Chapter 6 - THE SAFE HOUSE
Preston survived.
Barely.
The bullet missed his heart by three inches.
Dominic moved him to a private clinic under an assumed name before police scanners could light up.
Mara was taken somewhere outside the city.
She didn’t know where.
That made her furious.
“You promised you would stop making decisions for me.”
Dominic shut the safe house door.
“I promised to try.”
“This is not trying.”
“A sniper fired into my home.”
“At Preston.”
“While you were standing beside him.”
Mara threw his coat onto a chair.
“Then tell me where I am.”
“Lake Forest.”
“Whose house?”
“Mine.”
“You have another house?”
“I have several.”
“Of course you do.”
He looked exhausted.
Good.
She hoped she was difficult.
She wanted to be difficult.
Being easy had gotten her slapped in a cemetery and hunted like an animal.
Dominic poured coffee.
Then remembered.
“You drink coffee?”
“I’m pregnant, not glass.”
“One cup?”
“Yes.”
He handed it over.
They stood in the kitchen, separated by a marble island and fourteen years of different worlds.
Mara unfolded the paper Preston had given her.
It was a photocopy of an FBI contact card.
Agent Samuel Price.
Handwritten on the back were Eleanor’s initials.
E.W.
Dominic frowned.
“If your mother was cooperating with the FBI, Thorne had more reason to silence her.”
“Or somebody else did.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think I was involved?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“That’s not a no.”
“You’re a crime boss, Dominic.”
His mouth tightened.
“I was nineteen when Eleanor helped me. I wasn’t running anything.”
“But later?”
He looked out the window.
Snow-gray lake water stretched beyond the trees.
“Later I became exactly the kind of man she feared I would become.”
Mara waited.
He rarely explained himself.
“I inherited debt, enemies and a family name that attracted both.”
“You make it sound like a business merger.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Did you kill people?”
Silence.
Mara’s pulse quickened.
Dominic finally said, “Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
He did not justify it.
Did not soften it.
Did not say they deserved it.
That somehow made the truth heavier.
“I won’t lie to you about what I am.”
Mara opened her eyes.
“What are you, then?”
“A man trying to make sure his child isn’t born into the worst parts of his life.”
The words struck hard.
His child.
He had said it without hesitation.
Mara’s anger cracked around the edges.
“You don’t even know me.”
“I want to.”
“That’s not the same as being ready to be a father.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“But I can learn.”
Mara stared at him.
“What if I don’t want you involved?”
His face changed.
Pain.
Gone almost instantly.
“If that’s your decision, I’ll respect it.”
She hadn’t expected that.
“But I’ll still keep you alive long enough to make it.”
A phone rang.
Dominic answered.
Marco’s voice came through the speaker.
“We found Agent Price.”
“Alive?”
“Retired. Arizona.”
“Get him on a secure call.”
A pause.
“Boss, there’s something else.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“What?”
“Bianca Thorne just went on live television.”
Mara grabbed the remote.
Every major local channel carried the same image.
Bianca stood outside a hospital in a cream coat, face pale, cameras surrounding her.
She looked shattered.
She also looked convincing.
“My husband was shot,” she told reporters. “And I believe Mara Whitfield is responsible.”
Mara’s mouth fell open.
Bianca continued.
“She has been obsessed with him for years. She worked her way into our home. She became pregnant. And when Preston rejected her, she turned to dangerous criminals.”
A reporter shouted, “Are you saying Dominic Vale is involved?”
Bianca looked directly into the camera.
“Yes.”
Mara felt sick.
Then Bianca delivered the final blow.
“And I have evidence that Mara Whitfield planned to blackmail my family with a baby that may not even have a known father.”
Dominic switched off the television.
Too late.
Mara’s phone began vibrating.
Messages.
Hundreds.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
Marco again.
This time his voice was urgent.
“Boss, police are at the front gate.”
“For what?”
“They have a warrant.”
Dominic looked at Mara.
“Whose name?”
May you like
Marco answered.
“Mara’s.”
