Chapter 2 - Blood on the Ballroom Floor
Victor moved before Tessa understood what was happening.
He seized her around the waist and pulled her behind a marble column as bullets tore through the orchestra stage.
Musicians abandoned their instruments.
Guests dropped beneath tables.
A chandelier chain snapped, sending crystal fragments raining across the dance floor.
Gabriel and Victor’s guards drew weapons.
“West balcony!” Gabriel shouted.
Victor pushed Tessa lower. “Stay down.”
A gunman appeared behind the balcony railing.
Gabriel fired twice.
The attacker disappeared from view.
Two more shots came from the service corridor.
Victor turned toward the sound.
“This isn’t an assassination attempt,” he said.
Gabriel crouched beside him. “What is it, then?”
“A distraction.”
Victor looked toward the private booth.
A black leather case that had been beneath his table was gone.
Gabriel’s face changed. “The ledger.”
“Seal the exits.”
Tessa stared at them. “What ledger?”
Victor ignored the question.
He looked across the ballroom and saw a catering employee moving rapidly through the panicked crowd.
The man wore a waiter’s jacket, but his shoes were military boots.
Victor pointed. “Him.”
The fake waiter shoved a woman aside and ran toward the kitchen.
Gabriel started after him.
Tessa grabbed Victor’s sleeve.
“There’s another exit.”
Victor looked down at her.
“The staff laundry corridor,” she said. “It leads to the loading dock.”
Victor pulled her to her feet. “Show me.”
They moved through the kitchen as terrified staff hid behind counters.
Tessa led him past the walk-in refrigerator and through a narrow door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY.
Gabriel and two guards followed.
At the end of the corridor, the fake waiter appeared with the leather case.
He saw Victor and raised a pistol.
Tessa froze.
Victor shoved her behind a laundry cart as Gabriel fired.
The attacker dropped the case and disappeared around the corner.
One of Victor’s guards chased him.
The sound of a struggle followed, then silence.
Gabriel picked up the case.
“Still locked,” he said.
Victor examined it. “Take it to the car.”
Police sirens approached outside.
Tessa stepped from behind the cart. “Was that because of you?”
Victor looked at the blood on her sleeve.
“Are you injured?”
“It isn’t mine.”
“That does not answer my question.”
“Neither did you.”
Gabriel approached them. “We need to leave.”
Victor nodded toward Tessa. “She comes with us.”
Her stomach tightened. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Gabriel laughed once. “You walked into his booth and accused me of threatening your brother. Now you think you can go home?”
“I have a brother waiting for me.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel said.
Victor turned toward him.
The silence between them was immediate and dangerous.
“I suspended the debt,” Victor said.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. “You did not discuss that with me.”
“I don’t require permission.”
“It is my operation.”
“It is my organization.”
The two men stared at one another.
For the first time, Tessa saw something beneath Gabriel’s obedience.
Resentment.
Victor faced her again. “You can return to your apartment, where the people who stole my ledger may follow you because they saw you dancing with me.”
“I had nothing to do with the ledger.”
“They don’t know that.”
“Or I can enter a car with the city’s most feared criminal?”
Victor’s mouth curved faintly. “You finally admit you know who I am.”
A fresh burst of shouting came from the ballroom.
Gabriel checked his watch. “Police will lock down the hotel.”
Victor held out his hand to Tessa.
It was the same hand she had taken on the dance floor.
“Decide quickly.”
Tessa thought of Liam alone in their apartment with a broken rib. She thought of the gunman’s military boots and the missing ledger.
Then she placed her hand in Victor’s.
They exited through the loading dock.
A black sedan waited beside stacked delivery crates.
Inside the vehicle, Victor sat across from Tessa while Gabriel rode in front.
“Call your brother,” Victor ordered.
Tessa took out her phone.
Liam answered on the fourth ring.
“Tess?”
“Are you home?”
“Where else would I be?”
“Lock the door. Don’t open it for anyone.”
“What happened?”
“I found a way to get more time.”
Silence.
“What did you do?” Liam asked.
“I’ll explain later.”
“Tessa, where are you?”
She looked at Victor.
“In a car.”
“With who?”
Victor leaned forward and spoke loudly enough for Liam to hear.
“Victor Moretti.”
The line went silent.
Then Liam whispered, “Oh, God.”
Victor took the phone from Tessa.
“Listen carefully, Liam. Your sister bought you seventy-two hours. During that time, you will not gamble, run, borrow money, or contact Gabriel Costa.”
“You can’t tell me—”
Victor ended the call.
Tessa glared at him. “He’s injured and frightened.”
“He is also the cause of your current situation.”
“You didn’t have to terrify him.”
“Fear may accomplish what common sense failed to do.”
The sedan entered an underground garage beneath a dark office tower.
Victor stepped out and waited for Tessa.
She looked toward the elevator.
“What happens now?”
“You wanted employment.”
“At midnight?”
“You claimed you were an accountant.”
“I am.”
May you like
Victor glanced at the leather case Gabriel carried.
“Then tonight, Miss Montgomery, you begin your interview.”
