Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT BREAK
Elias called the next morning.
This time, he asked for Isla.
Dominic refused.
Isla took the phone anyway.
“What do you want?”
“To meet the woman who convinced my brother he can still be human.”
“Flattering.”
“You’re not afraid of me?”
“Of course I am.”
Elias paused.
“Interesting answer.”
“Only stupid people aren’t afraid of dangerous things.”
“Come alone.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
Elias laughed.
“Then Marco dies next time.”
Isla’s expression changed.
Dominic reached for the phone.
She stepped away.
“Where?”
“Isla.”
Dominic’s voice was warning.
Elias gave her an address.
Then disconnected.
“You are not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Then he keeps targeting Marco.”
“I can protect him.”
“You protected him last time.”
The words hurt.
She saw it.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re right.”
Dominic turned away.
“I failed.”
“No.”
Isla caught his arm.
“We were betrayed from inside. That’s different.”
“Not to me.”
She stepped in front of him.
“That is exactly your problem.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think everything is yours to carry. Every death. Every betrayal. Every mistake.”
“I’m responsible.”
“You’re responsible for your choices. Not everyone else’s.”
Dominic stared at her.
She touched his face.
“Trust me.”
That was the hardest thing she could have asked.
Eventually he nodded.
Isla met Elias in an abandoned church on the West Side.
She wore no wire.
At least none Elias could find.
Dominic had placed a tracker inside the heel of her shoe.
Elias stood beneath a broken stained-glass window.
The resemblance was astonishing.
But where Dominic carried control, Elias carried fury.
“You look disappointed,” Elias said.
“You look alive.”
“Unfortunately for Dominic.”
“He didn’t know.”
“You believe him?”
“Yes.”
“So easily?”
“No.”
Isla stepped closer.
“I believe evidence.”
Elias smiled.
“Our father chose Dominic.”
“Your father manipulated both of you.”
“He left me to die.”
“Dominic carried what he thought was your body into a cemetery.”
Something flickered across Elias’s face.
“He took everything.”
“He inherited everything because you were legally dead.”
“He could have searched.”
“For a dead man?”
Elias’s expression hardened.
Isla realized the truth.
Elias needed Dominic to be guilty.
Otherwise fourteen years of hatred had nowhere to go.
“You found out your father killed your mother,” she said.
Elias froze.
“You found out before Dominic did.”
“Careful.”
“And you blamed Dominic because he stayed.”
Elias approached.
“You know nothing.”
“I know grief.”
He stopped.
“My parents died in a pileup. For years I blamed the truck driver. Then the weather. Then the hospital. Then myself because I hadn’t called them that morning.”
Elias said nothing.
“Pain wants someone to punish.”
His eyes became wet but furious.
“You think a sad little speech changes anything?”
“No.”
She looked directly at him.
“But this might.”
She handed him a copy of the pathology report.
Elias read it.
His expression shifted.
“No.”
“Your mother died before Dominic arrived home.”
“He knew.”
“He was thirteen.”
“He knew!”
Elias grabbed Isla.
She flinched but did not scream.
“You’re defending him because you love him.”
“Yes.”
The answer stunned Elias.
Isla’s voice remained steady.
“And loving him doesn’t make facts disappear.”
Elias tightened his grip.
Then a gunshot echoed.
Stone exploded near his shoulder.
Dominic entered.
“Take your hands off her.”
Elias smiled.
“There he is.”
Armed men appeared above the balcony.
A trap.
Dominic’s team entered behind him.
For one terrible second, everyone aimed at everyone.
Then Nathan Cole stepped from the shadows.
He pointed a gun at Elias.
Not Dominic.
Elias turned.
“What are you doing?”
Nathan smiled.
“Finishing what our fathers started.”
Everything became clear.
Elias had believed Nathan was helping him.
He wasn’t.
Nathan’s father had helped murder Dominic’s mother.
Nathan had spent years ensuring the brothers remained enemies so neither would uncover the truth.
Nathan fired.
Dominic tackled Elias.
The bullet missed.
Chaos erupted.
Isla crawled behind a pew.
Carter’s team disarmed two men.
Nathan grabbed Isla.
A gun pressed against her ribs.
“Everyone stops.”
They did.
Nathan dragged her toward the door.
Dominic’s face became terrifying.
“Take me.”
Nathan laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
He looked at Elias.
“Your father promised mine half the Ashford organization. Then he died before paying.”
“So this was money?” Elias whispered.
“It’s always money.”
Nathan pulled Isla closer.
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“Let her go.”
“Drop it.”
Dominic did.
Elias stared at his brother.
For the first time in fourteen years, something changed.
He saw it.
Dominic would surrender everything for Isla.
Nathan smiled.
“Love.”
He shook his head.
“Your father was right. It makes men weak.”
Isla looked down.
Then drove her heel into Nathan’s injured knee.
He screamed.
She twisted away.
Dominic moved.
One second later Nathan was on the floor, Carter’s weapon aimed at him.
Isla stood shaking.
Dominic crossed the room.
He stopped inches away.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Then his control vanished.
He pulled her against him.
Isla buried her face against his chest.
Behind them, Elias stared.
His entire understanding of his brother was collapsing.
Dominic kissed Isla’s hair.
“I thought—”
“I know.”
“I can’t lose you.”
“You didn’t.”
Across the church, Elias slowly lowered his gun.
May you like
Then he said the words Dominic had waited fourteen years to hear.
“I believe you.”
