fiction
19 Seven bullets were still inside my body when Dominic Rossi married me, and I didn’t even know it was happening. While surgeons questioned whether my heart could survive another operation, New York’s most feared crime boss slipped a gold ring onto my swollen finger and told my unconscious body, “Anybody who comes for you comes through me.” / Chapter 9 / 10

Chapter 9 - The Reckoning

Time seemed to slow down to a grinding crawl.

I saw the black barrel of Costa’s gun swing toward me. I felt the familiar, cold phantom pain of the seven bullets still buried in my chest.

Not again, I thought. Not this time.

I didn’t flinch. I didn't duck. I stepped out from behind Dominic’s shoulder, right into the dim light of the cargo hold, and looked Victor Costa straight in the eye.

Bang.

The gunshot deafened the confined space.

But it wasn’t Costa’s gun that fired.

Dominic had moved with blinding, unnatural speed—a fraction of a second faster than Costa’s finger could squeeze the trigger. The heavy slug from Dominic’s Beretta caught Costa squarely in the wrist, shattering bone and sending the silver-plated .45 clattering loudly across the steel deck.

Costa screamed, clutching his mangled hand as he fell backward against a stack of wooden crates, sliding down into the dark water pooling on the floor.

Enzo and Mateo stepped forward, quickly securing Costa in heavy tactical zip-ties and hauling him to his feet.

Dominic didn't look at Costa. He turned around instantly, dropping his weapon back into its holster, and grabbed my face between his large, warm hands. His dark eyes were wide, panicked, and blazing with raw, unfiltered terror.

“Are you hit?” Dominic demanded, his voice shaking for the first time since I met him. “Elena, talk to me. Are you bleeding?”

I looked up at him, the rain dripping from my hair, the cold wind howling outside the cargo hold, yet I felt completely warm inside the heavy coat he had given me.

I raised my left hand, letting the heavy gold ring catch the dim overhead light.

“I’m fine, Dominic,” I whispered, a genuine smile breaking across my face for the first time in months. “The bullets are still inside me… but I think my heart finally belongs to you.”

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Dominic let out a long, shuddering breath, pulling me against his broad chest so hard I could feel the steady, powerful thud of his heart against mine.

“It always did,” he murmured against my hair.

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