PART 1
The camera feed went black.
Clare stared at the monitor, her hand still wrapped around the IV clamp.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Then Dominic’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Something colder.
Recognition.
He stepped closer to the screen and switched to another camera. The garage appeared in grainy black and white. Empty.
He switched again.
The alley.
Static.
Again.
The rear entrance.
Static.
Clare’s stomach tightened.
“How many people know this place exists?”
Dominic didn’t answer immediately.
His hand remained wrapped around the Glock.
“Very few.”
“Your rat?”
His eyes shifted toward her.
“Maybe.”
A heavy metallic clang echoed somewhere beyond the bunker doors.
Clare flinched.
Tommy remained unconscious on the operating table, the makeshift plastic shunt pulsing steadily beneath the surgical lights.
Dominic glanced at his brother.
Then at Clare.
“Whatever happens,” he said quietly, “you stay beside him.”
Clare frowned.
“What are you going to do?”
“Make sure nobody gets through that door.”
Another clang.
Closer.
Dominic moved toward the entrance.
Then Clare noticed something on the monitor.
“Wait.”
He stopped.
She pointed.
On the garage camera, something had appeared in the far corner.
A shadow.
Then another.
Then another.
Three figures moved silently through the darkness.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“That’s not my security team.”
Clare’s pulse jumped.
“How many?”
He counted.
“Six.”
A pause.
Then—
“Eight.”
The bunker lights suddenly flickered.
Tommy’s monitor chirped.
Clare turned instantly.
His blood pressure had dropped.
68 over 38.
“No.”
She rushed to the table.
The plastic shunt was still intact, but the pulse running through it had weakened.
“Dominic!”
He was already moving.
“What?”
“His pressure is crashing.”
Dominic looked between her and the security monitors.
For the first time that night, Clare saw genuine conflict in his eyes.
His brother was dying.
And someone was coming for them.
“Can you keep him alive?”
“I need blood.”
“We have O-negative.”
“Then bring it.”
Dominic hesitated.
Clare snapped, “Now!”
Something in her voice made the most feared man in the room obey without question.
He disappeared through the side door.
Clare grabbed the blood cooler.
Her hands moved automatically.
Check the line.
Check the shunt.
Check the monitor.
Check the pupils.
“Come on, Tommy.”
His heart rate climbed.
“Don’t you dare.”
Outside, a gunshot thundered through the concrete.
Clare froze.
Another.
Then three more.
The bunker shook with the sound.
Tommy’s monitor screamed.
Clare forced herself to breathe.
She had spent nine years learning how to function while people screamed around her.
She could do this.
She had to.
She opened the blood cooler.
And then she heard the bunker door begin to open.
Slowly.
Click.
Clare turned.
Dominic stood in the doorway.
Blood covered one side of his black shirt.
His Glock was still in his hand.
But he wasn’t alone.
Behind him stood two enormous men carrying rifles.
“Clare,” Dominic said.
She looked at him.
His expression was deadly serious.
“We have a problem.”
She swallowed.
“What kind?”
Dominic glanced toward Tommy.
Then toward the sealed door behind him.
“The men outside aren’t here to kill my brother.”
Clare’s blood ran cold.
“Then what do they want?”
Dominic looked directly into her eyes.
“They’re here for you.”
The room went silent.
Clare stared at him.
“Me?”
He nodded.
“One of my men just told me something before he died.”
“What?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“They know who you are.”
Clare felt the blood drain from her face.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if your firing wasn’t an accident.”
She stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Dominic lowered his gun.
“Your hospital didn’t fire you because you broke protocol.”
Clare’s heart hammered.
“They fired you because somebody wanted you out of that hospital.”
“Why?”
He looked toward Tommy.
“Because you were the only nurse on that trauma floor who knew how to keep a gunshot victim alive when the surgeons weren’t available.”
Clare shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic continued.
“And tonight, someone deliberately sent my brother’s ambulance into an ambush.”
Her eyes widened.
“You think I’m connected to it?”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“I think you’re the reason the ambush failed.”
Another explosion rocked the bunker.
The lights went out.
Total darkness swallowed the room.
Tommy’s monitor continued beeping.
Clare heard Dominic’s voice beside her.
“Stay down.”
Then—
Gunfire erupted outside.
And somewhere in the darkness, a man shouted:
“Find the nurse!”
Clare’s breath caught.
Dominic grabbed her wrist.
“Whatever happens next,” he whispered, “don’t let them take you.”
Because for the first time that night, Clare realized something terrifying.
She hadn’t accidentally walked into the mafia’s war.
Someone had brought the war to her.
