Chapter 2 - The Name Hannah Never Expected
Hannah stopped breathing.
The face on Dominic’s tablet belonged to a man she had prayed never to see again.
Caleb Rourke.
Six years earlier, Hannah had worked nights as a nursing assistant at St. Catherine’s Medical Center.
She had liked the work.
She had been good at it.
Patients remembered her because she talked to frightened people like they were people instead of room numbers.
Caleb had been a hospital administrator.
Clean suits.
Expensive watch.
Perfect smile.
And a talent for making inconvenient paperwork disappear.
Hannah had discovered medication shipments that did not match patient records.
She had asked questions.
Then she had found invoices.
Thousands of dollars in controlled medications were being redirected through fake hospice accounts.
Hannah reported it.
Two weeks later, the evidence vanished.
Three weeks later, Hannah was accused of stealing medication herself.
She was never criminally charged because nothing could be proven.
But the allegation followed her.
St. Catherine’s fired her.
Other hospitals stopped returning calls.
Her savings disappeared.
Then her apartment.
Then almost everything else.
Caleb Rourke had continued climbing.
Until, according to public records, he disappeared three years ago.
Hannah stared at the tablet.
“He’s supposed to be gone.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Hannah looked at the SUVs.
The armed-looking men.
Dominic’s expensive coat.
Her station wagon.
Everything about the situation screamed danger.
“I think I’d rather not talk about it.”
Dominic nodded.
“Fair.”
That surprised her.
“You’re not going to threaten me?”
“No.”
“People like you usually do.”
A flicker of amusement crossed his face.
“People like me?”
“Eleven black SUVs before breakfast.”
Dominic glanced around.
“I may have overdone it.”
“You think?”
He turned.
“Everyone except Marco, leave.”
His men hesitated.
Dominic gave them one look.
Doors closed.
Engines started.
Ten SUVs pulled away.
Hannah stared.
“You always get obeyed that fast?”
“Usually.”
“That must be nice.”
“Sometimes.”
When the street quieted, Dominic extended his hand.
“Dominic Vale.”
Hannah did not take it.
“Evelyn’s son.”
“Yes.”
“You’re the one she called.”
“Yes.”
Hannah looked at Marco.
Then back at Dominic.
“What exactly do you do?”
Dominic seemed to consider several answers.
“Logistics.”
Hannah laughed.
“Of course you do.”
Marco almost smiled.
Dominic didn't.
“My mother wants to see you.”
“Why?”
“She wants to thank you.”
“She already did.”
“She is persistent.”
“So am I.”
“I noticed.”
Hannah lowered the pipe.
“Is she okay?”
“Sprained wrist. Bruising. Angry.”
“That sounds like her.”
Dominic’s expression softened.
For the first time, Hannah saw him not as a man with an entourage but as a frightened son who had nearly lost his mother.
“Come have breakfast with her,” he said.
“No money.”
“I didn’t mention money.”
“No hotel.”
“Fine.”
“No charity.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Hannah, I’m inviting you to breakfast.”
She looked at the station wagon.
“Can I bring my entire house?”
Dominic followed her gaze.
“We’ll have someone guard it.”
“My house has a better security system than it looks like.”
“What system?”
“Nobody wants it.”
Dominic actually laughed.
It was brief.
But real.
Twenty minutes later, Hannah sat in the back of a black SUV wondering whether she had made the worst decision of her life.
Dominic’s home was not what she expected.
She imagined gold.
Marble lions.
Men carrying machine guns.
Instead, the house looked old and elegant, built of limestone above the river, with tall windows and gardens still wet from overnight rain.
Evelyn waited at the breakfast table.
Her wrist was wrapped.
When she saw Hannah, she stood.
“You came.”
“For pancakes.”
Evelyn smiled.
“I knew I liked you.”
Hannah sat awkwardly.
A server placed coffee in front of her.
She lifted the cup.
Then stopped.
People who had been hungry long enough developed habits.
One was never trusting abundance.
She looked at the plates.
Eggs.
Toast.
Fruit.
Pancakes.
Bacon.
Too much food.
Evelyn noticed.
“Eat.”
Hannah took one pancake.
Dominic sat opposite her.
No one mentioned money.
For ten minutes, they discussed normal things.
Coffee.
The weather.
Evelyn’s terrible habit of ignoring security.
Then Dominic placed the tablet on the table.
Caleb Rourke’s photograph appeared.
Evelyn’s face changed.
“You know him?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You do too?”
Evelyn set down her fork.
“I met him once.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Dominic went still.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because every time I mention anything dangerous, you assign another six men to follow me.”
“Apparently six wasn't enough.”
“Dominic.”
“Hannah,” he said, “tell us what happened six years ago.”
She almost refused.
Then she looked at Evelyn's wrapped wrist.
So she told them.
Not everything.
Enough.
The hospital.
The missing medicine.
The fake records.
Caleb.
The accusations.
The firing.
When she finished, Dominic’s face had become unreadable.
Evelyn looked devastated.
“You lost your home because you tried to expose him.”
“I lost my job because I couldn't prove it.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“It is when the rent is due.”
Dominic stood.
“Marco.”
Marco entered almost instantly.
“Find everything on St. Catherine’s Medical Center from six years ago. Controlled medications. Hospice contracts. Caleb Rourke.”
Hannah looked up.
“You don’t have to.”
Dominic stared at her.
“My mother was kidnapped by a man who previously destroyed the life of the woman who saved her.”
He leaned forward.
“I very much have to.”
Hannah felt something unfamiliar.
Not hope.
Hope had disappointed her too many times.
Maybe possibility.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She ignored it.
It buzzed again.
A text appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN YOUR CAR.
Hannah froze.
Dominic saw her face.
“What?”
She turned the phone around.
Another message arrived.
The photo loaded slowly.
It showed Hannah’s station wagon.
Taken that morning.
From across the street.
A final text appeared.
YOU TOOK SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO US.
Hannah frowned.
“I didn't take anything.”
Dominic looked toward his mother.
Evelyn had gone pale.
“Ma?”
Evelyn reached beneath the collar of her blouse.
Her fingers searched.
Then stopped.
“My necklace.”
“What necklace?”
“The silver locket.”
“Was it valuable?”
“Not in money.”
Evelyn looked at Hannah.
“It held a key.”
Hannah remembered pulling Evelyn away from the van.
Their clothes had tangled.
Something had struck the pavement.
Later, Hannah had picked up a small silver object and shoved it into her coat pocket without looking.
Slowly, she reached inside.
Her fingers found metal.
She pulled out Evelyn’s broken locket.
Inside it was a tiny brass key.
Dominic stared.
“What does it open?”
Evelyn did not answer.
“Ma.”
Evelyn looked from Dominic to Hannah.
Then she said the last thing either expected.
“It opens the evidence your father died trying to hide.”
Silence.
Dominic’s father had been dead for fourteen years.
Then a security alarm sounded.
Marco rushed through the doorway.
“Dominic, we have a breach.”
“Where?”
Marco looked directly at Hannah.
“Her station wagon.”
Dominic turned toward the security monitor.
The live feed showed a man opening Hannah’s rear door.
He reached beneath her blankets.
Then he pulled out a black case Hannah had never seen before.
The man raised his face toward the camera.
May you like
Evelyn whispered one name.
“Caleb.”
