Chapter 2 - The Traitor's Bullet
Dominic did not reach for his own weapon.
He simply stood between Nora and the gun pointed at them.
"Mason," Dominic said calmly.
"You realize that if you pull that trigger, there isn't a hole deep enough to hide you from my people."
Mason's hand trembled slightly, but he kept the gun raised.
"Rourke promised me your seat, Dominic."
"He said it's time for the old blood to take back the streets."
Nora watched the exchange with growing dread.
She had stolen the ledger to expose a human trafficking ring.
She never realized she was walking into a mafia civil war.
"Rourke is an old man who still thinks fear is enough to run a city," Dominic replied smoothly.
He shifted his weight slightly, angling his body to completely shield Nora.
"He's using you, Mason."
Mason sneered, his finger tightening on the trigger.
"Maybe."
"But I'm the one holding the gun."
A deafening crack echoed through the confined concrete space.
Nora flinched, waiting for the searing pain of a bullet.
Instead, Mason Pike gasped, his eyes going wide with shock.
A blossom of dark crimson bloomed on the shoulder of his expensive suit jacket.
He dropped the suppressed pistol and collapsed against the iron railing.
Cal Brunner stepped out of the shadows behind him, holding a smoking revolver.
"I told you he wouldn't negotiate, you idiot," Cal muttered.
Cal looked down the stairs at Dominic.
"Boss, we have a massive problem."
"Rourke's men are surrounding the building."
Dominic nodded sharply, showing zero surprise at the betrayal.
He turned to Nora, holding out his hand.
"Can you run?" he asked.
Nora looked at the hand of the man who supposedly ran half the criminal enterprises in the city.
She had no choice.
She took his hand.
Dominic pulled her toward a rusted metal grate at the back of the basement.
He kicked it open with brutal force, revealing a dark, narrow drainage pipe.
"Go," he ordered.
Nora squeezed into the damp, foul-smelling tunnel, crawling as fast as her bruised knees would allow.
Dominic followed close behind, dragging the heavy grate shut just as the basement door burst open completely.
Automatic gunfire shredded the concrete where they had been standing seconds before.
They crawled through the darkness for what felt like hours.
Finally, they reached a street-level drain cover in a deserted alleyway.
Dominic pushed the heavy iron disk aside and helped Nora out into the freezing winter air.
She gasped for breath, shivering violently in her torn clothes.
Dominic stripped off his heavy charcoal overcoat and draped it over her shoulders.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked, her teeth chattering.
Dominic looked back toward the warehouse, where sirens were already wailing in the distance.
"Because the ledger you stole," Dominic said quietly.
"It doesn't just belong to Rourke."
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"It belongs to the men who took my sister."
And as he said it, a sleek black SUV turned the corner and bathed them in blinding headlights.
