Chapter 3 - What She Was Holding
When Avery opened her eyes, the soft glow of a bedside lamp washed over a room she had only ever seen while holding a duster.
Dominic’s master bedroom.
The king-sized bed was wrapped in Egyptian cotton sheets that felt soft against her bruised skin. She was still wearing her maid's uniform, though someone had unbuttoned the stiff collar to help her breathe.
And beside her sat Dominic Kane.
His large, warm, callused hand was wrapped around hers. He wasn't wearing his suit jacket or his tie. His dark hair was slightly messy, and his eyes—usually as cold as Lake Michigan in January—were dark with a mixture of concern and something far more dangerous: intense focus.
“Don’t move too fast,” Dominic’s deep voice echoed through the quiet room.
Avery pulled her hand back instinctively, her chest rising and falling in rapid, panicked breaths. “Mr. Kane... I’m sorry. I faint—I fainted. I didn't mean to fall asleep in your study. I’ll finish the floors right now—”
“Avery.”
The sound of her first name on his lips stopped her cold. He had never said her name in three years. He had always addressed her as "Collins" or simply nodded when she passed him in the halls.
“Sit still,” he commanded softly, placing a firm, gentle hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. “You worked for twenty hours straight. You saved six of my men. You saved me. You aren't cleaning anything.”
Avery stared at him, her pulse racing. Then, suddenly, she realized her other hand was clenched tight.
Her right fingers were wrapped around the leather ledger she had pulled from beneath his desk.
She tried to slip it beneath the blanket, but Dominic’s eyes dropped to her hand immediately.
“You found it,” he said quietly.
Avery swallowed hard, her throat dry. “I... I was picking up the broken glass. It was under the desk. Mr. Kane, this has my father’s initials on it. Why do you have my father’s ledger?”
Dominic leaned back in the heavy velvet chair, crossing his long legs. He watched her carefully before speaking.
“Because three years ago,” Dominic said, “when your brother Mason died, he didn't just leave behind a seventy-thousand-dollar debt to street loan sharks. He left behind a debt to me.”
Avery felt the blood drain from her face. “To you?”
“No,” Dominic corrected, his tone turning dark. “Not to me. To my uncle, Marcus Kane—the man who ran this family before I took it over three years ago.”
Dominic reached out, taking the ledger gently from her hands. He opened it to the first page, showing her the clean, precise handwriting of her father.
“Your father was an honest man, Avery. Marcus tried to force him to launder money through your family's small accounting firm. Your father refused. He kept this ledger as evidence of Marcus’s extortion. When your father died, Marcus went after Mason to get this book back. Mason got into debt because Marcus set him up.”
Avery felt tears sting her eyes. “Mason didn't kill himself in a gambling spiral? He was... he was running?”
“He was running from Marcus,” Dominic said, his voice dropping an octave, heavy with a dark promise. “When I took over the family three years ago, I killed Marcus. I took control. I found out about the debt Marcus had manufactured against your family. And I bought it.”
“Why?” Avery whispered, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Why buy my debt if you didn't want to enforce it?”
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Dominic leaned forward, his massive frame looming over her, but there was no threat in his posture. Only an overwhelming intensity.
“Because buying your debt was the only legal way I could bring you into this house,” Dominic said quietly. “Where Marcus’s remaining loyalists couldn't touch you.”
