THE WAITRESS AND THE HEIR

Chapter 8: The Assignment

Roman arrived at the office above the casino without being told why he had been called.

That was how these meetings worked. You came when summoned. You didn’t ask questions in the hallway. You waited until the door closed and Marco decided the conversation had started.

His father was already seated behind the desk when Roman entered. The laptop in front of him was closed. A single folder sat beside it, thin enough that it couldn’t contain much. Marco didn’t look up immediately. He finished whatever note he was making, set the pen down, and only then fixed his attention on his son.

“Sit.”

Roman sat.

The office was quiet in the way expensive rooms often were. Thick carpet. Heavy door. The low hum of the casino floor reduced to something distant and irrelevant. Marco studied him for a moment without speaking. Roman had learned years ago not to fill those silences. His father used them like tools.

“You know the alley behind the diner,” Marco said eventually. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“There was a problem there two nights ago. It’s been handled. But we have a complication.”

Marco opened the folder and turned it so Roman could see the single printed image inside. A security still. Grainy. Nighttime. The alley. And in the upper corner, half-swallowed by shadow, the outline of a girl.

Roman looked at it. He didn’t reach for the photo.

“She was there,” Marco said. “Watched the entire thing. Then she ran back into the diner.”

Roman’s mind moved quickly, sorting the information into usable pieces. Witness. Diner. Young, from the size and shape of her. He waited.

“Her name is Lila Hayes. Seventeen. Waitress. Goes to your school. Scholarship.” Marco’s voice remained even. “She hasn’t talked yet. That could change.”

Roman looked at the image again. The quality was too poor for a clear face, but he filed away the details he could make out. Dark hair. Slight build. The way she had been pressed against the wall suggested she had known enough to hide.

“The rule stands,” Marco continued. “No one under eighteen. That leaves us with limited options and a clock.”

Roman understood the clock immediately. Seventeen meant months, not years. It also meant the simple solutions were off the table for now.

“What do you need from me?” he asked.

Marco leaned back in his chair. “Get close to her. Find out exactly what she saw and whether she’s told anyone. Make certain she stays quiet until she turns eighteen. After that, we reassess.”

The assignment landed with more weight than Roman had expected. Not because of the girl. Because of what it represented. This was not an errand. This was a test. His father did not hand out real work for the sake of keeping him busy.

“How close?” Roman asked.

“Close enough that you know if she’s going to become a problem before she becomes one. Close enough that she trusts you, or fears you, or both. I don’t care which, as long as the result is the same.”

Roman nodded once. His mind was already turning over the practical side. Legacy Prep. A scholarship girl who worked nights. Quiet enough that he had never bothered to register her face in three years of sharing the same halls. That kind of invisibility could be useful. It also meant she would be wary of sudden attention.

“She has a friend,” Marco added. “Scarred face. They’re rarely apart at school. Use that if you need to. Do not make a scene. Do not draw attention from teachers or anyone outside the situation. And do not tell her anything she doesn’t need to know.”

“I understand.”

Marco held his gaze. “This is the first thing I’ve given you that actually matters. Handle it cleanly and we move forward. Fail, and I’ll know exactly how much responsibility you’re ready for.”

The words were calm. They were also final. Roman felt the pressure of them settle across his shoulders and accepted it without visible reaction. He had been waiting for a door like this. He was not going to be the reason it closed.

“I’ll handle it,” he said.

Marco studied him for another moment, then closed the folder. “You start tomorrow. I want updates when you have something worth reporting. Not before.”

Roman stood. The meeting was over. He knew better than to linger or ask for details that hadn’t been offered. Information would come as he earned it.

He left the office and walked the private hallway toward the exit that bypassed the main casino floor. His expression didn’t change, but his thoughts were already moving in clean, rapid lines.

Lila Hayes. Seventeen. Waitress at the diner beside the building he had just left. Student at Legacy Prep. Invisible enough that he would have to work to place her face. Connected to a scarred girl who would make approaching her more complicated if they really were as close as the file suggested.

He pushed through the door into the side parking area and stood there for a moment in the open air. The assignment was simple on the surface and messy underneath. Getting close to someone who had witnessed a murder meant dealing with fear. Fear made people unpredictable. It also made them lonely. Lonely people sometimes reached for the first steady hand that appeared.

He could work with that.

Roman took his phone out and made a short call to Asher. He didn’t explain the job. He only told him to be ready in the morning and to keep Jax close. Then he ended the call and stood there a while longer, mapping the first moves.

He would need to see her properly. Not a grainy still from a security camera. The real girl. The way she moved through the school. Who she avoided. How tightly she held to the friend. Whether the fear was already showing or whether she was the type who locked it down and kept walking.

Tomorrow he would look for her the way he had never bothered to before.

And once he found her, he would begin.