Hell, I actually enjoyed myself. That was something I hadn’t experienced in alongtime.
“Billie!” Gary barked as I polished glasses at the end of the night. “You saved our asses, girl. Do you need a more permanent position?”
My brows shot up in surprise. “Um, yes! Yeah, I do.” Fuck the Ricci family; they wouldn’t even recognize me if they saw me working here, anyway. And the tips weregood. Better than anything I’d had in years.
Gary gave a curt nod. “I’ll get the paperwork done tomorrow.”
Liz gave me a wide smile, then called me over to the kitchen where the chef had put out some staff meals for us. She needed to stay for a late booking, but I was technically finished for the night. Gary had counted out my pay, and I’d almost wept.
The food was just an added bonus on an already great night. It’d been alongtime since I’d eaten authentic Italian, so I almost had a mouth orgasm when I tasted the spinach and ricotta cannelloni that the chef had given us.
“Good, huh?” Liz laughed as I inhaled my food. From the dining room, the sound of men’s voices traveled out to us, and she sighed. “Looks like my late booking is here. Finish up, then head back to the house; I’m room twenty-eight.” She handed me her key, and I gave her a startled look.
“Um…”
“Just don’t steal my shit, alright,” she told me with a laugh, and I was going to guess she didn’t have much theretosteal. Otherwise, why trust a total stranger?
I quickly polished off my food, then washed my plate and ducked into the staff toilet to pee. While I was in there, I peeled off my white blouse, folding it to put away in my bag, just in case I didn’t have time to wash it before my next shift. I was wearing a tank top underneath, anyway, and it wasn’tfreezingoutside. It’d do.
Before I even finished packing my bag, a loud bang came from the front of the restaurant, quickly followed by another, and I stiffened with fear. Were those gunshots? A second later the sound of male voices traveled through to where I hid, and no one sounded worried. Surely, if someone had fired a gun, there would be a fraction more panic going on in the restaurant.
I breathed a sigh of relief. It was probably a car backfiring in the street, and my paranoia was making too much of it. But then as I left the toilet, I heard a familiar voice. The sort of voice that made me freeze in panic.
Fuck.Fuck.
It’d been six years since I heard that voice, but I was inno wayready for a reunion with the man it belonged to. So I did the cowardly thing and ducked back into the toilet to hide.
Not a moment too soon, either. Shouts from the dining room came closer, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass and scuffling feet. Curiosity had always been a curse for me, and I peered through a crack in the door as a heavyset man was pushed through the storeroom. His hands were up and he was babbling pleas, but I couldn’t understand a word of it. The rush of my own pulse in my ears was too loud as I laid eyes on Angelo Ricci.
His handsome face was so achingly familiar, but the boy I’d known was long gone. In his place was a hard-edged man with haunted eyes and a gun in his hand. Fuck. Angelo was aiming a gun at this guy.
“Get him out into the alley,” he snapped to the guy beside him, and they shoved the begging man outside. Angelo followed, and so did two other guys with guns. Holy crap, why did they all have guns?
Fear coursed through me like electric shocks, and a cold sweat formed all over my body, but I couldn’t move. I had to stay hidden and pray that none of them needed to pee. Oh god. What if they found me? Would they kill me? I’d seen too much already, I was sure.
That certainty got worse as the raised voices in the alleyway got more intense. This time there was no mistaking the sound of a gunshot.
“Fuck,” I breathed. I needed to get the hell out, but how? Angelo and his guys were in the alleyway, presumably having just shot a guy. I didn’t want to be next.
Panic urging me forward, I abandoned my duffel bag and slipped out of the toilet stall. The back door was still ajar, and I couldn’t stop myself from peeking out. Angelo was like a fucking magnet for me.
It was dark outside, but there was no mistaking the body on the ground at Angelo’s feet.
Holy shit.Holy shit!
I must have made a sound because his gaze snapped up, locking eyes with me like we had some kind of sick magical connection. I saw the second he recognized me, his brown eyes widening under the dim outdoor lights and his lips parting in shock, but I wasn’t sticking around for a reunion.
Nope, I wasgone. I took off running to the front of the restaurant, terror flooding through my veins as I smacked my hip on the corner of a table, then tripped over something.
“Billie!” his gut-wrenchingly familiar voice shouted after me, and I scrambled to hide behind the bar. What the hell had happened here? Where was Liz? And Gary? And…
“Find her, and kill her,” another man snarled, his voice harsh and guttural. Familiar, too, but I couldn’t place it as easily as Angelo’s. “Then come back here and clean up this mess. We can’t let this fuckup get back to Giovanni.”
Footsteps sounded, and the door opened and closed with people,hopefully,leaving the restaurant. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I was alone, though. Not when Angelo hadseenme.
I tucked into a tiny ball behind the bar, shaking with fear. Tears poured from my eyes, but I was too scared to make even a single noise. Then I realized what I’d tripped over before scurrying behind the bar.
Liz’s beautiful brown eyes stared at me from where she lay crumpled on the floor. Lifeless. A pool of blood surrounded her, and a small scream escaped my throat.
