Chapter 9 - The Last War of Dominic WolfeThe first attacker entered through the kitchen.
Dominic heard glass break.
Then footsteps.
Jax moved toward the hallway while Dominic remained between Alora and the staircase.
Maeve held Evelyn beneath the heavy dining table.
“Do not make a sound,” she whispered.
Evelyn pressed both hands over her mouth.
A shadow appeared.
Jax fired once.
The body fell.
Three more men entered.
The house became chaos.
Dominic had spent years trying to forget how easy violence once felt.
Now every old skill returned.
Not because he wanted it.
Because his wife and niece were behind him.
An attacker reached the landing.
Dominic struck him, seized his weapon, and pushed him down the stairs.
Alora remained where Dominic ordered.
For almost thirty seconds.
Then she saw a second shadow behind him.
“Dominic!”
She fired.
The shot hit the man’s shoulder.
He spun.
Dominic finished the threat.
He looked toward his wife.
Alora stared at the weapon in her hands.
“I shot someone.”
“You saved me.”
“I shot someone.”
“We discuss the emotional consequences later.”
Another bullet struck the wall.
Alora ducked.
“Yes. Later is excellent.”
Jax appeared.
“Garage exit is compromised.”
“What about the lake?”
“Two boats.”
Dominic looked toward the back windows.
“Boathouse?”
“Probably watched.”
Maeve spoke from beneath the table.
“There is a storm drain.”
Everyone looked toward her.
“What?”
“When we arrived, Evelyn dropped her horse toy near the back garden. I saw a maintenance drain beside the retaining wall.”
Dominic remembered.
It connected to the lake runoff system.
Narrow.
Dirty.
But large enough.
“Jax.”
“I know.”
They moved.
Jax went first.
Maeve and Evelyn followed.
Alora went next.
Dominic remained behind them.
The utility room contained a metal access panel near the floor.
Jax forced it open.
Cold air entered.
“You expect me to crawl through that?” Alora whispered.
Dominic looked at her wedding ring.
“For better or worse.”
“This qualifies as worse.”
“Move.”
She crawled inside.
Despite everything, Dominic almost smiled.
Then a voice came from behind them.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
An older man stood at the opposite end of the corridor.
Gray hair.
Tall.
Elegant even while holding a gun.
Dominic knew the face immediately.
Victor Hale.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Jax looked back from the tunnel.
“Go.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Take them.”
“Dom—”
“Take my family.”
The old name stopped Jax.
He had not called Dominic that during operations in years.
Jax understood.
He moved.
Alora reached backward.
“Dominic.”
“I am coming.”
“You promise?”
He looked at her.
“Always.”
The access panel closed.
Dominic remained alone with Victor.
The older man smiled.
“You look like your father.”
“People have told me.”
“I hated that about you.”
Dominic lifted his weapon.
Victor did the same.
“Who are you?”
“You know me.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“I knew my father’s friend.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“I was more than his friend.”
Leo’s video returned to Dominic.
Victor is family.
“What did Leo mean?”
Victor stepped into the emergency light.
“He discovered your father’s greatest lie.”
“Which was?”
“That I was merely his partner.”
Dominic waited.
Victor looked almost pleased to finally speak.
“Your grandfather had two sons.”
Silence.
“Your father, Alexander Wolfe.”
Victor touched his own chest.
“And me.”
Dominic stared.
“You are lying.”
“Your grandfather had an affair with my mother. I was born eighteen months after Alexander.”
“That proves nothing.”
“I have DNA records.”
“Why would my father hide you?”
“Because legitimacy mattered.”
Victor’s bitterness had survived decades.
“Alexander inherited the name. The businesses. The organization. I received money and a place beside him, provided I remained grateful.”
“You were his brother.”
“I was his servant.”
“You became wealthy because of him.”
“I became wealthy enough to understand what he stole from me.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“You financed Roman because you wanted revenge over an inheritance?”
“I financed Cross because Alexander’s sons inherited what should have been mine.”
Victor’s eyes became cold.
“You and Leo.”
Understanding arrived.
“You wanted us dead.”
“Yes.”
“You arranged the conflict.”
“Yes.”
“Serena?”
“A useful weakness.”
