Chapter 3 - Someone Inside the House Wanted Him Gone
By three fifteen in the morning, Dominic Vale’s mansion had become a locked crime scene.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
Every employee, guard, driver, housekeeper, and associate was accounted for.
Dominic’s men checked doors, cameras, hallways, access logs, and vehicle records.
I did none of that.
My world had narrowed to Adrian.
The substance introduced through his IV had caused a dangerous drop in blood pressure.
Dr. Hale and I worked quickly.
Fluids.
Medication.
Monitoring.
Rechecking.
Waiting.
I hated waiting.
Eventually Adrian stabilized.
Again.
Twice in one night I had watched Dominic stand close enough to reach his brother but unable to do anything meaningful.
For powerful people, helplessness is a special kind of torture.
At four twenty, Hale finally stepped back.
“He’s responding.”
Dominic’s shoulders lowered.
I sat down.
The adrenaline drained so quickly I suddenly felt ninety years old.
Dominic looked at me.
“You need sleep.”
“I need answers.”
“So do I.”
“Start with why your own people might want Adrian dead.”
His face closed.
“That’s complicated.”
“Then simplify.”
He looked at Hale.
“Stay with him.”
Then he motioned toward the hall.
I followed.
Not because he ordered me.
Because I needed to understand how deep I had fallen into this.
Dominic led me into a study.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the rain-soaked grounds.
A fire burned low beneath a stone mantel.
Marco was already there.
On the desk lay several photographs, phones, and printed maps.
“This is the route Adrian took tonight,” Dominic said.
He pointed to a map.
“He left one of our logistics buildings at eight ten.”
“What kind of logistics?”
“Freight.”
I looked at him.
“Legal freight?”
His mouth tightened.
“Mostly.”
“Comforting.”
Marco almost smiled.
Dominic ignored us both.
“Only seven people knew his route.”
“Who?”
“Myself. Adrian. Marco. Two drivers. My security chief, Victor Kane. And my uncle, Julian.”
“Your uncle?”
“He oversees several family businesses.”
“You think one of them betrayed him.”
“Yes.”
Marco spoke.
“The attackers were waiting at an intersection where Adrian’s convoy was rerouted thirty minutes earlier.”
“So whoever did it knew the new route.”
“Yes.”
“And only seven people knew.”
“Correct.”
I looked at Dominic.
“Then why are there fifty people locked inside your house?”
“Because information travels.”
“Fair.”
Marco slid another paper toward me.
“And because someone entered Adrian’s medical room after we arrived.”
“Camera?”
“Disabled for nine minutes.”
“Convenient.”
Dominic’s jaw flexed.
“The person knew exactly which circuit controlled that hallway.”
“So an insider.”
“Probably.”
I leaned against the desk.
“What does this have to do with Leo?”
Dominic and Marco exchanged a look.
I caught it.
“No. Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” Dominic asked.
“That silent mafia eye-contact thing where everyone knows something except the nurse.”
Marco actually smiled this time.
Dominic did not.
“Leo was investigating financial discrepancies,” he said.
“What kind?”
“Money disappearing from one of our companies.”
“Stolen?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Forty-two million dollars.”
I stared.
“People steal forty-two million dollars from you?”
“Once.”
“That sounded ominous.”
“It was meant to.”
“Dominic.”
His gaze held mine.
“Leo believed the theft was connected to a legitimate medical supply company we own a minority interest in.”
I straightened.
“What company?”
“Horizon Clinical Distribution.”
I knew it.
Every nurse in Chicago knew it.
Horizon supplied IV equipment, surgical kits, medication accessories, and emergency materials to dozens of hospitals.
Including St. Jude’s.
“St. Jude’s buys from Horizon.”
“We know.”
My stomach tightened.
“Leo found falsified shipments?”
“Payments for supplies that were never delivered.”
“Money laundering?”
Marco spoke carefully.
“Possibly.”
“And Leo discovered it.”
