The abandoned shipyard looked dead from the road.
That was the first thing Dominic told me not to trust.
“Nothing is ever as empty as it looks.”
We sat inside a dark SUV two blocks away.
Gabriel studied a tablet connected to surveillance feeds.
“Three vehicles.”
“How many men?” Dominic asked.
“Minimum seven. Possibly ten.”
My stomach twisted.
“And Nolan?”
“Thermal image shows one person restrained in the office structure.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Alive?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Moving.”
That was enough.
“I’m going in.”
Dominic didn’t even argue this time.
“You’re staying behind the second team until we confirm the building.”
“That sounds suspiciously like staying behind.”
“It means you move when I tell you.”
I looked at him.
His face was illuminated by the dim dashboard light.
“You promised.”
“I promised not to remove your choice.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t promise to stop being annoying.”
Despite my fear, I smiled.
Then Dominic did something completely unexpected.
He leaned over and kissed my forehead.
Not my mouth.
My forehead.
The tenderness frightened me more than desire would have.
“Stay alive,” he whispered.
“You too.”
He left the SUV.
The operation moved quickly.
No dramatic shouting.
No reckless gunfire.
Dominic’s men moved through the perimeter while another team coordinated with federal agents several blocks away.
The evidence from Dad’s locker had changed the equation.
Dominic no longer wanted Malcolm frightened.
He wanted him exposed.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
Every second stretched.
Gabriel received a message.
“First building clear.”
Another.
“Two armed men detained.”
My pulse hammered.
Then gunshots cracked in the distance.
I flinched.
Gabriel cursed.
“What happened?”
“Second entrance.”
More shouting.
Then silence.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered before Gabriel could stop me.
“Hello?”
“Evelyn.”
Malcolm.
My blood chilled.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than your husband thinks.”
Gabriel immediately began typing.
“Where’s Nolan?”
“Still breathing.”
“For now?”
“You’re learning.”
I hated how calm he sounded.
“Your father made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“He believed evidence mattered more than leverage.”
“He believed people eventually answer for what they do.”
“Naive.”
“No. Hopeful.”
Malcolm laughed.
“You really are Henry’s daughter.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Come to Pier Nine.”
I looked at Gabriel.
He shook his head violently.
“Alone,” Malcolm added.
“No.”
“Then Nolan dies.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Gabriel said, “Absolutely not.”
“Tell Dominic.”
“I’m telling him to come back.”
“No. Tell him where I’m going.”
“You’re not going.”
I opened the SUV door.
Gabriel grabbed my arm.
“Mrs. Vale.”
“Let go.”
“Dominic will kill me.”
“If you don’t, Nolan might die.”
“He’ll kill me twice.”
I almost laughed.
Then another gunshot echoed.
Gabriel looked toward the shipyard.
That second was enough.
I pulled free and ran.
Pier Nine stood beyond a row of storage buildings.
My legs felt numb.
I wore body armor under my coat, exactly as Dominic demanded.
It felt useless against fear.
At the pier, Malcolm stood beside a black sedan.
Two men flanked him.
Nolan knelt between them.
Blood covered one side of his face.
“Evelyn!”
I stopped twenty feet away.
“Let him go.”
Malcolm smiled.
“Where are the documents?”
“Safe.”
“Then you’re useless.”
“Not quite.”
His smile widened.
“My shares.”
“Forty-nine percent.”
“You spent a lot of effort arranging a marriage for me.”
“It would have been mutually beneficial.”
“To you.”
“Nolan’s company survives. You retain your lifestyle. I acquire stability.”
“You mean control.”
“Such an ugly word.”
I looked at my brother.
His eyes were full of shame.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Malcolm kicked him in the side.
“Stop!”
Nolan collapsed.
Something inside me changed.
Fear remained.
But beneath it was anger.
Clean, bright anger.
“You want Hart Atlantic?” I asked.
Malcolm looked at me.
“Yes.”
“You’ll never have it.”
His smile vanished.
“You think Vale can protect you forever?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“I think I can protect myself by finally understanding what everyone around me wanted me too sheltered to understand.”
I lifted my phone.
“The federal government has copies.”
Malcolm’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
“My attorney has one. Dominic has another. The originals are already secured.”
“You stupid girl.”
There it was.
The man beneath the polished suits.
Not charming.
Not respectable.
Not paternal.
Just furious because a woman he expected to control had made a decision without him.
Malcolm stepped toward me.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You destroyed your brother.”
“No.”
Nolan coughed.
“He did that himself.”
Pain flashed across my brother’s face.
I continued.
“But he gets to decide what he becomes after it.”
Malcolm drew a gun.
Everything slowed.
One of his men looked uncertain.
The other raised his weapon toward me.
Then Dominic’s voice came from the darkness.
“If you point that at my wife again, this ends badly.”
Malcolm turned.
Dominic stepped into view.
Alone.
At least he looked alone.
His hands were empty.
Malcolm aimed at him.
