Chapter 5 - Mrs. Vega’s WindowClara forgot the torn dress.
She forgot the ballroom.
She forgot the cameras, the whispers, the humiliation.
All she could see was Mrs. Vega sitting in her small apartment, unaware that someone was filming her through a window.
Dominic’s voice dropped into something lethal.
“Who sent you?”
The man in the catering uniform smiled.
“You already know.”
One guard moved forward.
The man lifted the phone higher.
“Touch me, and the old woman gets a visitor.”
Dominic went completely still.
That stillness frightened Clara more than shouting ever could.
Because she knew what it cost him.
The old Dominic would have ended the threat in seconds. The new Dominic understood that one wrong move could put an innocent woman in danger.
Clara stepped out from behind him.
“Tell Nolan I’ll meet him.”
Dominic turned. “No.”
The man smirked. “Smart wife.”
Dominic grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall before anyone could blink.
The phone almost fell, but Clara caught it.
“Dominic!”
He held the man there, not choking him, not striking him, only pinning him with enough force to make the wall shake.
“Who is outside her building?”
The man laughed through clenched teeth.
“You really are domesticated.”
Dominic’s face went cold.
Clara knew the word had been chosen carefully.
Domesticated.
Leashed.
Changed.
Every insult Nolan had thrown at Dominic was designed to pull the old monster back into daylight.
Clara stepped closer.
“Look at me.”
Dominic did not.
“Dominic.”
His eyes shifted to hers.
The fight inside him was visible.
Clara held up the phone.
“We save Mrs. Vega first. Then we bury Nolan legally.”
For three seconds, no one breathed.
Then Dominic released the man.
The guard handcuffed him with shaking hands.
Dominic took out his phone.
“Jonah. Vega building. Now. Quietly. Police too. I want uniforms at every exit and no hero behavior.”
He listened.
“No, I don’t care who you have to wake up.”
He ended the call.
Clara still held the stranger’s phone. On the live video, Mrs. Vega stood and walked toward her window, perhaps hearing something outside.
Clara’s heart hammered.
“Can we call her?”
“Not yet,” Dominic said. “If she reacts, they may know.”
The man laughed again.
“You think cops scare Luca?”
Dominic looked at him.
“No. I do.”
The man stopped laughing.
That was the truth no one in Chicago forgot. Dominic Raines might be choosing legality, but that did not mean fear had stopped answering to his name.
Five minutes later, Jonah called back.
“We have eyes on the building,” Dominic put him on speaker. “Two men in a dark SUV across the street. One near the alley.”
Clara closed her eyes.
Mrs. Vega.
Alone.
Widowed.
A pawn in rich men’s development war.
“Police are two minutes out,” Jonah said. “Your call.”
Dominic looked at Clara.
She understood what he was asking.
Not for permission to hurt someone.
For permission to use the power she had spent years trying to help him reshape.
“Do it clean,” she said.
Dominic nodded.
“Block the SUV. Let the uniforms take them. No injuries unless they start it.”
Jonah said, “Understood.”
The phone line filled with muffled movement.
Then shouting.
A horn.
A door slam.
Clara watched the live video. Mrs. Vega jumped at the noise outside. She moved to the window.
Then the feed cut black.
Clara’s knees nearly gave out.
Dominic caught her.
Jonah came back on the line.
“She’s safe. Police have three in custody.”
Clara covered her mouth.
The relief almost broke her.
Dominic held her carefully, mindful of her torn dress and scraped shoulder.
Behind them, the man in catering uniform stared at Dominic like he had miscalculated a ghost.
Dominic looked at him.
“Tell Nolan his message was delivered.”
The man swallowed.
May you like
Dominic leaned closer.
“Now I’m delivering mine.”
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