Chapter 6 - The Little Girl Who Trusted the Wrong Man
“Find Cal's vehicle. Now.”
Dominic's command sent Marco toward the hallway.
Tommy tried to pull himself out of bed.
Clare immediately stepped in front of him.
“Tommy, stop.”
“That's my daughter.”
“I know.”
“You don't understand. Her mother died three years ago. Lucy already knows what it's like to lose somebody.”
His voice cracked.
“She can't lose me, too.”
Clare gently pressed his shoulder.
“You're not leaving this bed. You'll only put yourself back in surgery.”
Tommy covered his face.
For a moment, he looked less like a grown man than a frightened little boy.
Dominic knelt beside him.
“I should have listened when you warned me about Cal.”
Tommy lowered his hands.
“Just find her.”
“I will.”
Clare looked toward Dominic.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Clare, this could turn violent.”
“Then maybe someone should be there who understands how to keep people alive.”
Dominic studied her.
Then he nodded.
“Stay close to me.”
Marco located Cal's company vehicle through the fleet's dispatch system.
The last recorded stop was a community recreation center on Chicago's southwest side.
Dominic recognized the address.
“Cal's wife used to go there for rehabilitation appointments.”
“Is she sick?” Clare asked.
“June's been ill for years. Kidney disease. Cal spent nearly everything they had on her care.”
Clare looked out the window.
“Voss owns a private medical company.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“You think he's paying June's bills?”
“I think people do terrible things when they're afraid of losing someone they love.”
Dominic was silent.
He had lived that truth himself.
The recreation center stood beside a small park.
Its basketball courts were empty.
A few faded paper decorations hung inside the windows.
Dominic ordered his guards to remain outside.
He and Clare entered through the main doors.
A woman behind the reception counter looked up nervously.
“Can I help you?”
“We're looking for Cal Rusk,” Dominic said.
She glanced toward the hallway.
“He's in the reading room.”
Dominic started forward.
Clare caught his arm.
“Don't frighten Lucy.”
He stopped.
“She's eight years old,” Clare whispered. “She needs to see someone who's calm.”
Dominic took a slow breath.
Then they entered the reading room.
Lucy Castellano sat at a small table with a coloring book.
She had dark brown hair pulled into two uneven braids and wore a yellow sweater decorated with tiny white flowers.
Cal sat across from her.
When Dominic appeared, Cal rose.
“Dominic.”
Lucy looked up.
“Uncle Dom?”
Dominic's face softened immediately.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
She jumped from her chair and ran toward him.
He dropped to one knee.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Uncle Cal said Daddy was sick.”
Dominic held her tightly.
“He is, honey. But he's getting better.”
“Can I see him?”
“Soon.”
Lucy pulled back.
“Is he going to die like Mommy?”
The question hit Dominic harder than any accusation Clare had made.
“No,” he said gently. “The doctors are helping him.”
Lucy searched his face.
“Promise?”
Dominic hesitated.
He had spent his life making promises he believed his power could guarantee.
But this one was different.
“I promise we'll do everything we can to get him better.”
Lucy accepted the answer.
Then she looked at Clare.
“Are you the nurse?”
Clare smiled.
“Yes.”
“Daddy says nurses are brave.”
Clare glanced at Dominic.
“Your daddy's pretty brave himself.”
Lucy took her hand.
“Will you help him?”
“I already have, sweetheart.”
Cal remained near the table.
Dominic stood.
“Explain yourself.”
Cal looked toward Lucy.
“Not in front of her.”
Clare guided the little girl toward a shelf of picture books.
“Can you help me find one about dogs?”
Lucy nodded eagerly.
Once they were out of earshot, Dominic faced Cal.
“You took my niece from school using forged paperwork.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Cal's eyes reddened.
“Voss told me his men were going to pick her up.”
Dominic stared.
“So you got there first?”
“He said if Tommy didn't surrender the remaining records, Lucy would disappear.”
“Then why didn't you call me?”
Cal gave a hollow laugh.
“Because Voss told me you'd find out what I helped him do.”
Dominic's expression went cold.
