Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Wouldn’t Kneel
Nobody moved.
Dominic could hear the refrigeration compressor humming beneath the rain.
He could also feel Riley’s pulse.
Not because he was touching her.
Because the hand holding the knife against his throat was so steady that the tiny vibration traveling through the steel had to be her heartbeat.
Slow.
Controlled.
Impossible.
Most people trembled around Dominic Castelli.
Men twice Riley’s size had forgotten sentences when he walked into a room. Politicians returned his calls before their wives’. Detectives suddenly developed poor memories when his attorneys appeared.
But Riley Hayes had him bent over a butcher table with a knife against his throat and seemed more annoyed than afraid.
Dominic should have been furious.
He was.
Unfortunately, he was also impressed.
“Now unlock the door,” Riley said.
Dominic glanced toward Marco.
“Do it.”
Marco stared at him.
“Boss—”
“Did I suddenly start speaking French?”
Marco retrieved the key and unlocked the front door.
Riley didn’t release Dominic.
“Your guns stay.”
“Riley.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
Interesting.
She hadn’t told him her name.
“You researched me?”
“I research everyone who breaks one of my employees.”
“Tony isn’t an employee. He’s a parasite with orthopedic problems.”
Marco coughed.
Dominic suspected the idiot was hiding a laugh.
“Get out,” Riley said.
“You planning to keep me as collateral?”
“I’m planning to make sure your friends leave before I let go.”
Dominic considered refusing.
Then he saw something through the front window.
A dark sedan was parked across the street.
Headlights off.
Engine running.
It had not been there when they arrived.
Dominic’s expression changed.
Riley noticed immediately.
“What?”
“Get down.”
The window exploded.
Dominic moved before she could question him.
He knocked Riley sideways as gunfire tore through the glass.
The butcher case shattered.
Riley hit the floor behind the counter.
Dominic landed over her as Marco and Salvatore drew backup weapons from ankle holsters.
More shots punched into the shop.
“Back room!” Dominic shouted.
Riley shoved him.
“My apartment is upstairs.”
“Then move!”
“My father’s ledger—”
“Forget the damn ledger.”
“I’m not leaving it.”
She crawled toward a cabinet.
Dominic caught her waist.
Riley elbowed him hard enough to make him grunt.
“You really have a problem with being rescued.”
“You really have a problem with touching things that aren’t yours.”
Another bullet struck the wall.
Dominic released her.
“Thirty seconds.”
Riley ripped open the cabinet and grabbed an old leather notebook.
Twenty-two seconds later they were running through the refrigerated storage room.
The rear door opened into an alley.
Salvatore went first.
Marco covered them.
Dominic pulled Riley behind a dumpster just as the sedan rounded the corner.
It was not following Dominic’s men.
The gunman leaned through the passenger window and aimed directly at Riley.
Dominic saw it.
So did she.
The muzzle flashed.
Dominic shoved her down.
Marco fired twice.
The sedan accelerated away.
Silence returned.
Riley stared after it.
Then at Dominic.
“That wasn’t for you.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the shooter had three clean opportunities to put a bullet in me.”
Rain ran down Dominic’s face.
“He ignored every one.”
Riley looked at the leather ledger clutched against her chest.
For the first time that night, Dominic saw fear.
Not panic.
Recognition.
“You know why they came,” he said.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“Get away from me.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You can hate me tomorrow.”
“I can manage it tonight.”
“Good. Hate me somewhere bulletproof.”
She laughed once, without humor.
“You think I’m going anywhere with you?”
A second engine growled somewhere beyond the alley.
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“They know where you work. They probably know where you live.”
Riley looked toward the fire escape leading to her apartment.
Her resistance faltered.
Dominic noticed.
“What’s upstairs?”
“Nothing.”
“Another lie.”
She pushed past him.
Dominic caught her arm, but this time he did it carefully.
Riley froze.
“Let go.”
“I will. Answer me.”
Her eyes lifted to his.
“My father’s things.”
Dominic released her immediately.
That surprised her.
He removed his suit jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
Riley looked down at it.
Then back at him.
“I don’t need this.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Only then did she notice a long cut across her upper arm from the shattered glass.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Marco, bring the car.”
Marco disappeared.
Riley opened the ledger.
Several pages were filled with her father’s handwriting—orders, supplier numbers, expenses.
Then she reached the back.
Her face changed.
A page had been torn out.
“What?” Dominic asked.
“That page was here yesterday.”
“What was on it?”
“My father kept everything. Deliveries. Names. License plates if suppliers parked illegally. He was obsessive.”
Dominic looked toward the destroyed shop.
“When did he die?”
“Three years ago.”
“How?”
Riley closed the ledger.
“Heart attack.”
Dominic said nothing.
Something about his silence made her angry.
“What?”
“Was there an autopsy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he was sixty-two and had a bad heart.”
“Who told you that?”
“My father’s doctor.”
“What doctor?”
Riley’s face slowly lost color.
Dominic already knew the answer before she gave the name.
“Dr. Anthony Valente.”
Tony’s father.
Marco returned with the SUV.
Dominic opened the rear door.
Riley didn’t move.
“You think Tony attacked my shop because of my father?”
“I think Tony demanded forty percent from every store on this block, but only one owner ended up with armed men shooting through her windows.”
Riley stared at him.
“Why would anybody care about an old butcher’s ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic looked at the notebook.
“But someone just tried to kill you for whatever used to be on that missing page.”
She climbed into the SUV.
Dominic followed.
As they pulled away, Riley watched Hayes Prime Cuts disappear behind rain and broken glass.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
Marco answered from the front.
His face went pale.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The fire department just got a call.”
Dominic turned toward the rear window.
Orange light suddenly flickered against the wet buildings behind them.
Riley twisted around.
“No.”
Her butcher shop was burning.
She reached for the door handle.
Dominic caught her.
“No!”
“My father built that place!”
“And whoever set that fire is waiting for you to run back into it.”
She fought him once.
Then stopped.
Through the rear window, flames climbed behind the broken storefront.
Dominic expected tears.
Instead Riley whispered four words.
“I’m going to kill them.”
Dominic looked at the woman who had put a knife to his throat less than an hour earlier.
And for reasons he could not explain, he believed her.
Then Marco’s phone rang again.
He listened.
“Boss…”
Dominic looked up.
Marco swallowed.
“They found Tony Valente.”
“And?”
“Dead.”
Riley slowly turned toward Dominic.
May you like
Marco finished quietly.
“His throat was cut with a butcher’s knife.”
