Chapter 6 - Five Years Between Two Heartbeats
Neither Sebastian nor Meline spoke.
Not at first.
Five years could not fit inside a sentence.
Meline stood twenty yards away with a gun pressed against her back.
Her hair was shorter.
There were lines beside her eyes that had not existed when she left.
She looked thinner.
Stronger.
Older in the way survival aged people—not by making them weak, but by revealing what they had carried.
Sebastian had imagined this moment a thousand times without admitting it.
Sometimes she apologized.
Sometimes he did.
Sometimes he simply held her.
In none of those imagined reunions was Tomas Vescari standing between them with a pistol.
Tomas smiled.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Sebastian ignored him.
“Meline.”
Her mouth trembled.
“Dom.”
That one word crossed five years in less than a second.
Tomas stepped forward.
“The ledger.”
Sebastian raised the leather-bound book.
“Let her walk.”
“First the ledger.”
“No.”
Tomas laughed.
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“I’m exactly where I intended to be.”
Meline’s eyes sharpened.
She knew that tone.
Sebastian saw her understand.
There was a plan.
Tomas did not.
“Drop it.”
Sebastian placed the ledger on the concrete.
Tomas’s man retrieved it.
He flipped through several pages.
“It’s real.”
“Of course.”
Tomas smiled.
“I expected a trick.”
Sebastian looked at Meline.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“That’s not an answer.”
Despite everything, a ghost of a smile appeared.
“Still controlling.”
“Still evasive.”
The smile disappeared into tears.
Tomas rolled his eyes.
“Touching.”
Sebastian finally looked at him.
“You have what you wanted.”
“I have part of what I wanted.”
The first warning.
“What else?”
Tomas pointed the pistol at Sebastian.
“You.”
Meline went still.
Tomas continued.
“My father died begging.”
“Your father died reaching for a gun.”
“That’s your version.”
“There were eight witnesses.”
“Seven are dead.”
Sebastian’s expression did not change.
“I’m beginning to understand why.”
Tomas stepped closer.
“You killed my family piece by piece.”
“Your family spent twenty years destroying itself.”
“My father respected yours.”
“My father was a criminal.”
Even Meline looked surprised.
Tomas laughed.
“And what are you?”
Sebastian thought of Luca.
“I’m trying to find out.”
Tomas’s face hardened.
He fired.
The bullet struck Sebastian’s side.
Meline screamed.
Sebastian dropped to one knee.
Everything erupted.
Warehouse lights died.
Smoke grenades rolled across the floor.
Marco’s team moved from hidden positions.
Not firing blindly.
Precise.
Controlled.
Sebastian pressed a hand to his side.
Body armor had stopped most of the round, but pain exploded through his ribs.
Meline drove her elbow into the guard behind her.
He grabbed her.
She bit his hand.
Then kicked backward.
Sebastian lunged through the smoke.
He reached her.
For the first time in five years, his hands touched her.
“Meline.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“Armor.”
“Oh.”
A bullet struck steel nearby.
She grabbed his jacket.
“Maybe discuss this later?”
“Good idea.”
They ran behind a cargo container.
Marco’s voice sounded through Sebastian’s earpiece.
“Tomas moving east exit.”
“Block it.”
“Already.”
Meline stared.
“You wired yourself?”
“Yes.”
“You really came prepared.”
“You expected less?”
“I expected you to bring an army.”
“I did.”
She looked alarmed.
“They’re not shooting unless necessary.”
Now she stared as if he had grown another head.
“What?”
“Long story.”
A man appeared at the corner.
Sebastian raised his weapon.
The man dropped his gun.
Sebastian did not shoot.
Meline noticed.
Something unspoken passed between them.
Then Tomas’s voice boomed from the far end.
“Stop!”
He had Victor’s daughter.
Emily.
She was twenty-six, bound at the wrists, gun against her head.
Tomas backed toward the exit.
“Everybody lowers weapons or she dies.”
Marco appeared above on the catwalk.
No clean shot.
Sebastian stepped out.
Meline grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not letting her die.”