“Vale.”
“Pryce.”
“You always had a weakness for lost causes.”
Dominic looked at me.
“I disagree.”
Something passed between us.
Relief.
Anger.
Fear.
Far too much emotion for a ninety-day contract marriage.
Malcolm noticed.
“Oh,” he said softly. “This is interesting.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Let Nolan go.”
“Trade.”
“You don’t have anything I want.”
Malcolm pointed the weapon toward me.
Dominic’s face changed.
“You sure?”
My blood froze.
Malcolm smiled.
“There he is.”
His gun moved between us.
“The great Dominic Vale.”
“Malcolm,” Dominic said quietly.
“You’ve built an empire making everyone afraid to touch what belongs to you.”
“Evelyn doesn’t belong to me.”
For some reason, that sentence nearly broke me.
Malcolm laughed.
“Yet here you are.”
“I’m here because she asked me to help her brother.”
Nolan looked up.
Dominic continued.
“She chooses what happens to her. That’s something you never understood.”
Sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Malcolm’s expression changed.
“You brought police.”
“No.”
Dominic smiled coldly.
“She did.”
Malcolm looked at me.
I lifted my phone.
The call had remained connected to Margaret Sloan’s emergency federal contact since I stepped out of the SUV.
Malcolm swore.
Everything happened at once.
One of his men dropped his weapon.
The other fired.
Dominic shouted my name.
I fell behind a concrete barrier as shots erupted.
Nolan threw himself sideways.
Malcolm ran toward the sedan.
Federal agents and police flooded the pier from both ends.
“Down!”
“Drop the weapon!”
“Hands!”
I covered my head.
Then someone landed beside me.
Dominic.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
His hands moved frantically over my coat, searching for blood.
“I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Then I saw red.
“Dominic.”
“I’m fine.”
Blood soaked his sleeve.
“You’re shot.”
“Graze.”
“That is blood.”
“I’m aware.”
I grabbed him.
“You got shot!”
“And you ran toward a kidnapping scene. We both had imperfect evenings.”
I laughed.
Then cried.
Then hit his chest.
He winced.
“Careful.”
“You deserve worse.”
“Probably.”
Behind us, Malcolm Pryce was forced to his knees.
For the first time since I had known his name, he looked ordinary.
No private dining rooms.
No whispered power.
No men lowering their voices.
Just a sixty-million-dollar suit getting dirty on a Boston pier.
Nolan was carried toward an ambulance.
I started after him.
Then I turned back.
Dominic was watching me.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“Go.”
“My husband is bleeding.”
“Your brother needs you.”
“So do you.”
The words escaped.
Dominic went still.
I did too.
Then Gabriel appeared and looked at Dominic’s arm.
“Graze.”
“I told her.”
“Still needs stitches.”
“I told him,” I said.
Gabriel looked between us.
Then smiled.
It was the first time I had seen him do it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Gabriel.”
“Mrs. Vale, your husband has faced men with automatic weapons with less fear than he shows when you use that tone.”
Dominic glared.
“Find something useful to do.”
“I am. I’m enjoying this.”
At the hospital, Nolan needed seven stitches and had two cracked ribs.
Dominic needed twelve stitches in his upper arm.
He complained the entire time.
“You’re afraid of needles?”
“No.”
“You just threatened the nurse with your eyes.”
“She stabbed me.”
“She’s stitching you.”
“Same family of activity.”
I laughed.
He stared at me.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You keep doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking surprised when I laugh.”
“Maybe I like hearing it.”
The room became quiet.
My pulse quickened.
“Dominic.”
He looked down.
“This marriage was supposed to be temporary.”
“I know.”
“We said business.”
“I know.”
“And you said it stopped being business.”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
He was silent long enough that I nearly took the question back.
Then he looked at me.
“It means when Malcolm pointed a gun at you, I stopped caring what happened to Hart Atlantic.”
My throat tightened.
“I cared about you.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“That’s not very strategic.”
“No.”
“You’re usually strategic.”
“Yes.”
“So what now?”
Dominic glanced toward the band on my finger.
“Now I keep my word.”
I frowned.
“What word?”
“When this is over, you’re free.”
Something inside me fell.
He continued before I could answer.
“Pryce will be prosecuted. Your shares transfer in several weeks. The company will be yours to help run or sell. Our agreement says you can leave.”
“So you want a divorce.”
His expression went blank.
“I want you to have the choice nobody gave you.”
It should have made me happy.
Instead, it hurt.
I stood.
“I need air.”
“Evelyn.”
“I’m fine.”
I left before he could see my eyes.
Because Malcolm Pryce had finally lost control.
Nolan was alive.
Hart Atlantic was safe for the moment.
And Dominic Vale had kept every promise he made me.
The problem was that somewhere between the courthouse, my father’s recording, and that dark pier, I had begun wanting something that had never appeared in our contract.
I didn’t want Dominic to free me.
I wanted him to ask me to stay.