Chapter 2 - The Woman Outside Suite 900
Dante aimed at the door while Mara stood behind him.
The handle turned slowly.
Then the door opened six inches.
Marco appeared first.
Blood ran from his eyebrow.
Dante didn't lower the gun.
"Who hit you?"
Marco stumbled inside.
"Nobody."
"Try again."
"The cameras went dark."
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"For how long?"
"Thirty-seven seconds."
"And?"
Marco looked toward Mara.
Dante stepped between them.
"Speak."
"We found Salvatore unconscious beside the elevator."
Salvatore was another bodyguard.
Mara had seen him only minutes earlier.
"Alive?" she asked.
Marco nodded.
"Barely."
Dante glanced into the corridor.
"Where's the woman?"
Marco frowned.
"What woman?"
"The woman who just spoke through that door."
Marco looked confused.
"Nobody was here."
Dante's voice lowered.
"Marco."
"I swear."
Mara stepped closer to the doorway.
The corridor beyond was empty.
A security camera hung from the ceiling.
Its indicator light was off.
"Could someone have used the intercom?" she asked.
Marco shook his head.
"Suite 900 doesn't have an exterior speaker."
Mara looked at Dante.
He had heard the voice.
So had she.
Before either could speak, an alarm sounded somewhere down the hall.
Marco touched his earpiece.
"Boss, we need to move you."
"No."
"Someone breached the ninth floor."
"Then lock it down."
"Hospital security—"
"Hospital security allowed someone to replace my brace."
Marco stopped.
Dante opened his palm.
The memory card sat there.
Marco's expression betrayed him.
Just for a second.
But Dante saw.
"You've seen this."
"No."
Dante pointed the gun at him.
Mara stepped forward instinctively.
"Dante."
"Stay out of this."
"If you shoot someone in my hospital room, I become involved."
Marco raised both hands.
"I didn't see the card."
"Then why did your face change?"
"Because I recognize the type."
"From where?"
Marco swallowed.
"Isabella."
Dante went still.
Mara watched both men carefully.
Marco continued.
"She used memory cards instead of cloud storage. She didn't trust servers."
"Why?"
"You know why."
"I want to hear you say it."
"Because she believed someone inside the family was monitoring everything."
Dante's expression hardened.
"And you never told me?"
"She made me swear."
"She's been dead three years."
Marco looked at the floor.
"That's what we believed."
The sentence settled in the room like smoke.
Mara said, "What do you mean, believed?"
Marco looked at her.
Before he could answer, the hospital lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then went dark.
Emergency lighting appeared several seconds later.
Red strips illuminated the floor.
Dante swore.
Marco drew his weapon.
Mara moved toward the medical monitor.
Backup power kept it alive.
"Your IV pump is still running."
Dante looked at the clear tubing.
His eyes narrowed.
"I never agreed to an IV."
Mara followed the line.
It entered his arm beneath a piece of gauze.
Someone had inserted it during surgery.
She checked the bag.
Normal saline.
At least according to the label.
"Marco, turn on your phone light."
He did.
Mara examined the drip chamber.
Something looked wrong.
The liquid had a faint yellow tint.
She immediately clamped the line.
Dante watched her.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"That's not reassuring."
"The bag might have been changed."
Marco moved toward the door.
"Nobody comes in."
Mara disconnected the tubing from Dante's catheter.
"We need toxicology."
Dante reached for the bag.
She pulled it away.
"Don't touch it."
His eyebrow lifted.
"You've become brave quickly."
"I've always been brave. You were simply too busy throwing doctors into walls to notice."
For the first time, something almost like a smile touched his face.
It disappeared.
The lights returned.
Mara held the IV bag beneath normal illumination.
Definitely yellow.
Dante looked toward Marco.
"Who had access after surgery?"
"Hospital staff."
"Names."
"I'll get them."
"No. You're staying where I can see you."
Marco's face tightened.
Dante had stopped trusting him.
Mara understood.
The memory card had changed everything.
She found a specimen bag and sealed the IV inside it.
"Before we do anything else, you need to sit."
Dante exhaled.
"You've got a strange fixation."
"On preventing you from destroying your leg? Yes."
He reluctantly sat.
Mara checked the bandages.
A small patch of blood had appeared near the knee.
"Wonderful."
"What?"
"You opened part of the incision."
"I'll live."
"That's not the standard I'm aiming for."
Dante watched her hands as she prepared sterile gauze.
This time he didn't tell her to stop.
"May I touch your leg?"
His eyes met hers.
"Yes."
Mara worked carefully.
Under the intimidation, Dante had extraordinary pain tolerance.
Too extraordinary.
People learned that kind of tolerance somewhere.
She didn't ask.
Not yet.
"Tell me about Elena," she said.