“Yes.”
“Then he had a convenient accident.”
“Yes.”
“And someone tried to let him die at the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“And then Adrian was attacked.”
Dominic nodded.
“Adrian had started reviewing Leo’s files.”
The whole shape of it became clearer.
Not completely.
But enough.
Someone was stealing through a supply company.
Leo discovered it.
Adrian investigated.
Both were nearly killed.
And I had accidentally stepped into the middle by refusing to let Leo die.
“What exactly did Leo know?”
Dominic’s expression shifted.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“His files are missing.”
“All of them?”
“The most important ones.”
“From where?”
“A secure office.”
I gave him a look.
“You have a lot of security failures for a man with this many guards.”
Marco looked away, hiding another smile.
Dominic stared at me.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“I got fired yesterday. I need hobbies.”
A phone buzzed.
Marco answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then held the phone toward Dominic.
“Victor found something.”
We followed him downstairs.
Security chief Victor Kane was waiting in a monitoring room filled with screens.
He was a large man in his forties with a shaved head and a deeply controlled face.
He pointed to footage.
“This is from the hallway outside Adrian’s room before the camera went down.”
A house employee crossed the screen pushing a cart.
Then another guard.
Then the feed froze.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Circuit interruption.”
“How?”
“Manual.”
Victor switched screens.
“This camera at the far end remained active.”
The image showed a shadow crossing briefly near a service corridor.
“That’s it?” Dominic said.
“Not quite.”
Victor zoomed.
A hand appeared for less than a second against the wall.
On the wrist was a silver watch.
Dominic went very still.
Marco noticed too.
“What?” I asked.
Dominic said nothing.
Victor rewound.
Paused.
The watch had a dark face and a distinctive metal bracelet.
“Do you recognize it?”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco’s expression had turned grim.
“Julian wears one like that.”
Dominic’s uncle.
One of seven people who knew Adrian’s route.
I exhaled.
“Where is Julian now?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That answer worried me.
Dominic turned to Victor.
“Find him.”
Victor spoke into his radio.
Minutes passed.
Then a reply came.
His face hardened.
“Julian’s room is empty.”
Dominic cursed softly.
“Vehicle?”
“All accounted for.”
“Phone?”
“Still in his room.”
Marco shook his head.
“He wouldn’t leave without it.”
“What if he never left?” I asked.
Dominic looked at me.
“The house is sealed.”
“Exactly.”
We searched.
Not me, officially.
Dominic told me to return upstairs.
I ignored him.
Sofia eventually appeared carrying coffee.
“You should sit,” she told me.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“That’s because you look terrible.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
I drank.
Dominic’s men checked basements, storage rooms, guest suites, service corridors.
At five eleven, someone shouted from the west wing.
We followed.
A door had been discovered behind shelving in an old wine storage room.
A service passage.
Narrow.
Dusty.
Leading toward the rear grounds.
The exterior exit had been opened recently.
Footprints disappeared into mud.
Dominic stared at them.
“Julian knew this passage?”
Sofia answered quietly.
“He grew up here.”
Dominic looked at her.
“So did I.”
“You were eight when that wing was renovated. He was twenty.”
Marco swore under his breath.
A phone rang.
One of the guards answered.
Then handed it to Dominic.
“Unknown caller.”
Dominic put it on speaker.
“Vale.”
Silence.
Then a distorted voice.
“You should stop looking.”
Every person in the room froze.
Dominic’s expression became stone.
“Where is my uncle?”
A laugh.
“Still assuming family means loyalty?”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“What do you want?”
“The nurse.”
My blood turned cold.
Dominic looked directly at me.
The voice continued.
“She should have gone home when the hospital dismissed her.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around the phone.
“If anyone comes near her—”
“You don’t understand yet.”
“Explain.”
“Leo survived because of her. Adrian survived because of her. That makes her inconvenient.”
I swallowed.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“You are speaking about a woman who has nothing to do with this.”
