Chapter 2 - THE MAN OUTSIDE MY HOSPITAL ROOMWhen I opened my eyes, I knew two things immediately.
My mouth tasted like metal.
And someone was arguing outside my hospital room.
“You cannot keep six men in this hallway.”
“I only have four.”
“I counted six.”
“Two belong to the hospital.”
“They’re security guards.”
“Exactly.”
A nurse sighed.
“Mr. Vescari, this is not one of your properties.”
A familiar male voice answered calmly.
“Tonight it is.”
I opened my eyes wider.
Morning light seeped through pale curtains.
Machines beeped beside me.
My left arm was wrapped in bandages from wrist to elbow.
My right side felt as if someone had driven a truck over it.
Then the door opened.
A nurse stepped inside.
Behind her stood Damian Vescari.
He had changed clothes.
Black slacks.
White shirt.
No jacket.
He looked like he hadn’t slept.
Luca appeared from behind his leg.
“Emma!”
“Luca,” Damian warned.
The boy immediately slowed from a run to a careful walk.
He climbed onto the chair beside my bed and placed something on the blanket.
His plastic dinosaur.
“For you.”
I smiled.
“I thought he was your favorite.”
“He is.”
“Then you should keep him.”
Luca shook his head.
“He protects people.”
Something tightened behind my ribs that had nothing to do with the stitches.
“Then I’ll borrow him.”
The nurse checked my IV.
“You were very lucky, Ms. Carter.”
“How lucky?”
“A piece of glass severed a branch of your inferior epigastric artery. You lost a substantial amount of blood, but the surgical team controlled it.”
I swallowed.
“How long was I out?”
“About fourteen hours.”
“And my job?”
The nurse stared at me.
I knew how ridiculous the question sounded.
But rent didn’t care that I had almost died.
Neither did student loans.
Neither did the electric company.
Damian’s expression changed.
“You’re asking about work?”
“I’m scheduled tomorrow.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Excuse me?”
“You are not working tomorrow.”
“My manager gets upset when people call out.”
“You were nearly killed.”
“He gets upset about that too.”
Luca giggled.
Damian did not.
“What do they pay you?”
“Mr. Vescari—”
“Damian.”
“I don’t discuss my salary with strangers.”
His eyes dropped toward the dinosaur.
“My son appears to believe we’ve moved beyond strangers.”
Luca nodded solemnly.
“She saved my life.”
The door opened again.
A police detective entered.
Mid-fifties, tired eyes, raincoat.
“Ms. Carter?”
“Yes.”
“Detective Randall. I need to ask you a few questions.”
Damian stood.
Randall looked at him.
“You can wait outside.”
“I’m staying.”
“This is an interview.”
“She was unconscious fourteen hours.”
“And she’s also a witness.”
“I said I’m staying.”
The detective studied him.
Something told me these two had met before.
I lifted one hand.
“He can stay.”
Randall frowned but took the chair on the opposite side.
“What do you remember?”
I told him.
The first glass.
Luca freezing.
The second impact.
Then the glass in my side.
“Did you see who threw them?”
“No.”
“Did anyone speak to you earlier in the evening?”
“Hundreds of people spoke to me. I was serving them.”
“Anyone unusual?”
I thought.
Then remembered.
A woman in a red dress.
Blonde.
Maybe forty.
She had grabbed my wrist near the kitchen.
Asked where Damian’s son was.
At the time I assumed she was looking for Luca because he had been running between tables.
Now my skin prickled.
“There was someone.”
Damian became very still.
I described her.
Randall wrote quickly.
“Anything else?”
“She had a silver bracelet. Snake-shaped.”
Damian’s face drained of color.
Not much.
But enough.
“You know her,” I said.
“No.”
It was the first obvious lie he had told me.
Detective Randall noticed too.
“What does that bracelet mean?”
Damian stood.
“This interview is over.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“It is for me.”
He headed toward the door.
“Damian.”
He stopped.
I didn’t know why I used his first name.
Maybe because I had almost died.
Near-death apparently made me reckless.
“You know something.”
He turned.
“The woman you saw may have been trying to reach my son.”
“Why?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because of me.”
The room went quiet.
Luca played with the edge of my blanket, oblivious.
A cold sensation spread through me.
