Chapter 2
Dominic’s expression remained unchanged.
“If you can’t hold your territory, that’s your problem.”
“Don’t get arrogant, kid.”
Varga leaned closer.
“You think you’re untouchable because you wear nice suits and hide in fancy restaurants.”
He looked past Dominic at Chloe.
“Your men bleed in the streets. And this little pet of yours? I know where she sleeps. I know where the little brother goes to school.”
The air seemed to stop.
“Accidents happen.”
Dominic became perfectly still.
When he answered, his voice contained almost nothing human.
“Carmine, if you so much as look in the direction of her brother’s school, if you breathe the same air as her outside this building, I won’t just kill you.”
He leaned closer.
“I will dismantle everything you have ever built. I will salt the earth where your house stands.”
His eyes never left Varga.
“Do you understand me?”
Varga swallowed.
“Message received, Rossi.”
He stepped back.
“We’ll handle this in the streets.”
Varga and his men left.
Only after the doors closed did Dominic turn toward Chloe.
His gaze dropped to the red marks on her wrist.
Without thinking, he reached for her.
His calloused fingers brushed gently across the skin.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You just started a war for me.”
Dominic released her.
His face became unreadable again.
“I started a war for territory. Don’t flatter yourself.”
He walked away.
Chloe knew he was lying.
His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
The knock came at 3:02 a.m.
It was heavy and rhythmic.
Chloe woke instantly.
She moved through the dark apartment carrying a brass candlestick in both hands.
Nobody should have been able to reach the 14th floor without a key card.
Then she heard Paulie’s voice.
She opened the door.
He stood outside wearing tactical gear, a rifle across his chest. 2 armed men watched the elevators.
“Get the kid. Pack a bag. 5 minutes. Essentials only.”
“What happened?”
“Varga tried to firebomb the restaurant an hour ago. Boss stopped it, but the streets are loud. This place isn’t secure anymore.”
Chloe ran to Sam’s bedroom.
She woke him, put him into a winter coat and threw clothing and several of his favorite comics into a bag.
3 minutes later, they were descending toward the underground garage.
A black SUV waited with its engine running.
Dominic sat in the front passenger seat.
“Drive.”
The SUV accelerated onto the deserted expressway.
Sam curled against Chloe, his head resting in her lap.
“You said we were safe,” she whispered.
Dominic did not turn.
“You are safe.”
“He firebombed a restaurant. He knows where we live. He knows where Sam goes to school, Dominic.”
It was the first time she had used his first name.
Dominic turned.
“Sam will not return to that school. You will not return to that apartment.”
His voice remained calm.
“You stay where I put you until I carve Varga out of this city. Until then, you are ghosts.”
“This isn’t what I signed up for. I agreed to do your books. I didn’t agree to be hunted.”
“You didn’t have a choice then, and you don’t have one now.”
Dominic faced forward again.
“Welcome to the life, Chloe.”
40 minutes later, they reached Dominic’s estate in the forested hills outside the city.
Stone.
Glass.
Walls.
Security cameras.
Armed patrols.
It resembled a fortress more than a home.
Inside, expensive artwork hung on sterile walls.
There were no family photographs.
No warmth.
Dominic ordered Paulie to place Chloe and Sam in the east-wing master suite with 2 guards outside.
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked.
“I have a meeting.”
“It’s 4:00 a.m.”
“Varga’s men don’t sleep. Neither do mine.”
Dominic stopped beside the door to his office.
“Lock the door, Chloe. Don’t look out the windows.”
Then he disappeared.
3 days passed.
Chloe rarely saw him.
News reports told her what he would not.
A warehouse had burned near the port.
2 men had been found shot in a salvage yard.
A union official with alleged organized-crime connections had disappeared.
The city was bleeding quietly.
On the afternoon of the 4th day, the front doors burst open.
Paulie staggered inside with blood soaking through his shirt.
Other men dragged another wounded man across the marble.
Dominic emerged from his office.
“Report.”
“Ambush. State Street Bridge.”
Paulie struggled to breathe.
“They boxed in the decoy car. Rocket-propelled grenade. They didn’t even try to shoot. They just blew it.”
Dominic pressed gauze against Paulie’s wound.
“Who?”
“Varga’s nephew. Leo. We hit him, but he got away.”
Paulie grimaced.
“They knew the route, boss. Someone talked.”
Dominic’s eyes became completely empty.
“Get the medic. Lock down the perimeter. Nobody leaves.”
Then he noticed Chloe.
“Get back to the wing.”
“Paulie is hurt.”
“I said get back to the wing!”
The shout echoed through the house.
Chloe recoiled.
She grabbed Sam and took him back to the room.
Hours passed.
Near midnight, a key turned in the lock.
Dominic entered.
He wore black tactical clothing with 2 pistols secured against his chest.
He looked like an executioner.
Chloe held a bronze bookend in both hands.
Dominic sighed.
“Put it down. If I wanted you dead, bronze wouldn’t stop me.”
“What’s happening?”
“Varga crossed a line today. He stopped playing by the rules.”
Dominic closed the door.
“So the rules are gone.”
“You’re going out there.”
Chloe looked at his weapons.
“You’re going to kill them.”
“I’m going to end this.”
He explained that armed men surrounded the estate.
“You stay in this room. You open this door for nobody but me.”
“Dominic.”
She stepped closer.
“Please. Let the police handle it.”
Dominic looked at her.
Then his gloved fingers gently moved a strand of hair away from her face.
“The police work for Varga, Chloe. Or they work for me.”
His voice was exhausted.
“That’s the ecosystem. There is no walking away. There is only surviving.”
He lowered his hand.
“I’ll be back before dawn.”
Then he left.
At 4:17 a.m., Chloe heard footsteps.
