The slap landed so hard that the room seemed to forget how to breathe.
Six guns were already pointed at her, her brother was bleeding on his knees behind the most feared mafia boss in Chicago—and Harper had just struck him across the face.
For one endless second, nobody moved.
The sound of her palm against Dominic’s cheek still seemed to hang in the air. His men stared at her as if she had crossed a line no one had ever dared approach, their fingers tightening around their weapons.
“Give the word,” his lieutenant said quietly.
Harper lowered her hand.
Only then did she look past Dominic.
Leo was still on his knees. Bruises darkened his face, and blood traced one side of his mouth. Every instinct in her screamed to go to him, but reaching her brother meant stepping toward six raised guns.
Dominic remained completely still.
Slowly, he touched the red mark spreading across his cheek.
Harper expected anger. A threat. Maybe even a gunshot.
Instead, he studied her with an unreadable expression and said, “Everyone out.”
The order unsettled her more than shouting would have.
The men hesitated only briefly before lowering their weapons. Two of them pulled Leo to his feet.
Harper’s eyes followed her brother.
“Wait—”
But Dominic had meant everyone.
Leo was taken through the doors with the others. Harper caught one last glimpse of his battered face before the heavy doors shut.
Then came the sound of a lock.
Click.
She was alone with Dominic.
Harper forced herself not to show fear as he walked behind the desk. The silence felt heavier now, stripped of witnesses and weapons yet somehow more dangerous.
Dominic picked up a folder.
He pushed it across the desk toward her.
“Your brother’s debt is erased,” he said. “He’s free.”
Harper stared at him.
Seconds earlier, Leo had been on his knees while armed men surrounded them. Now the man responsible for all of it was calmly telling her the nightmare was over.
It made no sense.
Her gaze dropped to the folder.
Then she reached for it.
Dominic’s hand came down first.
Her fingers stopped inches from the paper.
He didn’t smile.
“Leo didn’t steal from me.”
Harper slowly raised her eyes.
Something cold moved through her chest.
Dominic’s voice stayed almost disturbingly calm.
“I paid him to bring you here.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Harper looked toward the locked doors.
Leo had been bleeding.
He had been humiliated in front of her. Forced onto his knees. Everything she had seen had told her that her brother was trapped in a debt he could never repay.
But if Dominic was telling the truth…
Then Leo had brought her here deliberately.
A muffled cry suddenly came from beyond the door.
Harper spun toward it.
“Don’t let him show you—”
Leo.
His voice disappeared before he could finish.
Harper stood frozen, staring at the door as silence returned.
Don’t let him show her what?
Slowly, she turned back.
Dominic’s hand still covered the folder.
Whatever Leo had been desperate to keep hidden was underneath it.
Dominic opened the cover.
Harper leaned closer despite every instinct telling her not to.
At first, she saw only paperwork.
Then her eyes landed on something familiar.
Her body went completely still.
A signature.
