Chapter 3 - FIRE ON THE FOURTEENTH FLOOR
Elena had barely finished saying Carlo's name when I heard a muffled argument outside the room.
One of my guards was telling a nurse she could not enter without permission.
The nurse snapped that the patient needed medication.
Under any other circumstances, I would have ignored it.
After the photograph of Victor and the mention of Carlo, every ordinary detail felt dangerous.
I opened the door.
The nurse stood holding a syringe.
"What is that?"
She looked annoyed.
"Pain medication."
"Name."
"Mr. Valente, I need to do my job."
"Name of the drug."
She told me.
Elena appeared over my shoulder.
The nurse saw her.
Her face changed.
Small.
Almost nothing.
But I saw it.
"Do you know her?" I asked.
"No."
Elena whispered, "She was at the diner."
The nurse dropped the syringe and ran.
My guard caught her before she reached the stairwell.
Hospital security arrived seconds later.
The woman's badge was fake.
So was the name embroidered on her scrubs.
The syringe did not contain pain medication.
A doctor later told me the contents could have caused respiratory failure in a patient as fragile as Clara.
I stood beside the trash container where the syringe had been sealed as evidence.
"They already tried once," Mateo said.
"No."
I looked at Elena.
"They tried at the crash. This is twice."
Elena's hands were shaking.
"Carlo never leaves witnesses."
"You are still here."
"For the moment."
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"You do not understand him."
"He raised me."
"That is exactly why you do not understand him."
The sentence irritated me.
"Explain."
Elena swallowed.
"People who grow up around someone dangerous learn which version of that person is safe enough to believe in."
She looked toward the corridor where Carlo had stood.
"You believe in Uncle Carlo."
"And you?"
"I believe in the man who had my brother followed until he disappeared."
My expression hardened.
"You said your brother was involved in extortion."
"He was."
"Then he had enemies."
"He also found one of Carlo's accounts."
I looked at Mateo.
That detail was new.
"Did Clara know?"
"Yes."
Elena's voice broke.
"That is why she believed me."
I pictured Clara sitting across from this frightened woman in a diner.
No guards.
No husband.
No protection except Tommy outside.
She had walked into danger because I made home a place where her concerns were dismissed.
"What did my wife promise you?"
"That if I helped her, she would get my mother out of Illinois."
"Did she?"
Elena nodded.
"Three days ago."
I stared at her.
Clara had moved a witness's mother while I had been choosing wine for Serena's apartment.
The contrast was becoming unbearable.
"Where?"
"I am not telling you."
My anger flashed automatically.
Elena stepped back.
I saw fear in her face.
Not fear of Carlo.
Fear of me.
I forced my hands open.
"Good."
She blinked.
"Good?"
"If Clara trusted you with something I do not need to know, keep it that way."
Mateo looked at me as though I had grown a second head.
I ignored him.
Elena relaxed slightly.
"She said you could learn."
That almost hurt more than if Clara had said I could not.
There was still a version of me she had hoped might exist.
Then the lights flickered once.
Twice.
The alarm began.
The alarm shrieked through the ICU.
Red lights began flashing above every door.
Nurses rushed into the corridor.
A recorded voice ordered everyone to remain calm.
No one remained calm.
Elena grabbed my sleeve.
"That is not an accident."
I looked through the glass.
Carlo was gone.
So was Serena.
"Mateo!"
He appeared at the doorway instantly.
"Lock the elevators."
"Hospital security says smoke on twelve."
"I do not care if the building is burning."
I shoved the flash drive into his hand.
"Get this somewhere safe."
Mateo closed his fist around it.
"What is on it?"
"Enough to make someone panic."
Elena stepped closer.
"They know I am here."
"Who knows?"
"Carlo."
A crash sounded from the corridor.
Then a nurse screamed.
One of my guards hit the floor.
A man in hospital maintenance clothes stood over him holding a suppressed pistol.
I reached inside my jacket.
The man fired through the glass.
I threw Elena down.
The window exploded.
Clara's monitors shrieked.
The second guard fired back.
The attacker disappeared behind a medication cart.
Nurses scattered.
I crawled toward Clara's bed.
A bullet had struck the wall six inches above her pillow.
Rage erased everything else.
"Move her!"
A nurse stared at me.
"We cannot just disconnect-"
"Then bring the machines."
Another shot cracked.
Mateo dragged the attacker out from behind the cart and slammed him into the wall.
The gun skidded across the floor.
I saw the attacker's face.
I knew him.
Not personally.
But I had seen him at Carlo's house.
A driver named Luis Ortega.
Mateo saw recognition in my eyes.
"You know him?"
"He works for my uncle."
Luis smiled through blood on his teeth.
"Not anymore."
He bit down hard.
Mateo swore and grabbed his jaw.
Too late.
Luis collapsed.
