Emergency lights painted the hallway red.
Carmine locked Dominic’s bedroom door.
“Safe room,” he ordered.
Dominic shook his head.
“I’m not hiding.”
“You’re not helping anybody dead.”
“Carmine—”
“Boss, for once in your life, shut up.”
Fay stared at him.
Carmine glanced at her.
“What? I’ve wanted to say it for fifteen years.”
Another gunshot echoed downstairs.
Fay flinched.
Carmine moved to a bookshelf and pulled a hidden lever.
A section of wall opened.
Fay stared.
“You have a secret room?”
Dominic rolled toward it.
“Old house.”
“Of course.”
Carmine helped guide the chair through.
“Fay goes with you.”
“I can walk.”
“That’s not what he means,” Dominic said.
Fay entered.
The door sealed behind them.
The safe room was small but sophisticated—monitors, communications equipment, medical supplies, water, and reinforced walls.
Dominic immediately activated the security screens.
Several cameras were dead.
One showed armed men entering through the service wing.
Another showed Corso guards returning fire.
Fay covered her mouth.
“Who are they?”
Dominic studied the screen.
Then his face changed.
“They’re ours.”
“What?”
“Those men work for my family.”
Fay understood.
This wasn’t an invasion.
It was a coup.
Dominic grabbed the radio.
“Carmine.”
Static.
“Carmine.”
Nothing.
Fay’s stomach tightened.
“Maybe the signal—”
“I know.”
Dominic tried another channel.
Silence.
For twenty minutes, they waited.
The gunfire gradually stopped.
That was worse.
Fay paced.
Dominic remained at the monitors, his expression unreadable.
Finally, one camera came back online.
Victor Corso entered the foyer.
He wasn’t carrying a weapon.
He didn’t need one.
Armed men surrounded him.
Fay whispered, “Oh my God.”
Dominic said nothing.
Victor looked directly into the foyer camera.
Then smiled.
He knew Dominic was watching.
A phone inside the safe room rang.
Dominic answered.
“Victor.”
“Dominic.”
His uncle sounded almost sad.
“This didn’t have to become ugly.”
“You cut my brakes.”
A pause.
Then Victor sighed.
“You were becoming reckless.”
“So you tried to kill me.”
“I tried to remove a problem.”
Fay saw Dominic’s hand tighten around the phone.
Victor continued.
“You were supposed to die in that crash. Instead, you survived.”
His voice became colder.
“And then you started recovering.”
Dominic glanced at Fay.
The therapy.
The surveillance.
The medication.
Victor had been trying to make sure Dominic never became strong enough to reclaim control.
“You changed my pills.”
“I encouraged your recovery to remain… slow.”
“You put cameras in my house.”
“I needed information.”
“You put one in Fay’s room.”
Silence.
Then Victor chuckled.
“There it is.”
Dominic’s expression turned lethal.
“Leave her out of this.”
“That little girl became remarkably important remarkably quickly.”
Fay hated being called a little girl.
At that moment, however, she was too frightened to object.
Victor continued.
“She got you eating. Exercising. Thinking again. Men started talking about you returning.”
His voice hardened.
“She made you inconvenient.”
Dominic’s gaze met Fay’s.
Victor had just confirmed something neither had dared say.
Fay had changed him.
Not through some miracle.
Not by fixing his legs.
She had simply refused to treat his life as finished.
“Open the safe room,” Victor said. “Send Fay out, and we can discuss this privately.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“You really think I’m sending her to you?”
“Then she dies with you.”
The line disconnected.
Fay stared at Dominic.
“What happens now?”
“We wait for Carmine.”
“What if he—”
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
Dominic’s confidence had limits.
Carmine was one of them.
Ten minutes passed.
Then fifteen.
A noise came from the ventilation shaft.
Fay looked upward.
“Did you hear that?”
Dominic did.
A faint metallic scraping.
His eyes widened.
“Get down.”
He pulled Fay toward him just as something dropped through the vent.
A canister.
Smoke erupted.
Fay coughed.
Dominic grabbed an emergency mask from the wall and shoved it over her face.
“What about you?”
“Put it on!”
She refused.
“There’s another?”
He searched.
One.
Only one.
Fay pushed it toward him.
“Take it.”
“No.”
“You need—”
“Fay!”
The room filled with smoke.
Dominic grabbed her face between both hands.
“Listen to me. There’s an emergency release behind the medical cabinet. It opens into the old service corridor.”
“What about you?”
“The corridor has stairs.”
Her blood went cold.
He could not use it.
“No.”
“You go.”
“No.”
“That’s an order.”
“I don’t work for you right now.”
Despite everything, Dominic almost smiled.
“Of course you don’t.”
Fay coughed.
She looked at his wheelchair.
Then at the narrow emergency exit.
She made a decision.
“Can you transfer onto the floor?”
“What?”
“Can you?”
“With help.”
