Chapter Eight: The Bullet Meant For The Smallest Heart
Elena moved faster than fear.
She threw Nico backward into the room and slammed the door with her body.
The shot hit wood.
Splinters burst against her shoulder.
Dominic dragged her down.
Another bullet tore through the wall where her head had been.
Nico screamed.
Dominic crawled toward him.
Crawled.
The most feared man in the city crossed polished wood on his hands and knees, bleeding through fresh stitches, to cover a child with his own body.
Elena saw it.
The past repeated.
Only this time, she was not helpless.
“Stay low.”
Dominic looked at her.
His eyes said no.
She ignored him.
The private clinic had emergency shields.
She had noticed them because she noticed exits, locks, windows, weaknesses.
Survival had made her meticulous.
She hit the wall switch.
Steel panels dropped over the windows.
Darkness swallowed the room.
A bullet struck metal.
Then another.
Nico sobbed under Dominic.
Elena reached them.
“Let me see him.”
Dominic did not move.
“Dominic.”
He shifted enough for her hands.
Nico was unhurt.
Terrified.
But unhurt.
Elena pressed her stethoscope to his chest.
His repaired heart raced.
Still steady.
“Breathe with me, Nico.”
“I’m scared.”
“Good.”
His eyes widened.
“Good?”
“Fear tells your body to hide.”
“I don’t like it.”
“No one does.”
Dominic’s blood dripped onto the rug.
Elena’s gaze dropped.
“You tore something.”
“I’ll live.”
“Not if I decide otherwise.”
His laugh was breathless.
Outside, gunfire answered gunfire.
Men shouted in Italian.
Then English.
Then nothing.
The house held its breath.
Elena pulled the emergency kit from beneath the bed.
“Lift your shirt.”
Nico covered his eyes.
Dominic obeyed.
His bandage was soaked.
Elena cut it away.
Fresh bleeding.
Not catastrophic.
Bad enough.
“You’re an idiot.”
“You were in the line of fire.”
“So was he.”
Dominic looked down at Nico.
His face changed.
“Never again.”
Elena packed the wound.
He grunted.
Nico peeked through his fingers.
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t yell.”
“Your doctor hates noise.”
Nico looked at Elena.
“Do you?”
“In emergencies.”
He lowered his hands.
“I can be quiet.”
Elena touched his hair.
“You don’t have to be brave every second.”
Dominic looked at her when she said it.
She did not look back.
A knock came at the door.
Three short.
Two long.
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“Name.”
“Rafe.”
A guard.
Elena had met him in the ambulance bay.
Dominic nodded.
Elena opened the door with the chain engaged.
Rafe stood outside, face bleeding.
“Attackers down. One alive.”
Dominic’s eyes went black.
“Who?”
Rafe hesitated.
Elena saw it.
“Who?”
“Luca Santoro’s men.”
Dominic cursed softly.
Elena knew the name.
Everyone in trauma knew the Santoros.
Their victims came in without wallets and left with police outside the door.
Rafe continued.
“They had hospital access codes.”
Elena’s stomach dropped.
“From whom?”
Rafe looked at Dominic.
Then at her.
“Someone inside St. Agnes.”
Elena’s hospital.
Her staff.
Her world.
Dominic’s face turned lethal.
Elena stood.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Santoro touched Nico.”
“And someone used my hospital to help him.”
Dominic went quiet.
Elena stepped closer.
“This part is mine.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked like a whip.
“You do not storm my hospital. You do not threaten my staff. You do not turn my operating wing into revenge theater.”
“He almost killed you.”
“He failed.”
“He almost killed Nico.”
“He failed because I moved.”
Dominic stared at her.
His breathing was shallow.
His wound bled through her hand.
She pressed harder.
He did not flinch.
“I am not the girl on the curb.”
The room fell silent.
Even Nico stopped crying.
Elena held Dominic’s gaze.
“I do not need you to avenge me.”
His voice came rough.
“What do you need?”
That question undid her more than possession ever had.
She looked at Nico.
At the small boy holding a torn wolf against a mended heart.
Then back at Dominic.
“I need you to trust me.”
Dominic swallowed.
Pain trembled in his jaw.
Then he nodded once.
The smallest surrender.
The first real one.
Outside, Rafe’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
He looked at Dominic.
Then Elena.
“Dr. Vale’s apartment is burning.”
Elena could not breathe.
