Chapter 2 - THE HOSPITAL ROOM
Victor’s convoy left the Castello estate at 2:07 a.m.
Sadi sat in the back seat of a black sedan between Victor and a silent driver named Emilio. Two other vehicles followed them through the sleeping city.
She kept staring at Sam’s photograph.
“Are you certain he was in the room?” Victor asked.
“It was taken tonight.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Sadi looked at him. “Yes. That’s his room.”
“Who has access?”
“Doctors. Nurses. Family.”
“Anyone else?”
“Hospital volunteers. Cleaning staff. Security.”
Victor looked through the window. “And Mick’s people knew exactly where to stand.”
Sadi’s hands trembled in her lap. “What does that mean?”
“It means they had help.”
She thought of the hospital administrator, the nurses, the guards who had always smiled at her.
“Maybe they followed me.”
“You never went there with Mick.”
“No.”
“Then someone gave them information.”
The car turned beneath an elevated train line.
Sadi had never ridden through this part of the city after midnight. The streets were nearly empty, washed in blue light and rain. Victor sat beside her like a shadow in an expensive suit, calm while her entire world threatened to collapse.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked.
“I told you. You work for me.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“It is for me.”
“Not for me.”
Victor turned his head.
Sadi forced herself to continue. “People like you don’t spend twenty thousand dollars because a maid has a problem.”
“People like me don’t spend twenty thousand dollars. We spend what is necessary.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” he said. “It isn’t.”
The hospital rose ahead, all glass and concrete, its upper windows glowing against the dark sky.
Two men stood near the emergency entrance.
One wore a gray coat.
The other held an umbrella.
Victor’s driver slowed.
Victor reached for the pistol beneath his jacket.
“Stay inside,” he ordered.
Sadi looked at him. “I’m coming.”
“You’re staying here.”
“That’s my brother.”
Victor opened the door.
Sadi caught his arm. “If you go in without me, they’ll move him.”
He stared at her for several seconds.
Then he nodded once. “Stay behind me.”
Inside the hospital, the air smelled of disinfectant and stale coffee. A nurse at the reception desk looked up, saw Victor, and immediately reached for the telephone.
Victor’s man placed a hand over it.
“Where is Samuel Hayes?” Victor asked.
The nurse’s face drained of color. “Who are you?”
“Sadi’s employer.”
“She’s not listed as an emergency contact.”
“She is tonight.”
Sadi hurried around the desk. “Room 614.”
The elevator doors opened.
Victor’s men moved first.
The sixth floor was silent.
Too silent.
A nurse pushed a cart near the oncology wing. A janitor stood beside the windows, pretending to mop the same section of floor.
Victor raised two fingers.
His men split.
Sadi ran toward Sam’s room.
The door stood open.
The bed was empty.
Her heart stopped.
“No,” she whispered.
Victor reached the room behind her. He scanned the empty bed, the hanging IV line, and the monitor whose alarm had been muted.
“Where is my brother?”
A nurse appeared at the end of the hallway.
Sadi recognized her. “Nurse Dana, where’s Sam?”
The woman froze.
Victor stepped into the hall. “Answer her.”
Dana’s eyes flicked toward the stairwell.
That was all Victor needed.
“Emilio.”
The driver moved.
A crash sounded from below.
Someone shouted.
Sadi ran for the stairs, Victor directly behind her.
On the fifth floor, a man in a dark jacket burst through a service door carrying Sam in his arms. Sam looked unconscious, his hospital gown twisted around his legs.
Sadi screamed his name.
The man turned.
Victor raised his weapon.
“Put him down.”
The kidnapper pressed a gun against Sam’s neck.
Sadi stopped.
Victor did not.
His expression became terrifyingly empty.
“You have three seconds,” he said.
The man smiled nervously. “Mick wants—”
Victor fired.
The gunshot exploded through the stairwell.
The kidnapper dropped his weapon and stumbled backward. Sam slid from his arms, and Sadi caught him before his head struck the wall.
The man ran.
Victor’s men chased him.
Sadi held Sam tightly. His face was pale, but his eyes fluttered.
“Sadi?” he murmured.
“I’m here.”
“Why are you here?”
She pressed her cheek against his hair. “I came to get you.”
A doctor rushed toward them.
Victor stood over the fallen gun, watching the stairwell.
Sadi looked up. “You shot him.”
“In the shoulder.”
“You could have killed him.”
“He was carrying your brother.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
Victor’s eyes met hers. “It makes it necessary.”
Sam coughed weakly.
The doctor took him from Sadi and hurried him back toward the oncology wing.
Victor’s men returned several minutes later without the kidnapper.
“He jumped from the loading platform,” one said. “He’s gone.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Sadi followed Sam into the room. A nurse reconnected his IV and checked the monitors. He was awake now, frightened and confused.
“Why did that man take me?” Sam asked.
Sadi tried to smile. “He made a mistake.”
“Did Victor Costello save me?”
Sadi glanced at the door.
Victor stood there, blood on one cuff and rain on his shoulders.
Sam knew the name. Everyone in the city did.
“Mr. Costello?” Sam asked.
Victor stepped inside.
“Yes.”
“Are you really dangerous?”
Sadi’s breath caught.
Victor considered the question. “Yes.”
Sam nodded, as if the honesty reassured him. “Then can you make them leave my sister alone?”
Victor looked at Sadi.
For a moment, she expected him to refuse.
Instead, he said, “I can.”
Sam closed his eyes.
Sadi stood beside the bed, gripping the railing.
Victor moved closer and lowered his voice. “Your brother wasn’t taken because Mick wanted money.”
“Then why?”
“He needed to prove he could reach you.”
“For what?”
Victor pulled a photograph from his pocket and placed it on the bedside table.
It showed the Castello estate from above.
At the bottom corner was a timestamp from earlier that night.
Sadi stared at it.
Mick had been watching the mansion.
May you like
Victor leaned toward her.
“Someone inside my house is helping him.”
