Chapter 7 - EMILY REFUSED TO BECOME THE WOMAN DOMINIC LOCKED AWAY
Dominic wanted Emily at Black Pine.
Immediately.
Not romantically.
Not gently.
Security.
Twenty-four hours.
Restricted access.
Caleb’s best men.
Emily lasted eleven minutes.
“No.”
Dominic stared across Murphy’s kitchen.
Robert Harper wisely carried a box of onions through the rear door and did not return.
Laura stayed.
Mothers enjoyed disasters.
“Emily.”
“No.”
“Victor had surveillance photographs.”
“He’s in custody.”
“Someone took them.”
“Yes.”
“Which means someone else is involved.”
“Yes.”
“So you’re coming to Black Pine.”
“No.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You are not safe here.”
Emily pointed toward the front dining room.
“Customers are eating meatloaf.”
“I noticed.”
“My parents live upstairs.”
“I know.”
“I work here.”
“I also know.”
“So your solution is that I disappear into your resort.”
“Temporarily.”
“That word should be illegal.”
Laura coughed to hide a laugh.
Dominic looked toward her.
She raised both hands.
“Not involved.”
Emily continued.
“You promised you weren’t turning protection into control.”
“I am trying to prevent someone from hurting you.”
“And I’m telling you what I need.”
“What?”
“Security here.”
Dominic looked around the old restaurant.
“One front door.”
“One kitchen exit.”
“Six street-facing windows.”
“Apartment access through the rear staircase.”
He looked horrified.
Emily crossed her arms.
“Normal building.”
“Terrible building.”
“It has survived sixty-two years.”
“Against customers.”
Laura finally spoke.
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
She rarely used his first name.
“You can put people outside.”
“You can add cameras.”
“But if you remove Emily every time a dangerous man notices her, eventually her entire life becomes a waiting room inside yours.”
Dominic stared.
Emily’s throat tightened.
Her mother had understood perfectly.
Dominic looked between them.
Then exhaled.
“Fine.”
Emily smiled.
“You hate that word now.”
“Yes.”
Security increased at Murphy’s.
Discreetly.
Mostly.
Caleb assigned two agents dressed as customers.
Emily identified them because nobody ate scrambled eggs for three hours.
“Buy food.”
she told one.
He looked embarrassed.
Dominic’s protection became less invasive.
Not absent.
Negotiated.
That mattered.
Then he did something harder.
He told Emily everything.
Victor’s phone records.
Potential accomplices.
Names.
Photographs.
No filtering.
No “nothing you need to worry about.”
Emily realized how frightening honesty could be.
She preferred it anyway.
The surveillance photographer was identified as Chase Landon.
Former private investigator.
Worked for Victor.
Police found his apartment.
Empty.
One notebook remained.
Inside were observations about Emily.
Work schedule.
Vehicle.
Parents.
Black Pine visits.
And one line that changed Dominic’s face:
SUBJECT CARVER SHOWS ATTACHMENT. IF ROMANTIC, VALE PLAN BECOMES VIABLE.
Emily stared.
“Vale.”
Frederick.
Dominic immediately called him.
Frederick answered angrily.
“I have no plan B.”
“Your company name is in his notes.”
“Victor used my name constantly.”
“Prove it.”
“Gladly.”
Frederick arrived that afternoon.
The brothers argued in Murphy’s parking lot.
Emily brought coffee.
Neither drank.
Frederick showed internal communications.
No Plan B.
No order regarding Emily.
But another name appeared.
ELISE VALE.
Frederick’s daughter.
Dominic went still.
“You have a daughter?”
Frederick looked at him.
“Yes.”
“How old?”
“Thirty-two.”
“You never told me.”
“You thought I was dead until two weeks ago.”
Fair.
Elise Vale worked for Alder Ridge’s acquisitions division.
She had supervised Victor’s regional land project for four years.
She also approved payments to Chase Landon.
Frederick’s face went pale.
“No.”
Dominic watched him experience the same denial he had lived through repeatedly.
Emily felt no satisfaction.
Frederick called Elise.
No answer.
Her apartment empty.
Office computer wiped.
Another betrayal.
This time Frederick’s.
The pattern was almost cruel.
“Why?” Emily asked.
Frederick sat in the restaurant after closing.
His hands were clasped.
“Elise hated that I spent my life obsessed with Black Pine.”
“Did she know why?”
“Yes.”
“She believed Dominic stole it?”
“I told her Walter did.”
“That’s not the same.”
Frederick looked at Emily.
“You really enjoy precision.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“You serve burgers.”
“And people lie over coffee.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Frederick continued.
Elise believed Black Pine should belong to her branch eventually.
Victor encouraged that.
He convinced her Dominic was exploiting Emily to justify blocking development.
Then he gave her another fear.
If Frederick reconciled with Dominic, Elise could lose control of Alder Ridge.
Once again:
Inheritance.
Control.
Fear.
Families apparently recycled disasters.
“Where would she go?” Dominic asked.
Frederick closed his eyes.
“Lake house.”
“Which?”
“My mother’s.”
Catherine Vale’s old property.
