Chapter 9 - The Price of Wanting Something Real
They left the lake house in ninety seconds.
Marco found the hidden camera beneath an exterior light.
Dominic crushed it beneath his shoe.
Nobody spoke until the city disappeared behind them.
“Anthony knew about this place?” Alex asked.
Dominic stared through the windshield.
“No.”
“Who did?”
“My mother. My father. Victor.”
“And?”
“Me.”
Marco glanced toward him.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
The implication was obvious.
Victor was not running alone.
He was directing them.
Dominic’s wound reopened during the drive.
Alex noticed.
“You’re bleeding again.”
“I’m fine.”
“Every man in your organization apparently learns those two words before his own name.”
Marco almost smiled.
Dominic did not.
Alex pressed gauze against his shoulder.
He flinched.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
Their eyes met.
The moment lasted too long.
Marco looked aggressively at the road.
The new safe location was an apartment above a closed tailor shop owned by Marco’s aunt.
No records connected it to Dominic.
No security staff.
No company vehicles.
For the first time, Dominic had to trust invisibility rather than force.
He hated it.
Alex could tell.
She also noticed something else.
He was afraid she would leave.
He never said it.
But whenever she entered another room, his eyes followed.
That evening she confronted him.
“You think I’m going home.”
“You should.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Dominic looked away.
Alex sat opposite him.
“After everything you said last night, you think I’m going to walk out without answering.”
His eyes returned.
“You don’t owe me an answer.”
“That may be the healthiest thing you’ve said all week.”
“I’ve had a difficult week.”
She smiled.
Then became serious.
“I care about you.”
Dominic did not move.
“I don’t know whether that’s wise.”
“It isn’t.”
“I don’t know whether there’s a future in it.”
“Probably not.”
“You’re terrible at romance.”
“I warned you.”
“But I care.”
Something changed in his face.
Alex continued.
“And that scares me because your life is everything I spent mine avoiding.”
Dominic’s expression hardened with something like shame.
“You should avoid it.”
“I should.”
“Then go.”
She stared.
“You want me to?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“That’s the problem.”
Dominic stood and moved toward the window.
“I want you here.”
His back remained turned.
“I want you so close I know you’re breathing.”
He laughed without humor.
“And every instinct I have tells me wanting that will get you killed.”
Alex walked toward him.
“Then maybe the problem isn’t wanting me.”
“What is it?”
“The life you think you have to keep.”
Dominic turned.
“You think I can walk away?”
“I think you’ve never seriously asked yourself.”
“You don’t walk away from this.”
“People say that about bad marriages too.”
“This isn’t a marriage.”
“No. Marriages have fewer guns.”
Against all logic, he smiled.
Then she touched his arm.
“Dominic, what do you actually want?”
No one had apparently asked him that in years.
He struggled to answer.
“Not what do your men need. Not what keeps your territory stable. Not what your father would have done.”
Alex held his gaze.
“What do you want?”
Dominic’s voice was quiet.
“A morning where I don’t check the windows first.”
That answer broke something inside her.
“What else?”
“To eat breakfast without three phones.”
“What else?”
He stepped closer.
“You.”
Alex swallowed.
“That one’s complicated.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
Dominic looked down.
“To know who I would’ve been if my father hadn’t died.”
Alex touched his hand.
“You can still find out who you are without him.”
Before Dominic could answer, Marco entered.
“We found Anthony.”
Dominic’s tenderness disappeared.
“Where?”
“A church in Little Italy.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“He says he’ll only speak to you.”
They went after midnight.
Alex stayed in the car with Marco.
Dominic entered alone.
Twenty minutes passed.
Thirty.
At thirty-seven, he emerged.
His expression revealed nothing.
Anthony followed.
No restraints.
No violence.
Marco looked surprised.
Inside the car, Anthony immediately said, “Victor forced me.”
Dominic stared forward.
“How?”
“He has my sister.”
Dominic turned.
Anthony’s younger sister, Isabella, lived in California.
Or everyone believed she did.
Victor had taken her three months earlier.
Forced Anthony to leak security rotations.
Access codes.
Safe locations.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Anthony’s eyes filled.
“Because he showed me photographs every time I considered it.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does Victor want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
Anthony looked toward Alex.
“And her.”
Dominic’s entire body changed.
Alex felt it.
“Why Alex?”
Anthony swallowed.
“Because Victor says she found something your father died without finding.”
“The money?”
“No.”
“What?”
Anthony looked at Alex.
“The names.”
“What names?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor had ordered Anthony to steal Alex’s laptop after she decoded the Briar accounts.
“He kept saying the same thing.”
Anthony’s voice shook.
“‘The accountant will find Elena’s list.’”
Dominic and Alex exchanged a look.
The notebook.
There had been no list.
Unless they had missed something.
They returned to the tailor shop and photographed every page of Elena’s notebook under different light.
At 4:30 a.m., Alex discovered faint indentations on the back cover.
Writing that had been removed.
She shaded the surface lightly with graphite.
Letters appeared.
Seven names.
Victor Hale.
A judge.
A police official.
Two businessmen.
A senator.
And Salvatore Grayson.
Beside each name was a number.
Not money.
Dates.
Alex recognized one immediately.
The night Dominic’s father was killed.
May you like
Every person on Elena’s list had been connected to that night.
And one of them was still sitting in Dominic’s inner circle pretending to help him find the truth.
