Chapter 8 - The Price of Coming Back
Dominic hit the concrete.
Audrey ran.
Police shouted at her to stop.
She didn't hear them.
Adrian turned toward her.
For one terrible second, the brothers looked at each other.
Then Dominic moved.
Despite the blood spreading across his shirt, he launched himself at Adrian.
Both men crashed against the railing.
The gun fell.
Adrian swung.
Dominic struck back.
Then the rusted railing broke.
Adrian disappeared over the edge.
Dominic caught the remaining rail.
Audrey reached him.
“Dominic!”
His fingers were slipping.
She grabbed his wrist.
He looked up.
“Audrey, let go.”
“Shut up.”
“You're pregnant.”
“And currently furious enough to lift a truck.”
Marcus arrived and hauled Dominic onto the platform.
Paramedics rushed forward.
Audrey dropped beside her husband.
Blood covered his side.
“Stay with me.”
Dominic looked strangely calm.
“You followed me.”
“Yes.”
“I specifically told you not to.”
She pressed both hands against his wound.
“Complain later.”
His mouth twitched.
Then his eyes closed.
“Dominic?”
No response.
“Dominic!”
The ambulance ride became fragments.
Blood.
Sirens.
A paramedic shouting numbers.
Audrey holding Dominic's hand.
At the hospital, surgeons took him away.
Audrey sat in the waiting room wearing his blood.
Serena appeared two hours later.
A police officer accompanied her.
Audrey stood.
Serena had bruises around both wrists.
Neither woman spoke initially.
Then Serena said, “I'm sorry.”
Audrey laughed bitterly.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“That doesn't narrow things down.”
Serena accepted that.
“I spent years blaming Dominic for Adrian's life. Adrian told me Dominic left him in that warehouse deliberately.”
“He didn't.”
“I know.”
Serena looked toward the operating-room doors.
“I figured that out years ago.”
Audrey frowned.
“Then why continue?”
“Because by then revenge had become my identity.”
Serena swallowed.
“And because admitting Adrian was wrong meant admitting I'd wasted half my life.”
Audrey understood more than she wanted to.
“Six weeks ago,” Serena said, “Dominic was drunk, angry, and vulnerable. I knew exactly what I was doing.”
Audrey's expression hardened.
“He still chose.”
“Yes.”
Serena did not protect him.
“That part belongs to him.”
Audrey appreciated the honesty despite herself.
“But yesterday,” Serena continued, “Adrian told me something.”
“What?”
“He ordered the man watching your doctor to find out whether you were pregnant before Dominic knew.”
Audrey's skin chilled.
“How did he know I was seeing a doctor?”
“He had someone inside Dominic's security staff.”
“Who?”
“Marcus's deputy.”
Audrey's eyes widened.
“Cole?”
Serena nodded.
Audrey immediately called Marcus.
Cole was arrested thirty-seven minutes later attempting to leave Chicago.
By morning, Adrian's network was collapsing.
But Dominic remained unconscious.
The bullet had missed his liver by less than an inch.
The surgeon called him lucky.
Audrey didn't.
Luck would have been never entering that bedroom.
Luck would have been Dominic coming home six weeks earlier and choosing his wife instead of his anger.
Luck would have been a marriage without this scar.
Yet when Audrey finally entered Dominic's hospital room, none of that stopped her from taking his hand.
“You idiot,” she whispered.
His eyes remained closed.
“You don't get to die and turn yourself into some tragic love story.”
Nothing.
Audrey wiped her tears.
“You hurt me.”
Her voice cracked.
“You hurt me worse than anyone ever has.”
She pressed his hand against her cheek.
“And I still love you. I hate that right now, but I do.”
The monitor continued its steady rhythm.
“So you're going to wake up.”
She placed his hand gently over her still-flat stomach.
“You're going to meet your child.”
A finger moved.
Audrey froze.
“Dominic?”
His eyelids slowly opened.
His voice was barely audible.
“You followed me.”
Audrey laughed and cried simultaneously.
“That's what you have to say?”
“I had a better speech.”
“You got shot. You've lost speech privileges.”
He looked at her.
Then at where his hand rested.
“The baby?”
“Fine.”
His eyes closed briefly in relief.
“And Adrian?”
“Missing. Police searched the river.”
Dominic's expression sharpened.
“No body?”
“No.”
He stared toward the window.
Audrey understood.
This wasn't over.
Not quite.
Three days later, a package arrived at the hospital.
No return address.
Inside was Dominic's stolen access key.
And a handwritten note.
Tell my brother he owes me one life.
May you like
It was signed:
A.
