Chapter 1: The Waitress Who Didn’t Run
The gunshot shattered the calm inside Rini’s Italian restaurant.
People screamed. Chairs toppled. Plates crashed against the floor as guests scrambled beneath tables, clutching one another in fear. But behind the bar, Cassandra Mercer did not move like everyone else.
She stood still, polishing a wine glass with slow, careful circles, as if panic were a weather pattern she had already survived too many times to fear.
Five armed men had stormed through the entrance, their attention fixed on the corner booth where Marcus Castellano sat with his dinner untouched before him. Marcus was known in certain circles as a man with enemies, but even he looked more irritated than surprised.
The leader of the attackers, Victor Malone, stepped forward with a cruel smile.
Cass set the glass down.
Her eyes counted everything. Five men. Multiple weapons. Two bodyguards too slow to protect their boss. A room full of innocent people caught between pride, revenge, and gunfire.
Then she picked up a bottle of Barolo and stepped out from behind the bar.