"Poison capsule," Elena whispered.
I stared at the dead man.
Carlo did not hire amateurs.
A nurse disconnected Clara's bed from the wall and switched her equipment to portable power.
"We need to move now."
"Where?"
"Secure surgical recovery on sixteen."
I looked at Mateo.
"Clear it first."
He nodded and ran.
Elena crouched beside me.
"If Carlo is willing to shoot into an ICU, he is desperate."
"Good."
She looked at me like I was insane.
"Desperate men make mistakes."
We moved Clara through a service corridor while smoke began creeping up the stairwell.
The hospital was not actually on fire.
Someone had ignited a storage room on twelve to trigger the alarms and create confusion.
The timing had been perfect.
Too perfect.
Only a handful of people knew Elena had arrived.
I looked at her.
"Who knew you were coming here?"
"No one."
"Think again."
"I changed cars twice."
"Someone knew."
Her face went pale.
"Clara."
I stopped walking.
"What?"
"Clara sent me instructions before the meeting."
"From her phone?"
"Yes."
The phone in my pocket suddenly felt like a bomb.
If Clara's messages were being mirrored, whoever controlled the account could see every conversation.
"Mateo!"
He turned from the stairwell landing.
I held up Clara's phone.
"Kill every connection on this device."
He understood immediately.
"Airplane mode is not enough."
"Then break it."
Mateo took the phone and smashed it against the concrete wall until the screen went black.
Elena flinched.
"There was evidence on that."
"There are backups."
"How do you know?"
"Because Clara is smarter than I am."
It was the first time I had ever said that aloud.
We reached sixteen.
My men had cleared two recovery rooms.
Hospital security was furious.
I did not care.
Clara was moved behind a locked door with two nurses, a respiratory therapist, and a surgeon.
I posted four men outside.
Then I turned to Elena.
"Tell me everything."
She leaned against the wall.
"I worked for Silvio Marchetti."
I knew him.
Lorenzo Moretti's accountant.
"Three months ago, I found payments moving from shell companies connected to Valente construction projects into Moretti-controlled logistics firms."
"That proves theft."
"Not by itself."
"What proves betrayal?"
"The authorization codes."
She looked at the flash drive in Mateo's hand.
"The payments were approved using Carlo Valente's credentials."
My mouth went dry.
"Credentials can be stolen."
"That is what I thought."
She swallowed.
"Then I heard Carlo on a call with Lorenzo."
Mateo crossed his arms.
"What did they say?"
"Carlo said Dominic was distracted by the girl."
The girl.
Serena.
"He said Clara was becoming suspicious."
My stomach turned.
"And Lorenzo?"
"He laughed."
Elena looked ashamed.
"He said Serena had Dominic exactly where they wanted him."
I closed my eyes.
Every dinner I had skipped.
Every lie I had told Clara.
Every time Serena had created a crisis that pulled me away from home.
It had not just been an affair.
It had been strategy.
I had volunteered to be manipulated.
"Why meet Clara?"
Elena's eyes softened.
"Because she contacted me first."
"How?"
"She found my name in a copied invoice."
Of course she had.
Clara had managed charity foundations, household budgets, and property contracts for years.
She noticed numbers most people ignored.
"She promised me protection if I gave her proof."
I almost laughed.
Clara had been trying to protect a witness while I was playing hero for Serena's panic attack.
"What happened at the diner?"
Elena looked toward the floor.
"Victor arrived."
"Why?"
"He said he was helping Clara."
Mateo frowned.
"Was he?"
"I do not know."
"Did he threaten her?"
"No."
Elena paused.
"He warned her that someone had tracked her car."
I looked at Mateo.
"Then Victor may not be with Carlo."
"Or he wanted her to panic and leave."
Both were possible.
That was the problem.
Everyone around me had become two people at once.
Friend and traitor.
Protector and assassin.
A nurse opened Clara's door.
"Mr. Valente?"
I moved toward her.
"What happened?"
"She is waking up."
The words hit me harder than any bullet could have.
I entered the room alone.
Clara's eyes were half-open.
Confused.
Clouded by medication.
I stood beside her.
"Clara?"
Her gaze found me slowly.
For one second, relief moved across her face.
Then memory returned.
Her eyes changed.
She tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
I leaned closer.
"Do not force it."
Her fingers moved weakly against the blanket.
I reached for her hand.
She pulled it away.
The movement was small.
It destroyed me.
"I know," I whispered.
Her lips moved.
This time I heard the words.
"Serena?"
I swallowed.
"She is here."
Fear sharpened Clara's eyes.
She shook her head.
"No."
"Clara-"
"Get her out."
Her voice was barely more than air.
"She knows."
I leaned closer.
"Knows what?"
Clara's eyes filled with panic.
"The safe."
May you like
Then the monitor screamed.