“Neither am I.”
They moved together.
Tomas laughed.
“The happy couple reunited.”
Emily was crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Tomas pressed the gun harder against her temple.
“The ledger is mine. The girl is mine. You lose.”
Sebastian looked toward the leather book.
Then at Tomas.
“No.”
Tomas smiled.
“Really?”
“I stopped caring about the ledger hours ago.”
Tomas’s face changed.
Sebastian continued.
“You should have opened to the last page.”
Tomas looked at the man holding the book.
The man flipped to the end.
A tiny device blinked red.
Tomas swore.
Sebastian said, “Federal agents have been receiving its location for twenty minutes.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Tomas’s eyes widened.
“You brought the government?”
“I brought consequences.”
Meline stared at Sebastian.
For perhaps the first time in her life, she had no response.
Tomas dragged Emily backward.
“You think I’m going to prison?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
He pointed the gun at himself.
Emily reacted first.
She slammed her head backward into his chin.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Meline ran.
Sebastian shouted her name.
She tackled Emily away.
Marco’s shot struck Tomas in the thigh.
He collapsed.
Agents flooded the warehouse seconds later.
It ended almost disappointingly.
No final explosion.
No dramatic execution.
No mountain of bodies.
Tomas Vescari screamed as federal officers cuffed him.
Sebastian watched without satisfaction.
Meline stood beside him.
“You didn’t kill him.”
“No.”
“You wanted to.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“Because you were right.”
She went still.
“About what?”
“About what I would become if I kept solving everything the same way.”
Her eyes filled.
“Dom—”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“You don’t get to say that like it’s simple.”
She looked down.
“I thought you’d die trying to protect us.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you without a body.”
“I know.”
“I spent five years hating you because hating you hurt less than missing you.”
Meline’s tears fell.
“I know.”
“And I have a son who learned to hide in bathroom walls.”
She covered her mouth.
Sebastian’s anger collapsed under the sight of her grief.
He stepped closer.
“I understand why you ran.”
She looked up.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not angry.”
“You should be.”
“It doesn’t mean I trust every decision you made.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“It doesn’t mean we go back to who we were.”
Meline nodded.
“We can’t.”
Sebastian’s throat tightened.
Then she whispered:
“But maybe we can become something else.”
He looked at her.
Five years ago, he would have kissed her.
Claimed the moment.
Demanded certainty.
Now he asked:
“Do you want me to hold you?”
Meline’s face crumpled.
“Yes.”
Sebastian opened his arms.
She stepped into them.
No music.
No fireworks.
Just two people in an ugly warehouse clinging to the impossible fact that both had survived.
Meline buried her face against his neck.
He felt her shaking.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes.
“I was furious with you.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I missed you too.”
She laughed through tears.
Then pulled back suddenly.
“Luca.”
“He’s safe.”
“With who?”
“Adrian.”
Her eyes widened.
“You left our son with Adrian?”
Sebastian almost smiled.
“You’ve been gone five years. There have been developments.”
She slapped his chest.
He winced.
“Armor.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re not.”
“No.”
For the first time since the warehouse doors opened, they laughed.
Small.
Broken.
Real.
An SUV raced into the loading area.
Before Sebastian could turn, the rear door opened.
Luca jumped out.
Adrian followed, shouting, “I tried to stop him!”
Meline froze.
Luca saw her.
“Mom!”
He ran.
Meline dropped to her knees.
The boy crashed into her arms.
She sobbed.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
She held his face, kissed his hair, his cheeks, his forehead.
“My baby. My baby.”
“I called Dad.”
“I know.”
“He came.”
“I know.”
“He’s really scary.”
Meline laughed and cried at once.
“Yes.”
Sebastian stood several feet away.
Luca looked back.
“Come here.”
Sebastian hesitated.
Meline looked at him.
For five years, there had been no place where the three of them existed together.
Now Luca extended one small hand.
Sebastian took it.
He knelt beside them.
May you like
Meline reached for his other hand.
For one perfect, fragile moment, nobody ran.
