Chapter 6
His gray suit jacket was torn beneath the ribs.
Dark blood had soaked through the fabric.
A ricochet had hit him during the shooting.
He had not noticed.
Dominic removed the jacket and let it fall.
The white shirt underneath was stained red.
Linda stood.
“You’re hit.”
“It’s a graze.”
Dominic began unbuttoning the shirt with fingers that were no longer completely steady.
“Just took some flesh. I’ve had worse.”
“Sit down.”
Linda did not ask.
Her tone belonged to someone who had spent a year arguing with hospitals and illness.
Dominic looked at her.
Then he obeyed.
He sat in a heavy wooden chair.
Linda found the emergency medical kit in the pantry and returned.
She pushed the damaged shirt from his shoulders.
Dominic’s torso was covered in scars.
Knife wounds from his youth.
An old bullet wound near his shoulder.
Tattoos marking loyalties that no longer mattered.
Linda showed no reaction.
She cleaned the bleeding wound along his ribs.
Dominic hissed through his teeth.
“Sorry.”
Her fingers touched his skin.
Warm.
Soft.
The contrast with the violence of the afternoon was almost unbearable.
“You shouldn’t be doing this.”
Dominic looked at the wall instead of at her.
“I have doctors.”
“Your doctors aren’t here.”
Linda began wrapping gauze around his torso.
She had to stand close to do it.
Her face was only inches from his chest.
Dominic smelled inexpensive lavender shampoo.
He could feel the uneven rhythm of her breathing.
“I’m sending you away.”
Linda stopped.
“What?”
“I’m transferring $10 million into an offshore account in your name. A private jet is already being arranged. You and Keo are going to Switzerland.”
Dominic forced himself to continue.
“The medical care is among the best in the world. You’ll be safe. You’ll never clean another floor. You’ll never have to look over your shoulder again.”
Linda stared at him.
“You’re sending me away.”
“I’m a dead man walking, Linda.”
Dominic finally met her eyes.
“The men who shot at you today were sending me a message. My world is poisoned. Everything I touch becomes ash.”
His voice hardened.
“I thought I could keep you safe at the estate. I was arrogant. I was wrong. Today I almost got your son killed.”
“You saved my son today.”
“I brought the bullets to him.”
Dominic’s voice rose.
“Look at me, Linda. Look at what I am.”
His restraint broke.
“I killed 2 men today without hesitation. I’m going to spend the next week hunting down the rest of that syndicate, and I’m going to butcher them. That is my reality.”
He stared at her.
“You do not belong in it. You are good. You are clean. I will not let my filth drag you down.”
Linda finished securing the bandage.
She did not move away.
She stood between his knees with her hands resting lightly against his bare chest.
“I’ve been clean my whole life.”
Her voice was quiet.
“Being clean gave me a collapsing apartment and a son dying in a public hospital because I couldn’t afford to keep him alive.”
She stepped closer.
“I don’t want clean anymore, Dominic.”
She looked directly into his eyes.
“Clean didn’t save my boy. You did.”
Linda raised her hand and traced his jaw.
“You think you’re a monster. Let me tell you something about monsters.”
Dominic’s breathing changed.
“They don’t buy pediatric wards for strangers. They don’t take bullets protecting children who aren’t theirs.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
He leaned slightly into her hand.
“Linda, please. If they hurt you—”
“They won’t.”
Her voice was calm now.
Certain.
“Because you won’t let them.”
Linda kissed him.
There was nothing tentative about it.
The kiss carried the adrenaline of the attack, the taste of blood, and the desperation of survival.
A low sound escaped Dominic.
His hands closed around Linda’s waist and pulled her against him.
He held her with the force of someone clinging to the only stable thing left in his life.
Dominic had spent years creating walls around himself.
Money.
Violence.
Power.
Fear.
He had built all of it so that no 1 could reach him.
Linda had crossed those defenses without trying.
When they finally separated, both were breathing heavily.
Dominic rested his forehead against hers.
The penthouse remained quiet.
For once, the silence did not feel empty.
“Switzerland is cold,” Linda whispered. “I think I’d rather stay here with you.”
Dominic released an unsteady breath.
A smile appeared across a face more familiar with threats than tenderness.
“Okay.”
He pulled her closer.
“You stay.”
Dominic looked beyond her toward the living room.
Keo had fallen asleep on the leather sofa.
The blue Captain Galaxy figure rested safely beneath his arm.
Dominic Gallo remained a ruthless man.
He still controlled the city through fear and force.
He still had enemies.
He still had violence ahead of him.
But as he held Linda in the silent penthouse, he understood that something fundamental had changed.
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For the first time, he had something beyond power worth fighting to keep.
Disclaimer: This story is fictional and created for entertainment purposes only. Any names, characters, places, or events are fictitious or used fictitiously. No real person or organization is intended to be portrayed.
