Chapter 5
It was 3:00 a.m. when he returned.
He entered the house carrying exhaustion and the smell of violence. His knuckles were bruised, and a fine mist of blood marked his shirt.
He walked toward the kitchen in search of scotch.
Then he stopped.
Sadie sat at the marble island wearing sweatpants and an oversized gray T-shirt. Her dark hair was gathered into a messy knot.
She held a mug awkwardly between her bandaged hands and stared through the floor-to-ceiling windows into the darkness.
She turned.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Dominic knew exactly how he looked.
A murderer returning to his castle.
Sadie looked at the blood on his shirt and then at his face.
“There’s leftover coffee in the pot. It’s terrible, but it’s hot.”
Some of the tension left Dominic’s body.
He took a glass from a cabinet and poured 3 fingers of scotch.
“Why are you awake?”
“The silence is too loud. I’m used to hearing the El and my neighbor screaming at her television.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t want to get used to it. I want to go home.”
“Your home is currently being watched by 3 different sets of eyes looking to collect a $100,000 bounty on your head.”
Sadie tightened her grip on the mug.
“$100,000. I’m barely worth minimum wage.”
“To them, you’re a loose end.”
“And to you?”
Sadie looked directly at him.
“What am I to you? I talked to your mother today. She thinks you’re keeping me here because you can’t stand owing a debt to a nobody.”
Dominic put down his glass.
“My mother is a very smart woman. But she’s wrong. I don’t care about the debt.”
“Then why keep me?”
Dominic approached until he stood inches from her knees.
He looked at the exhaustion beneath her eyes and the stubbornness in her face.
His battered knuckles traced her cheekbone with an unexpectedly light touch.
“Because when I closed my eyes today, all I could see was you walking out of that fire.”
His voice dropped.
“And the thought of anyone else touching you makes me want to burn this whole city to the ground.”
Sadie’s breath caught.
She did not move away.
Dominic lowered his hand.
“Go to sleep, Sadie. The war is outside. You’re safe in here.”
By the 4th day, confinement had begun gnawing at her.
Her burns were healing. The blisters had become tight, itching red patches.
Dominic had been gone for 2 days coordinating his retaliation against the Morettis.
Sadie needed air.
Late that afternoon, beneath a sky the color of bruised iron, she slipped through the rear doors and walked beyond the manicured patios and empty swimming pool.
She headed toward the tree line, where a heavy wrought-iron fence marked the estate’s boundary.
Bitter wind moved through dead leaves.
For a moment, it felt peaceful.
“Miss Brooks.”
Sadie turned.
A young guard approached.
He could not have been older than 22.
His face was pale.
His eyes repeatedly moved toward the trees.
“You shouldn’t be out here.”
His hand rested on his holstered weapon.
“I just needed a walk.”
Then Sadie noticed something.
His radio was silent.
It had been switched off.
“We need to go back inside.”
He drew his gun.
But instead of directing her toward the house, he kept it pointed toward the ground.
“Actually, no. We’re going to walk to the service gate. Keep quiet and you won’t get hurt.”
Sadie’s blood went cold.
The Morettis had not breached Dominic’s defenses.
They had bought someone inside them.
“Carmine knows I’m out here.”
“No, he doesn’t. The perimeter cameras in this sector have been looping for 10 minutes.”
The guard raised his weapon toward her stomach.
“Walk.”
Sadie looked toward the iron gate approximately 50 yards away.
A black sedan idled on the other side.
Then she looked toward the house.
Too far.
Running would get her shot.
Walking through the gate would get her killed anyway.
She planted her feet.
“No.”
The guard blinked.
“I will shoot you.”
“Then shoot me. But I’m not getting in that car.”
His hand shook.
He raised the weapon toward her chest.
May you like
“Walk.”
The gunshot came from the tree line.
