Chapter 3
The gravel underfoot shifted with a sharp, lethal crunch as a second figure emerged from the deep shadows beside the brick wall.
Even in the dim, flickering light of the parking lot, there was no mistaking the tall, razor-straight posture and the quiet, absolute menace radiating from Tomas. His hand rested casually inside his coat, but the tension in his shoulders telegraphed a predator ready to strike.
The man in the leather jacket froze, his fingers inches from Cora’s sleeve. He blinked, turning his head sharply toward the newcomer, his bravado instantly evaporating.
"You're out of your depth, friend," Tomas said, his voice dropping an octave, smooth and lethal as a sliding blade. "And you're standing on ground you shouldn't be near."
"I was just—" the man stammered, pulling his hand back as if he’d been burned, taking an involuntary half-step away. "We just had a few questions. The boss wants to know—"
"The boss isn't asking questions anymore," Tomas interrupted, closing the distance between them with terrifying speed.
Before Cora could even draw a breath, Tomas stepped past her. A swift, brutal blur of motion—a heavy elbow to the man's solar plexus followed by a crisp strike to the jaw—sent the attacker sprawling hard against the side of a rusted sedan. He slumped to the pavement, groaning, entirely incapacitated in less than three seconds.
Tomas didn't even look back at him. He turned his cold, piercing gaze directly onto Cora, who was shaking so hard her teeth literally chattered.
"I told you to go home," Tomas said, his tone devoid of sympathy, though not entirely without a strange kind of grim warning. "And I told you not to draw attention to yourself."
"I... I didn't," Cora whispered, her voice cracking as she pressed her back against the cold metal of a nearby pole. "I went straight to work. I swear I didn't tell anyone."
Tomas stepped closer, his dark eyes scanning the perimeter of the empty lot as if expecting more jackals to crawl out of the woodwork. "People like that don't need you to talk, Cora. They just need to trace your shadow. And right now, your shadow is leading straight back to Julian."
Hearing that name spoken out loud sent a fresh spike of ice through her veins. "I don't even know him! Why won't your boss just leave me alone? I'm a nobody. I'm just trying to survive week to week!"
"If you were a nobody, you'd already be dead," Tomas replied bluntly. He grabbed her arm—not violently, but with an iron grip that brooked no argument—and guided her firmly toward a sleek, black sedan idling quietly near the exit of the lot, its headlights off. "Get in."
"No! I'm not going anywhere with you again. Let me go home!"
"Your apartment isn't safe anymore," Tomas said, opening the rear door. "They found you here. They'll be waiting at your building before the sun comes up. Unless you want to spend the rest of your very short life running from men who don't leave witnesses, you are going to get into this car."
Cora looked from the unconscious man on the ground to the dark, cavernous interior of the car, and finally up at Tomas’s unyielding face. Every instinct screamed that she was stepping deeper into a nightmare, but the icy logic of survival whispered that he was right. Her apartment, with its peeling wallpaper and the eviction notice on the door, suddenly felt like a trap.
May you like
With trembling knees, she climbed into the back seat.
The heavy door thudded shut behind her, sealing her fate once more. As the car tore away from the hospital lot, leaving the quiet streets of Brooklyn behind, Cora stared out the window at the blurred neon lights of the city. She wondered, with a sinking heart, what kind of man Julian Voss really was—and why a crime boss who ruled the shadows cared enough to keep her alive.
