Chapter 8 - Fire and GlassThe hallway outside the dining room became a kill zone.
Two of Julian’s guards were thrown backward through the sliding glass doors as a grenade detonated in the corridor, showering the room in white-hot shrapnel and acrid black smoke.
Eli screamed, dropping low to the floor, and Mara instinctively threw her body over him, just as she had done in the diner days ago.
Footsteps pounded across the floorboards. Three men in tactical gear bearing Vance’s insignia—a red skull painted on their chest plates—burst through the smoke, rifles raised.
"Clear!" one shouted.
Julian didn't hesitate. He moved with lethal, terrifying grace. His pistol barked twice, dropping the lead attacker before the man could shoulder his weapon. The second attacker pivoted toward Julian, but before he could fire, Mara’s heart hammered against her ribs, her training from sheer survival kicking in.
She remembered Julian’s words: Point, pull the trigger.
She lifted the heavy pistol with both hands, aimed at the center of the attacker's tactical vest, and squeezed the trigger.
Bang.
The recoil slammed into her wrists, nearly dislocating her thumbs, but the bullet hit dead center. The attacker staggered backward, gasping for air, before collapsing against the wall.
The third man raised his rifle toward Eli.
Julian’s weapon fired once more, putting an end to the threat instantly.
Silence fell over the room, broken only by the crackle of distant flames and the wail of the security alarms.
Mara sat on the floor, her hands shaking violently, the gun slipping from her fingers onto the bloodstained rug. She had just shot a man. She, Mara Bennett, the waitress from the Blue Lantern Diner, had pulled a trigger in a mob war.
Julian knelt beside her immediately, ignoring the chaos around them, and grabbed her trembling hands.
"Look at me, Mara," he commanded gently.
She raised her eyes, tears spilling over her lashes. "I... I killed someone."
"You saved your brother," Julian corrected, his voice fierce, unwavering. "You survived."
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Before Mara could process the horror and the reality of what she had done, the heavy iron doors at the end of the hall echoed with a booming voice that made even Julian’s men freeze.
"Julian!" a voice roared through the smoke. "It’s over! Come out and die like a man, or watch your precious diner burn to ash!"
