Chapter 2 - The Alleyway Ambush
I left my barely touched dinner on the table and walked out of The Jade Room.
The cold Manhattan air hit my face, but it did nothing to calm the burning rage in my chest.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Marcus, my head of corporate security.
“I need a full background check on a waitress named Lily Carter at The Jade Room,” I ordered.
“I want her financials, her associates, and every address she has ever lived at.”
Marcus promised to have the file ready within the hour.
I sat in the back of my armored Maybach, watching the restaurant entrance from across the street.
An hour later, Marcus sent an encrypted document to my tablet.
The file revealed that Lily was half a million dollars in debt to a violent underground syndicate.
She had borrowed the money to pay for her mother’s medical bills before the fatal fire.
Just as I finished reading, I saw Lily exit the service door of the restaurant wearing a heavy winter coat.
I ordered my driver to follow her from a safe distance as she walked toward the subway.
She turned down a narrow, poorly lit street that was completely devoid of pedestrians.
Suddenly, a black van skidded to a halt, blocking her path entirely.
Four massive men stepped out of the vehicle, holding steel pipes and demanding their money.
I threw open the door of my Maybach, ready to order my armed security team to save her.
But before my boots even touched the pavement, Lily dropped her backpack.
She ducked under the first man’s swing and drove her elbow brutally into his jaw.
With terrifying speed and precision, she dismantled the other three men using advanced martial arts.
She left them groaning on the concrete and picked up a manila folder one of the thugs had dropped.
I stepped out of the shadows, clapping my hands slowly in genuine amusement.
May you like
Lily spun around instantly, pulling a sleek black handgun from her coat and aiming it directly at my heart.
“I have been waiting for you to show yourself, Mr. Whitmore,” she said with a lethal smile.
