Chapter 6 - THE LAST BULLET
“Welcome back.”
Victor sat across from me with one ankle resting over his opposite knee.
My hands were zip-tied.
My head throbbed.
The cabin lights were low.
Outside the window, there was only black sky.
“Where are we going?”
Victor smiled.
“You always ask practical questions.”
“Where?”
“North.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one you need.”
I tested the restraints.
Too tight.
Victor noticed.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Tyler tightened them.”
I looked around.
“Where is he?”
Victor’s smile vanished slightly.
“Tyler has become unreliable.”
“That’s a polite way to describe a murderer.”
“You once loved him.”
The words were designed to shame me.
They almost worked.
Then I remembered Damian’s greenhouse.
You don’t apologize for being terrorized into silence.
“I loved who he pretended to be.”
Victor watched me.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Damian said almost the same thing about me.”
That shut me up.
Victor poured himself a drink.
“He believed I was family.”
“You murdered his brother.”
“Luca gave me no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
I realized I had repeated Damian’s words.
Victor noticed too.
“How sentimental.”
“What do you want?”
“You already know.”
“The drive is with Damian.”
“The drive is irrelevant now.”
“Then why take me?”
Victor leaned back.
“Because Damian has spent years building himself into something untouchable.”
“You think taking me hurts him.”
“I know it does.”
“You’re overestimating my importance.”
Victor laughed.
“No, Harper. You are.”
I hated how much the words affected me.
Victor reached into his coat and placed a phone on the table between us.
The screen showed a live video feed.
Damian.
He stood inside the rail depot surrounded by broken glass and blood.
Rosa was being carried toward an ambulance.
Gabriel spoke into a radio.
Damian looked directly at a camera mounted high in the building.
His face terrified me.
Not because it was angry.
Because it wasn’t.
He looked empty.
Victor tapped the screen.
“Look at him.”
I refused.
“He burned three safe houses in forty minutes looking for you.”
My heart stumbled.
“He grounded every private aircraft connected to my known aliases.”
Victor lifted his glass.
“And yet here we are.”
“How?”
“Because this plane belongs to a United States senator.”
I stared at him.
“You’re lying.”
“Frequently.”
That meant maybe.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To a house near Lake Superior.”
“And then?”
“You’ll record a statement.”
“About what?”
“Damian’s criminal organization. You’ll claim he ordered the dinner shooting after you learned too much.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It doesn’t need to survive a trial. It needs to survive twenty-four hours.”
“Why?”
“Because in twenty-four hours, several federal warrants will be executed against Romano businesses.”
My blood chilled.
“You arranged it.”
“I arranged everything.”
He leaned closer.
“While Damian is defending himself, his companies fracture. Partners panic. Banks freeze assets. Enemies move.”
“And you disappear.”
“With enough money to become someone else.”
“You really think Damian won’t find you?”
Victor smiled.
“That is why you won’t be alive to help him.”
There it was.
No performance.
No euphemism.
He planned to kill me.
Fear moved through me.
But it was different now.
Tyler’s fear had always made me small.
This fear sharpened things.
Door.
Two guards.
Victor.
Phone.
Glass.
Flight attendant area.
Emergency equipment.
I started counting.
The plane landed forty minutes later on a private runway surrounded by forest.
Snow covered the ground.
Lake Superior wind cut through my thin clothes as two men pushed me into an SUV.
Victor sat in front.
We drove twenty minutes to a remote house overlooking dark water.
The property was beautiful.
Which made it worse.
Inside, cameras had already been arranged.
A chair.
Lights.
Teleprompter.
Victor had planned my confession.
“Sit.”
I stayed standing.
One guard moved toward me.
Victor lifted a hand.
“No.”
He approached slowly.
“You dislike being forced.”
I stared at him.
“Tyler told you everything.”
“Tyler talked too much.”
Victor’s expression became almost bored.
“That was always his problem.”
“Where is he?”
Victor paused.
“Dead, probably.”
The words surprised me.
“You abandoned him.”
“He failed.”
“You used him for six years.”
“Yes.”
“And he still trusted you.”
“People like Tyler always believe cruelty makes them important.”
I looked at Victor.
“No.”
“What?”
“Cruel men believe cruelty makes them powerful.”
His expression cooled.
“Sit down.”
I sat.
Not because he ordered me.
Because there was a small metal clip beneath the table.
Sharp.
Possibly enough to cut plastic.
The camera began recording.
Victor stood behind it.
“Read.”
Words appeared.
My name is Harper Ellison. I have been employed inside the Romano estate—
I started.
“My name is Harper Ellison.”
Victor watched.
“I have been employed inside Damian Romano’s estate for six weeks.”
