The bus dropped me off a block from my apartment. It was almost midnight, and my feet and back hurt. I’d worked a double today, but I needed the money. My mom wanted to help me out, but she didn’t have any more than I did so I lived in a shitty apartment in a shittier neighborhood and made my own way.

I climbed the apartment stairs and unlocked the outer door, then went up to the fourth floor. The hallway light was out, again, so I used the flashlight in my phone to slide my key into the lock and turn it. When I reached to switch on the lights in the apartment, nothing happened. I wondered if it was a building-wide outage. But then I saw the light coming from beneath the door of my neighbor’s unit, and my heartbeat picked up. My eyes widened and I strained to see into the dark apartment just making out a shape in front of the window sitting on the couch.

Was it Scava’s men already? Did he know it was me who’d turned over evidence? He wasn’t stupid. Maybe I was for having done it.

“Don’t fucking try to run.”

Relief flooded me when I first heard Dominic’s voice. But then, I remembered that afternoon. How I’d sent him away.

“Come inside and close the door, Gia.”

I stood there as goose bumps covered my body at the sound of his voice. His command.

“I said come inside and shut the door.”

He wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that. But his voice sounded strange. Like it had once before on the night I’d found out who he really was.

“I didn’t know you broke into apartments,” I said, going for casual, walking inside and closing the door.

“You’d be amazed at what I can do.”

He reached over and turned on the lamp beside the sofa. That was when I caught sight of the pistol on the coffee table and took a step back.

He stood. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

“What do you want, Dominic?”

He stalked toward me, and all I could do was watch him move, remembering how broad his shoulders were, how much space he took up. How being near him made my body feel.

“You owe me something, Gia.”

He stopped when the toes of his boots bumped against my shoes. He wrapped a hand around my head and twined his fingers into the hair at the nape of my neck, making me gasp, making my heart pound.

“Domi—” But I never got the word out because he closed his mouth over mine and devoured the sound.