Chapter 3- Reckless And Clever

Chapter 3

ALLESIA

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A couple of minutes later, I was still standing there, wondering what Russel Mancini meant by what he said. But I shrugged it off. I was not going to take his offer anyway, so whatever he meant had nothing to do with me.

The feel of the minted currency in my hand and the way his cologne still lingered in the hallway were a sweet reminder that he had just tipped me $5,000. That kind of money didn’t just come by easy for a simple waiter like me.

And he’d just randomly toss it to a random person in the name of a tip?

I started walking towards the gate, but from the corner of my eye, I caught the silhouette of a man tiptoeing across the yard. He was dressed like the rest of them, a formal black suit, but something was off about this man: he had a gun.

My breath caught in my throat as I spotted another man slipping out of the shadows. He followed the first man, and the two of them kept communicating with sign language, like something out of a movie. They had not seen me yet, so I retreated and hid behind the wall next to them. What did they want?

"Are you sure he's here?" one man whispered, his voice small.

"Julio has already confirmed it. Both he and Kegan Gaetano are here. It's the perfect place to get them."

I heard a clicking sound, and my heart hammered against my chest as I recognized it: the cocking of a gun. "I'll take him, you take Kegan Gaetano. With Julio and the other three guys there, we have them cornered."

"Yeah, but what if Julio has been caught?" I heard the second man ask. "He's not even answering his calls."

"He's probably being careful. Look at me, Cilly, this is for Carlo. The Capo killed him in cold blood and sent his body back to us as a souvenir just this morning. Now is no time to be a pussy. We have to kill Capo if we want to be free. Understand?"

My breath caught in my throat, and I put my hand over my mouth to stifle a gasp. Capo, was that not Russel's title? Renzo had said he was the Capo. That meant they were here to kill him.

"Yes. So how?"

"The minute we enter, aim the gun straight at his forehead and shoot. Don't think. I'll handle Kegan while Julio and the other guys handle the rest."

They continued on, and I stood there shaking like a leaf, my pulse thudding so hard in my ears it nearly drowned out their voices. I was about to witness a murder, if I would even be alive to witness it. What should I do? Perhaps I should just leave, but what about Renzo?

I ran to the back door hastily and peered outside. Sure, a police van was there, but Pablo had made it clear that we should never involve the police in whatever happened at the bar, because, well, half the things going on there were usually illegal and would get all of us in trouble, or even get the place shut down for good.

Without a second thought, I stealthily slipped back into the dimly lit hall and back into the bar. I had to warn Renzo and make sure he was out of danger before things got worse.

"Renzo!"

A gunshot rang, then another, then two more.

Oh, God.

More gunshots followed, one after another, as I heard footsteps of people running outside for safety. The gunfire was getting terribly close, each crack of it slamming into my chest like it had my name on it.

I ducked instinctively, pressing my back against the wall, but staying here was a death sentence. The front was blocked, and from what I had seen earlier, the police had already secured the back exit.

There was nowhere left to run.

Another shot rang out, and my body acted before my mind could catch up. I sprinted toward the nearest open door, diving inside just as more bullets shredded the air behind me.

I crashed into something, someone, and before I could react, rough hands grabbed me. A cold barrel pressed against my temple.

"Who the fuck—?”

"Shit," another voice muttered.

I swallowed hard, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. There were at least seven of them, all armed, their faces set in grim determination. And right in the center, standing slightly apart like he commanded the very air in the room, was Russel Mancini.

His dark eyes flickered with recognition, then narrowed.

"The hell are you doing here?" His voice was calm, but beneath it was something else. Annoyance? Suspicion? Something that, absurdly, in a room full of guns aimed at my skull, almost looked like relief.

I struggled to steady my breath. "I– I ran."

"No fucking shit," The one I suspected to be Kegan hissed, shifting his grip on his gun. "You just happened to run straight into our cover?"

I didn't have an answer for that. The truth was, I had no idea where I was going. I just needed to not be out there where the bullets were flying. But now, standing here, trapped with a group of men currently in a gunfight, I wasn't sure I had made the right choice.

My hands were up to show them I had no weapons, because they refused to lower their guns. Six barrels, six pairs of eyes, and somehow it was Russel's stare that made my knees threaten to give out, not the guns themselves.

"I work here," I reminded them. "You don't. So technically, you're not supposed to be in here. I am."

"Well, it was either that or we burn the place to the ground," the handsome guy that was always beside Russel said with a shrug. "This seemed like a better option."

I tried to move away from the door, but the man's gun pressed against my forehead, reminding me to stay still.

