Chapter 2 - THE CALL VICTOR WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HEAR
Sadi stared at Victor.
The phone kept vibrating.
“I said answer it.”
His voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
Sadi’s thumb shook as she accepted the call.
“Mick?”
“Fifty-eight minutes.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
Victor held out one hand.
Sadi shook her head.
He didn’t reach for the phone.
He simply looked at her until she understood that refusing him inside his own house was not going to change anything.
Slowly, she activated the speaker.
Mick’s voice filled the hallway.
“You listening, darling?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Because Declan just moved closer to your brother’s room.”
Sadi shut her eyes.
Victor’s face changed.
Not dramatically.
His jaw tightened perhaps half an inch.
That was enough.
“Mick,” Sadi whispered. “I can get some of it.”
“You’ll get all of it.”
“Where am I supposed to find twenty thousand dollars in an hour?”
A pause.
Then Mick laughed softly.
“You work in a house where the paintings cost more than hospitals.”
Sadi’s eyes opened.
Victor was watching the phone.
“You want me to steal from him?”
“I want my money.”
“I won’t.”
“Then Sam pays.”
Victor stepped forward.
Sadi grabbed his wrist before thinking.
It was an insane thing to do.
His gaze dropped to her damaged fingers around his skin.
She immediately released him.
“Please,” she mouthed.
Mick continued.
“And tell Mr. Costello something for me.”
Sadi froze.
Victor’s expression hardened.
Mick said, “Tell him the blue coat still fits.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, neither of them moved.
Then Victor took Sadi’s phone.
He looked at the number, memorized it, and handed the phone back.
“Who is Sam?”
“My brother.”
“How old?”
“Sixteen.”
“What hospital?”
She hesitated.
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“If a man just threatened a child inside a hospital connected to my employee, I need the truth faster than you need to protect your pride.”
“He has leukemia.”
Something flickered across Victor’s face.
Gone almost immediately.
“Hospital?”
Sadi told him.
Victor walked back into his office.
She remained in the hallway.
“Come inside.”
“I should leave.”
“You’re not going anywhere alone.”
“I have fifty-eight minutes.”
“You have fifty-seven.”
Sadi followed him.
The room looked different from the hallway.
Less like the office of a monster and more like the private room of a man who didn’t trust anyone.
No family photographs.
No personal decorations.
Only books, dark wood, a locked cabinet, and a massive antique desk.
Victor picked up another phone.
“Luca.”
A voice answered immediately.
“Boss?”
“St. Jude’s oncology. Sixteen-year-old patient named Samuel Hayes. Find him. Quietly. There’s a man named Declan somewhere inside the wing. Do not frighten hospital staff.”
Sadi stared.
Victor continued.
“If anyone gets within ten feet of the boy, I want to know before they finish the step.”
He hung up.
“I can pay Mick,” Sadi said.
Victor looked at her.
“No.”
“It isn’t your decision.”
“Correct.”
She blinked.
“Then—”
“It’s yours. But if you send him twenty thousand tonight, he’ll ask for thirty tomorrow. Men like O’Shea don’t sell money. They sell fear.”
“You know him?”
“I know his reputation.”
“That reputation didn’t matter when Sam needed treatment.”
The words came out sharper than she intended.
Victor didn’t react.
Sadi’s voice cracked.
“I tried banks. I tried charities. I sold my mother’s jewelry. I sold my car. I worked doubles until I collapsed in a grocery store. Sam needed medication our insurance wouldn’t cover while we appealed.”
Victor’s gaze fell to her hands.
“You borrowed sixty thousand.”
Her head snapped up.
“How did you know?”
“O’Shea collects in thirds when he believes someone is vulnerable. Twenty usually means sixty.”
Sadi looked away.
“I’ve already paid him thirty-eight thousand.”
Victor went still.
“You borrowed sixty and paid thirty-eight?”
“Yes.”
“And he says you still owe twenty?”
“He says interest changed.”
Victor gave a humorless smile.
“Of course it did.”
His phone rang.
Luca.
Victor answered.
Sadi stopped breathing.
“We found the boy,” Luca said. “He’s safe. He was taken downstairs for imaging fifteen minutes ago. O’Shea’s man went to the old room and found it empty.”
Sadi’s knees nearly gave out.
“Sam’s safe?”
“For now,” Victor said.
Luca continued through the phone.
“We have eyes on Declan. Hospital security thinks he’s family. He’s carrying a visitor badge under another name.”
“Take him outside before you touch him,” Victor ordered. “No scene in front of patients.”
Victor ended the call.
Sadi pressed both hands over her face.
A sob escaped despite everything.
Her brother was alive.
But the hour was still running.
Victor poured water into a glass.
When he handed it to her, Sadi noticed him looking at the thin chain around her neck.
A small silver medal rested against her uniform.
“What is that?”
Sadi touched it automatically.
“My mother’s.”
“Let me see.”
“No.”
Victor looked surprised.
Then, strangely, almost approving.
“It’s not valuable,” Sadi said.
“I didn’t ask if it was.”
She lifted the medal.
Saint Michael was worn nearly smooth on the front.
On the back were two tiny initials.
R.H.
Victor stopped breathing.
“What was your mother’s name?”
“Ruth.”
His eyes rose to hers.
“Ruth Hayes?”
Sadi’s fingers tightened around the medal.
“Yes.”
Victor turned away so quickly that his chair struck the desk.
He walked to a tall cabinet behind him, unlocked it, and removed an old wooden box.
“What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer.
Inside the box were photographs.
Not many.
Victor moved through them until his hand stopped.
He pulled out one picture.
Sadi saw her mother immediately.
Ruth Hayes stood beneath a stone archway wearing a blue wool coat Sadi remembered from childhood.
Beside her stood an older man in an expensive suit.
Victor’s father.
Sadi knew his face from newspaper photographs.
Arturo Costello.
Her mother was holding something in her hand.
A gold watch.
Victor flipped the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
His face drained of color.
“What?”
Sadi stepped closer.
Victor didn’t stop her.
The message read:
Ruth has the truth. If I fail tonight, protect her children before Carlo finds them.
A.C.
Sadi read it twice.
Then a third time.
“My mother never knew your family.”
Victor’s eyes remained on the photograph.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“She did.”
Sadi shook her head.
“No.”
Victor finally looked at her.
May you like
His voice had lost every trace of coldness.
“Your mother was here the night my father was murdered.”