I moved my bound hands beneath the table.
Plastic rubbed against metal.
Slow.
Careful.
“I witnessed illegal activity.”
Victor nodded.
“Continue.”
“I witnessed…”
The plastic began weakening.
“…the most powerful man in Chicago commit crimes.”
Victor smiled.
“Good.”
My wrists burned.
“I believe Damian Romano ordered the attack that occurred during the formal dinner at his estate.”
The tie stretched.
Almost.
Then a red dot appeared on the wall behind Victor.
I stopped breathing.
A laser.
Victor noticed my face.
“What?”
The dot moved.
Across the wall.
Onto Victor’s chest.
His eyes widened.
The window exploded.
Victor dropped.
Chaos erupted.
One guard fired toward the trees.
The other ran toward me.
I snapped the weakened zip tie.
Grabbed the metal light stand.
Swung.
It hit his knee.
He screamed.
I swung again.
His gun slid across the floor.
I dove for it.
A shot hit the wall beside me.
Victor was on his feet.
Blood ran from his shoulder.
He lifted his weapon.
“Harper!”
The front doors burst inward.
Damian.
He fired once.
Victor’s gun flew from his hand.
Gabriel and three men flooded the room.
The second guard surrendered.
Damian crossed the entire room in seconds.
Then stopped one step away from me.
His chest rose hard.
His eyes searched my face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked as if he needed physical proof.
I stepped forward.
Wrapped my arms around him.
Damian froze.
Then held me.
Carefully at first.
Then like he had spent every minute since the rail depot imagining finding a body instead.
“You found me.”
His mouth pressed against my hair.
“You left clues.”
I pulled back.
“What clues?”
“The airport.”
“I didn’t—”
“The blood on the seat.”
I blinked.
The guard had cut my wrist while binding me.
Damian continued.
“You wiped it beneath the door handle.”
I hadn’t done it deliberately.
I decided not to ruin the moment.
“I’m very resourceful.”
He stared at me.
Then almost smiled.
Behind him, Victor laughed.
We turned.
Gabriel had him on his knees.
“You think this changes anything?”
Damian’s face went cold.
Victor looked at me.
“The warrants still happen.”
Gabriel said, “No.”
Victor’s confidence cracked.
Gabriel held up a phone.
“Tyler talked.”
Victor went still.
“He’s alive?” I asked.
“Unfortunately.”
Gabriel looked at Victor.
“He surrendered to state police twenty minutes after you abandoned him. Apparently being left to die offended him.”
Victor stared.
“Bennett gave us accounts. Names. Recordings. Everything.”
Damian stepped toward Victor.
“My brother.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“Luca was weak.”
Damian hit him.
One punch.
Victor dropped.
Damian reached for him again.
I caught his sleeve.
Every person in the room froze.
Damian looked at my hand.
Then at me.
“Don’t.”
“He murdered Luca.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“I know.”
“He deserves—”
“I know.”
My voice cracked.
“But if you kill him, he gets to decide who you are one last time.”
Damian stared at me.
Slowly, his fist loosened.
Gabriel pulled Victor upright.
For the first time, Victor looked afraid.
Sirens sounded outside.
State police.
Federal agents.
Damian had called them.
Victor heard them too.
“You brought police?”
Damian looked at him.
“You spent nineteen years assuming I would protect my reputation before I protected innocent people.”
The sirens grew louder.
“That was your final mistake.”
Victor was dragged outside.
I exhaled.
It was over.
At least I thought it was.
Then Damian swayed.
I looked down.
Blood covered the side of his shirt.
Too much blood.
“Damian?”
He glanced at it as if noticing for the first time.
The bullet Victor had fired toward me had not hit the wall.
It had hit Damian.
He collapsed before I could catch him.
“No!”
I dropped beside him.
Blood spread beneath my hands.
Gabriel shouted for a medic.
Damian’s eyes found mine.
“Harper.”
“Don’t talk.”
“You’re safe.”
“Shut up.”
His mouth almost smiled.
“Bossy.”
“Damian.”
His eyes closed.
“No.”
I pressed harder against the wound.
“You do not get to save my life and then die in front of me.”
No response.
“Damian!”
A medic pulled me backward.
Someone cut open his shirt.
Someone shouted about blood pressure.
Gabriel held me as they lifted Damian onto a stretcher.
I watched the man everyone in Chicago feared disappear through the doors unconscious.
May you like
For the first time since meeting him, Damian Romano looked completely powerless.
And when the ambulance doors closed, I realized with terrifying clarity that somewhere between the bullet in the dining room and the kiss beneath the greenhouse glass, I had fallen in love with him.
