Chapter 2 - THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS
Pitch blackness swallowed the grand dining room.
The hum of the chandelier died instantly.
Only the heavy breathing of twenty armed men remained.
Beside my knee, Zeus went rigid.
His fur bristled against my knuckles.
A low, subterranean rumble vibrated in his chest.
Not at me.
At the north windows.
"Nobody move," Dominic’s voice sliced through the dark.
It was smooth.
Terrifyingly level.
The sound of silk sliding over steel followed.
He was drawing his weapon.
"Dominic," I whispered.
My fingers stayed anchored in Zeus’s thick collar.
"Stay down, server," Dominic ordered softly.
"My name is Nora."
"Stay down, Nora."
A red dot appeared on the marble floor.
It danced across the overturned silver flutes.
Then it climbed the damask wallpaper.
Zeus let out a sharp, ear-splitting bark.
He lunged forward.
I threw my weight across his muscular shoulders.
"Zeus, wait!" I gasped.
The hundred-pound dog dragged me two feet across slick marble.
Then the French doors blew inward.
A deafening crack tore the air apart.
Shards of heavy plate glass rained down like daggers.
Cold Chicago night air blasted into the room.
It smelled of burnt gunpowder, wet cedar, and ozone.
Screams erupted from the banquet guests.
Men shoved past tables, knocking over antique mahogany chairs.
Muzzle flashes strobed through the shattered doorway.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
High-velocity rounds pulverized the Corinthian columns above my head.
Plaster dust showered my hair and stinging eyes.
Dominic moved like a phantom in the strobe light.
He didn't scramble for cover.
He didn't shout.
He stepped directly into the line of fire.
His custom pistol barked twice in rapid succession.
A heavy thud followed out on the terrace.
Someone groaned in the wet gravel.
"Rear perimeter breached!" a guard yelled from the pantry.
"They cut the generator cables!"
Another voice shouted from the darkness outside:
"Drop the hound, Castellano!"
The accent was rough.
Harsh South Side gravel.
"Victor wants what's inside that dog's hide!"
My stomach plummeted.
Inside his hide?
I looked down at Zeus in the darkness.
The dog was trembling.
His front paws were planted wide.
He was positioning his massive body directly between me and the open terrace.
He wasn't attacking.
He was shielding me.
"Cover the girl," Dominic snapped to his men.
"I don't need a bodyguard," I yelled over the gunfire.
"You're an animal trainer in thin flats," Dominic replied.
He dropped to one knee beside me.
The heat radiating off his broad shoulders was intense.
He smelled of bitter espresso and clean gun oil.
"Can you control him if we run?" Dominic asked.
His eyes searched mine in the dark.
They were steady.
Cold as obsidian.
"He trusts me," I said, my heart slamming against my ribs.
"Then move."
A metallic cylinder clattered across the parquet floor.
It rolled between my knees.
A thin hiss of white phosphorus sparked from its cap.
Flash-bang.
"Eyes shut!" Dominic roared.
May you like
He threw his entire body over mine, pinning me and Zeus beneath his heavy frame.
The world went white.
