Chapter 1 - THE ERUPTION
The champagne bucket was silver-plated, weighted with a thick brass base, and heavy enough to crack pavement.
When the second attacker lunged, his face twisted in a snarl of professional fury. He didn’t expect the rookie in the black-and-white uniform to pivot with the lethal grace of a trained cage fighter. Priya swung the bucket in a tight, devastating arc. The heavy metal connected squarely with the side of his jaw with a sickening crack, sending the man sprawling unconscious across a shattered table of crystal stemware.
There were four left.
Gregor snarled, shifting his aim from Elliot Sterling to the waitress who had just dismantled two of his elite hit squad in under four seconds.
“Kill the girl!” Gregor roared, his accent thick and sharp as broken glass.
Elliot Sterling did not flinch. Seated at table nine, the billionaire mafia boss simply watched with dark, unreadable eyes. Beneath his tailored Brioni suit, his muscles coiled, but he didn't draw the concealed weapon beneath his jacket. He wanted to see what Priya would do next.
The third gunman charged, pulling a tactical knife from his tactical rig.
Priya didn't wait. She dropped low, sliding across the slick marble floor through spilled champagne and shattered glass. As the man swept his blade downward, she hooked her ankle behind his knee and hauled him forward. He went down hard, his chin smashing into the edge of a mahogany chair.
She rolled instantly, coming up behind the fourth man who was trying to clear a jammed submachine gun. Before he could clear the breach, Priya drove the heel of her heavy work shoe straight into his spine, folding him like a cheap lawn chair.
Two remaining.
Gregor and his final henchwoman.
The henchwoman raised a silenced pistol, aiming directly at Priya’s chest. But before she could squeeze the trigger, a heavy silver soup ladle whistled through the air—thrown with terrifying precision by Elliot Sterling from across the room. It struck the woman’s wrist with bone-breaking force, sending the pistol clattering across the floor.
Priya closed the distance in a blur, sweeping the woman's legs out from under her and pinning her with a knee to the sternum.
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Silence crashed over the Meridian Club.
The only sound was the heavy, ragged breathing of Gregor, the last man standing, staring down the barrel of his own tactical failure.
