Chapter 4 - The Twentieth Surgeon
Mercer’s pistol was pointed directly at Gabriel.
Roman moved first.
“Drop it.”
Mercer’s hand tightened.
“If anyone moves, he dies.”
Gabriel remained seated.
“You went through a great deal of trouble to save me before shooting me.”
Mercer’s face was pale.
“I’m not the one who poisoned you.”
“Then put down the gun.”
“I can’t.”
Sadi looked at him.
“Mateo?”
Mercer’s eyes shifted toward her.
“I don’t have your cousin.”
Anthony laughed from the floor.
“He’s lying.”
Mercer aimed briefly toward Anthony.
“You need to shut your mouth.”
That hesitation was enough.
Roman lunged.
A shot exploded.
Sadi dropped behind a crate.
Gabriel’s wheelchair tipped sideways.
More shots followed.
Then silence.
Sadi lifted her head.
Mercer lay on the ground.
Roman had his weapon kicked away.
Gabriel was on one knee beside the overturned chair, breathing hard.
Blood appeared along his shirt.
Sadi ran to him.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Old wound.”
Mercer groaned.
Roman rolled him over.
The surgeon had been shot through the thigh.
“Where is Mateo?” Sadi demanded.
“I don’t know.”
She grabbed his coat.
“You knew something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Mercer looked at Gabriel.
“Someone contacted me before I came to your house.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“They told me the poison would mimic aggressive infection. They told me every surgeon would eventually recommend amputation.”
Sadi stared.
“And you still came?”
“I came because I wanted to know whether it was true.”
Gabriel’s voice became cold.
“You used me as an experiment.”
“No.”
Mercer grimaced.
“I came because my daughter was taken.”
Silence.
Roman looked at him.
“What?”
Mercer reached slowly into his pocket.
Roman seized the phone first.
On the screen was a photograph.
A teenage girl sitting beside a window.
Her wrists bound.
A newspaper on her lap.
“She disappeared yesterday,” Mercer said. “I was told if I revealed anything, she would die.”
Sadi’s anger faltered.
Gabriel took the phone.
“Why pull the gun?”
“They texted me when Sadi entered the warehouse.”
“Show me.”
The message was still there.
SHOOT FALCONE OR EMMA DIES.
Gabriel stared at it.
Two hostages.
Two unwilling participants.
One invisible enemy.
Anthony began laughing again.
“You’re all dancing.”
Roman kicked him hard enough to stop the laughter.
“Who paid you?”
Anthony coughed.
“You think I know?”
“You kidnapped the boy.”
“We picked him up.”
“For who?”
“Cash job.”
“Who gave the instructions?”
Anthony smiled weakly.
“A woman.”
Isabella.
The possibility hung silently.
Gabriel’s face revealed nothing.
“Description.”
“Never saw her face.”
“Voice?”
“Modified.”
“How did she contact you?”
“Disposable phone.”
Gabriel looked toward Roman.
“Search him.”
They found a key card in Anthony’s wallet.
No markings.
Only the number 614.
Sadi recognized it.
“That’s not random.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What?”
She took the card.
“These are hospital-style room keys.”
Mercer nodded.
“She’s right.”
Sadi turned it over.
A faded blue logo appeared beneath Anthony’s thumb.
Mercer leaned closer.
“St. Catherine Medical Center.”
Roman looked at Gabriel.
“Your first surgery.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
He had been treated initially at St. Catherine before security moved him home.
Room 614.
Roman called his team.
The hospital was twenty minutes away.
They arrived in eleven.
Room 614 was supposed to be empty.
It wasn’t.
Mateo was tied to a bed.
Alive.
Sadi ran to him.
He burst into tears when she touched his face.
“I’m sorry.”
She cut his restraints.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Gabriel watched from the doorway.
For a moment, something softened in his expression.
Then Mercer’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman spoke.
“Emma will be next.”
Mercer went white.
Gabriel took the phone.
“Who is this?”
The woman laughed quietly.
“You sound better.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“So you know the poison is out.”
“I know Sadi Moreno is much more troublesome than expected.”
Sadi looked toward the phone.
Gabriel’s eyes became lethal.
“You touch her and—”
“And what?”
The woman interrupted.
“You still believe you’re the most dangerous person in the room.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“You should ask yourself why the first bullet missed your artery.”
“What?”
“Why the poison was slow.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“And why we left the maid alive long enough to find it.”
The call ended.
Sadi felt cold.
“This was planned.”
Roman nodded slowly.
“Not just the murder.”
Gabriel looked toward the hospital bed.
“No.”
He finally understood.
“Someone wanted me alive long enough to start investigating.”
Sadi stared at him.
“Why?”
“To make me distrust my own people.”
He looked at Roman.
“My sister.”
Roman’s phone buzzed.
Security alert.
Mansion.
Someone had entered Gabriel’s private office.
The cameras showed Isabella.
Gabriel watched the feed.
His sister walked directly to his desk.
Opened a hidden compartment.
Removed a red ledger.
Then looked straight into the camera.
As if she knew he was watching.
May you like
She raised the ledger.
And set it on fire.