His body stiffened.
"You ask dangerous questions."
"I think we're past safe questions."
Dante looked toward Marco.
"Leave us."
Marco opened his mouth.
"Door stays open. You stand outside."
He obeyed.
Mara secured the dressing.
Dante spoke quietly.
"Elena Moretti became Elena Vescari five years ago."
"You loved her?"
The look he gave her made the question unnecessary.
"More than anything."
"What happened?"
"She vanished."
"No body?"
"No."
"Then why did you say 'was' when you called her your wife?"
"Because everyone told me she was dead."
"Everyone?"
"My uncle. My attorney. Police. Private investigators."
"And Isabella?"
Dante stared at the memory card.
"Isabella died the same night."
Mara sat opposite him.
"How?"
"Car explosion."
"Did you see her body?"
"A body was recovered."
"That's different."
Dante's eyes sharpened.
"You're suggesting both women could be alive."
"I'm suggesting somebody just spoke to you using a voice you recognized."
He looked at her.
"And somebody used your sister's initials to hide a memory card on your leg."
Dante turned the card between his fingers.
"We need a computer that's not connected to the hospital network."
"I have one in my locker."
"No."
"Why?"
"If someone tracked this card, they'll be waiting for any hospital device to read it."
"My laptop is personal."
"Still connected to Wi-Fi."
"I can disable it."
He considered.
"Get it."
Mara stood.
Dante caught her wrist.
Not violently.
Instantly.
She looked down.
He released her.
"Sorry."
The word surprised both of them.
"Don't go alone."
"I'll survive the locker room."
"That's what people say before they don't."
He called Marco inside.
"Take her."
Marco nodded.
Dante added, "And if anything happens to her, don't come back."
Mara stared.
"I can protect myself."
Dante's gaze held hers.
"Maybe. Humor me."
The ninth-floor staff area was nearly deserted.
Marco walked several feet ahead.
Mara watched him.
"You knew my mother."
He didn't turn.
"I knew of her."
"That's not what your face said."
Marco stopped.
"Nurse Bellini."
"Mara."
He glanced toward the security camera.
"Not here."
"Then where?"
"Somewhere without microphones."
A chill ran through her.
"Does Dante know you think the hospital is bugged?"
"Dante assumes every room is bugged."
"Healthy lifestyle."
Marco almost smiled.
They reached the staff elevator.
The doors opened.
Empty.
Marco pressed level three.
Mara stepped inside.
When the doors closed, he immediately hit the emergency stop.
The elevator halted.
Mara turned.
"What are you doing?"
"Your mother saved Isabella."
Mara forgot to breathe.
"What?"
"Lucia Bellini was the last person to see her alive."
"But Isabella died."
"No."
Mara stared.
Marco's voice dropped.
"Your mother helped her disappear."
"Why?"
"Because Isabella discovered who had ordered Elena's kidnapping."
The words came too fast.
Mara gripped the railing.
"Elena wasn't killed?"
"I don't know."
"Who ordered it?"
Marco looked upward toward the camera.
Its indicator was dark.
"I never learned the name."
"You're lying."
He met her eyes.
"I learned one thing."
"What?"
"The person was close enough to Dante to know every security route, every family safe house, every password."
Mara remembered the six people who had known Dante's route tonight.
"His uncle?"
"Maybe."
"His wife couldn't have kidnapped herself."
Marco didn't respond.
That bothered her.
"Why didn't Isabella tell Dante?"
"She tried."
"What happened?"
"Someone intercepted her."
"Who?"
Marco shook his head.
"Lucia told me never to say more until you had the key."
Mara went still.
"You know about the key?"
Marco's face changed.
He realized he'd said too much.
Mara stepped closer.
"What does my key open?"
"I don't know."
"Liar."
"I swear."
"Then how do you know about it?"
"Because Isabella left instructions."
"When?"
Marco's voice became almost inaudible.
"Three months after she died."
Mara stared.
Her mother had protected a woman who was officially dead.
Maybe for years.
The elevator jerked.
The emergency stop button popped outward.
Neither had touched it.
Marco immediately drew his gun.
The elevator began descending.
"That's not us," Mara whispered.
"No."
The display passed level two.
Then one.
Then basement.
The doors didn't open.
The elevator kept descending.
Mara stared at the display.
"There's nothing below B1."
Marco moved in front of her.
"Apparently there is."
The elevator stopped.
A new symbol appeared where a floor number should have been.
The doors opened.
A dark concrete corridor waited beyond.
At the far end, a woman's silhouette stood beneath a single light.
Mara heard her voice.
"Lucia's daughter."
Marco raised his weapon.
The woman stepped forward.
May you like
Dante's sister had been dead for three years.
But the face coming out of the darkness belonged to Isabella Vescari.