Heavy.
Uneven.
A key scraped against the lock.
The door opened.
Dominic stumbled inside.
His sweater was torn and soaked with blood.
His face was pale.
He closed the door, leaned against it and slid to the floor.
“Dominic.”
Chloe rushed toward him.
“Don’t call the medic.”
“You need a hospital.”
“No hospitals.”
He grabbed her wrist.
“Get the kit. Please.”
Chloe found a tactical medical kit beneath the bathroom sink.
She returned and lifted Dominic’s sweater.
The wound along his left side was jagged and torn.
“Shrapnel,” he said. “Missed the lung. Missed the liver. Just meat.”
“You’re bleeding everywhere.”
Chloe pressed gauze against the wound.
Dominic hissed through his teeth.
“Keep pressure.”
They remained there for 10 minutes.
His blood soaked Chloe’s knees.
Eventually, the bleeding slowed.
She cleaned the wound and secured heavy bandages around his torso.
“Is it done?” she asked.
Dominic nodded.
“Varga is dead. Leo is dead. Their operation is ash.”
He closed his eyes.
“The city is quiet.”
Chloe stared at him.
“Why did you do it?”
Dominic remained silent.
“Why buy the debt? Why bring us here? You could have walked away from that alley. Why risk your empire and your life for strangers?”
Eventually, Dominic spoke.
“I grew up in the Narrows. My mother died when I was 6. My father was a runner for the old mob. A drunk. A waste of space.”
Chloe remained still.
“He owed money to a man named Silvio.”
Dominic stared toward the ceiling.
“One night, Silvio came to collect. I was 8. I tried to stop him.”
His voice became distant.
“Silvio broke my jaw with the handle of a revolver. Left me bleeding in the hallway while he took my father outside.”
Dominic looked at Chloe.
“I never saw my father again.”
He swallowed.
“I dragged myself into the street. Begged people for help. People in nice suits. People with money.”
His voice fell almost to a whisper.
“They stepped over me.”
Chloe said nothing.
“They looked at me like I was garbage. Like I deserved it.”
Dominic touched her face.
“When I saw Sam in that alley, when I saw the knife, I wasn’t going to let another kid bleed on the pavement because a man couldn’t pay his debts.”
His voice broke.
“I didn’t save you, Chloe.”
He looked directly into her eyes.
“I saved him.”
A pause.
“I saved me.”
A tear ran down Chloe’s face.
“You’re a monster, Dominic.”
There was no judgment in the words.
Dominic gave a tired smile.
“I know.”
“But you’re our monster.”
Dominic pulled her against him.
They remained on the bloodstained floor together, the ruthless mob boss and the desperate woman who had once owed him $40,000, finding a fragile peace inside the ruins of the war they had survived.
Morning brought no relief.
Dominic developed a fever around 6:00 a.m.
Chloe cleaned his blood from the bedroom floor while he slept.
She could have left.
The door was unlocked.
Dominic’s men were wounded and exhausted.
Nobody would have stopped her.
But Chloe stayed.
Paulie appeared in the doorway with his arm in a sling.
“How is he?”
“Burning up. He needs antibiotics.”
Paulie looked toward the bed.
“We have a problem.”
Varga was dead.
Leo was dead.
But word had spread that Dominic had been wounded.
Other criminal families were watching.
“If the boss doesn’t show his face soon,” Paulie explained, “they’ll carve up our territory.”
“He can barely stand.”
“Then we prop him up.”
Paulie told her that Gallo, who controlled the East Side docks, had demanded a meeting at the estate that night.
“He says he’s coming to pay respects. He wants to see whether Dominic is breathing.”
“Cancel it.”
“You don’t cancel a sit-down with Gallo. That tells everyone we’re weak.”
Chloe looked at Dominic.
Then her expression changed.
“Who manages Gallo’s imports?”
Paulie frowned.
“A guy named Russo. Why?”
“I saw the supply ledgers at the restaurant.”
Her mind began working.
“Dominic controls the trucking routes out of the East Side docks. Gallo brings the contraband in, but Dominic’s trucks move it out.”
Paulie nodded.
“The boss takes 20% for logistics.”
“If Dominic falls, Gallo has to renegotiate with a dozen smaller crews. It costs him millions.”
Chloe looked at Paulie.
“He doesn’t want a war. He wants stability. He just needs proof the trains are still running.”
Paulie stared at her.
“You think like him.”
“I spent 3 months fixing his books.”
Chloe placed a hand against Dominic’s feverish forehead.
“Get the study ready. Light the fireplace. Keep the room dark. Bring me the master ledgers.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make sure Gallo knows the Rossi family is still open for business.”
At exactly 8:00 p.m., Dominic sat behind the mahogany desk in the study.
He wore a perfectly tailored black suit.
Beneath it, his torso was tightly bandaged.
He had taken 4 painkillers 30 minutes earlier.
His hands gripped the chair hard enough to turn his knuckles white.
Chloe stood behind his right shoulder wearing a black blazer and slacks.
The doors opened.
Gallo entered with 2 soldiers.
“Dominic.”
He studied Dominic carefully.
“I heard the news. Tragic business with Varga. The city is safer without that animal.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Sit.”
Gallo obeyed.
“I’ll be honest, Rossi. Rumors are flying. They say you took a heavy hit. They say your streets are bleeding.”
“My streets are quiet.”
“Quiet for now.”
Gallo smiled.
“With Varga gone, there’s territory available. Maybe my boys can help police the Southside while you recover.”
It was an obvious attempt to seize power.
Dominic prepared to answer.
Chloe saw the tremor move through his shoulders.
She stepped forward.
May you like
Gallo looked at her.
“Who’s this? The secretary?”
