Chapter 12 - The Choice Alex Refused to Surrender
Dominic wanted Alex out of the city.
This time he did not order.
He asked.
That made refusing harder.
They stood in the storage room beneath the old apartment building where Alex had grown up.
Her father’s ledger rested inside a locked case.
Dominic looked exhausted.
Not from the wound.
From truth.
“My uncle helped kill my father.”
“We don’t know exactly what ‘remove’ means.”
“I do.”
“Evidence first.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You sound like your father.”
Alex looked down.
“That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I’ve said nicer.”
“You called my coffee criminal.”
“It is.”
She almost smiled.
Then Dominic touched her hand.
“Go somewhere safe.”
“No.”
“Alex.”
“I’m not leaving because you’re afraid.”
“I am afraid.”
The admission stopped her.
Dominic stepped closer.
“I am terrified.”
She had never imagined those words from him.
“Not of dying.”
His fingers closed gently around hers.
“Of what happens to you because I finally wanted something for myself.”
Alex held his gaze.
“You still think protecting me means deciding for me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I’m trying.”
“I know.”
“I’m apparently bad at healthy relationships.”
“You’ve never been in one.”
“That seems judgmental.”
“You run background checks on people before dinner.”
“I like preparation.”
“You had Marco inspect my landlord.”
“Your landlord had three fraud convictions.”
“That is not the point.”
“It feels relevant.”
Despite the danger, Alex laughed.
Dominic smiled.
Then she became serious.
“You want something real?”
“Yes.”
“Then real means I choose.”
He looked at her.
“I choose to stay.”
Dominic exhaled.
“You’re impossible.”
“Apparently you like that.”
“I’m beginning to question my judgment.”
They left the ledger in a bank deposit box under Samuel Grayson’s name.
Copies went to three separate locations.
Alex insisted.
“If Victor or your uncle takes us, the evidence survives.”
Dominic did not like the word us.
He accepted the logic.
Their next move was to pretend they had found nothing.
Dominic returned to Russo headquarters.
He wore a fresh suit.
His wound disappeared beneath tailoring.
By noon the city believed Dominic Russo was back in control.
His uncle Anthony Russo Senior arrived at two.
Uncle Anthony was sixty-two.
Silver hair.
Expensive cologne.
Warm smile.
He hugged Dominic.
“My boy.”
Dominic returned the embrace.
Marco watched from across the room.
Alex watched through a hidden camera from the apartment above the tailor shop.
Every instinct in her screamed.
Anthony sat.
“I heard about Grayson.”
“Yes.”
“Heart attack?”
“So they say.”
“You believe it?”
“No.”
Anthony smiled.
“Good.”
He poured whiskey.
“Never believe convenient deaths.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Advice from experience?”
Anthony paused less than half a second.
Enough.
Alex saw it.
So did Marco.
Anthony drank.
“Victor?”
“Missing.”
“Traitor.”
“You always disliked him.”
“I warned your father.”
“Did you?”
Anthony looked up.
Something shifted.
Dominic continued.
“My mother kept records.”
The older man’s eyes changed.
Barely.
But there.
“What kind of records?”
“Personal.”
“Anything useful?”
“Not yet.”
Anthony relaxed slightly.
“Burn them.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Why?”
“The dead should stay buried.”
Alex whispered at the monitor.
“There.”
Marco heard through the earpiece.
Dominic did too.
“Maybe.”
Dominic changed subjects.
The conversation continued another twenty minutes.
Anthony left.
Marco followed from a distance.
He went directly to a private parking garage.
Victor Hale was waiting.
Alive.
Uninjured enough to stand.
They embraced.
Marco photographed everything.
Dominic stared at the images.
No emotion showed.
But Alex knew him now.
The stiller Dominic became, the angrier he was.
“They’re together,” Marco said.
“Yes.”
“What now?”
Dominic looked toward Alex.
“We let them think they’re winning.”
The trap began.
Alex created a fake set of ledger pages suggesting the original evidence was hidden beneath Marlow’s Diner.
Dominic deliberately mentioned it during a phone call he knew Anthony’s people monitored.
Twenty-four hours passed.
Nothing.
Then two men broke into Marlow’s basement.
Marco’s team intercepted them without violence.
One carried instructions.
Not from Anthony.
From Victor.
MEET AT PIER 19 AFTER MIDNIGHT. BRING LEDGER.
Dominic smiled when he read it.
“Too easy.”
Alex agreed.
“It’s not a meeting.”
“What is it?”
“Distraction.”
She looked at the transaction map.
Every time Victor created a crisis in one place, money moved somewhere else.
She searched recent transfers.
One account had just activated.
Briar Holdings.
Five million dollars scheduled to move at midnight.
Destination: offshore.
“But why now?” Marco asked.
Alex stared at the screen.
“Because Victor thinks tonight ends everything.”
Dominic understood.
“He isn’t planning to run.”
“No.”
“He thinks I’ll be dead.”
The room went silent.
Alex looked at Dominic.
“Then don’t go to Pier 19.”
Dominic’s eyes remained on the instructions.
“I have to.”
“Why?”
“Because if Victor believes I’m there, he’ll expose everyone else.”
Alex hated the logic.
“You’re using yourself as bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
She pointed at him.
“See? That’s how annoying it is when somebody decides for you.”
Marco looked away, hiding a smile.
Dominic did not.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“A little.”
Then Dominic became serious.
“I’ll come back.”
Alex held his gaze.
“Don’t promise things you can’t control.”
He stepped toward her.
“Then I’ll promise something I can.”
“What?”
“When this is over, I’m changing my life.”
She searched his face.
“Because of me?”
“No.”
His answer surprised her.
“Because I should have changed it before I met you.”
He touched her cheek.
“You just made me believe I still could.”
At 11:40 p.m., Dominic left for Pier 19.
At 11:52, Alex discovered Victor had changed the destination of the five-million-dollar transfer.
Not offshore.
To a company she recognized.
One owned by Dominic’s uncle.
And attached to the transfer was a coded message.
PIER IS FALSE. BRING HER TO THE HOUSE.
Alex stared.
“What house?”
Marco read over her shoulder.
His face changed.
“The Russo house.”
Dominic’s childhood home.
Where his father had died.
May you like
Where every secret had begun.
And Victor was waiting there for Alex.
