The first burst of gunfire shattered what remained of Mercy’s sense that her home could protect her.
Nathaniel pulled her down behind the kitchen wall.
“Stay here.”
“Dominic—”
“Emmett has him.”
Another burst.
Men shouted outside.
An SUV engine roared.
Mercy smelled gasoline.
Then smoke.
“Fire!”
Someone yelled from the porch.
Mercy’s blood turned cold.
The old house was dry timber.
If fire reached the roof, they had minutes.
Nathaniel looked toward the bedroom.
“Move him.”
Mercy was already running.
Dominic was trying to get out of bed.
“Stop!”
“We need to leave.”
“Yes, but unless you want your leg detached from your body, you’re doing it my way.”
Emmett and Dr. Warren rushed in.
They transferred Dominic onto a rigid board.
He nearly blacked out from pain.
Mercy stayed beside him.
“Look at me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
Smoke entered the room.
Dominic coughed.
“Mercy, go.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Neither is this.”
They carried him toward the back door.
Nathaniel appeared.
“Front’s blocked. We go through the cellar.”
Mercy stared.
“My cellar exits near the shed.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“We checked the property.”
“Of course you did.”
Even terrified, she was irritated.
Dominic almost laughed.
Then an explosion shook the house.
Mercy screamed despite herself.
The windows rattled.
Dominic reached for her.
His hand found hers.
“Stay with me.”
The irony almost broke her.
She had been saying those words to him for two days.
Now he was saying them to her.
They moved through the cellar.
Cold stone.
Darkness.
Smoke.
Mercy led them toward the exterior hatch.
One of Rossi’s men opened it.
Snow and clean air rushed inside.
They emerged behind the shed.
A black SUV waited.
Bullets struck somewhere near the house.
Nathaniel shoved open the rear door.
“Get in.”
Mercy climbed inside beside Dominic.
Emmett followed.
The SUV accelerated through the snow.
Mercy looked back.
Flames licked at the corner of her porch.
“My house.”
Dominic saw her face.
“Stop the car.”
Nathaniel turned from the front.
“We can’t.”
“Stop the damn car.”
“Dominic—”
“My men are there.”
“They’re containing it.”
“My house,” Mercy whispered.
Dominic looked at her.
Not his house.
Hers.
He understood.
He took out his phone.
“Whatever it takes,” he told Nathaniel. “That house does not burn.”
Nathaniel made the call.
Men stayed behind.
A volunteer fire crew arrived twenty minutes later under armed escort.
Mercy wouldn’t know until hours afterward that they saved most of the structure.
The porch was destroyed.
The kitchen suffered smoke damage.
Two windows were gone.
But the house stood.
For now, Mercy didn’t know any of that.
She sat beside Dominic as they drove.
“Where are we going?”
“A safe property,” Nathaniel said.
“Whose?”
“Mine,” Dominic answered.
“Of course.”
The property was an old hunting lodge forty miles away.
Not a mansion.
Mercy had expected a mansion.
Instead, it was a large but understated timber house hidden between mountains.
Security surrounded it.
Inside, there were enough rooms for everyone.
Dr. Warren immediately examined Dominic.
The leg had survived the transfer.
Barely.
Mercy stood near the doorway.
Dominic watched her.
“You should rest.”
“My house was just shot at and set on fire.”
“It’s still standing.”
She looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Nathaniel got confirmation.”
Mercy’s shoulders dropped.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
She sat down.
For the first time, she cried.
Not loudly.
No dramatic sobbing.
Just tears.
Dominic said nothing.
He simply waited.
When she wiped her face, she looked embarrassed.
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
“This.”
He frowned.
“Mercy, someone tried to burn your home because you helped me.”
She looked down.
“My mother died there.”
Dominic’s expression softened.
“I know.”
“It’s all I have left of her.”
“No.”
Mercy looked up.
“It isn’t.”
She stared at him.
Dominic continued.
“You have what she taught you.”
“That sounds like something people say when they’ve never lost a house.”
“Probably.”
A weak laugh escaped Mercy.
He looked toward the window.
“But you’re right. I don’t get to tell you what should matter.”
Mercy wiped her eyes.
“You’re unexpectedly good at apologizing.”
“I’ve had practice needing to.”
She smiled.
Then his face became serious.
“I will rebuild everything Adrian damaged.”
“No.”
“Mercy.”
“No mansions. No marble countertops. No ridiculous imported wood.”
“I wasn’t planning marble.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You have a face.”
“What does that mean?”
“A rich-person face.”
He stared at her.
She laughed.
This time, he did too.
It was the first time Mercy heard Dominic Rossi laugh.
It changed him.
For a second, he wasn’t feared.
He wasn’t powerful.
