Chapter 8 - THE MAN ON THE PIER
“She’s selling her,” Dominic breathed, his voice laced with pure horror.
“What?” I gasped, clutching his arm.
“Elena knows she can’t come back to Chicago,” Dominic said, his eyes scanning the pier, analyzing every angle. “She’s handing Lily over to Volkov as a bargaining chip. Volkov will use Lily to extort the shipping ports from me. Elena gets her money and safe passage, and Volkov gets the city.”
“No,” I sobbed. “Please, Dominic. Do something!”
Dominic pulled his handguns. “Stay here. Do not move.”
He stepped out from behind the shipping container.
He didn’t hide. He didn’t sneak. He walked directly down the center of the pier, the rain slicking his dark hair, a gun in each hand.
“Elena!” Dominic’s voice boomed over the storm and the idling yacht engines.
Elena turned. A slow, venomous smile spread across her face.
“Dominic. You’re late.”
Volkov’s men instantly aimed their weapons at Dominic.
“Let the girl go, Viktor,” Dominic called out, completely ignoring his sister. “This isn’t your fight.”
Volkov, a massive man with a thick beard, smirked. “Business is business, Valenti. Your sister offered me the keys to your kingdom. All I have to do is hold onto this little bird.”
Lily was crying now, trying to pull her hand away from Volkov, but his grip was like a vice.
“Mommy!” Lily shrieked.
I couldn’t stay hidden. I stepped out from behind the container.
Dominic didn’t look back at me, but I saw his shoulders tense.
“Viktor,” Dominic said, his voice dropping into a deadly, calm cadence. “If you put that child on your boat, I will wage a war on your family that will make the last decade look like a tea party. I will burn your clubs. I will sink your ships. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”
Volkov chuckled. “You are one man on a pier, Dominic. You have no leverage.”
“Don’t I?”
Dominic reached into his jacket and pulled out the old leather book.
The ledger.
Elena’s smile instantly vanished.
“You think I came here to negotiate with her?” Dominic asked Volkov. “My sister is a thief. She stole fifty million from the Commission ten years ago. It’s all in this book. Names. Accounts. Dates.”
Volkov looked at Elena. His expression hardened. The Russian syndicate despised thieves more than they despised rivals.
“He’s lying!” Elena hissed, stepping away from Volkov. “Shoot him!”
“If I die, this book goes to the Commission,” Dominic said. “They will slaughter her, and anyone standing next to her.”
Dominic tossed the heavy ledger onto the wet wooden planks of the pier. It slid and stopped perfectly at Volkov’s feet.
“Take the book, Viktor,” Dominic said. “Take the proof. Take the fifty million she stole. But leave the girl.”
Volkov looked down at the ledger. He was a businessman above all else. A guaranteed fifty million and the destruction of a rival boss without firing a shot? It was a flawless deal.
Volkov let go of Lily’s hand.
“Deal,” Volkov grunted. He picked up the ledger and turned toward his yacht.
“No!” Elena screamed, drawing a silver pistol from her coat.
She aimed directly at Lily.
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“If I don’t win, nobody wins!”
A gunshot cracked through the air.
