Chapter 9 - Healing the Scars
The aftermath of the battle was a blur of flashing blue lights, sirens, and the clinical smell of an ambulance.
The federal prosecutors had arrived along with the local police, guided by the final coordinates Sienna had pre-programmed into her data leak. Victor and his surviving men were loaded into transport vans in heavy chains. Because of the extensive financial evidence Sienna had provided, the syndicate was completely neutralized, their assets permanently seized by the government.
Dawson and Sienna sat on the back of an ambulance, wrapped in a single, large wool blanket. A paramedic was carefully cleaning and bandaging Sienna’s wrists.
Dawson looked down at his hands, which were shaking slightly. The adrenaline of the fight was fading, leaving a deep, hollow exhaustion in its place.
"I almost did it," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I almost dropped him, Sienna. The darkness... it felt so easy."
Sienna reached out with her newly bandaged hand, cups of warm paper tea forgotten beside them, and rested her palm against his cheek. "But you didn't, Dawson. You listened. You chose to stay. That’s the difference between a monster and a man who is trying to heal."
"I don't know if I can ever be completely clean, Ice Queen," he murmured, his dark eyes looking up at her with a vulnerability that broke her heart.
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"We don't need to be completely clean," she said, leaning her forehead against his. "We just need to be real. We have a new schedule, remember? And tomorrow, we start rebuilding."
Dawson wrapped his massive arms around her, pulling her close as the first light of dawn began to break over the Chicago River, painting the sky in soft shades of pink and gold.