Abandoned for decades.
North of Saratoga.
Police moved.
Too late.
The house was empty.
But Chase Landon had been there.
So had Elise.
And another person.
Photographs showed tire tracks from three vehicles.
Inside, investigators found maps.
Murphy’s Grill.
Black Pine Springs.
Dominic’s Albany office.
And a folder titled:
PRESSURE.
Emily opened it with police supervision.
Her family’s medical debt.
Robert’s health.
Laura’s tax records.
Emily’s wages.
Everything.
Then another page.
DOMINIC CARVER — ATTACHMENTS.
Ruth.
Caleb.
Frederick.
And Emily.
Her photograph had a red circle around it.
She stared.
Dominic took one step closer.
Then stopped.
“Can I?”
She knew what he meant.
Take the folder.
Carry the fear.
No.
Emily shook her head.
“I need to see.”
So they looked together.
The plan was not murder.
At least not initially.
Damage Murphy’s reputation.
Trigger health inspections.
Plant evidence of tax fraud.
Leak rumors that Dominic was using the restaurant to launder money.
Force Emily’s parents to sell.
At the same time, create media scandal around Dominic’s relationship with a debtor.
Conflict.
Corruption.
Predatory influence.
Destroy both sides until sale became easiest.
Emily laughed bitterly.
“They were going to make me look like I slept with you for money.”
Dominic’s face became cold.
Frederick looked sick.
Emily continued reading.
Then she found the last line.
IF EMILY REFUSES TO DISTANCE FROM CARVER, STAGE INCIDENT AT RESTAURANT. NONFATAL. FEAR SHOULD BE ENOUGH.
The bruises on her wrist had been phase one.
The fire at Black Pine phase two.
Fear.
Again.
Emily closed the folder.
Dominic said:
“You’re coming to Black Pine.”
She looked at him.
He immediately corrected:
“I want you to.”
Better.
Emily thought.
Then:
“For two nights.”
His expression showed relief.
“My parents come too.”
“Yes.”
“Ruth gives them rooms.”
“Yes.”
“Dad keeps cooking.”
“What?”
“If you remove him from Murphy’s for forty-eight hours, he needs a kitchen.”
Dominic stared.
“Fine.”
Robert transformed Black Pine’s private kitchen into Murphy’s Grill North by evening.
Ruth loved him.
Dominic regretted everything.
Emily found him outside the hot spring that night.
He stood alone.
“No phone?”
she asked.
He placed it on the bench.
Progress.
Emily sat.
Dominic remained standing.
“What?”
She looked up.
“You’re pacing.”
“I’m thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
He smiled faintly.
Then became serious.
“I’m sorry.”
“For?”
“Your life was simpler before me.”
Emily laughed.
“No.”
“Dominic.”
She stood.
“My life before you included five hundred thousand dollars of fraudulent debt and Paul Renner bruising my wrist.”
“Not exactly peaceful.”
“You made it bigger.”
“Yes.”
“More dangerous in some ways.”
“Yes.”
“But you also made me stop pretending fear was normal.”
His eyes held hers.
Emily stepped closer.
“You asked me to come here instead of ordering.”
“Yes.”
“You gave me the files.”
“Yes.”
“You let police arrest Victor.”
He looked pained.
She smiled.
“Still working on that one.”
Then the moment from the fire returned.
Can I kiss you?
She had told him to ask on a day nobody tried to burn his resort.
Today, technically, nobody had.
Emily touched his shirt lightly.
Dominic’s breathing changed.
“You can ask again.”
His eyes darkened.
“Emily.”
“Yes?”
“Can I kiss you?”
This time she smiled.
“Yes.”
Dominic kissed her.
Slowly.
No possession.
No desperation.
His hand touched her waist and stopped as if waiting.
Emily moved closer.
Permission.
The kiss deepened.
For once, Dominic Carver did not look like a man controlling anything.
When they separated, Emily whispered:
“That took you long enough.”
He stared.
“You told me no.”
“Months ago.”
“I remember instructions.”
“Good.”
He kissed her again.
Then the courtyard door exploded inward.
Caleb rushed through.
Dominic turned instantly.
“What?”
“Elise called.”
Frederick appeared behind him.
Pale.
“What did she say?”
Caleb looked at Emily.
Then Dominic.
“She has Ruth.”
Everything stopped.
Emily turned.
Ruth’s room upstairs was empty.
A rear service door had been opened.
One guard unconscious.
Elise’s message contained a location.
And one demand.
Frederick must transfer his half-claim in Black Pine to her.
Dominic must stay away.
If either contacted police, Ruth would not come home.
Frederick looked at his brother.
Dominic looked toward the empty hallway.
Then Emily said the sentence neither man expected.
“We call the police.”
Frederick stared.
“She said—”
“I heard.”
“She has Ruth.”
“I know.”
Emily’s voice shook.
“But every person in this family keeps trying to solve kidnappings privately because they think love means becoming stupid alone.”
Both brothers went silent.
She grabbed Dominic’s phone.
Handed it to him.
May you like
“Use everyone.”
And this time, he did.
Related Stories
