Chapter 3 - The Sanctuary
The drive to Dominic's downtown high-rise was a blur of flashing city lights.
Lily had fallen asleep in his arms, exhausted by her own tears.
He carried her into a sprawling penthouse that looked like a modern fortress of glass and steel.
A private doctor was already waiting in the living room.
The doctor checked Mrs. Higgins, who Dominic’s men had brought in another car, and confirmed she only had a mild concussion.
Then the doctor tended to the cut on my lip.
Dominic stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out at the city below.
"Dirty cops," I whispered, holding an ice pack to my face.
"Why would the police want to assassinate you?"
Dominic turned around, loosening his silk tie.
"Because I stopped paying them to ignore my legal shipping routes."
"The man who led the attack on my car is a corrupt detective named Marcus Reynolds."
"And he just realized you saw his face in the alley that night."
I shivered, pulling my thin sweater tighter around my shoulders.
"We can never go back to our apartment," I realized with a crushing wave of defeat.
"You will stay here," Dominic stated firmly.
"This building is impenetrable, and my men guard every entrance."
He poured a glass of amber liquid from a crystal decanter and offered it to me.
Our fingers brushed as I took the glass.
His skin was warm, and a strange electric jolt shot up my arm.
"Why are you going so far to protect a waitress?" I asked.
Dominic looked at me intently.
"Because in my world, nobody saves you for free."
"You risked your life for a stranger without asking for a single thing in return."
"That makes you the rarest thing in this city, Emma."
His phone suddenly buzzed on the glass coffee table.
He answered it, his expression darkening into a lethal scowl.
"Put him on screen," Dominic ordered his men.
A large television monitor on the wall flickered to life.
It showed the surviving attacker tied to a chair in a dark basement.
"He finally talked, boss," one of Dominic's enforcers said from off-camera.
"Reynolds did not find the girl by running her license plates."
"Someone tipped the cops off to her exact address."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"Who?" he demanded.
May you like
The beaten cop looked directly into the camera.
"It was her ex-husband."
