Chapter 2 - The Price of a Heart
Lena's first instinct was to scream.
The man raised one hand.
"Ms. Hart?"
She backed down one step.
"Stay away from me."
"My name is Gabriel Torres."
"That doesn't help."
He was perhaps forty, broad-shouldered, with close-cropped dark hair and a scar crossing one eyebrow. Unlike the men in the alley, he wasn't wet.
He had come from inside the hotel.
He held Dominic's phone carefully.
"Mr. Vale sent me."
"You expect me to believe that?"
Gabriel unlocked the phone and turned it toward her.
A text message filled the screen.
GABRIEL. GET LENA HART TO ST. CATHERINE. KEEP HER ALIVE. DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS.
Below it was a second message.
AND CALL DR. ADRIAN REESE. SOPHIE HART. CARDIAC.
Lena stared.
"He sent that when?"
"Six minutes ago."
"He's still downstairs."
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
"Not anymore."
"What happened?"
"We moved him."
"Is he alive?"
"Yes."
The relief Lena felt disturbed her.
She barely knew Dominic.
Yet she had pulled him out of the rain, hidden him under towels, touched his blood with her bare hands.
A person stopped being a stranger quickly when you'd watched him try not to die.
"My daughter."
"Car's downstairs."
Lena followed Gabriel.
She didn't ask whether she had a choice.
Outside, a black SUV waited near the employee exit.
Her body reacted before her mind did.
Same kind of vehicle as the one in the alley.
Gabriel opened the rear door.
"I know what this looks like."
"It looks like kidnapping."
"If we were kidnapping you, I wouldn't have explained anything."
"That isn't comforting."
"Fair."
They drove.
St. Catherine was twelve minutes away.
They made it in seven.
Lena spent the entire ride calling her neighbor, Mrs. Alvarez, who had taken Sophie to the hospital.
"I'm here with her," the older woman said. "She's scared, sweetheart."
"Put her on."
There was rustling.
Then a small voice.
"Mom?"
Lena closed her eyes.
"Hey, baby."
"Are you coming?"
"I'm almost there."
"They put tubes in my arm."
"I know. You're doing great."
"Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"Am I gonna die?"
Gabriel looked out the window.
Lena forced her voice not to break.
"No."
She had promised Sophie she would never lie.
That promise had limits.
"I'm coming. You just wait for me."
When Lena entered the pediatric cardiac ICU, Sophie looked impossibly small beneath the blankets.
Ten years old.
Brown curls spread over the pillow.
Oxygen beneath her nose.
Monitors flickering beside the bed.
Lena crossed the room and wrapped both hands around her daughter's.
Sophie smiled weakly.
"You look terrible."
Lena laughed through tears.
"You look bossy."
"Your dress has blood."
Lena looked down.
She had forgotten.
"It's not mine."
Sophie raised an eyebrow.
Lena kissed her forehead.
"Long story."
Dr. Adrian Reese entered minutes later.
He was normally composed.
Tonight, he looked furious.
"Lena, can we speak outside?"
"No."
She held Sophie's hand tighter.
"You can say it here."
Reese glanced at Sophie.
Sophie said, "I'm ten, not four."
He pulled a chair closer.
"We received notice at 1:23 a.m. that a compatible donor heart may become available."
Lena felt Sophie's fingers tighten.
"How compatible?"
"Very."
"Then why aren't you doing the surgery?"
"The transplant committee received an emergency objection."
"From who?"
"Someone claiming there's unresolved financial authorization connected to your insurance."
Lena stared at him.
"Financial authorization? You told me insurance doesn't decide transplant ranking."
"It doesn't."
"Then how can they stop it?"
"They shouldn't be able to."
"Shouldn't?"
Reese leaned forward.
"Someone isn't following normal procedure."
Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
Dr. Reese looked at him.
"You must be Mr. Vale's representative."
"Gabriel Torres."
Reese stood.
"I received your call."
"And?"
"I told you what I know."
Gabriel's expression sharpened.
"Who filed the objection?"
"I don't have access to the identity."
"Who does?"
"The committee administrator."
"Name?"
Reese hesitated.
"Marianne Cole."
Gabriel's phone was already in his hand.
Lena stood.
"What does Dominic have to do with this?"
Neither man answered.
Lena looked at Gabriel.
"You walked me into my daughter's ICU. Start talking."
Gabriel studied her for a moment.
"St. Catherine's new cardiac expansion was funded by the Vale Foundation."
Lena blinked.
"What?"
"Mr. Vale's family donated forty-eight million dollars."
Reese added quietly, "Half this floor exists because of them."
Lena sat again.
That explained Dominic's reaction when she'd named the hospital.
But not the rest.
Gabriel continued.
"Dominic sits on the foundation board."
"So he can just order a transplant?"
"No," Reese said immediately. "Absolutely not."
Gabriel nodded.
"He can't move Sophie ahead of someone with higher medical priority. And he wouldn't."
"Then what can he do?"
"He can make sure nobody illegally moves her backward."
The distinction hit Lena hard.
Someone wasn't trying to give Sophie special treatment.
Someone was trying to take away treatment she had already earned.
"Why?"
Gabriel didn't answer.
That terrified her.
Reese's pager went off.
He checked it.
"I need to go downstairs."
"Why?"
"The donor team."
Lena stood.
"Is the heart coming?"
"If clearance is restored."
"How long do we have?"
"Not long."
