Chapter 3 - A Debt Written in BloodAlora expected Dominic to deny it.
He didn't.
That frightened her more.
For nearly a week, she had told herself that his protection was obligation.
She had witnessed something connected to him.
Therefore he was keeping her alive.
Simple.
Logical.
Manageable.
But now another criminal organization had reached a different conclusion.
They believed she mattered to Dominic personally.
And judging by his silence, Dominic was beginning to believe it too.
“I should leave,” Alora said.
“No.”
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Jax quietly closed the laptop and left the room.
Alora faced Dominic.
“If they're targeting me because they think I matter to you, staying here makes things worse.”
“They already know who you are.”
“Then tell them they're wrong.”
Dominic's gaze sharpened.
“Are they?”
Her breath caught.
He looked almost angry with himself.
“Dominic—”
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Ask a question you aren't prepared to hear answered.”
The room went silent.
Alora looked away first.
That afternoon, Dominic increased security.
Two guards became six.
Vehicles changed routes.
Her phone was replaced.
She was furious.
She was also alive.
Three nights later, alarms sounded inside the penthouse.
Dominic entered her room immediately.
“Shoes.”
“What?”
“Put them on.”
The calmness of his voice told her the situation was serious.
She obeyed.
Gunfire sounded faintly somewhere below.
Alora froze.
Dominic reached for her hand.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“You stay behind me.”
“What is happening?”
“Someone breached the garage.”
“Cross?”
“Probably.”
He led her toward a hidden elevator.
Before they reached it, the lights went out.
Emergency lighting turned the hallway red.
Alora's heart hammered.
Dominic drew a handgun.
She stared at it.
“I hate guns.”
“So do I.”
“You own one.”
“I hate funerals more.”
A crash sounded from the stairwell.
Dominic pulled her behind a column.
Footsteps approached.
Then Jax appeared.
“Three down. More coming.”
“Safe route?”
“Compromised.”
Dominic looked toward another corridor.
“My office.”
They ran.
Inside, Dominic pushed a bookshelf aside.
Behind it was a reinforced door.
Alora stared.
“You have a panic room?”
“I have enemies.”
“That is becoming extremely obvious.”
Despite the danger, Jax almost laughed.
Dominic locked them inside.
The room contained monitors showing security cameras.
Alora watched masked men move through the penthouse.
One screen showed her guest room.
A man searched through her belongings.
“He's looking for me.”
Dominic stood beside her.
“He won't find you.”
Another camera showed Marcus Vale entering the penthouse.
Dominic became utterly still.
His uncle removed his coat calmly.
He looked directly into one camera.
Then raised his phone.
Dominic's phone rang.
He answered.
“Marcus.”
“Dominic.”
The older man's voice came through clearly.
“I was hoping we could speak without all this unnecessary security.”
“You entered my home with armed men.”
“Details.”
“What do you want?”
Marcus smiled into the camera.
“The girl.”
Alora stopped breathing.
Dominic's expression did not change.
“No.”
Marcus sighed.
“There was a time when you understood business.”
“There was a time when you weren't working with Cross.”
“Your father understood alliances.”
“My father died because he trusted the wrong people.”
Marcus's smile vanished.
“You think you are different from him?”
“Yes.”
“You kill men.”
“When necessary.”
“You threaten witnesses.”
“When necessary.”
“And now you've hidden a pretty librarian inside your home because you cannot bring yourself to eliminate her.”
Alora looked at Dominic.
Marcus continued.
“That sounds less like strength and more like the disease that destroyed your mother.”
Dominic's fingers tightened around the phone.
“Mention her again.”
“What? Love?”
Marcus laughed.
“Your mother believed love made people better. It made her weak.”
Dominic's voice became frighteningly quiet.
“You have thirty seconds to leave my home.”
“Or?”
“Or Jax opens the secondary security doors, trapping every man you brought inside while my people enter from the service elevators.”
Marcus looked toward the camera.
His expression shifted.
Dominic continued.
“And unlike you, I know exactly how many men you brought.”
Jax smiled.
“Twenty seconds.”
Marcus cursed.
