His tiny fingers closed around the rough fabric of her uniform.

Avery stood there, suddenly afraid to move.

Across the table, Luca watched.

"He hasn't slept for more than twenty minutes at a time in two days," he said.

Avery looked down at the child's closed eyes.

"He seems peaceful now."

"He hasn't been peaceful."

There was something in his voice.

Not anger.

Something older.

Something tired.

Avery gently rocked the baby.

The restaurant seemed unusually quiet.

Within a minute, Leo was asleep.

Avery swallowed.

"I should probably get back to work."

She began to hand him back.

Leo stirred.

His fingers tightened in her apron.

Luca raised one hand.

"Ten thousand dollars."

Avery blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Come with us for the night."

She stared at him.

He spoke as if offering ten thousand dollars to a waitress in the middle of a restaurant was a perfectly ordinary proposition.

"He'll sleep," Luca continued. "You go home tomorrow."

"No."

The answer came too quickly.

Luca's eyes narrowed slightly.

Avery carefully transferred Leo back into his father's arms.

The baby immediately began to cry.

Avery took one step backward.

"I can't."

She turned.

And the world exploded.

The first blast shattered the restaurant's front windows.

Avery never understood the sound.

She understood only force.

The floor struck her back.

Glass rained from above.

People screamed.

Tables overturned.

Someone shouted.

Another blast tore through the wall.

Avery curled instinctively.

Then she heard Leo crying.

She looked up.

Luca was already moving.

He had dropped behind the table, shielding his son with his body.

One of his guards was firing toward the entrance.

Another seized Avery by the arm.

"Down!"

She dropped behind an overturned table as another round smashed into the wall.

Her ears rang.

Her hands shook.

A wineglass shattered inches from her face.

Luca appeared through the chaos.

His expression had changed.

The man who had quietly asked for mineral water was gone.

In his place was something colder.

"Kitchen," he said.

Avery stared at him.

"We're leaving."

"I—"

He placed Leo into her arms.

The child was crying.

"Hold him."

Avery clutched the baby.

"Do not stop running."

Then Luca drew a handgun.

Avery's mind stopped working.

She simply followed.

They moved through the kitchen.

Cooks crouched behind counters. Someone was sobbing. Stainless steel reflected flashes of light and movement.

Avery held Leo against her chest and ran.

The back doors burst open.

Cold air struck her face.

An armored SUV waited in the alley.

Luca pushed her inside.

His guards followed.

The tires screamed.

Avery pressed Leo against her chest.

Her breathing wouldn't slow.

She had spent years worrying about ordinary things.

Rent.

Groceries.

A car repair.

A late fee.

Now a child slept against her heart while armed men surrounded her and bullets were still echoing somewhere behind them.

Luca sat opposite her.

His jaw was clenched.

"Did you see the shooters?" he asked the man in front.

"No."

Avery looked toward the window.

Then she saw the gun.

Not Luca's.

The lead security man's.

It was pointed backward.

At her.

Everything inside her froze.

The man's expression was blank.

Luca moved.

He caught the man's wrist before the gun could settle.

A shot struck the reinforced ceiling.

The SUV swerved.

There was a violent struggle.

Luca wrested the weapon away.

The traitor was no longer moving when the vehicle finally stopped in an abandoned industrial lot.

Avery stared.

She couldn't understand what she'd just seen.

Luca opened the door.

"Stay inside."

The dead silence afterward was worse than the gunfire.

Eventually the SUV moved again.

They drove for nearly forty minutes.

Iron gates emerged from the darkness.

They opened.

Beyond them stood an enormous stone estate surrounded by walls, cameras, guards and enough security to make Avery feel as though she had crossed into another country.

Luca carried Leo inside.

A housekeeper hurried forward.

Avery stayed near the doorway.

"I want to go home."

Luca turned.

"Your apartment is no longer safe."

"My apartment has never been safe. It's on the third floor and the radiator makes a banging noise."

His expression didn't change.

"My enemies saw you."

She stopped.

"They saw you holding my son."

The humor disappeared from her face.

Luca extended his hand.

Avery stared at it.

Then at the house.

Then at the road behind her.

She took his hand.

Inside, the mansion was colder than it was beautiful.

Marble floors.

Dark wood.

Paintings.

High ceilings.

Everything expensive.

Everything controlled.

Luca led her into a study.

A fire burned low in the fireplace.

Avery approached it.

She held her hands toward the warmth.

Then she saw the painting.

A woman.

Dark hair.

Pale skin.

Gray-blue eyes.

Avery stopped breathing.

"Who is she?"

Luca poured whiskey into a glass.

"My wife."

Avery looked back at the painting.

"Elena."

The name carried something into the room that wasn't there before.

Grief.

"Luca..."

"She was murdered one month ago."

Avery looked toward him.

"Leo saw it."

Luca's voice had gone quiet.

"That's why he won't sleep."

Avery looked down.

Everything suddenly made sense.

The desperate reaching.

The recognition.

The terror.

"He thought I was her."

Luca didn't answer immediately.

Then he looked at Avery.

"You look exactly like her."

Avery folded her arms.

"I'm an orphan."

His gaze sharpened.

"I grew up in foster care."

"Your parents?"

"I don't know them."

"You have no idea who they were?"

"No."

The silence stretched.

Luca came closer.

"That resemblance isn't coincidence."

"I don't have a secret twin."

"I didn't say you did."

His hand lifted.

His thumb brushed lightly against her cheek.

Avery should have stepped away.

Instead, she stood frozen.

Not because she trusted him.

Because she was exhausted.

Because she had spent her entire life without anyone looking at her as though she mattered.

Then the study doors opened.

Marco, Luca's head of security, entered.

"We have information from one of the surviving attackers."

Luca's hand dropped.

His face hardened.

"Who ordered the attack?"

Marco hesitated.

"Not the boy."

Avery's stomach turned.

"Then who?"

Marco looked at her.

"The contract was for the woman."

Luca's eyes moved slowly toward Avery.

The fire snapped.

"Why?"

"We don't know yet."

The house went into lockdown.

Steel shutters descended over the windows.

The mansion became a fortress.

Luca looked at Avery.

"Are you playing a game with me?"

"No."

"If you're lying—"

"I'm not."

His voice was almost a whisper.

"I will find out."

"I believe you."

Something changed in his expression.

For one dangerous second, the room felt too small.

Then the lights went out.

Every light.

The emergency system failed.

Avery heard the intercom crackle.

Luca grabbed her hand.

"Move."

A hidden panel opened behind the bookshelf.

They disappeared into darkness just as armed men entered the study.

The passage was narrow.

Avery could hear her own breathing.

Luca's hand remained around hers.

They reached a reinforced panic room.

The housekeeper was already there with Leo.

Luca leaned against the wall.

Avery saw the blood.

"You've been shot."

"It's nothing."

"Sit down."

He looked at her.

She pointed toward the cot.

"Sit."

For the first time that night, Luca obeyed.

Avery cleaned the wound.

His eyes never left her face.