He was simply a tired man who had nearly died.
That frightened her in a completely different way.
Because she liked that man.
The realization came quietly.
And she did not want it.
Later that evening, Emmett found her on the lodge porch.
“You’re in trouble,” he said.
Mercy looked at him.
“What?”
“You like him.”
She nearly choked on her coffee.
“I absolutely do not.”
Emmett smiled.
“You do.”
“He’s arrogant.”
“Yes.”
“Controlling.”
“Yes.”
“Possibly a criminal.”
“Definitely complicated.”
“That was not a denial.”
Emmett looked toward the house.
“He likes you too.”
Mercy shook her head.
“You people are insane.”
“Probably.”
She studied him.
“Why are you loyal to him?”
Emmett took his time answering.
“Because when Dominic was twenty-three, his father ordered him to burn a business owned by a man who refused to pay protection.”
Mercy’s expression changed.
“Dominic refused.”
“What happened?”
“His father beat him bloody.”
Mercy said nothing.
“Dominic went back the next morning and paid that businessman enough money to relocate his family.”
“That doesn’t erase everything else.”
“No.”
Emmett looked at her.
“Nothing does. But a man isn’t only his worst act.”
Mercy thought about that.
Inside, Dominic was fighting another kind of battle.
Nathaniel had evidence connecting Adrian to the crash and the attack on Mercy’s house.
But evidence inside their world wasn’t enough.
Dominic wanted out.
That was the revelation Mercy hadn’t expected.
He told her that night.
“I’ve been moving the legitimate businesses away from everything else for six years.”
Mercy sat beside his bed.
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired.”
“Of what?”
“Burials.”
The answer silenced her.
“My father believed fear was inheritance. I believed him for too long.”
“What changed?”
“Michael died.”
Dominic looked at the photograph.
“I realized there would always be another Michael unless somebody stopped feeding the machine.”
“Why not walk away?”
“You don’t walk away from something like this. You dismantle it carefully, or it falls on everyone underneath.”
Mercy began to understand Adrian’s motive.
“If you make the businesses legitimate, he loses the criminal side.”
“Yes.”
“So killing you lets him stop the transition.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
Dominic looked at Nathaniel.
“We end it.”
The plan was dangerous.
But not in the way Mercy expected.
Dominic wasn’t planning a war.
He was planning cooperation.
For months, Nathaniel had quietly collected records of Adrian’s illegal operations.
Accounts.
Payments.
Bribery.
Extortion.
Enough to give federal investigators something they had never had before.
A map.
Mercy stared at Dominic.
“You’re turning him in?”
“I’m turning all of it in.”
“What about you?”
His silence answered.
Mercy’s chest tightened.
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But being afraid of consequences doesn’t make me innocent.”
Mercy didn’t know what to say.
Dominic reached toward her hand.
Stopped.
Then lowered his own.
Mercy noticed.
“You can touch me.”
His eyes went to her wrist.
The bruises were fading.
“I hurt you.”
“You were delirious.”
“Still did it.”
Mercy reached out instead.
She placed her hand in his.
Dominic stared at their joined hands.
“Mercy.”
“Don’t make this weird.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were about to.”
His thumb moved gently across her knuckles.
Then Nathaniel entered.
“Sorry.”
He did not look sorry.
Dominic released her hand.
“What?”
“We have a location on Adrian.”
“Where?”
“Chicago.”
Dominic nodded.
Nathaniel continued.
“He wants a meeting.”
“No.”
Mercy looked at him.
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“He wants a trade.”
“What trade?”
Nathaniel looked at Mercy.
Then at Dominic.
“His evidence against you for our evidence against him.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“No.”
Nathaniel didn’t move.
“There’s more.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“What?”
Nathaniel took a breath.
“He has Silas Doyle.”
Mercy stood.
“What?”
“He was taken an hour ago.”
Her face drained.
Silas.
The man who had helped carry Dominic through twenty-two miles of black ice.
The man who had brought firewood.
The man who had known Mercy since she was a child.
Mercy looked at Dominic.
“We have to get him back.”
Dominic’s face became stone.
“We will.”
Nathaniel said quietly, “Adrian says Dominic comes alone.”
Mercy felt something terrible settle over the room.
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
She hadn’t said anything yet.
He knew anyway.
“Absolutely not.”
Mercy folded her arms.
“You can’t walk.”
“I’ll manage.”
“You’re not going without me.”
His eyes darkened.
“Mercy.”
“Silas is there because he helped you.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m the only person who can manage your leg during transport.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You told me people around you get used.”
His jaw tightened.
“Don’t.”
“Then stop deciding for everyone else what risks they’re allowed to take.”
For the first time, Dominic had no answer.
And Mercy knew she was going with him.