Chapter 8 - The Reckoning at the Docks
The wind on the hospital roof was fierce, whipping Nora’s hair across her face as the storm clouds gathered once again over Lake Michigan.
Viktor held her pinned against the safety railing, his gun pressed firmly against her temple.
The heavy steel door to the roof access stairwell blew open.
Damian Voss walked out onto the helipad.
He wore no coat, only a black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, soaked by the rain in seconds. In his hands, he carried a heavy leather duffel bag. He didn't look at Viktor; his eyes were locked entirely on Nora, checking her for injuries, his jaw tight as steel.
"Throw the bag over!" Viktor screamed over the roaring wind. "Step back to the door, Voss! Step back or I blow her head off!"
Damian stopped ten feet away. He dropped the duffel bag to the wet concrete with a heavy thud.
"Take the money, Viktor," Damian said, his voice cutting through the gale-force wind like a trumpet. "Let her go. Your quarrel is with me."
"My quarrel is with everything you own!" Viktor laughed insanely. "You think you win because you have money? Because you have power? I’m going to kill her in front of you, Voss! I'm going to make you watch her fall just like your wife!"
Viktor began to pull the trigger.
"Now, Damian!" Nora screamed.
Nora didn't wait to be rescued. She slammed her elbow backward with every ounce of strength she possessed, striking Viktor directly in his broken ribs—the same ribs that had been injured during his escape from the manor.
Viktor gasped in agony, his shot going wild, the bullet tearing harmlessly into the sky.
In that fraction of a second, Damian covered the ten feet between them like a striking panther.
He grabbed Viktor’s gun hand, twisting it upward until the bone snapped with a loud crack. The pistol flew over the edge of the building, plummeting twenty stories into the abyss below.
Damian grabbed Viktor by the front of his jacket, lifting him off his feet, and slammed him against the helipad railing, dangling the mercenary halfway over the edge of the roof.
"Please!" Viktor shrieked, looking down at the microscopic cars on the street twenty floors below. "Please, Voss! Don't drop me! I was just following orders!"
Damian looked down at the sniveling coward who had threatened his family, his eyes completely devoid of mercy.
"You threatened my heart," Damian whispered.
"Damian, stop!" Nora’s voice cut through his rage.
Damian froze. He looked back over his shoulder.
Nora walked toward him through the rain, stepping onto the slick helipad. She reached out, placing her warm, gentle hand over his drenched knuckles.
"Don't do it," Nora whispered gently, her dark eyes filled with warmth, love, and pleading. "Don't stain your soul for this man. Lily needs a father, Damian. Not a murderer. Come back to us."
Come back to us.
The words washed over Damian like a cleansing wave, melting away the dark, violent instincts that had ruled his life for fifteen years.
Slowly, deliberately, Damian pulled Viktor back over the railing and threw him hard onto the concrete floor of the helipad, where six federal SWAT officers—who had breached the rooftop from the secondary stairwell—instantly pinned the mercenary to the ground, slapping heavy steel handcuffs onto his wrists.
Damian turned away from the noise, turning entirely to Nora.
May you like
He pulled her into his chest, wrapping his powerful arms around her as the rain poured down around them, lifting her off her feet and kissing her with a desperate, fiery passion that silenced the wind, the storm, and the city below.
Nora kissed him back, holding onto his neck, knowing with absolute certainty that she had finally found the place where she belonged.