After he left, Lena stared through the glass wall.
Families moved silently through the ICU corridor.
Machines beeped.
Nurses hurried.
Nothing looked like a battlefield.
Yet somewhere inside the hospital, somebody was fighting to stop her daughter's surgery.
Sophie whispered, "Mom?"
Lena turned.
"Yeah?"
"Who's Dominic?"
Lena nearly dropped the cup she was holding.
"What?"
"You said his name while you were talking."
"Just... someone I met tonight."
"A friend?"
"No."
Sophie smiled faintly.
"You always say that before someone becomes your friend."
"Go to sleep."
"Bossy."
"You started it."
Sophie closed her eyes.
Gabriel's phone buzzed.
He read something.
His expression changed.
"What?"
"Mr. Vale is coming."
"Here?"
"Yes."
"He was bleeding an hour ago."
"You noticed."
"Why isn't he in a hospital?"
"This is a hospital."
"You know exactly what I mean."
Before Gabriel could answer, the elevator doors opened.
Three men stepped out.
Lena recognized none of them.
Then Dominic appeared.
He wore a clean black shirt beneath a dark coat. Someone had bandaged his ribs properly. His face was pale, and he moved more slowly than before.
But nobody looking at him would have mistaken weakness for helplessness.
Hospital security moved aside.
Doctors stared.
Dominic ignored everyone.
His eyes found Lena.
"How is she?"
Lena looked at him.
"You came."
"I said I would remember."
"You never said that."
"I didn't need to."
He entered Sophie's room.
Lena instinctively stepped between him and the bed.
Dominic stopped.
For a man who probably terrified entire rooms simply by entering them, he accepted the boundary without complaint.
"May I?"
Lena moved aside.
Sophie opened her eyes.
She looked at Dominic.
Then his bandaged side.
"You're the blood guy."
Dominic glanced at Lena.
Lena covered her face.
"I told her the blood wasn't mine."
Sophie continued, "Did my mom save you?"
Dominic considered the question seriously.
"Yes."
Sophie smiled.
"She does that."
Lena's throat tightened.
Dominic pulled a chair closer but didn't sit.
"I heard you need a new heart."
Sophie nodded.
"Mine's being dramatic."
"Sounds inconvenient."
"Very."
Dominic's mouth almost curved.
"Can you fix it?"
Lena inhaled sharply.
But Sophie wasn't asking like a desperate child.
She was asking like someone wondering if a stranger could repair a bicycle.
Dominic looked at her.
"I can make sure nobody cheats you."
"Okay."
Sophie closed her eyes again.
"Mom says cheating is pathetic."
Dominic looked at Lena.
"I agree with your mother."
Outside the room, Gabriel approached.
"We found Cole."
"And?"
"She's gone."
"Define gone."
"Left the hospital twenty minutes ago. Phone off."
Dominic's expression changed completely.
The warmth disappeared.
"Who signed the objection?"
"We're tracing it."
Dr. Reese came running down the hall.
"Lena."
She turned.
His face gave her the answer before he spoke.
"The transplant authorization was denied."
Lena felt the world collapse.
"No."
"We're appealing."
"No. You said she's medically eligible."
"She is."
"Then fix it."
"I'm trying."
Sophie stirred behind the glass.
Lena lowered her voice.
"You told me a heart exists."
"It does."
"For her."
"Potentially."
"Then somebody is stealing it from her."
Reese looked devastated.
"I can't say that."
Dominic could.
"Yes."
Everyone looked at him.
Dominic stepped toward Gabriel.
"Get me the committee records."
"Already working on it."
"And find Marianne Cole."
"Alive?"
Dominic stared at him.
Gabriel gave one short nod.
"Understood."
Lena heard the exchange.
"Dominic."
He turned.
"No one dies because of us."
His gaze stayed on hers.
"Nobody said they would."
"I mean it."
"So do I."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Not yet."
There was something strange about his answer.
Not offended.
Not defensive.
Almost patient.
As if he knew trust was something he would have to earn.
Dr. Reese's pager sounded again.
He read the message.
Then stared at Dominic.
"What?"
Reese handed him the pager.
Dominic read it.
For the first time, Lena saw genuine shock on his face.
"What does it say?"
Dominic didn't answer immediately.
Gabriel took the pager from him.
His jaw tightened.
Lena stepped closer.
"Tell me."
Gabriel looked at her.
"The objection wasn't filed under your insurance company."
"Then who filed it?"
He slowly turned the screen toward her.
There was a corporate name Lena had never seen.
Ravenport Medical Holdings.
Dominic whispered one word.
"No."
Lena looked at him.
"You know them?"
Dominic's eyes hardened.
"My uncle owns them."
Silence fell.
Lena remembered the men in the alley.
The ambush.
Dominic discovering someone close had betrayed him.
Then she understood the impossible coincidence.
"This isn't about Sophie."
Dominic looked toward her daughter's room.
"No."
"Then why is my daughter involved?"
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Gabriel reached for it.
Dominic stopped him.
He answered.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then a distorted male voice came through loudly enough that Lena could hear it.
"You should have died behind your hotel."
Dominic's face became stone.
The caller continued.
"But now you've given us something better."
Lena's stomach dropped.
Dominic looked at Sophie through the glass.
The voice laughed softly.
"Walk away from the Vale family by sunrise, Dominic."
A pause.
May you like
"Or the little girl doesn't get her heart."
The line went dead.
