Chapter 1 - THE MAN IN THE REAR BOOTH
Three weeks after dragging a badly burned stranger from a shattered sedan just seconds before a second fuel tank detonated, Emma was working an eleven-hour shift at Rosie’s Diner. At 11:47 p.m., three pristine black SUVs stopped beneath the sputtering neon sign outside. Four security guards entered first, securing the entrances and sweeping the rear booth with an electronic scanner. Then walked in Dominic Salvatore—the formidable thirty-two-year-old crime syndicate boss who had dominated city headlines for years.
Dominic bypassed the empty front counters and took the corner booth overlooking both exits. He asked for Emma by name, requested Rosie’s meatloaf, and commanded Emma to sit across from him. As he methodically cut his meal, he revealed the truth of that fiery night: it had not been an ordinary gas leak, but a targeted ambush meant to end his life. He had spent three agonizing weeks hunting down the anonymous woman who had risked everything with a handheld fire extinguisher.
May you like
Before Emma could refuse any reward or grasp how deeply her quiet life was about to shift, Dominic quietly laid out the terrifying depth of his surveillance on her private struggles. He set a cream calling card between their coffee cups and told her that her ruthless landlord was doubling her apartment rent to three thousand dollars.
---
