Chapter 8 - The Girl Who Became the TrapIn darkness, Dominic moved like violence given shape.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me down just as glass exploded across the room. Bullets tore through the wall where my head had been seconds earlier.

I hit the floor hard.

Dominic covered me with his body.

“Stay down.”

For once, I obeyed.

Men shouted in the hallway. Heavy footsteps pounded above us. Someone screamed. The safe house had become a box of noise and shadows.

Dominic pressed a gun into my hand.

I stared at it.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know how to use this.”

“Point it at anyone who is not me.”

“That’s your safety lesson?”

“It’s a stressful evening.”

A laugh nearly broke out of me, wild and hysterical.

Then the door splintered.

Dominic fired twice. The men entering fell back, cursing. He pulled me through a side panel hidden behind shelves of wine bottles. We descended a narrow stairwell that smelled like damp brick.

At the bottom waited an old delivery tunnel.

“Your safe house has an escape tunnel?” I whispered.

“My family has trust issues.”

We ran.

Behind us, footsteps echoed.

Dominic pushed open a metal door and we emerged into the alley behind the restaurant. Rain slapped my face. A car screeched to the curb.

The driver’s window lowered.

Inside sat Sofia Russo.

Red gloves on the steering wheel.

Dominic aimed his gun at her.

Sofia looked at him with heartbreaking calm.

“Hello, little brother.”

For a moment, the rain was the only sound.

Dominic’s gun did not lower.

“Where is Amelia’s mother?”

“Alive.”

“Not good enough.”

“It is all you get in an alley.”

I stood behind Dominic, heart hammering.

Sofia’s eyes shifted to me.

“You look like Julian.”

My throat tightened. “Where is my father?”

Her face changed.

A flicker of pain.

“Still paying for loving the wrong truths.”

Dominic stepped closer. “You’re with Luca.”

Sofia laughed once.

“No, Nico. Luca is with himself. As always.”

“Then why were you standing beside him?”

“Because he thinks I still belong to the cage he built.”

She leaned across the passenger seat and pushed the door open.

“Get in, both of you, or stay here and let his men finish what they started.”

Dominic did not move.

I made the decision for him.

I got in.

He cursed under his breath and followed.

Sofia drove like someone who had spent years escaping cities. She cut through alleys, parking garages, delivery lanes, and streets too narrow for the SUVs chasing us. Twice, headlights appeared behind us. Twice, she lost them.

No one spoke until we were across the bridge.

Then Dominic said, “Start talking.”

Sofia’s hands tightened on the wheel.

“Luca sold me to Volkov when I was nineteen. Julian found me two years later.”

Dominic went rigid.

“You were alive all that time?”

“Yes.”

“I searched.”

“You searched where Luca pointed.”

That hit him hard.

Sofia continued, voice controlled. “Julian helped me gather evidence. We planned to expose Luca, Volkov, and the public officials protecting them. Then Carlo found out.”

“My father?”

Sofia’s smile was bitter. “Our father had more partners than sons.”

Dominic looked like he might be sick.

“Carlo ordered Julian killed,” Sofia said. “Your men reached him first. Julian made a deal. His death would be staged. His family would be protected. He would finish Meridian from the shadows.”

“My men?” Dominic said.

Sofia glanced at him. “One man. Gabriel.”

Dominic’s oldest guard.

The one who had pulled Marco off the wall.

The one now supposedly securing Constantine.

Dominic pulled out his phone.

No signal.

Sofia saw his face.

“Yes,” she said. “You understand.”

I felt cold again.

“Gabriel works for Luca?”

Sofia shook her head.

“No. Gabriel works for your father.”

Dominic’s voice dropped.

“My father is dead.”

Sofia looked at him in the rearview mirror.

“So was I.”

The car turned into an underground parking structure.

Sofia stopped beside a service elevator.

“We have one chance,” she said. “Luca is gathering everyone tonight at the old Waldorf ballroom. Politicians. judges. bankers. Volkov’s buyers. He plans to auction the Meridian file and kill anyone who knows how to read it.”

I swallowed.

“That means me.”

Sofia met my eyes.

“No, Amelia.”

Her voice softened.

“That means he needs you alive until midnight.”

Dominic asked, “And after midnight?”

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Sofia looked away.

“After midnight, he needs your blood.”