Page 276 of Lorenzo

“One more.”

We shove again, harder this time.

The latch tears free with a sharp crack, and the door jerks inward.

Cold air washes over us.

Beyond it is a narrow concrete corridor running behind the row of stores, dimly lit by widely spaced utility lights.

Relief hits me hard enough that I laugh. “There really is one.”

Lorenzo looks down the corridor, then back toward the store. “Which way?”

I step through and look both directions. “Whichever gets us farther from Greco.”

A loud crash echoes from the sales floor.

This one sounds different than the others.

It’s the front door giving way.

“In.” Lorenzo reaches for my arm and pushes me in.

Mocha follows, but Lorenzo doesn't.

“What are you doing?” I hiss and poke my head back into the store.

He is dragging a shelving unit toward the door.

I realize what he is doing immediately.

“You want to cover the door.”

“If they do not know it is here, they lose more time looking for us.”

I step back into the room and grab the other end.

Together, we force the shelving unit across the floor and angle it in front of the broken doorway.

Once we're both behind the door, we do our best to pull it as we force the door shut. We can't step back and admire our handiwork, so we don't know if it worked or not, but hopefully, the doorway disappears behind the boxes and metal shelves.

“That might buy us a few minutes,” I say.

Lorenzo looks toward the corridor. “Then we use them.”

Chapter Thirty Five

Lorenzo

The corridor is narrower than it looked from the doorway, barely wide enough for two people to move side by side comfortably, with painted concrete walls, exposed pipes overhead, and identical metal doors spaced at intervals along both sides.

It is exactly the kind of place no customer would ever know existed, which means Greco may not know it exists either.

Donna moves first because this was her idea and because she has actually seen a layout like this before. I stay close behind her, keeping my weapon ready while splitting my attention between the corridor ahead and the concealed door behind us.

Voices are already carrying through the store we left, muffled by walls but close enough to make it obvious that Greco and his people have breached the sales floor.

Donna hears them too, but she keeps moving.