Chapter 9 - THE LAST MAN OF LANTERNDominic fired first.
The bullet struck Mercer’s shoulder.
Mercer’s shot went into the ceiling.
Marcus’s men flooded the mill.
Within seconds, Anthony Mercer was on the concrete, bleeding but alive.
Dominic kicked the weapon away.
Then he turned.
“Mia.”
She was holding Harper so tightly the little girl complained she could not breathe.
Dominic reached them.
“You’re okay?”
Mia nodded.
Then looked past him.
Nathan lay beneath the machinery.
Claire was kneeling beside him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Dominic approached.
Nathan opened his eyes.
“Mercer always had terrible timing.”
“Save your strength.”
Nathan laughed weakly.
“Now you care?”
“No.”
That almost made Nathan smile.
Claire pressed both hands against his wound.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Nathan looked at her.
“What would I have said? Hello, Claire. I’m your biological father and also responsible for half the trauma in your fiancé’s life?”
“Former fiancé,” Dominic said.
Nathan actually laughed.
Then coughed blood.
Claire looked offended.
“Was that necessary?”
“Yes.”
Even Mia almost smiled.
For one strange second, in an abandoned mill surrounded by armed men and decades of betrayal, they sounded almost normal.
Then Nathan’s face tightened.
“Mercer has copies.”
Dominic crouched.
“Of Lantern?”
“Everything.”
“Where?”
Nathan looked toward the river.
“Container terminal. Pier nineteen. Shipment leaves tonight.”
Marcus heard him.
“I’ll handle it.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No violence unless necessary. Give the evidence to federal investigators.”
Marcus stared.
Five years earlier, Dominic would never have said those words.
Nathan noticed too.
“You’re really ending it.”
“Yes.”
“Victor would hate that.”
“Good.”
Nathan smiled.
Then his eyes closed.
He survived.
Barely.
An ambulance transported him under armed guard.
Mercer went with another.
Richard Bennett survived his wound as well.
For the first time, the surviving architects of Lantern would face something they had spent decades avoiding.
Public accountability.
Dominic returned to the estate after sunset.
He found Mia sitting on the kitchen floor.
Harper slept against her chest.
“You have bedrooms,” Dominic said.
Mia looked up.
“She wanted cereal.”
“At midnight?”
“She’s had a difficult week.”
“Fair.”
Dominic sat beside her.
The feared head of the Vale organization sat on a kitchen floor wearing a three-thousand-dollar suit while a four-year-old slept with cereal crumbs in her hair.
Mia looked at him.
“You’re changing.”
“I’m sitting.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
He knew.
For years, Dominic had believed control was the same thing as safety.
The last week had taught him otherwise.
His enormous estate had contained secret rooms he knew nothing about.
His closest friend had betrayed him.
His fiancée had entered his life as part of someone else’s plan.
His dead mother was alive.
His dead wife had spent her final months trying to warn him.
Control had been an illusion.
The only things that had saved anyone were truth and the stubbornness of a four-year-old child.
“I’m closing the illegal side of the organization,” Dominic said.
Mia stared.
“All of it?”
“As much as can be dismantled without putting innocent people at risk.”
“That won’t be easy.”
“No.”
“People will come after you.”
“They already do.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
Mia frowned.
Dominic looked at Harper.
“I don’t want her growing up in a house where locked doors mean someone might be dying behind them.”
Something softened in Mia’s face.
“You’re assuming we’re staying.”
Dominic looked at her.
He had negotiated deals worth hundreds of millions without hesitation.
This question frightened him.
“Are you leaving?”
“I considered it.”
His expression changed.
Mia saw.
“You’d care?”
“Yes.”
The word came too quickly.
Neither moved.
Dominic tried again.
“Yes.”
Mia’s eyes lowered.
“Why?”
He could have lied.
He was excellent at it when necessary.
Instead he told her the truth.
“Because the first person I look for when I enter a room is you.”
Mia’s breathing changed.
Dominic continued.
“Because when I thought Nathan had taken you, I discovered there are kinds of fear I’m not prepared for.”
“Dominic…”
“I know this isn’t the time.”
“No.”
“I know you’ve been through hell.”
“Yes.”
“And I know you worked for me.”
“Technically, I still do.”
“Not anymore.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“You’re firing me?”
“Yes.”
Mia stared.
Dominic almost smiled.
“You’re terrible at romantic conversations.”
“I haven’t had one in years.”
“This isn’t romantic.”
“I’m trying.”
She laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Harper stirred.
They went quiet.
Dominic whispered, “I’m not asking you for anything.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you that when you’re ready, if you’re ever ready, I’d like to know you as something other than the woman who knows how I take my coffee.”
Mia smiled faintly.
“You take it black.”
“I know.”
“And you pretend you hate cinnamon rolls.”
“I do hate them.”
“You ate four last Christmas.”
“That information was confidential.”
She laughed again.
Dominic realized he would spend considerable money to hear that sound more often.
Then Harper’s sleepy voice came from Mia’s chest.
“Can Mr. Dominic be my friend too?”
Dominic looked at her.
“If your mother approves.”
Harper opened one eye.
“Mommy likes you.”
Mia turned red.
“Harper.”
“She does.”
“Go back to sleep.”
Harper obeyed.
Dominic looked unbearably pleased.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your face did.”
He stood and offered Mia his hand.
She took it.
For a moment neither released the other.
Then Marcus entered.
His expression destroyed the fragile peace.
“We have a problem.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around Mia’s.
“What?”
“The ledger at the mill was a copy.”
Dominic frowned.
Marcus continued.
“The original is missing.”
“Who has it?”
“We checked Evelyn’s box again.”
He held up an empty evidence sleeve.
“Someone took it from this house tonight.”
Dominic looked around the kitchen.
The estate had been sealed.
Only family and trusted staff remained inside.
May you like
Then Mia whispered:
“Where’s Isabella?”