“Roman?”
“A useful animal.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“You killed my brother.”
“Technically Serena’s betrayal and Cross’s men killed Leo.”
Victor smiled slightly.
“But I built the road that led him there.”
Dominic fired.
Victor moved first.
The bullet struck the wall.
Victor’s shot cut Dominic’s side.
Pain exploded through him.
He moved behind cover.
“You always were emotional where Leo was concerned,” Victor called.
Dominic pressed one hand against the wound.
“Leo found out about Evelyn.”
Dominic went still.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Victor laughed.
“That surprised even me.”
“Leave her out of this.”
“She is a Wolfe.”
“She is a child.”
“She is an heir.”
“To what?”
“Everything.”
Victor sounded almost amused by Dominic’s ignorance.
“Lazarus was not simply emergency money. Alexander placed controlling ownership of several family trusts into a bloodline structure.”
Dominic understood slowly.
“If Leo died—”
“His share passed to his child.”
“And if Evelyn dies?”
“It returns to the surviving Wolfe branch.”
Dominic’s stomach turned.
“To me.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
Victor stepped closer.
“If you die without children, it passes to the next recognized male line.”
“You.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic almost admired the patience required for such madness.
“You waited decades.”
“I waited my entire life.”
“You destroyed everyone for a name.”
“For what belonged to me.”
“No.”
Dominic emerged enough to fire again.
Victor retreated.
“It never belonged to you.”
The gunfight continued through the corridor.
Outside, Jax led Alora, Maeve, and Evelyn through the drainage tunnel.
Water reached their knees.
Evelyn cried silently.
Alora held her hand.
“Keep looking at me.”
“I want Uncle Dominic.”
“He is coming.”
“You promise?”
Alora’s chest tightened.
“Yes.”
She had demanded the same promise minutes earlier.
Always.
Dominic always returned.
He had to.
They emerged beyond the retaining wall approximately sixty yards from the house.
Jax signaled toward the trees.
A Wolfe security vehicle appeared.
Two of his surviving men rushed toward them.
“Where is Dominic?” one asked.
“Inside.”
Jax looked toward Alora.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Alora.”
“If you think I am waiting in a car while my husband—”
“Maeve needs you.”
That stopped her.
Jax knew exactly where to strike.
Maeve held Evelyn but looked terrified.
Alora swallowed.
“Bring him back.”
Jax checked his weapon.
“I always do.”
He disappeared toward the house.
Inside, Dominic’s ammunition was nearly gone.
Victor had moved toward the study.
Dominic followed.
Blood soaked his shirt.
His legs remained steady through discipline alone.
Victor stood beside Leo’s laptop.
“You abandoned the organization,” he said.
“Yes.”
“You embarrassed the Wolfe name.”
“I saved it.”
“You turned legitimate.”
“I became happy.”
Victor’s expression twisted.
“That woman weakened you.”
“No.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“She taught me the difference between strength and cruelty.”
“Sentimental nonsense.”
“You would think that.”
Victor fired.
Dominic moved.
The bullet struck the desk.
Dominic closed the distance.
The weapons became useless.
They fought physically.
Victor was older but experienced.
He struck Dominic’s wound.
Dominic nearly collapsed.
Victor seized his throat.
“Your father always said you were too much like your mother.”
Dominic drove his elbow upward.
Victor staggered.
“What does that mean?”
“She believed people could change.”
Victor spat blood.
“She made Alexander soft.”
“My mother made him human.”
“She ruined him.”
Dominic hit him again.
Victor fell against the desk.
A gun slid across the floor.
Both men moved.
Victor reached it first.
He aimed.
A shot exploded.
Victor froze.
Blood appeared across his chest.
He looked down.
Then behind Dominic.
Jax stood in the doorway.
“You talk too much.”
Victor collapsed.
Dominic stared at him.
Jax lowered his weapon.
“You are welcome.”
Dominic sat heavily against the desk.
Jax’s amusement disappeared.
“Damn it.”
“It is not serious.”
“You are bleeding through your shirt.”
“I have had worse.”
“You say that every time.”
Jax pressed fabric against the wound.
Victor moved.
Both men looked.
He was still alive.
Barely.
Dominic approached.
