Trust Bleeds Loudest
1172 Words
The darkness swallowed sound first.
Gunfire became muffled thunder, footsteps dissolved into echoes, and the air filled with the sharp, metallic smell of spent bullets. Dominic’s hand was iron on Lena’s wrist, pulling her through the black like he knew every crack and shadow by heart.
“This way,” he said close to her ear.
“How do you know?” she shouted back.
“I built contingency maps for this city before you finished school,” he replied. “Keep moving.”
Emergency lights flickered on in patches, casting red halos that turned the underground tunnels into veins pulsing with danger. Security was scattered now some returning fire, others dragging the wounded behind cover.
Lena’s heart pounded violently, her breath ragged. Fear was no longer theoretical. It had weight. Smell. Heat.
They ducked into a maintenance corridor just as bullets chewed into the wall where they’d been standing seconds before.
Dominic slammed a panel shut and keyed in a code with his free hand. A blast door dropped behind them with a bone-rattling clang.
Silence crashed down.
Lena sagged against the wall, gasping. “They knew… they knew we’d come.”
“Yes,” Dominic said. “That’s why we came anyway.”
She laughed weakly, hysteria edging her voice. “That makes no sense.”
“It does if the goal isn’t winning,” he replied. “It’s surviving long enough to strike back.”
He finally let go of her wrist. The absence of his grip felt wrong too sudden.
The emergency lights hummed overhead, bathing his face in red. Blood had soaked through his bandage now, dark and wet.
“You’re hurt,” she said.
“I’ve been worse,” he repeated.
She shook her head sharply. “Stop saying that like it makes it acceptable.”
For a moment, something like surprise crossed his face.
Then footsteps echoed beyond the blast door muffled voices, searching.
Dominic pulled her toward a recessed alcove. “Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
She sat.
He shrugged out of his jacket again, jaw tight as he peeled the soaked bandage away. The wound beneath was angry and deep.
Lena swallowed hard. “You’re going to pass out.”
“No,” Dominic said flatly. “I don’t.”
She tore a strip from the hem of her shirt without thinking. “Hold still.”
He stilled not because he was told to, but because he chose to.
As she pressed the makeshift bandage against his shoulder, her hands shook. She hated that. Hated that fear made her clumsy.
“You should have told me,” she said quietly. “About my father. About how deep this went.”
“And you would’ve walked away,” Dominic replied.
She looked up sharply. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” he said. “Because walking away would’ve been the smart thing.”
Her throat tightened. “You didn’t give me the chance to decide.”
“No,” he agreed. “I gave you a chance to survive.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No,” he said again, softer this time. “It isn’t.”
A shout echoed outside the corridor. Closer.
Dominic reached into a concealed compartment in the wall and pulled out a second gun, handing it to her.
Her eyes widened. “I’ve never”
“Point. Pull. Don’t hesitate,” he said. “Hesitation gets you killed.”
She stared at the weapon, its weight foreign and terrifying in her hands.
“I trust you,” Dominic added.
The words landed harder than the gun.
“You shouldn’t,” Lena said.
“I know,” he replied. “But here we are.”
The blast door shuddered under a heavy impact.
“They’re coming,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Dominic said calmly. “Which means it’s time.”
“For what?”
“For you to decide who you believe.”
He tapped a control on the wall. One of the hidden screens flickered to life, showing a live feed.
Her father again.
This time, he was alone. No guards visible. His eyes were wet, desperate.
“Lena,” he said urgently. “Listen to me. Dominic is not your enemy but he is not your savior either.”
Her breath hitched.
“I made a deal,” her father continued. “I thought I could control it. I thought I could protect you by staying inside the system. I was wrong.”
Lena’s chest ached. “Papa…”
“I stole from Dominic to buy time,” he said. “To gather proof. But the syndicate they found out. They’re using me now because I know how he thinks.”
The feed glitched.
“Dominic will never tell you this,” her father rushed. “He didn’t just build his empire to survive. He built it to burn something bigger.”
Lena turned slowly toward Dominic.
“Is that true?” she asked.
“Yes,” Dominic said without hesitation.
Her pulse thundered. “What are you trying to burn?”
“The syndicate,” he replied. “All of it.”
The blast door cracked, metal screaming as it began to give way.
“You’re using me,” Lena said.
“Yes.”
“And my father?”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more than any lie could have.
“But,” Dominic continued, stepping closer, his voice dropping, “I’m also the only reason you’re both still alive.”
Her father’s feed cut out abruptly, replaced by static.
The blast door buckled inward.
Lena raised the gun, heart racing.
“You don’t get to decide for me anymore,” she said.
Dominic met her gaze, rainwater and blood streaking his face, eyes burning with something raw and unguarded.
“Good,” he said. “Because I don’t need obedience.”
The door exploded inward.
Shadows poured through.
Lena fired.
The recoil jolted her arm, the sound deafening. A body fell. Another screamed.
Dominic moved like violence given form precise, relentless, controlled.
Smoke filled the corridor.
When it was over, bodies lay scattered, the air thick with gunpowder and blood.
Lena stood shaking, gun still raised, staring at what she’d done.
Dominic stepped in front of her, blocking the view. His voice was low, steady.
“Breathe.”
She did. Once. Twice.
“I crossed a line,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said.
“There’s no going back.”
“No,” Dominic agreed.
Sirens wailed faintly aboveground too far to matter.
Lena looked up at him, tears streaking her face, resolve hardening beneath the fear.
“Then we finish this,” she said. “For real.”
Dominic’s mouth curved into something dark and dangerous.
“Now,” he said, “you’re thinking like me.”
Behind them, the city’s underworld shifted, rearranging itself around a new truth:
Lena Vale was no longer collateral.
She was a threat.
- Writer
