CHAPTER 1 — The Receipt That Changed Everything
The folded check landed softly on the polished oak table.
Dominic Moretti reached for it without looking.
His attention remained fixed on the caller speaking quietly through the Bluetooth earpiece hidden beneath his dark hair.
"...No. Delay the shipment until Friday."
He opened the leather check holder.
At first he saw only the total.
Then...
A second line.
Written in shaky blue ink.
GUNMAN BEHIND YOU.
For less than half a heartbeat, Dominic didn't react.
That was exactly why he was still alive.
Most people would have turned around.
Most people would have reached for a weapon.
Most people would have looked surprised.
Dominic Moretti simply lifted his wine glass.
He watched the reflection in the crimson Cabernet.
Behind him...
A distorted image.
Olive-green jacket.
Hand beneath the table.
Suppressor.
Already aimed.
His pulse never changed.
Into the microphone he calmly said,
"Leo."
Across the restaurant, the giant bodyguard never looked up.
"What?"
"Three o'clock."
That was all.
Leo's eyes shifted exactly once.
He saw it.
The gunman.
Everything exploded.
The assassin stood.
The suppressor cleared the tablecloth.
Before he could squeeze the trigger, Leo hurled a solid oak chair across the dining room.
The chair crashed into the assassin's chest.
The first shot fired anyway.
PHHT!
The silenced round shattered a chandelier instead of Dominic's skull.
Guests screamed.
Wine glasses exploded.
Someone dropped an entire tray of plates.
The restaurant became chaos.
The assassin rolled behind a table and fired again.
PHHT!
Another bullet buried itself inside the brick wall inches from Dominic's head.
Yet Dominic never ducked.
Instead...
He stood.
Slowly.
Almost casually.
His black suit remained perfectly straight as he stepped into the aisle.
The assassin hesitated.
Every rumor he'd ever heard about Dominic Moretti suddenly became terrifyingly real.
"You should've taken the first shot," Dominic said quietly.
The assassin fired three more times.
Dominic moved before the trigger finished breaking.
A sideways step.
A flipped dining table.
China shattered across marble flooring.
Leo reached the assassin first.
The impact sounded like a truck collision.
The gun flew.
The assassin hit the floor.
Two more security men burst through the kitchen entrance.
How?
Because Dominic had texted exactly two words the instant he read Chloe's note.
COME NOW.
Thirty seconds later...
The gunman lay bleeding and unconscious.
Police sirens echoed somewhere outside.
But nobody called them.
Because every phone inside the restaurant had mysteriously lost signal.
Including Chloe's.
She stood frozen beside the dessert station.
Still gripping the dead pen.
Still shaking.
Then Dominic looked directly at her.
Not through her.
At her.
"You."
The single word froze the room again.
Everyone knew what happened to people who became important to Dominic Moretti.
Nobody knew whether that importance was a blessing...
...or a death sentence.
Outside...
Rain washed blood toward the curb.
The unconscious assassin suddenly opened one eye.
He smiled.
Inside his jacket...
A tiny transmitter blinked once.
Somewhere across Boston...
Another man whispered,
"Phase One complete."
The attack had never been meant to kill Dominic.
It had been designed...
To see whether the waitress would interfere.
And now...
Someone else knew her name.
By midnight...
May you like
Chloe Bennett officially became the second target.
She simply didn't know it yet.
