Chapter 8 - THE PRICE OF LOVING DAMIAN VALE
The federal investigation hit Vale International like an earthquake.
Contracts disappeared.
Board members resigned.
News vans surrounded headquarters.
Damian’s net worth dropped by hundreds of millions in days.
He barely reacted.
What frightened him was Lily.
Not because she wanted to leave.
Because she refused to.
“You should go somewhere far away,” he told her.
They stood in his penthouse kitchen at two in the morning.
Lily ate cereal directly from the box.
“Montana?”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. Julian survived there.”
“Lily.”
“No.”
Damian slammed his hand against the counter.
She flinched.
He immediately stepped backward.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re scared.”
“Yes.”
“Then say scared. Don’t say leave.”
He stared at her.
“I love you.”
The cereal box stopped halfway to Lily’s mouth.
Damian looked almost angry about the confession.
“I love you, and Marcus knows it. That means every minute you stay near me, I imagine him putting a gun to your head.”
Lily slowly put the box down.
“You don’t get to decide my life because you love me.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I’m trying.”
She walked toward him.
“I love you too.”
Damian closed his eyes.
Apparently that was the worst possible thing she could have said.
Lily touched his face.
“You look miserable.”
“You have terrible timing.”
She smiled.
“You kissed a waitress while your criminal empire was collapsing.”
“Former waitress.”
“Congratulations. You remembered.”
He kissed her.
For a few seconds, the world became quiet.
Then Julian walked in.
“I hate to interrupt whatever billionaire romance novel this has become—”
Damian glared.
Julian grinned.
“Marcus contacted Victor Romano.”
That ended the moment.
Victor wanted a meeting.
No weapons.
No soldiers.
Just Damian, Julian and Victor.
Lily insisted on attending.
All three men objected.
She attended anyway.
Victor Romano was not what Lily expected.
He was sixty-three, silver-haired and impeccably dressed.
He looked like someone’s expensive grandfather.
“You’re the waitress,” he said.
“Former waitress.”
Julian covered a laugh.
Victor looked at Damian.
“I understand the appeal.”
Damian’s expression warned him not to continue.
Victor placed a phone on the table.
“Marcus offered me a deal. Help him destroy you and he gives me control of your ports.”
“And?”
“I dislike traitors.”
“You’ve tried to kill me twice.”
“Business disagreements.”
Lily whispered, “Men are exhausting.”
Victor heard her.
“So my wife tells me.”
He played Marcus’s message.
A location.
An abandoned railway terminal.
Marcus wanted the original drive in exchange for ending the conflict.
“It’s a trap,” Julian said.
“Obviously,” Victor replied.
Lily listened again.
Then something caught her attention.
A train horn.
Followed by a church bell.
“Play that again.”
Victor did.
Lily closed her eyes.
“That isn’t the railway terminal.”
Damian looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“I grew up near those tracks. The terminal closed fifteen years ago. No trains run there.”
She listened again.
“But there’s an active freight line near St. Matthew’s church.”
Julian opened a map.
A Vale storage facility stood three blocks away.
Damian understood.
“He wants us at the terminal while he attacks the storage facility.”
Victor nodded.
“What’s there?”
Damian’s face darkened.
“Nothing valuable.”
Lily looked at him.
“Then why attack it?”
Julian went pale.
“The old personnel archives.”
“What does that mean?”
“Addresses,” Damian said. “Families. Former employees.”
Marcus wasn’t attacking money.
He was gathering names.
Potential hostages.
They moved immediately.
Police units were notified.
When Damian’s convoy reached the storage facility, smoke was already pouring from one side.
Lily stayed in the armored SUV as promised.
For approximately thirty seconds.
Then she saw a security guard pounding on a locked side door.
“There are people inside!”
Lily jumped out.
Damian shouted her name.
She ignored him.
The guard said a maintenance crew was trapped in the basement.
Damian and Julian ran inside with firefighters arriving behind them.
Lily helped direct workers away from the smoke.
Then she heard a child crying.
A little boy stood beside a parked car.
“My mom!”
A woman was unconscious near the loading dock.
Lily ran toward her.
“Lily!” Damian shouted.
She reached the woman.
A gunshot cracked.
Damian tackled Lily behind a concrete barrier.
Another bullet struck the pavement.
Across the yard, Marcus stood beside a black sedan.
He smiled.
Then raised his weapon again.
Damian covered Lily.
Police returned fire.
Marcus escaped into the smoke.
Lily touched Damian’s chest.
Blood covered her hand.
Her face emptied.
“Damian?”
He looked down.
The bullet had entered below his ribs.
“Stay with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
She pressed both hands against the wound.
“You do not get to use that stupid sentence right now.”
His knees buckled.
Lily screamed for help.
As paramedics rushed toward them, Damian’s hand found hers.
“Forty miles,” he whispered.
Tears spilled down Lily’s face.
“What?”
“You drove forty miles.”
“Shut up.”
His eyes began closing.
“Best forty miles…”
“Damian.”
May you like
“…of my life.”
Then his hand went limp.
