Chapter 12 - White LiliesThe bouquet arrived first.
That was how Dominic knew Luca wanted him angry.
White lilies had been sent to Dominic’s mother’s funeral. To his father’s funeral. To the closed casket of every man in the old organization who died after choosing the wrong side.
Luca Bell knew exactly what they meant.
The lobby guard called upstairs with a voice that barely held steady.
“Mr. Raines, there is a man here asking for Mrs. Raines.”
Dominic did not ask who.
He already knew.
Clara was still on the video call with the attorney general when Jonah rushed into the room and whispered in Dominic’s ear.
The change in Dominic’s face made Clara stand.
“What happened?”
Dominic ended the call without apology.
“Luca is downstairs.”
The name moved through the room like smoke.
Elaine Porter went pale.
Mrs. Vega clutched her photograph tighter.
Miriam Ashford straightened in her chair.
“Then call the police.”
“They are already on their way,” Jonah said.
Dominic looked at Clara.
“Stay here.”
This time, she heard something beneath the command.
Not control.
Fear.
She nodded.
Dominic seemed surprised.
Clara touched his hand.
“Come back as the man you promised me.”
His throat moved.
“I will.”
He left with Jonah.
The elevator ride down took twenty-one seconds.
Dominic counted every one.
When the doors opened, Luca Bell stood in the center of the marble lobby wearing a camel coat and a smile full of old sins. The scar across his jaw had faded but never disappeared. His right hand, the one Dominic had broken years ago, rested stiffly around the bouquet stems.
“Dom,” Luca said. “You got old.”
Dominic stepped out.
“You got careless.”
Luca smiled wider.
“Careless men don’t live this long.”
“No. Protected ones do.”
That struck.
Only slightly.
But Dominic saw it.
Luca glanced toward the security cameras.
“You really do live under glass now.”
“I prefer witnesses.”
“You prefer permission.”
Dominic stopped six feet away.
“What do you want?”
Luca lifted the lilies.
“To congratulate the bride.”
Dominic’s eyes went cold.
“Say her name and you leave here in cuffs.”
Luca laughed.
“Cuffs. Listen to you. Your father would spit.”
“My father is dead.”
“And your wife is trying to make you soft enough to join him.”
The lobby guard shifted nervously.
Dominic did not.
That was the part Luca had not expected.
He had come for the old reaction. The flash of rage. The public mistake. The proof that Dominic Raines had never changed.
Instead, Dominic stood with his hands empty and his voice level.
“You threatened Mrs. Vega.”
Luca shrugged.
“Nolan made requests. I made arrangements.”
“You killed Luis Vega.”
Luca’s smile thinned.
“He had a bad heart.”
“You had men at his door for three months.”
“Stress kills.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“So do confessions.”
Luca’s eyes flickered.
Dominic raised his phone.
On the screen was the lobby security feed, streaming live to Marissa Cole’s office.
Luca’s smile vanished.
Dominic said, “You always talked too much when you thought you were winning.”
Police sirens sounded outside.
Luca looked toward the entrance.
Then he lowered the bouquet onto the front desk.
“You think Nolan is the top?”
Dominic did not answer.
Luca leaned closer.
“Whitmore is a ladder. Harrington is a rung. You want the roof, Dom? Ask your pretty wife who sat with her mother in apartment 3B all those years ago.”
Dominic froze.
Luca smiled again.
“There he is.”
Police entered the lobby.
Luca lifted his hands slowly.
As they cuffed him, he looked toward the elevator cameras and spoke clearly.
“Tell Clara her mother knew more than she said.”
Upstairs, Clara heard every word through Jonah’s open line.
The room tilted.
May you like
Her mother had been dead for seven years.
And suddenly, even the grave had secrets.
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