Victor looked up at him.
“Kill me.”
Dominic stared.
Years earlier, he would have done it immediately.
Perhaps slowly.
Perhaps with satisfaction.
Victor had financed the war that killed Leo.
He had hunted Evelyn.
He had invaded Alora’s home.
Dominic had every reason to end his life.
Instead, Dominic lowered the weapon.
“No.”
Victor’s face changed.
“You think mercy makes you better?”
“This is not mercy.”
Dominic crouched.
“You wanted the Wolfe name.”
He looked at Victor without anger.
“You are going to spend the remainder of your life watching it belong to people who became everything you could not.”
Sirens became audible in the distance.
Victor frowned.
“You called police?”
Jax smiled.
“Legitimate citizens do that.”
Dominic stood painfully.
“You taught me something useful tonight.”
“What?”
“That my father was wrong to hide you.”
Victor almost smiled.
Then Dominic continued.
“He should have told everyone exactly who you were.”
The smile disappeared.
“A bitter coward who blamed children for choices made before they were born.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Police and emergency services arrived minutes later.
The story Dominic’s attorneys constructed was almost entirely true.
Victor Hale, legally dead for twelve years, had operated a financial-criminal network beneath several organizations.
His surviving men were arrested.
Records from Lazarus connected him to fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, multiple murders, and the Cross conflict.
The evidence Leo gathered completed the structure.
Victor survived surgery.
He would eventually face enough federal charges to ensure he never experienced freedom again.
Dominic was transported to the hospital.
Alora rode beside him.
She held his hand so tightly his fingers became numb.
“You promised.”
“I returned.”
“You were shot.”
“Technically grazed.”
“The doctor said it required twelve stitches.”
“Still technically a graze.”
“You are impossible.”
“I believe this was established during Tosca.”
Alora laughed through tears.
Then hit his shoulder.
“Ow.”
“Good.”
“I am injured.”
“That is why I avoided the injured side.”
He looked at her.
She began crying properly.
Dominic immediately softened.
“Come here.”
“You nearly died.”
“I did not.”
“You always say that after nearly dying.”
“I am trying to stop making it a habit.”
She pressed her forehead against his.
“I cannot lose you.”
“You will not.”
“You cannot promise that.”
Dominic paused.
She was right.
He could not promise immortality.
None of them could.
So he gave her something better.
“I promise I will always choose the life that gives me the best chance of coming home to you.”
Alora closed her eyes.
“That is enough.”
At the hospital, Maeve waited with Evelyn.
The moment Dominic appeared, Evelyn ran toward him.
A nurse attempted to stop her.
Dominic opened one arm.
She carefully hugged the side that was not wounded.
“You came back.”
“I said I would.”
“Mom says adults sometimes say things they cannot control.”
“Your mother is wise.”
Evelyn looked at him seriously.
“Are you going to die?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Dominic glanced toward Alora.
Then chose his words carefully.
“I promise I am going to work very hard to remain alive for a very long time.”
Evelyn accepted this.
“Good.”
She leaned closer.
“I like having an uncle.”
Dominic’s throat tightened.
“I like having a niece.”
Maeve approached.
“You protected her.”
“I told Leo I would.”
“He would be proud of you.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
For once, the mention of his brother did not bring only pain.
Somewhere inside the grief existed peace.
“I hope so.”
Jax entered with Ruby behind him.
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
“You were supposed to remain in Boston.”
Ruby crossed her arms.
“My husband called and said there was a siege.”
Jax sighed.
“I said situation.”
“You said automatic weapons.”
“That was context.”
Ruby kissed his cheek.
Then looked at Dominic.
“Is everyone alive?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
She looked at Alora.
“Next time you two want family drama, try Thanksgiving.”
Alora laughed.
Dominic watched them.
His wife.
His niece.
Maeve.
Jax.
Ruby.
A strange family constructed from blood, love, loyalty, loss, and impossible second chances.
Leo had asked him to protect Evelyn.
Dominic finally understood that protection did not mean turning her world into a fortress.
It meant ensuring she had a world worth living inside.
He looked at Alora.
She smiled.
May you like
The last war of Dominic Wolfe was over.
This time, he intended to keep it that way.
