Chapter 2
The baby’s fingers tightened around mine.
No one at table seven moved.
Not the guards.
Not the manager.
Not the guests pretending not to watch.
The mafia boss stood slowly.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“My name is Mara Hayes.”
“That is not what I asked.”
My throat went dry.
“I’m a waitress.”
His eyes stayed on my face.
“No.”
The baby rested against me, calm and warm, unaware that the room around him had turned dangerous.
“What was his mother’s name?” I asked.
The boss looked at the photograph.
“Sofia Bellagio.”
Bellagio.
The name of the restaurant.
The name whispered in the city like a warning.
I stared at the woman in the frame.
“She looks like me.”
One of the guards muttered, “Looks like? Boss, she could be—”
“Quiet,” the boss said.
The guard stopped.
The boss took one step toward me.
The baby whimpered.
He stopped immediately.
That surprised me.
Men like him were not supposed to stop for anyone.
“What is your mother’s name?” he asked.
“Elaine Hayes.”
His face changed.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“You know her.”
He said nothing.
I stepped back.
“Do you know my mother?”
The baby made a small sound and pressed his cheek against my uniform.
The boss looked at him.
Pain passed across his face.
“My son is Nico,” he said quietly.
I looked down.
Nico.
He smelled like milk and expensive soap.
He reached for my necklace, the tiny silver locket my mother had given me when I was little.
The boss saw it.
His eyes sharpened.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Open it.”
I held Nico closer.
“I said no.”
The room froze again.
No one talked to him that way.
Maybe no one survived talking to him that way.
But he did not touch me.
He looked at his guard.
“Matteo. Lock the front door.”
Panic shot through me.
“No.”
The boss raised his hand.
“Not for you. For whoever brought you here.”
“I came to work.”
“No,” he said. “You were placed here.”
My manager backed away.
Too late.
Matteo grabbed his arm.
The boss looked at him.
“Who hired her?”
My manager went pale.
“I don’t know.”
The boss leaned closer.
“Wrong answer.”
My manager swallowed.
“A woman called. She paid cash. Said Mara needed night shifts near table seven.”
My blood went cold.
My mother’s warning echoed in my head.
Run.
May you like
But Nico was asleep in my arms.
And every exit was already guarded.
