Chapter 3
Before Nora could even process the command, headlights tore through the freezing rain outside.
Three matte-black SUVs screeched to a halt in the flooded parking lot, boxing in the diner.
"Ambush!" one of Silas's men shouted, drawing an assault rifle from under his long coat.
"Get down!" Silas roared, tackling Nora to the dirty checkered floor just as the front windows exploded.
A deafening barrage of automatic gunfire ripped through the Starlight Diner.
Glass shattered into a million lethal diamonds, raining over the booths and the counter.
The sickly neon sign buzzed one final time before exploding in a shower of sparks, plunging the room into darkness.
Lily screamed, clapping her hands over her ears as the deafening noise swallowed the world.
Nora crawled desperately across the broken glass, dragging Lily beneath the heavy steel frame of the counter.
Silas's men returned fire, the muzzle flashes illuminating the diner in strobe-light bursts of violence.
Victor flipped a heavy oak table with one hand, using it as a barricade while he unloaded his pistol.
"It’s the Romanov syndicate!" Victor yelled over the chaos.
"They tracked our bleeding!"
Silas crouched beside Nora and Lily, his expensive coat now dusted with plaster and shattered glass.
He drew a sleek, suppressed handgun from his shoulder holster, his face a mask of absolute, chilling calm.
"They want to finish the job," Silas said quietly, almost to himself.
He looked at the terrified waitress who was shielding her daughter with her own fragile body.
He saw the exact same desperate, hopeless fear he had seen in his own wife’s eyes eight years ago on that snow-blind bridge.
A familiar, dormant fury ignited in his chest.
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"I need a way out, Nora," Silas demanded, his eyes glowing like embers in the dark.
"Is there a back exit?"
