I ease the door open just enough for us to slip through, and we step into a back hallway. A storeroom is on one side, a kitchen on the other, and past that is a swinging door. Low voices come through.
Amalia touches my arm and points toward the kitchen. We make our way to it, careful not to disturb anything, and crouch behind a steel counter. There’s a service window connecting the kitchen and the dining room, and as I take a peek, I spot Dominic and another guy, and they’re surrounded by a group of guards.
Fuck.
“I’ve been more than fair,” Dominic says. “You’re the one dragging your feet.”
“Fair.” The older man laughs. “You call moving my dates around twice in one month fair? I’ve got people waiting on those shipments. Buyers don’t care about your scheduling problems.”
“They can wait.”
“They won’t, and you know it.”
Amalia goes still next to me, and I’m sure she’s thinking about trying to shoot Dominic, but it’s impossible because he’s well-guarded even now.
“We need to wait until the heat dies down. I’m not risking the whole operation because you’re impatient,” Dominic says.
The man shakes his head. “And what about the Zamora load? You promised me that one in two weeks.”
“It’s being handled. Victor’s running point on it.”
I glance at Amalia, who’s frowning.
“I don’t like working with someone who changes the rules whenever it suits him,” the man says.
“Then don’t work with me.” Dominic’s voice loses some of that warmth, and there’s an edge in it now. “But I’d think hard about that, because the men who walk away from me don’t tend to do well after.”
Amalia leans in until her mouth is almost at my ear. “We need to think about how we’re getting out of here,” she whispers. “This could turn ugly.”
I nod, because she’s right. If guns come out in that room, the last place we want to be is crouched behind a counter with no way out. I tip my head toward the hallway we came through and she nods back.
“Are you threatening me now?” the man says.
“I’m telling you how things are. Sit down, Alberto. You came here to talk, so let’s talk.”
“I came here because you summoned me like I’m one of your errand boys.”
Amalia and I edge toward the door, keeping as close to the floor as possible. Just as we’re halfway to the back hallway, I hear footsteps coming closer. Someone’s leaving the dining room and heading for the kitchen. Fuck.
Amalia freezes, and I grab her wrist, pulling her behind the storeroom doorway just as the swinging door bangs open. A mansteps through, probably one of Dominic’s, and he stops to dig around his jacket pocket for something.
I hold my breath, Amalia pressed against me in the dark. The guy’s a few feet away, his face lit up by his phone screen, and if he turns his head even a little to the left, he’ll see us.
He brings the phone to his ear and grunts something, then heads back the way he came. The second the swinging door settles, I tug Amalia toward the alley door. We slip out the way we came, and I pull it shut behind us softly as I can. Then we scurry away from there until we’re back around the block and out of sight.
She lets out a breath and grins at me, her face flushed. “Well, that was close, but now we know a few more things.”
“That guy, Alberto, seems ready to put a bullet in Dominic,” I say.
Her grin widens. “Yeah, great news all around, but now let’s get away from here before any of his other guards pop up.”
I should be thinking about the shipment and the task ahead, but all that’s on my mind is how much I’d like to kiss Amalia right now. As if she can read my mind, she focuses on my mouth, but then she spins away from me.
Right. I need to focus. Not on her nice ass, though.
Oh fuck. Too late.
Chapter 18