“Then we’re both going.”
“Fay, there are stairs.”
“I know.”
“You cannot carry me.”
“No.”
She opened the medical cabinet.
“But we can drag.”
Dominic stared at her.
“That may be the worst escape plan I’ve ever heard.”
“You have a better one?”
He looked at the smoke.
“No.”
“Then congratulations. You’re being rescued by a maid.”
Working together, they lowered Dominic onto an emergency evacuation mat stored beneath the medical cabinet.
Fay found straps.
Dominic secured himself.
She opened the hidden door.
A narrow concrete corridor appeared.
Smoke followed them.
Fay pulled.
Dominic used his arms whenever possible.
At the stairs, she nearly panicked.
There were twelve steps.
“Slowly,” Dominic said.
“I know.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I know.”
“Fay.”
“What?”
“Look at me.”
She did.
“We’re getting out.”
For once, he was the calm one.
Together they descended one step at a time.
Fay’s arms burned.
Her knees shook.
Dominic used the railing to control his weight.
Halfway down, Fay slipped.
Dominic caught the railing.
They stopped.
“You okay?”
She nodded breathlessly.
“You?”
“I’ve had better dates.”
Fay stared at him.
“Is this a date?”
“If we survive, absolutely not.”
She laughed despite herself.
They reached the bottom.
A service tunnel led toward the old carriage house.
Cold night air hit Fay’s face when they emerged.
She nearly cried.
Then a shadow moved.
Fay froze.
A man stepped from behind the building.
Carmine.
Blood covered the shoulder of his shirt.
“About time,” he muttered.
“Carmine!”
Fay rushed toward him.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’ve had worse.”
Dominic looked at him.
“How many?”
“Six loyal. Maybe eight with Victor. Police scanners are quiet.”
“Of course they are.”
Carmine handed Dominic a phone.
“I called people Victor doesn’t control.”
Dominic took it.
For the first time since the accident, Fay saw the man everyone else had feared.
His voice changed.
His posture changed.
He was still in a wheelchair.
Still unable to move his legs.
None of that made him powerless.
He began issuing orders.
Precise.
Calm.
Unquestioned.
Within thirty minutes, vehicles surrounded the estate.
Victor’s men discovered they had miscalculated.
They thought Dominic’s disability had destroyed his authority.
It hadn’t.
His own despair had done that.
And Fay had helped him reclaim enough of himself to use it again.
By dawn, Victor was gone.
He had escaped through the west gate before Dominic’s allies arrived.
But the estate was secure.
Mrs. Gable was unharmed.
The staff had sheltered in the basement.
Three guards were injured, none fatally.
Carmine required stitches and complained about them the entire time.
Fay sat beside Dominic in a downstairs study.
His wheelchair had been recovered.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Then Dominic said, “You should leave.”
Fay’s heart sank.
“After all that?”
“Especially after all that.”
“Victor is still out there.”
“Exactly.”
She understood.
Dominic was not rejecting her.
He was terrified.
“Where would I go?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“My apartment?”
“No.”
“So you’re sending me away but also telling me where I can’t go?”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like you.”
He looked at her.
Fay stepped closer.
“You told me once I was dangerous to you.”
“I remember.”
“You’re dangerous to me too.”
His face tightened.
“Then why stay?”
Fay swallowed.
“Because somewhere between the oatmeal and the secret escape tunnel, I started caring about you.”
Dominic became completely still.
She continued before courage disappeared.
“Not because I feel sorry for you.”
“I know.”
“Not because you pay me.”
“I know.”
“And not because I think I can fix you.”
His voice was barely audible.
“I know.”
Fay’s eyes filled.
“I care about you because you’re you.”
Dominic reached for her.
His hand touched her cheek.
Fay leaned into it.
For several seconds, they simply looked at each other.
Then Dominic whispered, “That may be the worst decision you’ve ever made.”
Fay smiled through tears.
“I’ve owned three used Hondas. The competition is pretty strong.”
He laughed.
Then she kissed him.
Softly.
Carefully.
Dominic’s hand slid behind her neck.
The kiss deepened.
For one brief moment, Victor, the estate, the accident, and the wheelchair disappeared.
There was only Dominic.
And Fay.
When they separated, his forehead rested against hers.
“I’m still sending you somewhere safe.”
“You can try.”
He smiled.
Then Carmine appeared at the doorway.
“I hate to interrupt whatever extremely inappropriate workplace situation this is.”
Fay stepped back, blushing.
Dominic glared.
“What?”
Carmine’s humor disappeared.
“We found Victor.”
“Where?”
“He’s heading toward the docks.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Carmine continued.
“And he has someone with him.”
“Who?”
Carmine looked toward Fay.
“Her landlord.”
Fay’s blood went cold.
Because suddenly she understood.
Victor had known where she lived before she ever moved into the Corso estate.
And that meant he might have known about Fay before Dominic did.