“What did you do?”
Cal looked down.
“I approved the shipments. I altered driver schedules. I told the warehouse staff those medical supplies were being moved legally.”
“And Tommy?”
Cal swallowed.
“I told Voss that Tommy was investigating.”
Dominic took a step toward him.
“Did you know they were going to shoot my brother?”
“No.”
Cal's answer came immediately.
Then he lowered his voice.
“I knew they meant to scare him. I didn't know they'd try to kill him.”
Dominic looked ready to strike him.
But Cal didn't move.
“June's treatments were paid through Meridian,” he said. “When I questioned the shipments, Voss threatened to cut her off.”
Clare returned, having settled Lucy with a book and the receptionist.
“That doesn't excuse what you did,” she said.
Cal looked at her.
“I know.”
“People died because supplies went missing.”
His face crumpled.
“I know that now, too.”
Dominic's voice was dangerously quiet.
“You helped them hurt Tommy. You put Lucy in danger. And you lied to me for months.”
Cal wiped his eyes.
“I'm not asking you to forgive me.”
“Then what are you asking?”
“A chance to stop this.”
Cal told them that Voss had ordered the distribution warehouse cleared before midnight.
Every disputed shipping record would be destroyed.
The original dispatch ledger was still in the building.
It carried handwritten entries that couldn't be changed by editing electronic records.
“Why didn't you destroy it already?” Dominic asked.
“Union rules. The drivers insisted on a paper record of every medical load because the delivery software kept changing after their shifts.”
Clare looked toward the door.
“Does Voss know that?”
“Yes. That's why he's sending people tonight.”
Dominic called Marco.
“Get Lucy back to the surgical center. Tell Elena what happened.”
Lucy protested when Dominic explained she had to leave.
“But you just got here.”
Dominic crouched.
“I need to take care of something.”
She crossed her arms.
“That's what you always say.”
The words struck him.
Clare looked away, giving them a moment.
Dominic reached into his coat.
He withdrew the folded drawing he'd carried since the previous night.
“Your daddy showed me this.”
Lucy smiled.
“That's our house.”
“I know.”
“You're standing outside because you never come in.”
Dominic stared at the small figure drawn beside the yellow house.
Then he took her hand.
“I'm going to change that.”
Lucy considered him seriously.
“Okay. You can come Sunday. We're having spaghetti.”
Dominic managed a smile.
“I'll be there.”
The warehouse was already being emptied when they arrived that evening.
Several workers were loading boxes into trucks.
Cal approached the supervisor.
“Where's the night crew?”
“Inside the records section. They were told to finish inventory.”
Dominic looked toward the building.
“Who gave that order?”
The supervisor hesitated.
“Mr. Voss's security people.”
Cal went pale.
“That's not right.”
Clare smelled something sharp.
Chemical.
She turned toward the loading dock.
A dark liquid was spreading beneath the warehouse doors.
Then she saw a man carrying an empty fuel container toward a black sedan.
“Dominic!”
He followed her gaze.
The man dropped the container and ran.
Seconds later, flames appeared beneath a side entrance.
The warehouse alarm began screaming.
Marco ordered his men to move back and call the fire department.
Dominic rushed toward the records section.
Cal followed.
Clare ran to the glass-paneled side door.
Inside, through thickening smoke, she saw two workers struggling with a chained security gate.
One was an older man.
The other looked barely twenty.
They were coughing.
The younger worker fell to his knees.
Clare pulled desperately at the door.
It wouldn't open.
“Dominic!” she screamed.
He ran toward her.
“There are people inside!”
He saw the chained gate.
Behind it, the older man was trying to lift his unconscious coworker.
The flames were spreading rapidly.
Dominic grabbed a heavy metal bar from the loading dock.
Clare pressed both hands against the glass.
“Stay low!” she shouted. “Help is coming!”
The older worker looked toward her.
His lips moved.
She could barely hear him through the glass.
Then he pointed behind them.
Toward the records room.
Another figure was lying motionless on the floor.
May you like
Clare's heart stopped.
There weren't two workers trapped inside the burning warehouse. There were three.
