Chapter 2 - I spent the next ten minutes wondering whether I was going to die.The answer seemed increasingly likely.
The dining hall had transformed into a war room.
Tables overturned.
Security men stationed at every entrance.
Customers had been moved into the kitchen and storage areas.
Someone had killed all the lights.
The only illumination came from emergency lamps along the floor.
And Adrian Voss stood in the middle of it all like he had been born inside violence.
Leo was upstairs with two guards.
I was behind the marble pillar.
Alone.
Or so I thought.
A man crouched beside me.
"Don't move."
I looked up.
Adrian.
Again.
His suit was still immaculate.
Mine looked like I'd been attacked by a blender full of knives.
"You keep telling me not to move."
"Because you keep doing things that get you killed."
"I didn't start this."
"No."
He glanced toward the ceiling.
"You just stepped into it."
I swallowed.
"Who was that man?"
"I'll ask the questions."
"That's convenient."
His eyes narrowed.
"You're either extremely brave or extremely foolish."
"I work in customer service. We're trained to tolerate unreasonable people."
For half a second, I thought I saw the corner of his mouth move.
Then his phone vibrated.
He answered immediately.
"Talk."
A pause.
His expression became darker.
"How?"
He listened.
"Check the cameras."
Another pause.
"Then check the cameras again."
He ended the call.
I couldn't stop myself.
"What happened?"
"The bullet wasn't meant for Leo."
"Then who?"
"You."
I laughed.
It came out weak.
"That's impossible."
Adrian crouched in front of me.
"How long have you worked at Lumina?"
"Eight months."
"Has anyone approached you?"
"No."
"Threatened you?"
"No."
"Asked you to deliver anything?"
"No."
"Anyone following you?"
"No."
"Anyone from your family involved in organized crime?"
I stared at him.
"My family can barely organize a Christmas dinner."
He didn't smile.
"Your mother?"
My chest tightened.
"What about her?"
"What did she do?"
"Nothing."
"Answer me."
"She was a nurse."
"When did she die?"
"Five years ago."
His eyes sharpened.
"How?"
"Car accident."
Silence.
He studied my face.
"What hospital?"
I told him.
He looked away.
That frightened me more than any question.
"You know something."
"I know too many things."
"About my mother?"
"About the night she died."
My pulse hammered.
I hadn't spoken about my mother in years.
Not because I didn't miss her.
Because grief was expensive, and I couldn't afford to keep paying for it.
"What do you know?"
Before he answered, footsteps sounded overhead.
Fast.
Then Leo screamed.
"Papa!"
Adrian moved instantly.
The speed was almost frightening.
One second he was beside me.
The next he was halfway to the staircase.
I followed without thinking.
"Don't!"
He turned.
"Stay here."
"I'm not leaving him."
His expression hardened.
"That's not your decision."
"You're right."
I kept climbing.
"It isn't."
He stared at me for one second.
Then we both ran.
Upstairs, one of the guards lay unconscious.
The other was missing.
Leo's bedroom door stood open.
Empty.
I heard a noise from the hallway.
Adrian froze.
A small voice whispered.
"Papa?"
Then a man's voice answered.
"Quiet."
Adrian's face became something I had no words for.
He drew a gun.
I had never seen one that close.
He advanced.
I followed.
The hallway opened into a private lounge.
A man stood near the window.
One arm around Leo.
The other held a gun against his head.
Leo's green dinosaur hung from his fingertips.
"Papa."
Adrian stopped.
"Let him go."
The man laughed.
"You always were predictable."
"Put the gun down."
"Not yet."
The man's eyes moved toward me.
And his face changed.
Recognition.
"You."
My blood turned cold.
He knew me.
Adrian saw it.
"How do you know her?"
The man smiled.
"She doesn't know who she is."
Leo whimpered.
Adrian took one step forward.
"You're running out of time."
The man raised the gun.
Then he looked at me.
"Ask your mother why she was at the docks the night she died."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
The man's smile widened.
"Ask her why she stole from Adrian Voss."
Adrian's gun lifted.
"What did you say?"
The man moved the gun closer to Leo's head.
"Your precious nurse wasn't just a nurse."
Adrian's eyes became lethal.
"What did she steal?"
The man laughed.
"Something worth killing for."
Then the window behind him exploded.
A sniper round tore through the glass.
The man dropped.
Leo screamed.
Adrian lunged forward and grabbed his son.
I ran toward them.
Then I saw something fall from the dead man's pocket.
A small silver pendant.
My mother's pendant.
The exact pendant I had worn around my neck every day since she died.
Except mine was still hanging there.
Two identical pendants.
I stared at the one on the floor.
Adrian saw it too.
He crouched and picked it up.
Then he looked at mine.
His face went completely still.
"Where did you get yours?"
"My mother."
He looked at the pendant in his hand.
Then back at me.
"Your mother didn't die in a car accident."
My breath caught.
Adrian stood.
"She was murdered."
Leo buried his face against his father's chest.
And I realized the night had just changed.
Because whatever my mother had stolen five years ago...
May you like
someone was still killing for it.
And now they had found me.
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