PART 4
Part 4
The gunshot didn’t echo once.
It echoed twice.
Then three times.
Like the city itself was correcting a mistake.
Meline’s body reacted before her mind did—she grabbed Dominic’s sleeve and pulled him inside the apartment as something heavy slammed into the hallway wall outside.
Splinters of wood exploded inward.
Silence broke instantly after that.
Not quiet.
Occupation.
Dominic moved without hesitation.
He shoved the door shut with one hand, locked it, and dragged Meline behind the kitchen island in a single motion.
“Stay down,” he said.
Not loud.
Not emotional.
Absolute.
Another impact hit the door.
Harder this time.
The frame cracked.
Meline’s breathing turned shallow. “They found me…”
Dominic didn’t look at her.
His eyes were already calculating angles, exits, threats.
“They didn’t find you,” he said coldly. “Someone sold you.”
That sentence landed heavier than the gunfire.
Outside, footsteps multiplied.
At least six.
Maybe more.
Professional spacing. No shouting. No panic.
Silas’s voice came through Dominic’s earpiece, urgent.
“Boss, we’ve got Black Crown signatures on the unit tags. This is not Duca. I repeat—this is not Duca.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened slightly.
“So it’s them,” he said.
Meline looked up sharply. “You know who they are?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Another hit struck the door.
The lock snapped.
Dominic pulled a compact weapon from inside his coat and checked the chamber without looking away from the entrance.
“Later,” he said.
A shadow passed the frosted glass.
Then another.
They were surrounding the apartment now.
Too coordinated.
Too fast.
Meline’s hand instinctively went to her stomach.
That small movement changed something in Dominic’s expression.
Just for a fraction of a second.
But enough.
Enough to turn calculation into something sharper.
Something dangerous.
“They’re not here for you anymore,” he said quietly.
Meline froze. “What does that mean?”
Dominic finally looked at her.
And the truth in his eyes was worse than anything she had imagined.
“They’re here for what you’re carrying.”
A beat.
Then—
the front door exploded inward.
Smoke, splinters, and black silhouettes flooded the entryway.
Meline screamed.
Dominic fired instantly.
One shot.
Two.
A body dropped in the doorway.
The others didn’t hesitate.
They returned fire.
The apartment shattered into chaos—glass, plaster, gunfire ripping through a space that had only ever known silence and hiding.
Dominic grabbed Meline and pulled her toward the back exit.
“Move,” he snapped.
“I can’t—” she gasped.
“Yes, you can.”
He pushed her forward as another round ripped through the kitchen cabinets behind them.
Silas again, urgent:
“Boss, extraction is five minutes out—but you won’t have five minutes.”
Dominic turned sharply into the hallway.
Another attacker emerged from the smoke.
Close.
Too close.
Meline didn’t even see it happen.
One second there was a man raising a weapon—
The next he was on the floor.
Dominic had taken him down barehanded, fast and brutal, like instinct older than thought.
He didn’t pause.
He kept moving.
“Stairs,” he ordered.
They burst into the emergency stairwell.
Cold air hit them immediately.
Gunfire followed seconds later, tearing into the metal door behind them.
Meline stumbled on the steps.
Dominic caught her without breaking stride.
“You’re bleeding,” she whispered, noticing the streak on his sleeve.
“It’s not mine,” he said.
Down the stairwell below—
footsteps were already rising to meet them.
A second team.
Cut off.
Trapped.
Meline looked at him, breath shaking. “Dominic… we can’t fight both sides.”
He stopped for the first time.
Just long enough to look at her properly.
And what she saw in his face wasn’t fear.
It was decision.
Final.
“No,” he said quietly.
“We don’t fight them.”
A pause.
Then he stepped closer, lowering his voice so only she could hear:
“We end this.”
Another explosion rocked the building above them.
The lights flickered.
And far below, in the stairwell darkness—
someone started clapping slowly.
One echoing sound.
Deliberate.
Controlled.
A voice followed.
Familiar.
Male.
Calm.
“Dominic Valente…”
The voice paused.
“…you should have told her the truth sooner.”
Meline’s blood turned cold.
Because she recognized that voice too.
And judging by Dominic’s stillness—
so did he.
The man from the Black Crown Syndicate wasn’t chasing them anymore.
He was waiting below.
May you like
And this time…
he wasn’t alone.
