Chương 7 - The Choice Dominic Vale Couldn’t Buy
The first bullet struck the windshield.
Dominic pushed Emily to the floor.
Glass rained over them.
Their driver accelerated backward, rammed one of Victor’s vehicles and opened enough space for Dominic’s security team to return fire.
Emily heard shouting.
Metal.
Gunfire.
Then Dominic pulled her from the SUV and dragged her behind a concrete highway barrier.
“You hit?”
“No.”
“Stay down.”
“Where’s Anthony?”
Dominic looked toward the second vehicle.
Anthony crawled from it, bleeding from his forehead.
Alive.
Victor’s men retreated when state police sirens approached.
Victor disappeared with them.
For the first time, Dominic had something he could not solve with money, intimidation or violence.
He had evidence.
But using it meant exposing his own organization.
Anthony explained it inside a safe house outside Kenosha.
“If we hand everything to federal authorities, they’ll investigate Vale Atlantic.”
“Let them,” Emily said.
Dominic looked at her.
Anthony continued.
“Not just the legitimate company.”
Emily understood.
Dominic’s other operations.
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes,” Dominic said.
No hesitation.
Emily studied him.
“And you’re still going to turn it over?”
“My daughters were hunted because of secrets I allowed to exist around them.”
He looked toward the room where Lily and Grace slept under guard.
“I’m done asking them to inherit my consequences.”
Something shifted in Emily.
She had spent two days expecting Dominic Vale to reveal himself as the monster everyone described.
Instead, she kept seeing a man discovering the price of becoming one.
They met Special Agent Nathan Cole at an abandoned federal training facility.
Cole was sixty-three, gray-haired and deeply suspicious.
He recognized Isabella’s flash drive.
“I told her to run,” he said.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“She didn’t.”
“She said running would leave the network intact.”
Cole examined the files.
“This could reopen everything.”
“Could?”
“We need current evidence connecting Ricci and Victor to the trafficking operation.”
Emily remembered the prisoner.
“Victor wants the drive.”
Cole nodded.
“Then let him think he can get it.”
Dominic immediately rejected the idea when Emily volunteered.
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“Victor knows I have a connection to the files.”
“Exactly why you’re not bait.”
“He expects you to protect me.”
“I intend to.”
“Which means he won’t expect me to contact him.”
Dominic stared at her.
“No.”
Emily looked at Cole.
“Can you trace a call?”
“Yes.”
Dominic glared.
Cole shrugged.
“She asked a technical question.”
Emily called Victor.
He answered after one ring.
“Emily.”
Her skin crawled.
“I want out.”
Victor chuckled.
“Smart girl.”
“I don’t care about Dominic’s war. I want enough money to leave Chicago.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Victor said, “And the drive?”
“I have a copy.”
Silence.
“Prove it.”
Emily read a container number from one file.
Victor’s breathing changed.
“Where?”
“Somewhere Dominic won’t find me.”
They arranged a meeting at an abandoned hotel near O’Hare.
Dominic waited until the call ended.
“You are not going.”
Cole spoke.
“She has to.”
“No.”
Emily approached Dominic.
“Your daughters trusted me when they had every reason not to trust anyone.”
“This is different.”
“No. It isn’t.”
His voice dropped.
“If something happens to you—”
He stopped.
Emily heard what he had not said.
She looked at him.
“Dominic.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t make me say something when you’re about to walk into a room with Victor.”
The anger disappeared from her face.
For several seconds, they simply looked at each other.
Emily touched his hand.
“I’m coming back.”
“That sounds like an impossible promise.”
She recognized her own words.
“So does yours.”
He closed his fingers around hers.
The meeting began at 11:00 p.m.
Emily entered the abandoned hotel carrying a flash drive.
Federal agents monitored from surrounding buildings.
Dominic listened through her wire.
Victor arrived alone.
Or appeared to.
“You look like your mother,” he said.
Emily kept her breathing even.
“You knew her?”
“I knew everyone who caused trouble.”
“Did you kill her?”
Victor smiled.
“No.”
Emily’s heart sank.
She needed a confession.
“Ricci did?”
“Carol was insignificant.”
“She had evidence.”
“Everyone has evidence until evidence burns.”
Emily pushed.
“What about Isabella?”
Victor’s smile faded.
“She should have minded her marriage.”
In the surveillance van, Dominic’s fists tightened.
Emily asked, “Did you kill her?”
Victor stepped closer.
“I disconnected one brake line.”
There.
Cole signaled his team.
Then Victor laughed.
“You think I don’t know you’re wired?”
Emily froze.
Victor ripped the microphone from her coat.
Agents moved.
Too late.
Men appeared from the upper floor.
Victor grabbed Emily and pressed a gun against her ribs.
Dominic heard her scream through the dying transmission.
He abandoned the surveillance van before Cole could stop him.
Inside, Victor dragged Emily toward a service exit.
Then another voice echoed from the darkness.
“Enough.”
Victor stopped.
An elderly man emerged.
Perfect suit.
Silver hair.
Cane.
Anthony, entering behind federal agents, went white.
“Dad.”
Antonio Ricci smiled at his son.
“Hello, Anthony.”
Victor stared.
“You said you weren’t coming.”
Antonio ignored him.
His attention settled on Emily.
“You have Carol’s eyes.”
Emily felt sick.
Antonio reached for the flash drive.
Then a child’s voice came through Victor’s radio.
“Daddy?”
Dominic stopped dead.
Antonio smiled.
Emily’s terror returned.
Lily’s voice came again.
“Daddy, they’re in the house.”
Antonio looked directly at Dominic.
May you like
“You spent so much time protecting the waitress,” he said.
“You forgot what mattered most.”
