Chapter 2 - NO ONE LEAVES
The doors of Lumina slammed shut.
Two men in dark suits locked them.
Guests started shouting.
A woman near the bar demanded to call her attorney.
Nobody cared.
Adrian Moretti stood in the center of the dining room with blood from my back staining the sleeve of his expensive suit.
His blood?
No.
Mine.
That somehow made the whole thing worse.
“Put her in the private office,” Adrian ordered.
“I’m standing right here,” I said.
“You’re barely standing.”
“I can still hear.”
“Good.”
He looked at me.
“Then hear this. Until I know who targeted my son, nobody leaves.”
My manager nearly choked.
“Mr. Moretti, these guests—”
Adrian turned his head.
My manager shut up.
Leo still had his dinosaur.
That bothered me more than anything.
A six-year-old shouldn’t be standing in broken glass while grown men discussed murder.
I crouched despite the pain.
“Hey.”
Leo looked at me.
“You okay?”
He nodded.
“You?”
“Fantastic.”
He frowned at the blood on my shirt.
“You’re lying.”
I blinked.
Adrian made a strange sound behind me.
Almost a laugh.
“Smart kid,” I muttered.
“My papa says lying is bad.”
I looked at Adrian.
“Does he?”
Adrian’s mouth tightened.
One of his guards turned away, probably hiding a smile.
The doctor arrived ten minutes later.
He worked in a private office upstairs.
No hospital.
No paperwork.
No police.
Of course.
He cut open the back of my uniform.
“You have three deep lacerations,” he said. “One shard is embedded.”
“Can you remove it?”
“Yes.”
“Then do it.”
“You need anesthetic.”
“Even better.”
Adrian stood by the door.
I looked at him.
“Are you staying?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I’m not getting half naked while some mob boss watches.”
The doctor coughed.
Adrian stared at me for three long seconds.
Then he stepped outside.
“Two minutes,” he told the doctor.
The door closed.
I stared at the doctor.
“Does everybody do what he says?”
“Yes.”
“That’s disturbing.”
“It’s healthy.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking.
He cleaned the first wound.
I bit down on a towel.
Ten minutes later, Adrian came back despite his promise.
“You said two minutes,” I snapped.
“It has been eleven.”
“You counted?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you saved my son.”
“That doesn’t make me your property.”
Something in his expression hardened.
“I know.”
The doctor finished stitching my shoulder.
Then a knock came.
One of Adrian’s men entered.
He was holding a phone.
“We checked the cameras.”
Adrian went still.
“And?”
“Chloe didn’t trip.”
My skin went cold.
The man continued.
“Someone poured cooking oil on the brass strip three minutes before she fell.”
“Who?”
“We have footage.”
Adrian held out his hand.
The guard passed him the phone.
I watched his face.
Nothing.
No surprise.
No anger.
That was somehow worse.
“Get him.”
The guard left.
I sat up.
“Who was it?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“Who?”
He turned the phone toward me.
The image was grainy, but I recognized the man immediately.
Julian.
The server who’d told me to refill table four.
My coworker.
My friend.
The guy who covered my shifts when I was sick.
“No.”
Adrian watched me.
“You know him.”
“He wouldn’t do this.”
“He did.”
“There has to be an explanation.”
“There usually is.”
His voice became quieter.
“Money.”
A crash came from downstairs.
Then shouting.
A gunshot.
Leo screamed somewhere in the hallway.
Adrian moved instantly.
He drew a pistol from beneath his jacket.
I stared at it.
“Stay here.”
He ran toward the door.
Then another gunshot echoed through the restaurant.
May you like
And somebody yelled—
“They’ve got the boy!”
