Before Lily could respond, the heavy mahogany doors of the lounge exploded inward.
"VANE!"
A hail of gunfire shattered the crystal chandelier. The "Red Fang" Triad—Dante's fiercest rivals—had breached the perimeter.
The Action
In an instant, the billionaire turned into a butcher. Dante didn't dive for cover; he drew a sleek, matte-black handgun from an invisible holster and fired three shots in rapid succession. Three men fell before they hit the carpet.
Lily dived behind a velvet sofa, but a stray bullet grazed her arm. She hissed in pain, her own combat training kicking in. As a gunman lunged toward her, she didn't scream. She grabbed a broken bottle from her tray and drove it into the attacker's thigh, stripping his gun from his hands in one fluid motion.
Pop. Pop.
She took down two more attackers from her crouched position.
Dante, standing amidst the chaos, watched her with a look of dark fascination. He fired a final shot, clearing the room, then turned his gaze to Lily, who was still holding the stolen firearm with professional ease.
"A humble waitress doesn't know how to clear a jam in a Glock 17," Dante said, stepping over a corpse as if it were a discarded rug.
"And a billionaire doesn't usually carry a silencer," Lily countered, aiming the gun directly at his chest.
The Cliffhanger
Dante walked right up to the barrel of her gun, pressing his chest against the cold metal.
"Shoot me, and you'll never find what happened to your father. Stay with me, and I'll give you the world—and the heads of the men who killed him."
Lily's finger trembled on the trigger. "Why would you help me?"
"Because," Dante leaned down, his breath hot against her ear, "I've spent my whole life breaking people. I want to see if you're the one who finally breaks me."
Outside, the sirens wailed, but inside, the air was thick with a new, more dangerous tension.