Chapter 8 FIRE BETWEEN THE LIES

The warehouse was quiet after the truth dropped like a bomb.

Rhys had left to "give them space"-but Eva could feel his smug smile from a mile away.

Dominic stood across the room, hands braced on the edge of the table, head down like the weight of the last twenty minutes was finally breaking him.

She couldn't look away from him.

From the man who had protected her, lied to her, kissed her like she was the only thing keeping him sane-and just revealed she'd been caught in a war long before she even knew there were sides.

"You should've told me," she said quietly.

"I didn't want you to run."

"You thought I couldn't handle the truth?"

"No." He looked up, and something feral flickered in his eyes. "I thought the truth would destroy everything between us."

She walked to him slowly, one step at a time, until they were almost touching.

"You already destroyed it, Dominic," she whispered. "Now what's left?"

His hands were on her in a second-rough, possessive, hungry. He pulled her to him and kissed her like he was trying to erase everything-Leon, the cartel, the blood on his hands.

She kissed him back with fire. Nails in his neck. Mouth opening against his. Heat like a fuse running through her core.

Dominic pushed everything off the table with a crash and lifted her onto it in one fluid motion. Papers scattered. Guns clattered. She gasped as his fingers slid beneath her shirt, palms finding bare skin.

"This is insane," she whispered, breathless, as he stripped her slowly, methodically-like every inch he revealed was something he'd earned the right to touch.

"I know," he said. "And I don't give a damn."

He kissed down her neck, her collarbone, lower-teeth grazing where his lips had just been soft. She arched into him, breath catching as he made her forget her own name.

Every touch was fire. Every thrust of his tongue, every drag of his mouth was punishment and worship all at once.

"Tell me you want this," he growled.

"I want it," she panted. "I want *you.*"

He took her there, right on the war table, surrounded by guns and secrets. She wrapped her legs around him and moaned his name like it was a vow.

And when they were finished, tangled in sweat and breath and something they couldn't name, Dominic didn't move.

He pressed his forehead to hers.

"I've done a lot of terrible things," he whispered. "But I'll burn the whole city down before I let them take you."

Eva reached up, cupped his jaw.

"Then don't let them," she said. "Let's fight back."

Dominic smiled-a dangerous, dark smile.

And just like that, they weren't just running anymore.

They were *coming for blood.*

The silence afterward wasn't awkward.

It was heavy.

Loaded with everything they didn't say-what they *meant*, what they felt, what they feared.

Eva pulled Dominic's shirt on, oversized and still warm from his skin, then walked barefoot toward the wall of monitors. The glow lit her face in flashes of red and blue, city streets turning like arteries beneath their feet.

Dominic watched her from the edge of the table, still half-dressed, still *wrecked* by her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice low, different now-less commanding, more *real*.

She didn't turn.

"Do you know what it feels like to realize your whole life was a setup?" she said. "Every kiss, every conversation... was just surveillance?"

He stood and moved behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss just behind her ear.

"Then let's make sure the rest of it isn't."

She leaned back into him.

"I want in."

Dominic tensed. "In what?"

"Whatever this is. The war. The plan. The revenge. All of it."

His grip tightened just slightly. "Eva-"

"You said you'd burn the city down for me," she said, turning in his arms. "Let me hold the match."

He stared at her, searching for weakness, for fear, for anything that would make him say *no*.

But she wasn't scared.

She was *hungry.*

For justice. For control. For him.

Dominic kissed her again, slower this time, like a contract.

Then walked to the board.

"We're going after Leon."

Eva's breath caught.

Dominic pulled a drawer open and tossed her a slim black folder.

"Everything you need to know is in there. His routine. His security. His *vices.*"

She flipped it open-and her blood turned cold.

Leon's entire life was mapped out in brutal detail. His passwords. His properties. His secret meetings.

"You already had this," she whispered.

Dominic's jaw flexed. "I was waiting."

"For what?"

He looked at her like she was the final piece.

"For a reason to *finish it*."

Eva closed the folder slowly.

"Then let's make it hurt."

Dominic smiled-sharp, wicked, and a little in love.

And for the first time since this all began...

Eva smiled back.