Chapter 6
Dominic moved before I understood.
He shoved me behind a steel support beam as bullets tore into the wall where I had been standing.
Concrete dust filled the air.
Men shouted.
Glass broke somewhere high above.
David screamed.
Serena vanished behind a row of crates.
The fake police advanced fast.
Too fast.
Trained.
Not street men.
Not ordinary thugs.
Dominic fired twice.
Marco pulled me down.
“Stay low!”
“I am low!”
“Lower!”
I crawled behind a stack of pallets, pain ripping across my stitched shoulder.
The world became noise.
Gunfire.
Boots.
Rain hammering the metal roof.
Dominic shouting orders in Italian.
Then I saw David.
Still tied to the chair.
Crying.
Useless.
And beside his foot, Serena’s dropped phone lit up with an incoming call.
The screen showed one word.
CAPTAIN.
A police captain?
Real police?
My pulse jumped.
I looked toward Dominic.
He was pinned behind a forklift.
Marco was reloading.
No one saw the phone but me.
I moved.
Stupid.
Maybe brave.
Mostly angry.
I crawled across the wet concrete, grabbed the phone, and slid back behind cover as a bullet sparked near my hand.
I answered.
A man’s voice snapped, “Is it done?”
I said nothing.
“Serena?”
I held my breath.
The man cursed.
“Kill the girl before Moretti gets her out. If she talks, twenty-six years opens.”
Twenty-six years.
My whole stolen life in one sentence.
“Captain who?” I whispered.
Silence.
Then, “Who is this?”
I ended the call.
The call log showed a number.
I shoved the phone into my pocket.
Then someone grabbed my ankle.
David.
“Elena,” he sobbed. “Untie me.”
I stared at him.
“Please.”
Once, I would have.
Once, I would have mistaken pity for love.
Now I looked at the man who had kept me broken so enemies could track me.
“No.”
His face changed.
“Elena—”
“My name might not be Elena.”
That hurt him.
Good.
I crawled away.
Dominic reached me moments later, blood on his temple.
“You moved.”
“I found a phone.”
“You moved.”
“I heard you the first time.”
His eyes burned.
“You could have died.”
“I’ve been dying slowly for years. Tonight I was useful.”
His anger faltered.
I handed him the phone.
“A man called Captain ordered Serena to kill me before twenty-six years opens.”
Dominic’s face went still.
“Captain Rinaldi.”
“Who is that?”
“The lead detective on your kidnapping case.”
My stomach dropped.
The man who was supposed to find me.
The man who may have helped bury me.
Dominic closed his fist around the phone.
“We leave now.”
“What about Serena?”
“She ran.”
“What about David?”
Dominic looked toward him.
David was begging Marco now.
“Leave him for real police.”
“And if real police are not real?”
Dominic met my eyes.
A brutal question.
A fair one.
He turned to Marco.
“Bring him.”
David sobbed with relief.
I felt nothing.
Outside, the fake police scattered when Dominic’s backup arrived.
Real sirens sounded in the distance this time.
Different pattern.
Dominic knew the difference.
Of course he did.
We escaped through the river side entrance.
I stumbled into the SUV shaking with shock and pain.
Dominic climbed in beside me.
For a moment, we sat inches apart, both breathing hard.
Then he took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.
I wanted to refuse.
I didn’t.
His coat smelled like rain, smoke, and something warm underneath.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
His jaw tightened.
“For what?”
“For saving me.”
He looked at me like the words hurt.
“You saved my son.”
“You keep saying that like it makes us even.”
“It makes us family before blood does.”
I looked away fast.
Too fast.
Because I wanted to believe him.
And wanting anything from a man like Dominic Moretti felt like stepping close to fire.
Back at the safe house, Rosa cried when she saw blood on Dominic.
Leo ran straight to me.
I winced as he hugged my waist.
“You came back.”
“I promised.”
He looked at Dominic.
“Papa came back too.”
Dominic knelt and pulled his son close.
The sight hit me harder than any bullet.
Dangerous men could still be tender.
That was unfair.
That night, Rosa changed my bandage.
She was gentle.
Quiet.
Then she placed a small velvet box in my lap.
“What is this?”
“Your grandmother’s.”
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside was a ring.
Silver.
Moon and rose.
“My ring,” I whispered.
Rosa nodded.
“We bought it back from the fence years ago. We did not know where he got it until tonight.”
I touched it.
Something inside me came loose.
Proof.
I existed before the church.
Before poverty.
Before David.
May you like
Before the name Elena.
I had belonged to someone.
