A DEBT WRITTEN IN BLOOD

Recovery was a brutal, agonizing process. For two weeks, I was confined to the east wing of the Valentine Estate, a sprawling fortress hidden behind iron gates and armed guards in the heart of Staten Island.

I had a private nurse, a chef who made whatever I wanted, and a physical therapist who pushed me to the brink of tears. But the most constant presence was Dominic. He worked from a mahogany desk in the corner of my suite, running an empire of illegal gambling, shipping, and god knows what else, just so he could keep an eye on me.

"You're glaring a hole through my skull, Lily," Dominic murmured one afternoon, not looking up from his laptop.

"I'm a prisoner," I shot back, adjusting the sling on my arm. The pain was duller now, a constant ache rather than a blinding fire.

He finally looked up, his dark eyes meeting mine. "You're a survivor. If I let you leave, the Volkov family will flay you alive just to send me a message. You think your father, Detective Chen, would want you to throw your life away out of stubbornness?"

I froze. "How do you know my father's name?"

Dominic closed his laptop. He walked over to the edge of my bed, his presence suffocatingly large in the quiet room. "I know everything about you. I know Thomas Chen was a good cop in a precinct full of dirty ones. I know he died twelve years ago investigating a cargo theft operation at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And I know the police ruled it a mugging."

"It wasn't a mugging," I spat, anger burning through my chest, momentarily replacing the fear I usually felt around him. "He was getting too close to someone powerful. Someone silenced him."

"You're right," Dominic said smoothly. "He was getting close to the Moretti family. My rivals."

I stared at him, the air leaving my lungs. For twelve years, my family had suffered. We had lost our anchor, our hero, and the NYPD had swept it under the rug. "The Morettis killed my father?"

"They gave the order," Dominic confirmed. "I was twenty-two when it happened, just a soldier in my father's ranks. But I heard the whispers. Your father refused a bribe. He did the right thing. Not the easy thing."

Hearing my father's mantra from the lips of a mafia boss sent a shiver down my spine. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because you need to understand the world you've been dragged into," Dominic said, leaning closer until I could smell the bergamot and smoke on his skin. "The Bratva hit at the diner was orchestrated by the Morettis. They are uniting against me. You are in the crossfire. But if you stay here, if you trust me... I will give you the one thing the law never could."