Chapter 7 - A Knife Is Not a Promise
Dominic spent the next eighteen hours trying to exclude Riley from the rescue plan.
Riley spent eighteen hours ruining every version that did.
By sunset, Marco stopped pretending neutrality.
“She has a point.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You’re fired.”
“You fired me twice this month.”
“Third time may stick.”
Riley leaned over the warehouse blueprint.
“Crane specifically demanded me. If I don’t appear, they’ll know something is wrong.”
“They already know something is wrong.”
“Then let them think they’re winning.”
Dominic hated the plan because it was good.
At 10:00 p.m., they arrived at an abandoned rail depot.
Riley wore a concealed vest.
A microphone rested beneath her collar.
Dominic carried a case supposedly containing the original evidence.
It contained copies.
The originals were already moving toward a federal prosecutor through an attorney Dominic’s father had once trusted.
That had been Riley’s condition.
“No burying this,” she had said.
Dominic agreed.
For the first time in his life, he was handing outsiders evidence capable of destroying his own organization along with Salvatore’s.
He knew what that meant.
Prison was possible.
Loss of everything was possible.
Riley had asked whether he was afraid.
He had told her yes.
She respected him more for that answer.
Inside the depot, Salvatore waited with Crane.
Frank’s daughter, Emily, sat tied to a chair.
Twelve armed men surrounded them.
Crane smiled.
“Miss Hayes. Your father caused an extraordinary amount of inconvenience.”
Riley looked at him.
“So did yours, probably.”
Crane’s smile disappeared.
Dominic almost laughed.
Salvatore stepped forward.
“Still disrespectful.”
“You burned my shop.”
“Yes.”
“You killed my father.”
Salvatore tilted his head.
“Anthony handled that.”
Riley’s breath caught.
There.
Confession.
Recorded.
“You ordered it.”
“Thomas had opportunities.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“So did my father?”
Salvatore looked almost sad.
“Lorenzo became weak.”
“No. He discovered what you were.”
“I made your family powerful.”
“You made it diseased.”
Salvatore’s face hardened.
“You think this woman changed you?”
Dominic glanced at Riley.
“No.”
Then back at Salvatore.
“She reminded me I had choices.”
Riley felt something tighten in her throat.
Crane interrupted.
“The case.”
Dominic placed it on the floor.
“Release Emily.”
Crane nodded.
A guard untied the girl.
She ran toward Dominic.
Halfway there, Salvatore raised his pistol.
Riley saw it first.
“Down!”
She tackled Emily.
Gunfire exploded.
Dominic shot Salvatore’s weapon from his hand.
Windows shattered above as Marco’s team opened fire from elevated positions.
Crane ran.
Riley pushed Emily behind a concrete pillar.
“Stay down.”
Then she saw Salvatore crawling toward a fallen gun.
Riley sprinted.
He grabbed it.
She kicked his wrist.
He struck her across the face.
Riley staggered.
Salvatore grabbed her hair.
“You should have died with your father.”
He pulled her backward.
Then a knife appeared in Riley’s hand.
The same style of narrow boning knife she had held against Dominic.
She drove it through Salvatore’s coat sleeve and pinned the fabric to a wooden support beam.
He stared in disbelief.
Riley stepped back.
“I’m a butcher.”
Dominic arrived with his gun raised.
Salvatore stopped struggling.
For several seconds, Dominic had a clear shot.
His father’s murderer stood helpless before him.
Salvatore saw the temptation.
“Do it.”
Dominic’s finger tightened.
“Dominic,” Riley said.
Not begging.
Just his name.
He looked at her.
Then lowered the weapon.
“No.”
Salvatore laughed.
“Weak.”
Dominic stepped close.
“My father asked me to end it.”
He removed the microphone from Riley’s collar.
A tiny red light blinked.
“You just confessed to murder while federal investigators listened.”
For the first time, Salvatore looked afraid.
Police sirens approached.
Crane was captured outside.
Emily was safe.
Salvatore was arrested.
It should have ended there.
It didn’t.
At 3:14 the next morning, Dominic sat beside Riley on the back steps of the safe house.
She held ice against her cheek.
“You look terrible,” he said.
“You were shot yesterday.”
“Still prettier.”
She laughed.
Then winced.
Dominic gently moved the ice pack and examined the bruise.
His thumb brushed her cheek.
Riley didn’t pull away.
“You could have killed him,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you were watching.”
“That’s not a good reason.”
“No.”
Dominic looked toward the street.
“So I found another.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want the next fifteen years of my life to belong to him too.”
Riley leaned against him.
His shoulder hurt.
He said nothing.
After a while she whispered, “What happens to you?”
Dominic knew what she meant.
The evidence implicated people under his authority.
Some crimes had happened during his leadership.
He hadn’t ordered them all.
But ignorance was not innocence.
“I cooperate.”
“And your empire?”
He smiled without amusement.
“I suppose we find out how much of it survives daylight.”
Riley turned toward him.
“You’re serious.”
“My father told me to end it.”
Dominic took her hand.
“I think I finally understand what he meant.”
She studied their joined fingers.
“What about us?”
Dominic’s smile became softer.
“There’s an us?”
“Don’t make me regret asking.”
He leaned closer.
“I’m terrified to answer.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because now I know you’re taking the question seriously.”
He kissed her.
Slowly.
No desperation.
No possession.
Just a choice.
When they separated, Riley rested her forehead against his.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
Marco.
Dominic answered.
“What?”
Marco spoke rapidly.
Dominic stood.
Riley immediately knew.
“What happened?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The federal evidence convoy was hit.”
Her stomach dropped.
“The originals?”
“Gone.”
“Who?”
Marco answered through the phone loudly enough for Riley to hear.
“We don’t know.”
Then:
“And Crane never reached federal custody.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“How?”
“The transport officers were impostors.”
Riley stared into the darkness.
Salvatore had been captured.
But someone else had just stolen the evidence and Victor Crane.
Someone with access to federal transport information.
Someone neither Thomas nor Lorenzo had identified.
Dominic slowly disconnected.
Riley whispered, “There’s another one.”
Dominic looked at her.
May you like
“Yes.”
And whoever it was had just proven they were more powerful than Salvatore.
