Chapter 7 - THE CROSSED LINE
The peace was shattered two mornings later. I was in the kitchen, brewing coffee, when Leo rushed in, his face ashen.
"Lorenzo," he said simply.
I followed him to the command center in the basement. Dominic was already there, fully dressed for the first time in two weeks, a tailored black suit hiding the heavy bandages strapped to his chest. On the monitors, a live feed played. It was Lorenzo Rossi, sitting in a dimly lit warehouse, smiling into the camera.
"Hello, little brother," Lorenzo's voice hissed through the speakers. "I hear you survived my gift. Impressive. But let's see how you handle losing everything else."
The camera panned, showing a familiar downtown apartment building. My building. The one I had been evicted from, but where my younger sister, Chloe, still lived two floors down.
"He has my men surrounding the perimeter," Dominic said, his voice terrifyingly calm. He turned to me, his eyes dark with a violent storm. "I am going to kill him."
"Dominic, your stitches—"
May you like
"I don't care about the stitches, Nora." He stepped forward, taking my face in his hands. "He brought your family into this because he knows you are my weakness. I will burn this city to ash before I let him touch her."
He kissed my forehead, grabbed his coat, and walked out. For the first time, I saw the monster the underworld feared. And heaven help me, I loved him for it.
