Chapter 2 - The Waitress They Wanted Dead
The first bullet struck the kitchen door less than three inches from Aurora Bennett's head.
She screamed as splinters flew across her face.
Damian Russo grabbed her around the waist and pulled her behind a stainless-steel counter.
“Stay down!”
The kitchen of the St. Regis Chop House had become a nightmare.
Cooks abandoned their stations. A young dishwasher crawled beneath a prep table. Somewhere beyond the swinging doors, people were screaming for help.
Aurora could smell burning food, spilled wine, and something sharp she couldn't identify.
Damian crouched beside her, his charcoal suit torn at the shoulder.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Look at me, Aurora.”
His voice was firm but strangely gentle.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good. Then we're getting out.”
Another gunshot cracked through the dining room.
Aurora grabbed his sleeve.
“Those men saw me give you the bill.”
“I know.”
“They know my face.”
Damian's expression darkened.
“I know that too.”
Before he could say anything else, the kitchen's head cook, Mateo Silva, emerged from behind a refrigerator.
“There's a delivery exit,” Mateo whispered. “Through the storage corridor.”
Damian looked toward the hallway.
“Does it open onto Rush Street?”
“No. The service alley.”
“Can you get everyone else out?”
Mateo nodded, although his hands were trembling.
Damian reached into his jacket and handed him his phone.
“Call 911 again. Tell them armed men are inside and people are trapped. Stay on the line.”
Aurora stared at him.
Chicago's most feared Mafia boss had just given away his only working phone to help strangers escape.
It wasn't what she expected.
Then a voice came from the other side of the swinging doors.
“Where's the girl?”
Aurora went cold.
Another man answered.
“Boss said nobody leaves with Russo.”
The first voice returned.
“Especially the waitress.”
Damian heard every word.
He slowly turned toward Aurora.
“Did you tell anyone what you saw?”
“No. Just you.”
“Did anyone know you were going to warn me?”
She thought about the register, the red marker, and the black leather folder.
“No.”
“Then someone changed the plan when you handed me that receipt.”
A terrible realization settled over her.
She hadn't merely interrupted an assassination.
She had become a witness someone desperately wanted silenced.
Mateo gestured toward the storage corridor.
“Go. I'll get the others moving.”
Damian took Aurora's hand.
They hurried past shelves of flour, cooking oil, and restaurant supplies.
At the far end, a steel door stood beneath a glowing EXIT sign.
Aurora reached for the handle.
It wouldn't move.
She tried again.
Locked.
“That's impossible,” Mateo said behind them. “That door has to open from inside.”
Damian examined the door.
A heavy security bar had been fitted across it.
Someone had deliberately blocked the emergency exit.
Behind them, the kitchen doors slammed open.
“Russo!”
Damian pushed Aurora behind a tall storage rack.
A shot struck the metal shelving.
Boxes tumbled around them.
Aurora covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
Damian pulled a handgun from beneath his jacket and fired toward the doorway.
The attacker retreated.
“Mateo,” Damian shouted, “the loading shutters!”
Mateo pointed toward a second corridor.
“Past the walk-in freezer!”
They ran.
Aurora's shoes slipped on the wet tile, and Damian caught her before she fell.
The loading area was almost completely dark.
Rain hammered the metal shutters.
An abandoned delivery cart stood beside the wall.
Damian reached the emergency release and forced the shutter upward.
Cold Chicago air rushed inside.
For one beautiful second, Aurora thought they were safe.
Then headlights illuminated the alley.
A black SUV stood across the exit.
Its engine was running.
Two men were waiting beside it.
Damian stopped.
Aurora felt his fingers tighten around hers.
“Back,” he whispered.
But before they could retreat, another vehicle came racing into the alley.
A dark sedan skidded to a stop between the SUV and the restaurant.
Its driver's door flew open.
“MR. RUSSO!”
A broad-shouldered man stumbled out.
Blood stained his white shirt.
Damian recognized him immediately.
“Leo?”
Leo Marquez had driven Damian for six years.
He was usually the calmest man in the room.
Tonight, he looked terrified.
“Get in!” Leo shouted.
One of the armed men raised his weapon.
Damian pushed Aurora behind the delivery cart as Leo's sedan slammed backward into the SUV.
Metal crumpled.
The impact sent one attacker sprawling.
Damian grabbed Aurora and hurried toward the passenger side.
Leo managed to pull the rear door open.
“Go!”
Aurora climbed inside.
Damian followed, shielding her as another shot shattered the rear window.
Leo accelerated through the narrow alley.
Aurora ducked beneath the seat belt while broken glass scattered across the upholstery.
Only when the restaurant disappeared behind them did she dare sit upright.
Leo's breathing sounded terrible.
“Your shoulder,” she whispered.
“It's nothing.”
But his shirt was soaked with blood.
Damian leaned forward.
“Hospital. Now.”
Leo shook his head.
“Can't.”
“That's not a request.”
“They're watching the usual places.”
Damian studied him.
“Who?”
Leo glanced into the rearview mirror.
“The men who attacked the restaurant.”
Aurora looked toward Damian.
“You know them?”
“No,” Damian answered.
But Leo did.
His face gave him away.
Damian's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Tell me what happened.”
Leo swallowed.
“Your security team received a revised route thirty minutes before dinner. Said you wanted the back entrance cleared.”
“I never ordered that.”
“I know.”
“Who authorized it?”
Leo hesitated.
Damian leaned closer.
“Leo.”
“Your operations office.”
The answer silenced the car.
For sixteen years, Damian's operations had been controlled by Graham Vale, the man who had helped his father build the Russo transportation empire.
Graham had practically raised Damian after Anthony Russo died.
He knew every property, driver, bank account, and security procedure.
He was the one person Damian trusted without question.
“Graham?” Damian asked.
Leo shook his head.
“I don't know who sent it. The authorization came through his office.”
Aurora watched Damian's expression change.
For the first time, the powerful man beside her seemed genuinely afraid.
Not of dying.
Of discovering who wanted him dead.
Leo reached beneath the dashboard and removed a folded dispatch sheet.
“I kept this because something felt wrong.”
Damian unfolded it.
There were three names printed beneath the heading Restaurant Contingency.
The first was Damian Russo.
The second was Carmine Moretti.
The third made Aurora's blood turn cold.
Aurora Bennett — Waitress.
Beside her name was a handwritten instruction.
DO NOT ALLOW WITNESS TO LEAVE.
And at the bottom of the page was the authorization code belonging to Graham Vale's private office.
Damian stared at it.
Aurora could barely breathe.
Someone had put her name on an assassination plan before she ever wrote the warning.
May you like
Then Leo whispered something even worse.
“Mr. Russo, that sheet was printed yesterday morning.”
