Chapter 2 - THE MAN IN BOOTH SIX
For eleven nights, Leonardo Costas arrived at Rusty’s at exactly 2:15 a.m.
Never earlier.
Never later.
Dora began noticing because people who worked graveyard shifts learned to measure their lives in tiny predictable things.
The trucker who ordered three eggs at 12:40.
The nurse who bought blueberry pie at 1:10.
Leonardo at 2:15.
He stopped taking the stool at the counter after the fourth night. Instead, he claimed booth 6, the cracked red vinyl booth beside the rain-streaked window.
He brought no bodyguards inside.
Dante always waited somewhere nearby.
Dora knew because occasionally she saw a black SUV across the highway.
Leonardo paid his promised $500 every night.
Dora refused it every night.
On the twelfth night, he finally became irritated.
“You agreed.”
“I said you could sit here.”
“You understood the arrangement.”
“I understand that coffee costs two dollars.”
Leonardo stared at her.
Dora slid his check across the table.
$5.50.
Coffee and cherry pie.
Leonardo picked it up.
“You threatened me with boiling coffee, but accepting money is where you discover morality?”
“It’s not morality.”
“Then what?”
Dora collected an empty plate.
“If I take five hundred dollars, you become my employer.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I already have one terrible boss.”
Leonardo almost smiled.
“Fair.”
That was the first thing he learned about Dora Bennett.
She could be desperate without being purchasable.
The second thing he learned came three nights later.
He entered at 2:15 and found her sitting on the kitchen floor.
Her face was buried in her hands.
Leonardo stopped.
Dora heard him and immediately stood.
“What?”
“You’re crying.”
“I have allergies.”
“In December?”
“Very aggressive allergies.”
Leonardo said nothing.
That irritated her more than questions would have.
She grabbed his mug.
“Coffee?”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Dora.”
“Leonardo.”
He studied her.
She hated how good he was at silence.
Finally she slammed the mug onto the counter.
“My landlord sold the building.”
Leonardo waited.
“The new owner is renovating. Which is a nice word for throwing poor people into the street and installing marble countertops.”
“When?”
“Thirty days.”
“Where will you go?”
Dora laughed once.
“If I knew, I probably wouldn’t be having my aggressive December allergies.”
Leonardo reached inside his coat.
“No.”
His hand stopped.
“I didn’t offer anything.”
“You were about to.”
“You need somewhere to live.”
“I need coffee customers who don’t try to solve every problem with cash.”
Something moved in his expression.
“Cash solves many problems.”
“It also creates men who think every person has a price.”
That landed harder than Dora intended.
Leonardo slowly withdrew his empty hand.
“Point taken.”
She poured his coffee.
Neither spoke about it again.
At 3:07 a.m., the front door opened.
A man entered wearing a brown coat.
Dora barely looked up.
Leonardo did.
His entire body changed.
One second he was an exhausted man eating cheap pie.
The next he was the person people whispered about.
His hand disappeared beneath the table.
The stranger walked toward the counter.
“Coffee.”
Dora reached for a mug.
Leonardo spoke.
“Don’t.”
The stranger stopped.
Dora frowned.
“What?”
“Get behind the counter.”
“I am behind the counter.”
“Get down.”
The stranger reached inside his coat.
Everything happened at once.
Leonardo flipped the table.
Dora dropped.
Glass shattered.
A suppressed gunshot cracked through the diner.
Leonardo hit the stranger before he could fire again.
The two men crashed into the pie case.
Dora crawled toward the telephone.
Another man appeared outside.
Then the black SUV roared across the parking lot.
Dante emerged.
The second attacker disappeared into the darkness.
Inside, Leonardo pinned the first man against the counter.
His forearm pressed against the stranger’s throat.
“Who sent you?”
The man smiled.
“Your father should’ve killed you when he had the chance.”
Leonardo froze.
Dora saw it.
Not fear.
Confusion.
The attacker used that half second.
A knife flashed.
Dora grabbed the nearest object.
The coffee pot.
Again.
She swung it against the attacker’s wrist.
The knife fell.
Leonardo stared at her.
“Seriously?”
“What? It was available.”
Dante stormed inside with his weapon drawn.
He restrained the attacker.
Leonardo turned toward Dora.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
Dora went still.
His hands were trembling.
Not hers.
His.
“I’m fine.”
He released her immediately.
Dante dragged the attacker toward the door.
“We need to move.”
Leonardo nodded.
Then looked at Dora.
“You’re coming.”
“No.”
“This man knows where I spend my nights.”
“That sounds like your problem.”
“It became yours when you broke his wrist with a coffee pot.”
“I didn’t break it.”
A scream came from outside as Dante shoved the man into the SUV.
Dora reconsidered.
“Okay. Maybe I broke it.”
Leonardo stepped closer.
“Whoever sent him knows about you.”
“I’m nobody.”
“That’s exactly why they’ll use you.”
Dora looked around Rusty’s.
Broken glass.
Overturned chairs.
Coffee dripping down the wall.
The safe little world she hated suddenly seemed precious.
Her manager was going to fire her.
Her apartment was disappearing.
Now armed strangers knew her face.
Leonardo held out his hand.
“Come with me.”
Dora looked at it.
“You promised nobody would get past the parking lot.”
His jaw tightened.
“I was wrong.”
At least he admitted it.
She grabbed her coat.
“I have conditions.”
“You’re being hunted.”
“I still have conditions.”
“Of course you do.”
Dora pointed at him.
“No shouting.”
Leonardo nodded.
“No ordering me around.”
His expression suggested that one physically hurt.
“Fine.”
“And Dante doesn’t point a gun at me.”
From outside came Dante’s irritated voice.
“I can hear you.”
“Good.”
For the first time that night, Leonardo laughed.
It lasted only a second.
Then the captured attacker shouted from the SUV.
“Ask him about Isabella!”
Leonardo stopped.
Every trace of amusement disappeared.
Dora looked between the men.
“Who’s Isabella?”
Dante’s face went pale.
Leonardo did not answer.
The attacker laughed.
“You really never told her?”
Leonardo turned slowly toward him.
The man smiled through bloodied teeth.
May you like
“Tell the waitress what happened to the last woman who trusted Leonardo Costas.”
And for the first time since Dora had met him, Leonardo looked genuinely afraid.
