Chapter 7 - The Wrong Man to Underestimate
Ryan smiled.
That hurt more than Claire expected.
Not because she loved him.
Because once, she had trusted him.
“You always were stubborn,” he said.
Claire kept her hands visible.
“Where’s Jenna?”
“Alive.”
Victor answered.
“For now.”
Claire looked toward the warehouse.
“What do you want?”
Victor smiled.
“Dominic.”
Claire almost laughed.
“You kidnapped the wrong woman if you think he owns me.”
Victor’s smile thinned.
“Men like Dominic always think they own what they love.”
“No.”
Claire surprised herself with the certainty in her voice.
“That’s the difference between him and you.”
Ryan scoffed.
“You’ve known him four days.”
“And somehow he’s respected the word no more times in four days than you did in three years.”
Ryan’s face hardened.
There.
That was the real man.
The charming mask slipped whenever she refused him.
Victor stepped closer.
“We don’t need your philosophy.”
“No. You need Dominic angry.”
Claire understood.
The sting operation at the docks.
Victor knew law enforcement was coming.
He needed Dominic to break cooperation.
To storm the pier.
To commit violence.
To become exactly what the government still suspected he was.
Then Victor could escape while Dominic took the fall.
Claire smiled.
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“You made the same mistake Ryan did.”
“What mistake?”
“You think Dominic’s biggest weakness is that he can’t control himself.”
She looked directly at Ryan.
“It isn’t.”
A red light appeared on Victor’s chest.
Then another.
Then five.
Victor froze.
Federal agents emerged from the fog.
“Hands!”
Chaos exploded.
Ryan ran.
Victor reached inside his jacket.
Claire dropped.
A shot cracked across the pier.
Then another.
Dominic was nowhere near her.
He had kept his promise.
He had allowed trained officers to do their jobs.
Victor was tackled.
Ryan sprinted toward the water and slammed directly into Ethan.
Ethan looked almost offended.
“That was your plan?”
Ryan swung.
Ethan moved once.
Ryan hit the ground.
“Embarrassing,” Ethan muttered.
Claire would laugh about that later.
Now she was running toward the warehouse.
“Jenna!”
She found her friend tied to a chair but unharmed.
Jenna began sobbing.
Claire cut the tape from her wrists.
“You came.”
“Of course.”
“You idiot.”
“Fair.”
Outside, Victor and Ryan were arrested.
Federal agents seized records connecting Victor to trafficking operations, bribery, extortion, and financial crimes.
Michael’s cooperation provided the final pieces.
Dominic’s legitimate companies were cleared of involvement.
By sunrise, it was over.
Almost.
Claire found Dominic waiting beyond the police perimeter.
He did not run toward her.
He stood there.
Waiting for her choice.
Claire walked straight into his arms.
This time he held her tightly.
“You terrified me,” he whispered.
“You behaved.”
“I hated every second.”
“I know.”
“I considered ignoring everything we discussed.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
Claire leaned back.
“That matters.”
Dominic looked exhausted.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“I need to tell you something before this becomes something else.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What?”
“There are things in my past you may never be comfortable with.”
“I know.”
“I cannot promise danger will never follow my name.”
“I know.”
“And I’m not becoming a different person overnight because a beautiful teacher made a list.”
Claire smiled.
“Good.”
“But I can promise I will never deliberately take your choices away from you and call it love.”
Her smile disappeared.
That sentence reached somewhere deep.
“Dominic…”
“I don’t want you because you make me feel powerful.”
He touched her cheek.
“I want you because you make me question what I do with power.”
Claire kissed him.
Behind them, Ethan sighed.
“Can we please leave the crime scene before this becomes sentimental?”
Jenna pointed at him.
“You’re the sarcastic one.”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“Claire told me about you.”
“That feels like a privacy violation.”
Jenna smiled.
Ethan looked suddenly uncomfortable.
Claire noticed.
So did Dominic.
Interesting.
Three weeks later, Claire returned to Philadelphia.
Dominic did not ask her to move.
He did not offer to buy her a house.
He did not arrange a transfer.
Instead he flew to Philadelphia on weekends.
The first time he visited her school, he arrived in a suit.
Claire sent him back to the hotel.
“Why?”
“You look like you’re acquiring the district.”
He returned wearing jeans.
Her students loved him.
One asked if his tattoos meant he had been in prison.
Dominic answered, “Not yet.”
Claire nearly choked.
Life became strangely ordinary.
Pizza.
Late-night calls.
Arguments about thermostat settings.
Dominic learning that public-school teachers spent their own money on supplies.
That discovery made him furious.
He offered to fund Claire’s entire classroom.
She refused.
He respected it.
Then anonymously funded every classroom in the district.
Claire found out.
“You cheated.”
“You said your classroom.”
“You funded forty-seven others!”
“You should phrase restrictions more carefully.”
She tried to stay angry.
She failed.
By November, Dominic had passed six rules so thoroughly that Claire was beginning to question the seventh.
Then one evening she arrived at her apartment and found the door open.
Dominic stood inside.
His face was pale.
Her apartment had been destroyed.
Nothing valuable was missing.
But across the living-room wall, someone had painted one sentence.
A RUSSO NEVER LEAVES THE FAMILY.
Dominic stared at it.
Claire whispered, “Victor?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Dominic turned.
For the first time since she had known him, fear lived openly in his eyes.
“Because Victor wasn’t the head of the family.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“Who was?”
May you like
Dominic answered with two words.
“My mother.”
