Chapter 8 - The Accountant's Ledger
Vincent Rossi backed away from the center of the warehouse floor, his face white as a sheet, a heavy chrome-plated revolver clutched in his trembling right hand.
Damian walked toward him out of the smoke and shadows, his footsteps slow and deliberate, echoing off the concrete like a countdown clock.
“It’s over, Vincent,” Damian said, his voice dropping into that terrifying, quiet register that made even Victor step back.
“You think you own the city, Cole?” Rossi spat, blood trickling from a cut above his eyebrow. “You think the board wants a psycho who lets his own mother get ambushed? They want stability! They want me!”
“You couldn't even manage a hostile takeover without paying off a scared kid to shoot an old woman,” Damian replied, raising his pistol until the barrel was pointed directly at Rossi’s chest. “You’re not a businessman, Vincent. You’re a parasite.”
“Do it, then!” Rossi screamed, raising his revolver.
He never got the chance.
Victor’s silenced pistol made a soft puff sound from the shadows to the right. A single round caught Rossi in the wrist, shattering bone and sending the heavy chrome revolver clattering loudly across the concrete floor.
Rossi shrieked, clutching his bleeding hand as he dropped to his knees.
Damian stood over him for a long moment, looking down with cold, infinite contempt. Then, he holstered his weapon, turned around, and walked straight back to where Elena was still standing by the pallet.
He didn't say a word. He simply grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her hard against his chest, and buried his face in her hair, breathing her in like a man who had just crawled out of a burning building.
“You’re bleeding again,” Damian whispered, his voice trembling slightly against her ear.
Elena looked down at her arm. The bandage was soaked through with fresh blood where the recoil had aggravated the graze from the ambush.
“It’s just a scratch,” she murmured, her hands resting against the solid warmth of his back.
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“We’re going home,” Damian said, lifting her effortlessly into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all.
“And this time, you’re letting my doctor look at that arm.”
