Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED RUNNING
“Down!”
I hit Dominic before the shot came.
The bullet struck the container behind us.
Anthony returned fire.
Dominic rolled, pulling me behind a concrete barrier.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“You?”
“No.”
Elena crouched nearby.
“This evening has become very irritating.”
Another shot cracked.
Anthony shouted coordinates.
Men moved.
Then tires screamed.
Gabriel was gone.
Again.
Dominic looked furious.
I felt something else.
Tired.
Not physically.
Tired of being hunted.
Tired of changing numbers.
Tired of doors with three locks.
Tired of measuring every man’s mood before I spoke.
I stood.
Dominic grabbed my wrist.
“Stella.”
“I’m done.”
“What?”
“Running.”
His grip loosened.
I looked at the darkness where Gabriel disappeared.
“He wants me afraid.”
“Yes.”
“He thinks fear makes people predictable.”
Dominic stood.
“What are you thinking?”
“That we stop being predictable.”
By sunrise, we had the recorder at Dominic’s office.
Derek survived surgery.
Maria was safe.
Elena refused medical observation and demanded espresso.
The recorder contained dozens of encrypted audio files.
The ledger provided the cipher.
Anthony’s technology team unlocked the first file.
Gabriel’s voice.
Then Carlos Martinez.
They discussed my father.
My stomach turned.
File two contained a police captain.
File three, a judge.
File four, a union official.
Twenty years of corruption.
Murder.
Blackmail.
Bribery.
Enough evidence to destroy dozens of lives.
Dominic looked at me.
“What do you want to do?”
I understood the importance of the question.
Not what should we do.
What do you want?
“Give everything to the prosecutor.”
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
“Some of it implicates my family.”
“I know.”
He stared at the files.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
I almost smiled.
“But it’s right.”
That was the moment I began falling in love with Dominic Russo.
Not when he caught me in the kitchen.
Not when he protected me.
Not when he threatened men on my behalf.
When he chose consequences over secrecy.
We sent the files.
Within hours, arrests began.
Two retired detectives.
A port official.
A former judge.
Gabriel disappeared.
His accounts froze.
His properties were raided.
His allies started talking.
For forty-eight hours, nothing happened.
Then I returned to Sorrentino’s.
Dominic objected.
I went anyway.
The kitchen welcomed me like I had returned from war.
Maria hugged me.
Marco made me pasta.
Chef Laurent pretended not to be emotional.
For the first time in months, I felt normal.
At ten fifteen, I stood at the sink.
Same place.
Same steam.
Same noise.
Dominic walked in.
Everyone went quiet.
I looked at him.
“You know, you could stop terrifying your employees.”
“I’m working on it.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No.”
He approached.
Stopped three feet away.
Always three feet now unless I closed the distance.
“You shouldn’t be working tonight.”
“You don’t sign my checks.”
“I own the restaurant.”
“Technically accounting signs them.”
Maria laughed.
Dominic looked offended.
Then he held out a small box.
“What is that?”
“Not a tracking device.”
“Promising start.”
I opened it.
Inside was my father’s brass key.
My throat tightened.
“Where did you find it?”
“Derek told Anthony where he hid it.”
I touched the metal.
“He remembered.”
“Yes.”
I closed my fingers around it.
“Thank you.”
Dominic looked at me.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The prosecutor wants you in protective custody until Gabriel is found.”
“No.”
“I expected that.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Because it’s your decision.”
I smiled faintly.
“You’re learning.”
“Painfully.”
Then the kitchen lights flickered.
Dominic’s expression changed.
He reached inside his jacket.
The lights died.
Someone screamed.
Emergency lights turned red.
Dominic grabbed my hand.
This time, I held on.
A crash came from the dining room.
Anthony shouted.
Then smoke poured beneath the doors.
“Fire!”
Sprinklers activated.
People ran.
Dominic pulled me toward the rear exit.
We reached the alley.
Maria followed.
Chef Laurent.
Marco.
Customers poured onto the street.
Sirens approached.
Then I realized something.
“Where’s Elena?”
Dominic froze.
“She was upstairs.”
He turned.
“No.”
I caught him.
“You can’t go back in.”
“That’s my mother.”
Smoke billowed from the second floor.
Then a figure appeared at the upstairs window.
Elena.
Behind her stood Gabriel.
He pressed a gun against her head.
Dominic went completely still.
Gabriel shouted through the broken glass.
“STELLA!”
Everyone looked at me.
Gabriel smiled.
“You wanted to stop running?”
May you like
His gun pressed harder against Elena’s temple.
“Then come upstairs.”
