haven

Chapter 2 - The Eighty-Six Thousand Dollar Check

The silence inside the service closet felt heavier than the forty-eight stories of steel and stone pressing down from above.

Dominic Mercer holstered his custom matte-black Sig Sauer into his tailored shoulder rig with a slow, deliberate click. He stood in the narrow doorway, his broad frame blocking the hall light, dressed in a crisp white dress shirt with the cuffs unbuttoned and rolled back, revealing the dark, intricate ink of a dragon coiled around his forearm.

At thirty-four, he was an empire unto himself. Men on Wall Street and in the city’s underground feared his whisper more than a court summons.

Yet as he looked down at the cold pasta smeared across the linoleum and the threadbare blanket tucked beside my nursing textbooks, there was no violence in his eyes.

There was only a dark, simmering stillness.

“Sit down, Grace,” Dominic commanded in a low, gravelly baritone.

My legs gave out, and I sank back onto the edge of the lower shelf, pulling the sleeves of my oversized sweatshirt over my trembling hands.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Mercer,” I choked out, tears burning my eyelids. “I will pack my bag and leave immediately. I swear I didn't touch anything in your study or your private rooms. I only needed a safe place to sleep for three hours before my shift at the St. Jude laundry.”

Dominic didn't answer. He stepped out of the closet and walked toward the illuminated expanse of the penthouse living room.

“Come here,” he said.

I hesitated, then wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hand and stepped barefoot onto the freezing black marble floor.

Dominic stood by the massive mahogany desk near the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the storm-swept skyline of Manhattan. He unscrewed the cap of a heavy gold fountain pen, pulled a leather-bound checkbook from the center drawer, and wrote with swift, fluid strokes.

He ripped the slip of paper from the binding with a sharp, echoing snap.

He held it out across the desk.

I looked down.

Pay to the Order of: Columbia University Neurological Institute

Amount: $86,000.00

Signed: Dominic Mercer

My breath caught in my throat so violently that my ribs ached. I looked from the check to Dominic’s face, my vision blurring with disbelief.

“I... I can't take this, Mr. Mercer,” I stammered, backing away. “I told you... I told Caleb... I can’t owe you. I have no collateral. I make twenty-two dollars an hour.”

Dominic took two slow, predatory strides toward me. He didn't drop the check; he placed it gently into the front pocket of my sweatshirt.

“This isn't a loan, Grace,” Dominic said softly, his deep voice carrying a strange, unexpected resonance. “This is an advance for your next ten years of service.”

May you like

“What service?”

“You are no longer cleaning my floors,” Dominic replied, his dark eyes locking onto mine with unwavering intensity. “Starting tonight, you are my mother’s private medical coordinator. And no one in this city will ever throw you out into the rain again.”

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