Chapter 4 - The Price of Blood
The first explosion did not destroy the door.
It destroyed the wall beside it.
Concrete dust filled the air. Claire screamed and shielded Ava with her body as Dominic and his guards fired toward the opening.
“Move!” Nico shouted.
Dominic grabbed Claire by the elbow and pulled her toward a narrow corridor hidden behind a shelving unit. The corridor was barely wide enough for two people to pass. Emergency lights blinked red overhead.
Behind them, gunfire thundered through the basement.
Claire’s ears rang.
Ava began crying, her feverish little body trembling against Claire’s chest.
“I’m sorry,” Claire whispered, tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry, baby.”
Dominic pushed open a second steel door at the end of the corridor.
“This way.”
They entered what looked like an old underground garage. Two armored vehicles waited inside, engines already running. Men in black suits stood near the doors, weapons raised.
Claire stared at Dominic. “You planned for this?”
“I planned for enemies,” he replied. “Not this.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Victor Vescari should not have known you were here.”
Nico looked toward him sharply. “You think someone inside gave him the information?”
“I know they did.”
A gunshot cracked nearby.
One of the guards fell against a vehicle, clutching his shoulder.
“Sniper!” someone yelled.
Dominic shoved Claire behind the SUV.
“Stay down.”
Claire crouched on the cold concrete floor, Ava pressed tightly to her chest. She could smell gasoline, dust, and something metallic in the air.
Her life had been simple yesterday.
Hard, but simple.
She had worried about rent, daycare bills, groceries, and whether Ava’s cough would get worse at night.
Now she was hiding from assassins under the mansion of a man whose name frightened New York.
It did not feel real.
Then Dominic’s phone buzzed.
He checked the screen and froze.
“It’s from Victor,” he said.
“Don’t answer,” Nico warned.
Dominic answered anyway.
Victor’s voice came through calmly.
“You always were stubborn, Dominic.”
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want. The chip. The locket. And the child.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“You’re not getting any of them,” Dominic said.
Victor gave a soft chuckle. “That’s what your mother said.”
Dominic’s face went rigid.
Claire saw the pain hit him before he buried it.
Victor continued, “Evelyn begged. Did you know that? She begged me to let you go with her. She said she would disappear, take you somewhere quiet, raise you away from your father’s poison.”
Dominic did not speak.
“She believed you could become something better.”
The call ended.
For a moment, Dominic stood motionless.
Then he lowered the phone.
“Get them out,” he ordered.
The vehicles roared forward. The garage doors opened, revealing a narrow road leading into thick trees beyond the estate.
Claire climbed into the back seat with Ava. Nico sat across from them. Dominic entered last, shutting the armored door behind him.
As the SUV sped away, Claire watched the Romano mansion disappear behind them.
It looked enormous from the road.
Untouchable.
But smoke was beginning to rise from one of its wings.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“A safe house,” Dominic said.
“Will Ava be okay?”
Dr. Bennett, who had been brought into the vehicle, checked Ava’s temperature.
“It’s still high,” he said. “But the medication is working slowly. She needs a hospital if this continues.”
Dominic looked toward the driver. “Change route. We’re going to St. Catherine’s.”
Nico shook his head. “Victor will expect that.”
“He may,” Dominic replied. “But my daughter needs a hospital.”
The word hung in the air.
Claire looked at him.
He did not look back.
But something in her chest shifted.
At St. Catherine’s, Dominic did not use the emergency entrance or demand special treatment. He carried Ava himself through the hospital doors while Claire followed close behind.
Nurses rushed them into a pediatric room.
For the next two hours, Claire sat beside Ava’s bed while doctors ran tests, started fluids, and monitored her fever. Dominic remained outside the room, speaking with security, arranging guards without frightening the hospital staff.
When he finally came inside, Ava was asleep beneath a white blanket.
Claire stared at the monitors.
“I thought she was just sick,” she whispered. “I thought it was a cold.”
“Kids get sick,” Dominic said quietly.
“But I brought her to work because I had no choice.”
“You had a choice,” Dominic replied. “You chose her.”
Claire looked at him, angry tears in her eyes. “I chose rent. I chose not getting fired. I chose trying to keep us alive.”
“You chose her,” he repeated. “That’s what mothers do.”
Claire looked down.
For a man accused of terrifying half the city, Dominic knew exactly where to place words when someone was breaking.
Before she could respond, Nico entered.
His face was grim.
“We found the leak.”
Dominic looked up. “Who?”
“Anthony Bell.”
Claire had never heard the name, but Dominic’s expression told her enough.
“Tony?” he said. “My head of security?”
Nico nodded. “He’s been feeding Vescari our locations for months. We intercepted a message. He knew Claire would be assigned to the mansion tonight.”
Claire went cold.
“My supervisor.”
“Yes,” Nico said. “The man who forced you to come with Ava? He was paid by Bell.”
The pieces clicked together with sickening clarity.
The job assignment.
The threat.
The timing.
They had not accidentally found Ava at Dominic Romano’s estate.
They had lured Claire there.
Victor had known she would bring her sick baby.
He had known Dominic would see the locket.
He had wanted all of them in one place.
Claire stared at Ava.
“They used her illness,” she whispered.
Dominic’s face became dangerously still.
“They used you both.”
Nico’s phone rang again.
He listened, then looked at Dominic.
“Bell is gone. But he left a message.”
“What message?”
Nico’s voice lowered.
“He says Victor has Elena Marino.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“My mother is alive?”
Dominic looked at her.
There was no certainty in his face.
Only hope.
And fear.
Then Nico added the rest.
May you like
“Victor wants the chip. He says if we bring it to him by midnight, Elena lives.”
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