Chapter 2 - THE MAFIA BOSS WHO LOWERED HIS GUN
Lorenzo Rossi had killed men for entering rooms without permission.
Hunter knew that before she ever stepped inside the nursery.
Every member of the household knew it.
The nursery was the most protected room in the estate. Anyone permitted inside passed background checks, biometric scanners, and armed security. Even senior members of Lorenzo's organization needed permission before approaching the east wing.
Yet Hunter Bennett, a maid who had been employed for barely three weeks, sat beside the window holding Lorenzo's dying son against her bare chest.
Lorenzo's right hand moved automatically beneath his jacket.
Hunter saw it.
She knew what was there.
A gun.
Her breathing stopped.
"I'm sorry."
The words came out almost soundlessly.
Lorenzo did not answer.
His expression remained impossible to read.
Hunter carefully pulled Leo away.
The baby immediately whimpered.
Then something happened Lorenzo had not heard in weeks.
Leo cried loudly.
Not the thin, exhausted sound of a dying infant.
A real cry.
Angry.
Hungry.
Alive.
Lorenzo's eyes moved from Hunter to his son.
"Do it again."
Hunter stared at him.
"What?"
"Feed him."
"Lorenzo—"
"Feed my son."
She hesitated.
He slowly removed his hand from beneath his jacket.
There was no gun in it.
Hunter looked down at Leo.
Then she brought him back against her.
Within seconds, the infant settled.
His tiny fingers curled against Hunter's skin.
Lorenzo remained completely still.
He had spent eight weeks watching doctors measure Leo's decline in numbers.
Heart rate.
Blood oxygen.
Weight.
Calories.
Temperature.
For the first time, he was watching his son eat.
The sleeping nurse suddenly stirred.
Her eyes opened.
Then widened.
"Oh my God."
Hunter nearly jumped.
The nurse stood.
"Mr. Rossi, I can explain—"
"No," Lorenzo said quietly. "You can't."
His voice was calm.
That was worse than shouting.
The nurse's face drained.
"I only closed my eyes for a second."
"My son was starving three feet from you."
"Sir—"
"Get Gallagher."
She hurried toward the door.
"And Nurse?"
She stopped.
"If you tell anyone what you saw in this room before I decide what it means, you will regret it."
The door closed.
Hunter's hands began trembling again.
"You should punish me," she whispered.
Lorenzo looked at her.
"Why?"
"I wasn't authorized."
"You fed my son."
"I could have hurt him."
"But you didn't."
"You didn't know that."
"Neither did you."
Hunter looked away.
That answer unsettled him.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the maid."
"Don't insult me."
Her eyes returned to his.
"Your personnel file says you worked in hotels."
"I did."
"It doesn't say you recently had a child."
Hunter's face changed.
Lorenzo noticed immediately.
"How long ago?"
She swallowed.
"Three weeks before I came here."
"Where is the baby?"
Hunter couldn't speak.
Lorenzo understood.
His expression softened so slightly most people would have missed it.
"I'm sorry."
She laughed once, bitterly.
"Everyone says that."
Leo continued drinking.
Lorenzo lowered himself into the chair across from her.
"What happened?"
Hunter shook her head.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Normally, no one denied Lorenzo Rossi information.
Tonight he allowed it.
Ten minutes later, Dr. Gallagher rushed into the nursery carrying a medical bag.
His confusion became outrage when he understood what Hunter was doing.
"You cannot simply breastfeed a medically compromised infant without screening."
"Test her," Lorenzo said.
Gallagher blinked.
"What?"
"Blood. Infectious diseases. Medication levels. Everything."
Hunter stiffened.
"I don't take drugs."
Gallagher's eyes sharpened.
Hunter suddenly remembered the tablets she used for pain.
"Except painkillers."
"What kind?"
She named them.
Gallagher frowned.
"Those aren't over-the-counter."
Hunter looked down.
"I know."
"Where did you get them?"
"A friend."
"What dosage?"
She told him.
Gallagher's expression changed.
"We need bloodwork immediately."
Lorenzo stood.
"Do it."
Hunter looked frightened.
"Am I in trouble?"
Gallagher answered before Lorenzo could.
"If those tablets contain what you think they contain, probably not. If they contain something else, we've got a problem."
An hour later, Hunter sat in the medical suite while technicians took blood.
Leo slept nearby.
He had consumed more food in forty minutes than he had kept down during the previous twenty-four hours.
Gallagher weighed him twice because he didn't trust the result.
Lorenzo watched everything.
"What makes her different?" Lorenzo asked.
Gallagher adjusted his glasses.
"It may not be her specifically. Fresh maternal milk contains enzymes, antibodies, hormones, and living cells that processed donor milk can lose. Premature infants can sometimes tolerate one source better than another."
"So this could save him?"
"It could help."
"That's not what I asked."
Gallagher sighed.
"We don't know yet."
Lorenzo stared through the glass at Leo.
"Then find out."
The results came shortly before dawn.
Hunter was healthy.
No infectious disease.
No dangerous medication concentrations.
But one laboratory value caught Gallagher's attention.
Then another.
He ran the test again.
Lorenzo found him standing alone inside the laboratory twenty minutes later.
Gallagher looked pale.
"What?"
The doctor hesitated.
"It's not Hunter."
"What isn't?"
"The reason Leo kept getting sick."
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
Gallagher placed two reports on the counter.
"We tested samples from every nutritional source Leo received over the last month."
"And?"
"Three donor milk batches and two formula preparations contained trace concentrations of digoxin."
Lorenzo knew enough about poisons to understand.
"Heart medication."
"Yes."
"In dangerous quantities?"
"Not enough to kill an adult."
Gallagher looked toward the nursery.
"But enough to poison a premature infant slowly."
The room became silent.
Lorenzo's expression changed into something Hunter had not yet seen.
Not anger.
Something colder.
"Someone has been poisoning my son."
Gallagher lowered his voice.
"It appears that way."
Lorenzo turned toward the door.
Then stopped.
"Who prepared his bottles?"
Gallagher hesitated.
"Different nurses."
"Who had access to all of them?"
Gallagher's silence lasted too long.
Lorenzo looked back.
"Doctor."
"Your sister."
Lorenzo's face went completely still.
"Isabella?"
"Mrs. DeMarco personally supervised Leo's feeding schedule after Sophia died. You authorized it."
Lorenzo remembered signing the papers.
Isabella had cried while holding his hand.
She had promised to protect Leo as though he were her own.
His older sister.
The woman who had raised Lorenzo after their mother died.
The person he trusted more than almost anyone alive.
Lorenzo walked toward the nursery.
Hunter stood beside the crib.
Leo was sleeping against her shoulder.
She saw Lorenzo's face.
"What happened?"
He looked at his son.
Then at Hunter.
"Someone has been trying to kill him."
Hunter instinctively tightened her arms around Leo.
"Who?"
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Because behind Hunter, barely visible beneath the nursery door, a shadow suddenly moved.
Someone had been listening.
Lorenzo drew his gun.
He crossed the room in three strides and ripped the door open.
The hallway was empty.
But lying on the marble floor was a small gold pendant.
Lorenzo picked it up.
His blood turned cold.
He recognized it immediately.
May you like
It belonged to Sophia.
And Sophia had been wearing it the night she died.
