and tell me to focus on her voice instead of the pain.”
“And tonight?”
“Tonight, you did exactly what she used to do.”
I lowered my eyes.
“I wasn't trying to remind you of anything.”
“I know.”
He studied my face.
“That may be why it worked.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I remembered the gunman in the hospital.
“He called me Miss Carter. He said my uncle was looking for me.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“He was lying about the relationship. Silas has no connection to your family.”
“But he knew about the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Then what does he want from me?”
Dominic leaned back, jaw clenched against the pain.
“Your father took something from my family before he died. Something Silas has spent fifteen years trying to recover.”
“The ledger.”
“More than that.”
He looked at Marcus.
“Did you question the man?”
“Not yet. He had a device on him.”
Marcus placed a small black transmitter on the table.
“Someone was listening to the entire conversation.”
Dominic stared at it.
“Whoever sent him knew exactly where we'd be.”
Marcus nodded.
“And there's another problem.”
He placed a photograph beside the transmitter.
It showed my mother's hospital room, taken from the corridor less than ten minutes earlier.
The bed was empty.
My heart stopped.
“Where is she?”
Marcus's face darkened.
“She was taken during the confusion. The security cameras were disabled for forty-seven seconds.”
Dominic was already standing.
“Lock down the hospital.”
“We've done that.”
“Then find her.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Boss, there's a message on the transmitter.”
Dominic took the device.
A distorted voice crackled through the speaker.
“Dominic Vale, you have something I want. I have something you need.”
Silence.
Then the voice continued.
“You have until midnight tomorrow to deliver Lily Carter and the ledger to the old Vale warehouse. Come alone.”
A second voice followed, quieter but unmistakable.
My mother's.
“Lily, whatever happens, don't let them open the music box.”
The transmission ended.
I looked at Dominic.
“The music box.”
He nodded slowly.
“Your father left something inside it.”
“And my mother knows what it is.”
Dominic picked up his gun.
“Then we're going to find it.”
He paused at the door.
“But before we do, Lily, I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“From this moment forward, nobody will get near you without going through me.”
I should have felt reassured.
May you like
Instead, I looked at the blood soaking through his bandage and realized that the man who had spent fifteen years refusing to let anyone touch him had just made himself a target for me.
And somewhere in the city, my mother was being held by men who knew exactly how to use that weakness.
Related Stories
