Chapter 4 - The Escape Hatch
8:56 p.m.
The Obsidian was a war zone.
Smoke alarms began to wail overhead, flooding the opulent dining room with an irritating, flashing strobe of red emergency lights. Staff and patrons alike were stampeding toward the main front entrance, trampling coats, crystal glasses, and dignity in their wake.
Evelyn remained pinned behind the service station, her knees pulled tight against her chest. She knew she couldn't stay there. If Moretti’s men—or the assassins—swept the room looking for witnesses, a waitress who slipped a mysterious warning napkin across the table would be the first person they eliminated.
She needed to get to the employee locker room in the basement, grab her coat, and slip out through the laundry loading dock into the alley.
She crawled on her hands and knees beneath the shadow of a grand piano, keeping her head down.
“Hey! You there!”
Evelyn froze.
A heavy hand gripped the collar of her black waitressing vest, hauling her violently to her feet.
She gasped, looking up into the grim, scarred face of one of Moretti’s enforcers—a man she recognized from the periphery of the table service named Dante. Dante’s nose had clearly been broken twice, and his eyes were sharp and dead.
“Where do you think you’re sneaking off to, sweet-cheeks?” Dante barked, pressing the barrel of a pistol casually against her ribs.
“I—I’m just an employee,” Evelyn stammered, the cold metal of the gun burning through her thin shirt. “I’m trying to get out!”
“Yeah? You looked awfully cozy with the boss right before all hell broke loose,” Dante sneered, dragging her toward the private VIP staircase leading down to the lower levels. “Boss wants a word with everyone who was near that table. Move.”
Evelyn’s heart plummeted.
She had saved Lorenzo’s life, and now his own men were going to put a bullet in her head because they assumed she was part of the conspiracy.
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Dante shoved her hard down the dimly lit concrete stairs, the heavy metal door slamming shut behind them, cutting off the wailing sirens and screams of the burning restaurant above.
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