Chapter 7 - BLOOD AND RESOLUTION
Time seemed to fracture into slow motion. As the gunman's finger tightened on the trigger, I didn't think about my safety, my quiet life, or the years I spent building walls around my heart. I lunged forward, throwing my weight directly into Dominic's back just as the silenced pistol spat a streak of fire.
A sharp, searing pain tore through my shoulder as the bullet grazed my flesh, spinning me violently off balance.
Dominic whirled around with blinding speed, his gun clearing leather before the sound of the shot even faded. Two rapid, deafening cracks echoed through the empty warehouse, and the gunman dropped instantly, collapsing hard onto the concrete floor.
Silence rushed back into the hangar, heavy and suffocating.
“Damn it,” Dominic hissed, dropping to his knees beside me as warm blood soaked through the fabric of my shirt. He tore off his suit jacket, pressing it firmly against my wound with hands that were uncharacteristically shaking.
“Are you... are you okay?” I whispered, wincing as a wave of dizziness washed over me.
“You took a bullet for me,” Dominic said, his dark eyes locked onto mine, wide with a raw, unfiltered emotion I had never expected to see on the face of a mafia boss. “Why would you do that?”
“Because...” I swallowed hard, the pain fading behind the intensity of his gaze. “Because you promised you wouldn't let anything happen to her. And someone had to keep you both alive.”
Gemma knelt beside us, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed my uninjured hand. “I'm so sorry, Chloe. This was all my fault. I found out Marco Vance was embezzling from my father's accounts through these shipping lanes. I tried to get proof, and they caught me.”
Dominic's head snapped up, a lethal fury settling into his expression. “Marco.”
“He set me up,” Gemma sobbed, squeezing my fingers. “He wanted to start a war between our families.”
Dominic pressed harder against my shoulder, staunching the bleeding, but his eyes burned with a dark promise of retribution. “He won't live to see sunrise.”
“No,” I whispered, gripping his wrist. “Let the police handle Marco legally through the ledgers Gemma found. Don't become the monster they expect you to be.”
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Dominic stared down at me for a long, silent moment, the internal battle raging behind his eyes. Slowly, the deadly tension bled out of his shoulders, replaced by a quiet, solemn acceptance.
“Alright,” he murmured, pressing a gentle kiss against my uninjured knuckles. “We do it your way.”
