Chapter 7 - The Reckoning
Vance backed away slowly, his blood pooling in the muddy puddles beneath his feet as his surviving henchmen scattered under the lethal fire of Dorian's arriving reinforcements. Noah and six tactical guards swept the area, neutralizing the remaining threat within seconds.
"Dorian... wait!" Vance begged, stumbling back until his spine hit the rusted wall of a shipping container. "We can make a deal! The Great Lakes territory... the shipping routes... it's all yours! Just let me walk!"
Dorian didn't stop moving forward. Each step was slow, deliberate, and terrifyingly calm. He tossed the empty assault rifle aside, drawing his personal sidearm from his shoulder holster.
"You threatened my wife," Dorian said softly, stopping three feet in front of the cowering mob boss. "You sent a red dot to her chest. You put poison in her food to murder my unborn child."
"It was just business, Cross! Just business!" Vance shrieked, tears of terror mixing with the rain on his face.
"No, Viktor," Dorian corrected, raising his pistol and pressing the cold steel barrel directly against Vance's forehead. "It was never just business. Alina is my life."
BANG.
The gunshot echoed across the silent, rain-swept docks.
Vance's body crumpled into the mud, lifeless and still.
Dorian lowered his weapon, dropping it into the wet gravel. He didn't look at the dead man at his feet. He turned instantly toward me, running across the open pavement and sliding onto his knees in the mud right in front of me.
"Alina! Alina, look at me!" he cried out, his hands trembling violently as he framed my face, searching my eyes for any sign of injury. "Are you hurt?! Did he touch you?!"
"I'm okay... I'm okay, Dorian," I sobbed, throwing my arms around his neck and burying my face in his soot-stained shoulder. "Caleb... Caleb was hit!"
May you like
"Noah's already treating him, baby. Caleb's going to live," Dorian whispered frantically, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me into his lap, holding me against his chest as if trying to merge our bodies into one. "It's over, Alina. It's completely over. Vance is gone. His empire is destroyed. No one is ever going to hurt you or our child again."
I squeezed my eyes shut, holding onto him for dear life as the rain washed away the blood, the fear, and the six long months of agonizing isolation that had almost torn us apart.