Within minutes, the intruders retreated.
But the message remained.
Alora was leverage.
Dominic was furious.
Not because his home had been attacked.
Because Marcus had said something that could not be unheard.
The disease that destroyed your mother.
That night, Alora found Dominic on the balcony.
“You protected me again.”
He did not turn.
“So?”
“You keep acting like that means nothing.”
“It should.”
“But it doesn't.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“Alora.”
She stepped beside him.
“I don't understand you.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Did you mean what you said earlier?”
“What did I say?”
“When I asked whether they were wrong about me being your weakness.”
Dominic's jaw shifted.
“You should go inside.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
Alora forced herself not to look away.
“What am I to you?”
Silence.
Then Dominic answered.
“A problem.”
She almost smiled.
“That isn't convincing.”
“A witness.”
“Try again.”
His eyes darkened.
“A woman who should have disappeared from my thoughts the moment she left that gallery.”
Her heartbeat changed.
“But you didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
She stepped closer.
“Dominic.”
His expression tightened.
“You don't understand what you're asking.”
“Maybe I do.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You saw one moment where I spared you. You've seen me protect you. That doesn't erase the rest.”
“I didn't say it did.”
“I am not a good man.”
“I didn't say that either.”
He stared at her.
“You're infuriating.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“For your safety.”
“Still infuriating.”
For the first time, Dominic laughed.
It was quiet and surprised, as though the sound had escaped before he could stop it.
Alora smiled.
The moment changed.
Their faces were closer than either intended.
Dominic's eyes dropped briefly toward her mouth.
Then immediately returned to her eyes.
He stepped backward.
“No.”
Alora's chest tightened.
“No?”
“You're frightened, isolated, dependent on me for protection.”
His voice was controlled again.
“I will not use that.”
Something warm moved through her despite everything.
“Is that another rule?”
“Yes.”
“You have rules?”
“More than people think.”
Alora looked toward the skyline.
“Good.”
The next morning brought a new threat.
A package arrived at the library addressed to Alora.
Security intercepted it.
Inside was the memory card from her camera.
Dominic examined it.
“That isn't yours.”
“No.”
A note rested beneath it.
YOU FORGOT ONE PHOTOGRAPH.
The card contained a single image.
Taken inside the gallery.
Alora recognized the angle immediately.
Someone else had been photographing the scene.
The picture showed Dominic facing her.
Behind him, partially visible downstairs, was the murdered man.
But that wasn't what made Dominic stare.
In the background stood Marcus Vale.
Watching.
Alora whispered, “He was there.”
Dominic's expression became cold.
“Yes.”
Jax leaned over the screen.
“This means Marcus arranged the entire meeting.”
Dominic nodded slowly.
“The dead man wasn't betraying me to Cross.”
“He was bait,” Jax said.
“For what?”
Dominic looked toward Alora.
“For me.”
The realization spread.
Someone had wanted Dominic at that gallery.
Someone had wanted a witness.
Someone had ensured Alora would be there.
She wasn't an accident.
Her library project had been manipulated.
Alora's fear returned.
“Why me?”
Jax began searching the files.
A minute later, his face changed.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“The redevelopment request that sent the library to document the building.”
He rotated the screen.
“It came through Vale Development.”
Marcus's company.
Alora stared at Dominic.
“He knew I would be there.”
Dominic nodded.
“But why choose me?”
Nobody answered.
Then Jax opened another file.
A twenty-six-year-old newspaper clipping appeared.
Alora saw her mother's name.
Evelyn Bennett.
Beside it was another name.
Isabella Wolfe.
Dominic's mother.
The headline read:
TWO WOMEN QUESTIONED AFTER WOLFE CHARITY FINANCIAL INVESTIGATION.
Alora looked at Dominic.
His face had gone pale.
“My mother knew yours,” she whispered.
Dominic did not move.
And suddenly the abandoned gallery, the witness, the murder, and Alora herself no longer looked random at all.
May you like
Someone had been planning this long before Alora Bennett ever met Dominic Wolfe.
And whatever secret connected their mothers was dangerous enough that Marcus Vale had waited twenty-six years to bury it.
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