Chapter 4
"The kitchen," Nora choked out, spitting plaster dust from her lips.
"There’s a reinforced steel door in the alley, but it’s padlocked from the inside."
Silas nodded once, his mind processing the tactical layout in a fraction of a second.
"Victor, cover the front!" Silas ordered, his voice cutting through the deafening gunfire.
"We move to the kitchen on my mark!"
Outside, the Romanov hitmen were advancing, their heavy boots splashing through the flooded parking lot.
They were laying down a suppressing fire that chewed through the diner’s cheap drywall like wet paper.
One of Silas’s men took a bullet to the shoulder, crying out as he collapsed against the pie display case.
"Now!" Silas bellowed.
He grabbed Nora by the arm, hauling her up, while she carried Lily tightly against her chest.
They sprinted blindly through the swinging kitchen doors, slipping on the slick grease covering the floor.
Bullets chased them, shattering plates and tearing through the stainless steel prep stations.
They scrambled into the cramped, pitch-black pantry just as a grenade detonated in the main dining room.
The shockwave threw them violently against the metal shelving.
Cans of soup and heavy bags of flour rained down on them in the suffocating darkness.
Silas immediately pushed himself up, shaking off the concussion, his ears ringing loudly.
He reached for his lighter, flicking it open to cast a small, flickering orange glow across the tiny room.
Nora was hyperventilating, clutching Lily so tightly the child was whimpering in pain.
"Are you hit?" Silas asked, his voice surprisingly gentle amid the slaughter.
"No," Nora sobbed, shaking her head. "We're okay."
Silas looked down at the six-year-old girl, who was still clutching her ruined box of colored pencils in one hand.
She wasn't crying anymore; she was staring at the blood dripping from a cut on Silas’s cheek.
"You're bleeding, mister," Lily whispered.
May you like
Silas touched his face, staring at the crimson on his fingers.
"It’s not the first time, kid," he replied softly.