“You said what happened wasn’t an accident.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Was someone trying to kill Luca?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you think so.”
His silence answered.
Then everything changed.
A hospital administrator appeared at the door.
“Mr. Vescari, we have a situation.”
Damian glanced at Luca.
“Marco.”
The large man from the ballroom stepped in.
“Stay with him.”
Then Damian looked at me.
“And her.”
I almost laughed.
“I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“Last night suggests otherwise.”
He left.
Detective Randall stood.
“I need to make a phone call.”
Within seconds, the room contained only Luca, Marco, and me.
Marco positioned himself near the door.
Luca leaned toward me.
“My papa scares everybody.”
“I noticed.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
“That’s because he loves you.”
Luca considered this.
“He liked my mama too.”
The room seemed to shift.
“Where is your mama?”
Marco looked toward us sharply.
Luca lowered his voice.
“She went to heaven.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She died when I was born.”
Marco turned toward the window.
I wished I hadn’t asked.
Then Luca said something strange.
“Papa says bad people want to make him sad again.”
My heartbeat quickened.
“What bad people?”
“Luca.”
Marco’s warning was gentle.
The boy stopped.
A minute later, Damian returned.
His expression had transformed from tense to lethal.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Someone tried to enter the hospital using a forged nursing badge.”
My blood went cold.
“Why?”
“They were carrying a photograph.”
He pulled a phone from his pocket and showed me an image captured by hospital security.
It was me.
Walking into Bellamy House the previous evening.
The photograph had been taken before the attack.
I stared at Damian.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t supposed to be involved.”
“No.”
“So why did someone photograph me?”
Damian didn’t answer.
My fear turned to anger.
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
“This isn’t the place.”
“I nearly died protecting your child.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“Someone followed me here.”
“I know.”
“And apparently you know more than you’re saying.”
He glanced at Luca.
“Not in front of my son.”
“Then send him out.”
Damian hesitated.
That surprised me.
A man who ordered rooms locked without blinking hesitated because his six-year-old son might be frightened.
Finally Marco took Luca for hot chocolate.
The moment the door closed, Damian came closer.
“The woman with the snake bracelet belongs to a family called Moretti.”
I waited.
“My father did business with them twenty years ago. The relationship ended badly.”
“What kind of business?”
“Transportation. Construction. Warehouses.”
“That sounds suspiciously vague.”
“It’s intentionally vague.”
“So the rumors about you—”
“Some are true.”
At least he didn’t lie.
“And some were true about my father before me.”
My hands went cold.
“Why target Luca?”
“To punish me.”
“And me?”
“That is what I don’t understand.”
He moved toward the window.
“The person who entered the hospital was detained. He had your photograph, your home address, and the name of the diner where your mother works.”
My body went completely still.
“My mother?”
Damian turned.
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“One of my men is watching her.”
“Without asking me?”
“You’re welcome.”
I stared at him.
“You do not get to take over my life.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But someone else is trying to end it.”
That shut me up.
Damian approached the bed.
“I owe you something I can never repay.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“You saved my son.”
“Anyone would have.”
“No.”
The word was immediate.
“You moved while two hundred other people froze.”
His eyes held mine.
“So here is what happens next. You will stay here until the doctors release you. Then you and your mother will go somewhere secure until I know who is doing this.”
“I’m not moving into some bunker.”
“It isn’t a bunker.”
“Penthouse?”
“Estate.”
“Absolutely not.”
His mouth almost twitched.
“You’re stubborn.”
“You’re controlling.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I’m sure.”
Then the door burst open.
Marco stepped inside without Luca.
Damian straightened.
“Where’s my son?”
“Bathroom. Guard is with him.”
“What happened?”
Marco held out a plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a white envelope.
Written across the front in black ink were five words.
THE GIRL SHOULD HAVE DIED.
My lungs forgot how to work.
Damian read it once.
Then again.
Something terrible settled over his expression.
“Where was it?”
“Under her mother’s windshield wiper.”
I closed my eyes.
This was no longer about a stranger’s child.
Someone knew me.
Someone had expected me to die.
May you like
And for the first time since the ballroom, I wondered whether saving Luca had been the beginning of my nightmare.
Or whether my nightmare had begun long before I ever saw him.
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