Chapter 2 - The Midnight Reckoning
By 12:15 a.m., the Brass Grill was locked, and I was sitting in the plush leather back seat of a black Maybach parked inside a dark, cavernous warehouse near the Hudson River.
Rain drummed loudly against the corrugated metal roof overhead.
Through the tinted glass of the car, I watched the scene unfold beneath a solitary overhead lamp twenty yards away.
Tommy was there.
He looked small, terrified, and pathetic without his cheap liquor and loud threats. Two of Dominic’s men held him by his elbows, his knees trembling so violently he could barely stand on the wet concrete floor.
Dominic walked into the light, taking off his leather gloves slowly, finger by finger.
"Do you know who I am?" Dominic asked Tommy, his voice echoing through the vast space.
"P-please, man!" Tommy whimpered, crying openly, his nose running. "I don't know what I did! I was just at home watching the game! Maya... Maya lied to you! She's crazy! She fell!"
Dominic stepped closer, hitting Tommy across the jaw with a single, lightning-fast right hook.
CRACK.
Tommy collapsed onto the concrete, screaming, clutching his face where his jaw had instantly fractured.
"That was for lying to me," Dominic said calmly, shaking out his knuckles. He leaned down, grabbing Tommy by the collar of his jacket and dragging him to his feet. "And the next part is for touching Maya."
I covered my mouth with both hands in the back of the car, tears spilling over my cheeks. For three years, I had believed Tommy held all the power in the world. I had believed I was trapped, weak, and destined to die under his blows in a dark apartment.
Watching Dominic dismantle Tommy's arrogance with effortless, cold justice made something shift inside me. The fear that had kept me captive for years finally began to break.
Dominic tossed Tommy toward Vincenzo like a sack of garbage.
"Give him five hundred dollars," Dominic ordered Vincenzo coldly. "Tell him it's for a bus ticket out of New York. If he is ever seen east of the Hudson River again, put him in the river."
"Yes, Boss," Vincenzo replied.
Dominic wiped his hands with a towel, turned around, and walked back toward the Maybach. He opened the door and sat down beside me in the quiet darkness of the leather interior.
He looked at my tear-stained face, his expression softening into a look of profound gentleness.
"He will never hurt you again, Maya," Dominic promised softly. "You are safe."
"Why?" I sobbed, looking into his dark eyes. "Why would a man like you do this for a waitress who serves you coffee?"
May you like
Dominic reached out, his warm thumb brushing a tear from my bruised cheek.
"Because for two years," Dominic whispered, "you were the only honest thing I saw in this city every Tuesday night. And I don't let anyone destroy what is good."
