Page 274 of Lorenzo

Or I thought he did anyway.

Lorenzo looks toward the front door again, judging the shelf, the damaged lock, and the men moving beyond the glass.

“We wait as long as we can,” he says quietly. “The longer we keep them out there, the more time Mario has to get here.”

I nod. “Agreed.”

“And when that door gives, I walk out.”

I turn to him. “No.”

His eyes meet mine. “Donna.”

“No. Absolutely not,” I say firmly. “You're not surrendering yourself to Greco to buy me time.”

“It is the only option we have if they breach the store.” His voice stays low. “There is no way out; we are outnumbered, and we cannot shoot our way through that many people without one of us getting hit.”

“Then we find another option.”

“If there were one, I would take it.” His gaze flicks toward the front again as the shelf shifts another inch. “I will not gamble with your life.”

I tighten my grip on my gun. “And I’m supposed to let you gamble with yours?”

“Yes,” he says. “If it buys you enough time for Mario to get here.”

I shake my head, rejecting even the idea of it. “There has to be another way.”

“There's no way out of here,” he says. “And they're going to breach this store any minute.”

The shelf shifts again, as if to prove his point.

I look toward the door that leads to the back room. There's no way Greco wouldn't have an army waiting at the back door for us.

My mind takes me back, all the way back to high school, when I worked at a strip mall just like this. I'd gotten the job hoping to save up some money to get my own place the second I turned eighteen, but I hated every second of it.

It was a nice place like this one too, but the customers were very stuck-up.

Which is why every chance I got, I snuck into the service corridor behind the stores. There was a really hot guy who worked a few stores down from me, and we would take our breaks at the same time and make out.

My gaze snaps back to the rear of the shop.

“Maybe there is,” I breathe.

“Whatever it is, Donna, I'm not risking you,” Lorenzo says.

“You don't have to,” I say.

He manages to give me a sidelong curious glance before snapping his attention back to the door.

“When I was in high school, I worked in a strip mall built almost exactly like this. There was a service corridor behind the units for deliveries and maintenance. You could move from one end of the building to the other without ever stepping outside.”

Lorenzo glances toward the backroom door.

“If this place has one…”

“We slip out from under Greco long enough for Mario to get here with reinforcements,” he finishes.

“Exactly,” I say, shifting on the balls of my feet.