"How the fuck did our location get compromised?"

I let out a disbelieving scoff. "How am I supposed to know that?" I hissed. "I'm only looking for my brother!"

"Your brother?" Russel repeated. He was the only one not raising his gun, and it actually seemed like the rest of the six men were protecting him rather than the other way around.

"Yes, my brother. The guy that served you. What have you done to him?"

He gave me a look that told me he didn't believe a word I said. "You were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago."

I opened my mouth to answer, but the footsteps outside made me swallow my words. Someone was coming, and that didn't sit well with any of them.

Russel listened closely and turned to the man beside him. "Seems we have the cops joining the party as well."

"Shit."

"There was a fucking mole," another guy hissed. This one looked so much like Russel, but his temper was clearly shorter. "How could we not know that Julio would turn on us last minute? And why the fuck did you kill Carlo?"

"He was worthless anyway," Russel answered. "He came to me and kept asking me to put him out of his misery, so I obliged."

"Apparently, his little friends think otherwise."

"And now we are trapped here and we have the police on our fucking asses!” another one sneered, punching the air with his gun angrily.

"I say we go out and take them," the one that looked like Russel suggested.

"They are cops. We can't just kill cops."

"So what do you suggest? We wait for them to kill us? I'll be damned if I spend the night in handcuffs explaining why I can't just snap a guy's neck."

I clenched my fists. My life was in Russel Mancini's hands, and I hated it. The six guns pointed at me made it worse. If the police burst in now, I'd be the first to die, caught between two sides of a war that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the man watching me like I was a puzzle he intended to solve before the night was out.

Russel watched me, head tilted slightly, as though trying to decide whether I lived or died.

"And what do we do with her?" the one called Kegan asked, gesturing at me with his gun. "She could be the mole."

"She might talk," the one who looked like Russel said, gripping his gun tighter.

"Let her be," Russel replied, his tone dismissive, though his eyes never left mine, and something in them dared anyone in the room to argue.

My breath caught in my throat, but I didn't have time to feel relieved. The pounding at the door grew louder. The cops were coming.

"Police! Open the fucking door!"

The men exchanged glances, their grip on their weapons tightening. If the cops came in now, this would be a bloodbath.

"There's no way out," one guy summarized.

No way out? That wasn't my problem. My problem was finding Renzo.

Then an idea struck me. It was reckless, stupid, but it was all I had.

Without looking at any of them to avoid losing my nerves, I turned sharply, yanked open a drawer from a desk, and grabbed the emergency flare we kept for power outages. Before any of them could stop me, I slammed it against the wall.

The flare sparked violently, smoke curling upward, filling the room with a sharp, acrid scent that clawed at the back of my throat.

"The fuck are you doing?!" One of them shouted, taking a step back.

I didn't answer. I reached for the fire alarm lever near the door and pulled it hard.

A blaring siren filled the building. In seconds, a voice crackled over the intercom.

"Fire detected in the building. Evacuate immediately! Fire detected in the building. Evacuate immediately!”

More panic exploded outside.

I heard shouts, chairs scraping, people running. The cops, the guests, the staff: everyone would be forced to evacuate.

Russel's men looked at each other, cursing under their breath.

"Well?" Kegan muttered, lowering his gun slightly.

Russel smirked, glancing at me like he finally understood what I'd done.

"Go on," he told them. Without a word, each of the men holstered their weapons and started toward the door, preparing to blend into the mass of fleeing guests.

I turned away, wiping my hands on my jeans, heart pounding against my ribs.

Russel was the last to leave, and as he passed me, he paused, leaning in just slightly, close enough that his cologne cut through the smoke and the fear both.

"That was reckless," he murmured. "And very clever."

"Get the hell out," I hissed, refusing to let him see how badly my hands were shaking.

He chuckled, low and unbothered, then disappeared into the smoke like it belonged to him too.

I waited a moment, then darted into the hallway after them. The building was in complete pandemonium. Through the smoke and flashing emergency lights, I spotted Renzo slumped against the bar, bruised and bleeding from a gash in his side.

I rushed to him, draping his arm over my shoulder.

"Renzo! What the hell happened to you?” I dragged him toward the emergency exit. "Come on, we have to get out of here."

By the time the police regained control of the situation, the fire department had arrived, and even though they found no fire to put out, the entire building was being evacuated.

We made it behind the bar just as police officers began establishing a perimeter.

I pressed myself and Renzo against the wall, praying we wouldn't be seen, my heart still slamming against my ribs like it hadn't gotten the message that we might actually make it out of this.

"Everyone inside is being detained for questioning," I heard one officer say.