Chapter 7 - Retribution
Raines panicked. For all his boasting about extortion and power, the sight of Dominic Bellano alive and walking through fire stripped away his veneer of control. He scrambled for the pistol tucked inside his coat, rushing behind my chair to use me as a human shield.
"Stay back, Dominic!" Raines screamed, digging the cold muzzle of his gun painfully into my temple. "One step closer and her brains are on this concrete! Drop the weapon!"
Dominic stopped twenty paces away. The smoke swirled around his broad shoulders. Behind him, dozens of tactical operatives flooded the warehouse perimeter, their red laser sights painting the walls and settling on Raines’s chest.
"You have five seconds to remove your hand from my wife," Dominic said calmly, not a single trace of emotion in his eyes.
"Drop the gun or she dies!" Raines shrieked, his finger tightening on the trigger.
I looked into Dominic's eyes. I saw no hesitation, no doubt—only a silent, unshakeable command that passed between us without words. Trust me.
In four years of managing his life, I had never missed a cue.
I didn't scream. I didn't beg. Instead, gathering every ounce of strength in my legs, I threw my entire weight backward, tilting the heavy metal chair directly onto Raines’s foot while stomping my heel onto his instep.
Raines howled in pain, his aim jerking toward the rafters.
A single shot rang out—not from Raines, but from Dominic.
The bullet struck Raines’s shoulder with pinpoint precision, tearing through muscle and bone, spinning him backward against the wooden crates. Raines dropped his gun, screaming as he clutched his mangled arm.
Dominic was on him in an instant. He didn't fire a second shot; he kicked the fallen weapon across the room, grabbed Raines by the throat with one hand, and lifted the two-hundred-pound man off his feet, slamming him hard against a steel pillar.
"Please... Dominic, please..." Raines choked out, his face turning purple as Dominic’s fingers crushed his windpipe. "It was business... Helena planned it..."
Dominic leaned in, his voice a low, terrifying whisper that made the entire warehouse fall into dead silence. "You threatened my child. You touched the only woman I have ever loved. There is no business left for you in this world."
A sickening snap echoed through the building.
Dominic released his grip, letting Raines’s lifeless body crumple to the dust like an empty sack. He didn't spare the corpse a second glance.
Dropping his weapon, Dominic turned and sprinted toward me. In three seconds, his combat knife sliced through the zip ties holding my wrists. The moment I was free, I collapsed into his arms, burying my face in his torn shirt, breathing in the scent of him through the ash and smoke.
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"I have you," Dominic whispered frantically, wrapping his arms around me, holding me so tightly against his chest that I could feel the frantic, wild pounding of his heart. "I have you, Penny. You're safe. You're both safe."
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