Chapter 6 - The Price of Loyalty
Bee arrived at Isabella's house to find the guards gone and the front door hanging open.
She entered with a borrowed pistol in her right hand and her father's notebook tucked inside her jacket. Every instinct told her to leave, but she had spent five years protecting Dominic from enemies who understood money better than loyalty.
She wasn't about to abandon his mother.
The living room was empty except for a broken lamp and a dark stain across the rug. Bee followed a trail of blood into the kitchen.
There, beneath the table, lay one of the guards.
He was alive.
"Where is Isabella?" Bee whispered.
The man struggled to focus.
"Black van. Two men. They knew the codes."
"Who gave them the codes?"
He caught her wrist.
"Your friend."
Bee went still.
"Which friend?"
The guard's eyes rolled toward the hallway.
Before he could answer, a gunshot shattered the kitchen window.
Bee dropped to the floor.
A bullet struck the refrigerator where her head had been a second earlier. She crawled behind the island, returned fire once, and heard someone curse outside.
Then she noticed a tiny black device blinking beneath the kitchen table.
A tracker.
Someone had followed her here.
Her phone vibrated.
DOMINIC: DON'T COME FOR ME.
She stared at the message.
Another arrived.
DOMINIC: LORENZO WANTS THE LEDGER. IF YOU GIVE IT TO HIM, HE'LL KILL EVERYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT'S INSIDE.
Bee typed a response.
BEE: Where are you?
His answer came seconds later.
DOMINIC: Somewhere I can finally tell you the truth.
She frowned.
A location appeared on the screen: an abandoned church near the Chicago River.
Bee left through the rear entrance, borrowed the wounded guard's keys, and drove toward the river.
The church stood beneath a veil of rain, its stained-glass windows shattered and its doors chained. Inside, candles burned along the aisle.
Dominic sat in the front pew.
He was alone.
For several seconds, Bee could only stare at him. A bruise darkened his cheek, and his left hand was wrapped in a bloodstained bandage.
"You came," he said.
"You told me not to."
"I hoped you'd disobey."
She stopped several feet away.
"Why did you hire me?"
Dominic looked at the cross above the altar.
"Because your father asked me to protect you."
Bee's anger flared.
"You protected me by calling me a traitor?"
"No. I protected you by making Lorenzo believe you'd betrayed me."
She laughed bitterly.
"Then why did you look at me as if I had destroyed you?"
Dominic's face tightened.
"Because I knew Lorenzo was watching. If he suspected I still trusted you, neither of us would have survived the garage."
He reached into his coat and placed a photograph on the pew.
It showed Bee as a child, standing beside a man with a familiar crooked smile.
May you like
On the back, her father's handwriting contained a warning that changed everything.
IF DOMINIC EVER TELLS YOU THE WHOLE TRUTH, DO NOT BELIEVE THE FIRST HALF.
