Chapter 3 - THE ALIBI BECOMES REAL
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Chaos transformed the country club in seconds.
Guests stood.
Chairs scraped.
Servers abandoned trays.
The alarm screamed from the ceiling while red lights pulsed across the walls.
Sadi’s family moved toward the main exit with everyone else.
Roman did not.
He pulled Sadi toward a service corridor.
“Why aren’t we leaving?”
“Because that’s what they expect.”
“Who?”
“You already know.”
Her stomach dropped.
“The Morettis.”
Roman opened a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY and ushered her inside.
The corridor beyond smelled of detergent and roasted meat.
His security guard appeared behind them.
“East entrance compromised.”
“How many?”
“Four confirmed.”
Roman’s expression became frighteningly empty.
“Guests?”
“Being evacuated.”
“And the Millers?”
“Covered.”
Sadi grabbed Roman’s sleeve.
“My family?”
“They’re safe.”
“You swear?”
Roman looked at her hand clutching his jacket.
“Yes.”
The speed of his answer calmed her more than it should have.
Another security man appeared.
“Vehicle ready at loading.”
Roman nodded.
“Sadi goes first.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Roman’s face hardened.
“This is not a negotiation.”
“My sister is inside.”
“Your sister is surrounded by two hundred civilians and police are already coming.”
“You said fifty witnesses.”
“I underestimated your sister’s guest list.”
Under any other circumstances, Sadi might have laughed.
Instead, she heard something crash nearby.
Then came a sound she recognized from movies but had never heard in real life.
A suppressed gunshot.
Her blood turned cold.
Roman shoved her behind him.
His own weapon appeared so quickly she did not see where it came from.
“I said no guns.”
Roman glanced back.
“I lied.”
“You promised.”
“I promised not to threaten the caterers.”
Another shot struck the metal door at the end of the corridor.
Sadi screamed.
Roman pushed her down behind a commercial laundry cart.
His security team returned fire.
The entire surreal fantasy shattered.
This was not her fake boyfriend.
This was Roman Rossi.
The man whose shirts occasionally returned with blood on the cuffs.
The man federal agents searched houses to arrest.
The man she had invited into her family’s wedding weekend.
Roman crouched beside her.
“Look at me.”
She couldn’t.
“Sadi.”
His hand closed around her jaw gently but firmly.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“I will get you out.”
“People are shooting.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t helping.”
A flash of irritation crossed his face.
Apparently she had criticized his emergency reassurance.
“I’m working with limited experience comforting civilians.”
Despite herself, she made a strangled sound halfway between crying and laughing.
Roman stared.
“Was that better?”
“No.”
“Fine.”
He stood.
“Stay behind me.”
They moved through the kitchen.
Employees crouched beneath counters.
Roman’s men directed them toward another exit.
Sadi saw one injured waiter pressing a towel against his arm.
She stopped.
Roman immediately grabbed her.
“What are you doing?”
“He’s hurt.”
“We need to move.”
“I know him.”
“You know every waiter?”
“I worked catering before your house.”
Roman swore.
Sadi dropped beside the young man.
“Tyler?”
The waiter looked terrified.
“It grazed me.”
Roman examined the wound.
“Not arterial.”
“You can tell?”
“I have experience.”
“Obviously.”
Roman pulled a clean towel from a rack and tightened it around Tyler’s arm.
Then he looked toward one of his men.
“Get him outside.”
The guard hesitated.
“Boss—”
“Now.”
The man obeyed.
Sadi looked at Roman differently.
He caught it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
They reached the loading dock.
A black SUV waited with the rear door open.
Roman placed Sadi inside.
Then the driver shouted.
“Down!”
Glass exploded.
Roman threw himself over Sadi.
She felt his entire body cover hers.
Shots struck the vehicle.
A second SUV screeched across the driveway while Roman’s security team fired back.
Then suddenly everything became quiet.
Too quiet.
Roman lifted himself slightly.
“Sadi?”
“I’m okay.”
His face tightened.
“What?”
“You’re bleeding.”
Blood spread through the shoulder of his white shirt.
Sadi’s heart stopped.
“Roman.”
“I’m fine.”
“You got shot.”
“Grazed.”
“You just used that word on Tyler.”
“Because it means I’m not dying.”
He climbed into the SUV.
The vehicle accelerated.
Sadi pressed both hands over his shoulder despite his objections.
“You are insane.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“You used me as an alibi.”
“Yes.”
“You brought violence to my sister’s rehearsal dinner.”
“The violence followed me.”
“That distinction is not comforting!”
Roman fell silent.
Sadi looked at his face.
For the first time since meeting him, she saw guilt.
Real guilt.
“I didn’t think they’d come there.”
His voice was quiet.
“I chose your event because civilians were supposed to make it untouchable.”
Sadi continued pressing against his wound.
“My family could have been killed.”
“I know.”
“If anyone gets hurt—”
“I know.”
His hand covered hers.
“But understand something. The moment Moretti’s men entered that building, the arrangement ended.”
Sadi stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you aren’t my employee tonight.”
“Then what am I?”
Roman’s eyes met hers.
“Someone under my protection.”
The statement should have frightened her.
Instead, the way he said it did.
Because it sounded less like obligation.
More like possession.
The SUV raced through suburban streets before turning toward Chicago.
Sadi’s phone rang repeatedly.
Her mother.
Chloe.
Aunt Patricia.
Derek.
She answered Chloe first.
Her sister was crying but safe.
Everyone was safe.
Police believed the shooting had involved an attempted robbery during the evacuation.
Sadi looked at Roman while Chloe spoke.
Roman looked out the window.
His jaw was tight.
When Sadi hung up, she exhaled.
“They’re okay.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“My men confirmed it six minutes ago.”
“You could have told me.”
“You were talking to your sister.”
She shook her head.
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve also been called that.”
The SUV entered downtown.
Sadi expected them to return to Roman’s estate.
Instead, they stopped beneath a private medical building.
A doctor treated Roman in a locked examination room while Sadi waited outside wearing an emerald dress stained with his blood.
At three in the morning, Roman emerged with his shoulder bandaged.
“You should go home.”
Sadi crossed her arms.
“So should you.”
“I am.”
“I mean home and sleep.”
Roman looked almost amused.
Then his expression changed.
“Sadi.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
Roman Rossi apologizing sounded more shocking than gunfire.
Sadi lowered her arms.
“For what part?”
“For believing I could borrow your normal life for one evening without contaminating it.”
Her anger softened.
“You didn’t force me to say yes.”
“I knew you were vulnerable.”
“That sounds manipulative.”
“It was.”
At least he was honest.
Sadi stepped closer.
“You saved me.”
Roman stared down at her.
“You were my responsibility.”
The words stung more than she expected.
She nodded.
“Right.”
She turned away.
Roman caught her wrist.
“Sadi.”
She looked back.
His face was unreadable.
“You stopped being a responsibility sometime before the first gunshot.”
Her pulse stumbled.
Roman seemed to realize what he had admitted.
Neither of them moved.
Finally, Sadi whispered:
“We’re still pretending, right?”
Roman looked at her for a long time.
Then he released her wrist.
May you like
“That would be safer.”
But neither of them believed it anymore.
