Chapter 4 - Ambush on Boston Street
The silence in the kitchen was suffocating.
The exhaust fans hummed above the commercial burners.
Roman’s eyes were pinned on my bruised skin.
"Nobody, sir," I lied.
"I bumped into a pantry shelf."
Roman didn't blink.
"The wood doesn't leave fingernail marks, Nora."
His voice was dangerously quiet.
"Did Evelyn touch you?"
"Mr. Calder, please," I pleaded, stepping back against the counter.
"You have a wedding in three weeks. You don't need problems in your staff
quarters."
"I asked you a question."
He stepped closer.
He was towering, his broad shoulders blocking out the fluorescent kitchen light.
The faint scent of cedarwood and harbor rain rolled off him.
"She gave me money to leave," I admitted.
"I refused. That's all."
His jaw clenched until the muscles twitched.
"She threatened your brother?"
I looked at him in shock.
"How do you know about Caleb?"
"I run an empire, Nora," he said, his tone softening just an inch.
"I don't employ strangers. I know you walk four miles every evening to save bus
fare for his medicine."
He paused, looking down at my hands.
"I know he keeps a secret metal box under his bed."
A faint, surprised breath left my lips.
"How could you possibly know about the box?"
"You talked to Mrs. Gable about it last Christmas," he answered.
"You said he wouldn't tell you what he was saving for."
A shadow of curiosity crossed his eyes.
"What is inside it?"
"I don't know," I said, almost laughing through the fear.
"He says it's a surprise for me when he turns ten."
For a fleeting second, the heavy air between us dissolved.
We were not a billionaire boss and his cook.
We were just two people sharing the memory of a child's stubborn hope.
Then the phone in my apron pocket buzzed violently.
It was Mrs. Adler, our elderly neighbor who watched Caleb after school.
I answered instantly.
"Mrs. Adler?"
"Nora? Dear, don't panic," the old woman's voice trembled over the speaker.
"There's a black car parked right across from Caleb's classroom."
"The windows are completely black. It's been idling there since two o'clock."
The floor seemed to drop out from beneath my feet.
"Where is Caleb?" I screamed into the phone.
"He's inside the front office with the principal. But the men inside that car...
they haven't moved."
I hung up.
My vision blurred.
I tore my apron off and threw it onto the stainless counter.
"I have to go."
Roman grabbed my coat from the hook by the door.
"You're not going alone."
"Mr. Calder, please, this is my family—"
"Marco!" Roman roared toward the service hall.
His head of security appeared in seconds.
"Take the armored Suburban. Bring Nora to St. Jude’s. Bring the boy here. If
anyone follows you, put them in the dirt."
Roman looked back at me, his eyes burning with an intensity that terrified me.
"If she laid a finger on that boy, there will be no wedding."
Ten minutes later, I was in the back of the black SUV.
Marco sped down Boston Street, cutting through harbor traffic.
Rain began to pound against the reinforced windshield.
"We're three blocks away, Miss Hayes," Marco said, checking his rearview mirror.
"Hold on. We have a tail."
A gray sedan surged through the red light behind us.
Before Marco could turn onto Eastern Avenue, a heavy delivery truck pulled out
from an alleyway.
It didn't slow down.
CRASH.
The impact slammed our vehicle sideways into an iron lamppost.
My head cracked against the window glass.
Airbags exploded with a deafening roar.
White smoke filled the cabin.
Blood ran warm down my temple.
Through the shattered windshield, I saw three men in tactical masks approaching.
Marco drew his service pistol, but a rifle butt smashed through his side window
before he could fire.
A gloved hand reached through the back door.
The metal handle snapped open.
I kicked out wildly, my boot connecting with someone's chest.
"Get away from me!"
May you like
A heavy iron bar struck the side of my skull.
The world turned pitch black.
