Chapter 3 - The Man in the Hospital
Emergency lights flashed red along the corridor.
Marco drew his gun.
“Lock down the floor.”
The guards moved instantly.
Victor grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
A nurse screamed somewhere beyond the imaging room.
Then came the sound of suppressed gunfire.
Three soft cracks.
A body struck the floor.
Victor looked toward Ethan’s room.
The door was still closed.
“Stay here,” he ordered.
Lily pulled free.
“My place is with Ethan.”
“Your place is where you are not shot.”
“My brother told me the same thing once.”
She ran toward the treatment room before Victor could stop her.
Marco cursed and followed.
The door opened as Lily reached it.
A man in blue surgical scrubs stepped into the corridor.
A mask covered his face.
He carried a silver medical case in one hand.
His other hand was inside his pocket.
Lily stopped.
The man looked at her.
For half a second, neither moved.
Then Lily noticed the blood on his shoe.
“Victor!”
The man lunged.
Lily slammed the door against him.
His arm became trapped between the frame and the heavy metal edge.
A pistol fell from his hand.
Marco crossed the distance in three strides.
He struck the attacker in the throat and drove him against the wall.
Victor seized the fallen weapon.
The attacker tried to reach for something beneath his shirt.
Victor aimed at his chest.
“Do not.”
The man froze.
Marco ripped away the surgical mask.
Lily did not recognize him.
Victor did.
“Nico Vale.”
The attacker smiled through the pain.
“Blackwood.”
Victor pressed the gun beneath his jaw.
“Who sent you?”
Nico laughed.
“You already know.”
Marco searched him.
He found a syringe taped beneath Nico’s sleeve.
Dr. Marino appeared from the opposite corridor with two security officers.
He examined the syringe without touching it.
“That dose could stop an adult heart.”
Lily looked into Ethan’s room.
The baby remained asleep.
A young nurse was crouched beside the bed, trembling but unharmed.
Nico had been seconds away from reaching him.
Victor’s grip tightened on the pistol.
“Was this Serena?”
Nico smiled again.
“Serena is a spoiled child.”
Victor pushed the gun harder beneath his chin.
“Then who?”
Nico looked directly at Lily.
“Ask the detective’s sister.”
Lily’s stomach twisted.
“I don’t know you.”
“No, but Samuel did.”
Nico’s eyes remained fixed on hers.
“He begged for your life before he died.”
Lily rushed forward.
Marco caught her around the waist.
“What did you do to my brother?”
Nico showed no fear.
“He asked too many questions.”
Victor lowered the weapon slightly.
“Who ordered the bombing?”
Nico’s smile disappeared.
A small white foam appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Marco forced his jaw open.
“Capsule!”
Nico convulsed.
His eyes rolled back.
Dr. Marino pushed past them and lowered the man to the floor.
“Cyanide.”
Within seconds, Nico Vale stopped moving.
Lily stared at his body.
The man had carried answers about Samuel.
Now those answers had died with him.
The emergency power returned.
Bright fluorescent light flooded the corridor.
Marco’s radio crackled.
“We have two hostiles down near the west stairwell.”
“Any others?”
“Unknown.”
Victor looked at the silver case Nico had been carrying.
“Open it.”
Marco placed it on a counter and checked for explosives.
Inside were empty blood tubes, hospital labels and a portable medical scanner.
Dr. Marino picked up one label.
“It has Ethan’s patient number.”
“They came to remove the blood evidence,” Lily said.
“And kill the child,” Victor added.
Marco examined a small envelope in the bottom of the case.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Serena stood beside a man outside a private club.
The photograph appeared to have been taken from across the street.
Lily recognized the man immediately.
“Adrian Montigue.”
Serena’s older brother.
The head of Montigue Shipping.
Publicly, Adrian operated one of the largest freight companies on Lake Michigan.
Privately, he controlled weapons routes, stolen pharmaceuticals and several corrupt officials across Illinois.
Victor and Adrian had maintained an uneasy peace for five years.
The marriage between Victor and Serena was supposed to make that peace permanent.
Marco turned the photograph over.
Four words had been written on the back.
THE CHILD CANNOT INHERIT.
Victor read the message twice.
Lily looked at him.
“Inherit what?”
“My companies.”
“You have legal successors.”
“Ethan is the only person who inherits everything automatically.”
Marco understood first.
“If Ethan dies before the wedding, Serena receives nothing.”
“But if she marries you first?” Lily asked.
Victor’s eyes turned cold.
“She becomes the legal guardian of my son if something happens to me.”
Lily felt the pieces moving into place.
Serena was not only trying to remove Ethan.
She was preparing to remove Victor.
Dr. Marino stood.
“We need to move the child immediately.”
Victor nodded.
“My lake property.”
Marco shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
“The old church safe house?”
“Compromised three years ago.”
Lily looked down at the brass key in her hand.
“My brother owned a cabin near Galena.”
Victor studied her.
“No one knows about it.”
“Serena knows who you are.”
“She knows my name. She does not know the cabin exists.”
Marco’s radio sounded again.
A guard’s urgent voice filled the corridor.
“Boss, the police are arriving.”
Victor frowned.
“We did not call them.”
“Someone reported that Victor Blackwood kidnapped Serena Montigue and assaulted her inside his estate.”
Lily stared at him.
Serena had moved faster than any of them expected.
“She is building her story,” Lily said.
Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked the screen.
News alerts were already appearing.
Photographs of Serena leaving the Blackwood mansion in handcuffs had been leaked online.
The headline accused Victor of imprisoning his fiancée after she discovered him abusing his child.
Lily’s name appeared in the second paragraph.
A mysterious nanny.
A suspected mistress.
A woman allegedly working with Victor to frame an innocent socialite.
Victor read the article.
Then looked toward Nico’s body.
“This was not an escape plan.”
Marco understood.
“It was a war plan.”
Victor handed him the photograph.
“Get Ethan through the service tunnel.”
“What about Serena?”
Victor looked toward the approaching blue lights beyond the hospital windows.
“For now, we let the police take her.”
Lily stared at him.
“You are releasing her?”
“No.”
May you like
Victor’s gaze settled on Nico’s body.
“I am giving her the freedom to lead us to everyone who believes my son should die.”
