The chain on Sadie’s door rattled, a thin line of rusted iron standing between her and whatever nightmare had tracked her down the concrete stairs of her building

The attack was repelled within the hour. By 3:00 a.m., the bunker was quiet again, and Dominic returned alone.

He looked tired. The sharp edges of his composure were worn down by the sheer weight of command. He walked over to the small kitchenette in the corner of the safe room, poured a glass of amber whiskey, and downed it in one swallow.

Then he walked over to where Sadie sat, watching him with wide, sleepless eyes.

He pulled up a chair and sat down directly across from her. Without a word, he reached out and gently took her right hand in his.

Sadie gasped softly, flinching from instinct, but his grip was warm and impossibly gentle. He carefully unwound the clean gauze from her palm. The angry red blisters were beginning to heal, but the skin was still raw and tender.

“Why did you do it, Sadie?” Dominic asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Do what?”

“Risk your life. You didn't know who was in that house. You didn't owe my mother a damn thing.”

Sadie looked down at their hands—her small, scarred, working-class hand swallowed by his large, powerful one.

“When I was nineteen, my mother got sick,” Sadie said softly, the memory rushing back like cold water. “We didn't have insurance. We didn't have money. Everyone walked past us. Everyone ignored us because helping cost too much time or too much cash. One night, a stranger stopped and paid our pharmacy bill. He didn't leave a name. He just saved us.”

She looked up, meeting his intense gaze.

“Ever since then, I figured the world is hard enough without people pretending they can't hear someone screaming in the dark. I didn't save your mother because she was rich, or because she was a Castile. I saved her because she was someone's mother. And nobody deserves to burn to death alone.”

Dominic sat in complete silence for a long time. The harsh, ruthless mafia boss—the man who commanded armies and destroyed enemies without blinking—looked at her as if she were a creature from another planet.