“Not anymore.”
The call ended.
Nobody moved.
I became suddenly aware of how many eyes were on me.
“I hate this,” I said.
Dominic handed the phone to Marco.
“Trace it.”
“We will.”
I looked at Dominic.
“You knew this could happen.”
“No.”
“You said there might be people looking for me.”
“I didn’t know they would target you directly.”
“But you knew enough to search for me with five SUVs.”
His expression hardened.
“We were trying to protect you.”
“You were trying to protect your interests.”
“You saved one of my men.”
“And that made me useful.”
His jaw tightened.
“That is not what this is.”
“Then what is it?”
He didn’t answer.
That made me angrier.
I walked away.
“Clare.”
I turned.
“No. You don’t get to order me around because someone decided I’m part of your mess.”
His eyes flashed.
“My mess is the reason you’re alive right now.”
The words landed badly.
I stepped toward him.
“Saving my life does not give you the right to own it.”
Silence.
Even Marco looked away.
Dominic stared at me.
For once, he had no immediate response.
Good.
I continued.
“I will help Adrian because he’s my patient now. I will help figure out what happened to Leo because someone at my hospital may be involved. But I decide where I go, who I talk to, and when I leave.”
Dominic’s face remained unreadable.
“You’re not leaving this property.”
I laughed.
“Then we have a problem.”
“We do.”
I started toward the front hall.
Two guards instinctively moved.
Dominic snapped, “Don’t.”
They stopped.
I faced him.
His expression was furious.
But he had stopped them.
That mattered.
A little.
Before either of us could speak, Victor approached.
“We found something in Julian’s room.”
He held a small flash drive.
Dominic took it.
“Encrypted?”
“Yes.”
“Get it opened.”
Victor hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
He handed Dominic a photograph.
I saw my own face before Dominic could turn it away.
A hospital employee file photo.
Mine.
On the back, someone had written an address.
My apartment.
My throat closed.
Below the address was a time.
1:30 A.M.
I looked at the clock.
5:24.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Marco.”
Marco already had his phone out.
“Send a team.”
“No,” I said. “Call the police.”
Dominic ignored me.
“Clare—”
“That’s my apartment.”
“I know.”
“My neighbor is eighty-two.”
His eyes flicked toward mine.
“Mrs. Donnelly lives across the hall. If someone went there—”
He turned immediately.
“Marco. Police too.”
Marco nodded and left.
We waited twelve minutes.
Twelve awful minutes.
Finally the phone rang.
Dominic answered.
“What?”
He listened.
His face hardened.
“Anyone hurt?”
My stomach dropped.
“Dominic.”
He raised one hand.
Then ended the call.
I could barely breathe.
“Well?”
“Your neighbor is fine.”
Relief nearly buckled my knees.
“But?”
He looked at me.
“Your apartment was searched.”
I closed my eyes.
“Destroyed?”
“Some damage.”
“What did they take?”
“They didn’t take anything.”
I opened my eyes.
“Then why break in?”
Dominic held my gaze.
“They left something.”
“What?”
He didn’t want to tell me.
“Dominic.”
He exhaled slowly.
“A photograph.”
“Of what?”
“You leaving St. Jude’s.”
My skin went cold.
“They were watching me.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“There was a message written underneath.”
I swallowed.
“What did it say?”
His pale eyes stayed on mine.
“It said, ‘The nurse remembers too much.’”
I stared at him.
“But I don’t remember anything.”
Dominic looked toward the storm outside.
“That may be exactly why we need to figure out what you saw.”
And that was when I remembered the one detail from Leo Russo’s emergency room that I had dismissed as meaningless.
Minutes before he crashed, while Dr. Weber stood beside his bed, Leo had opened his eyes and grabbed my wrist.
He had whispered three words.
At the time, I thought they were delirium.
Now I wasn’t so sure.
I looked at Dominic.
“What did Leo investigate again?”
“Horizon Clinical Distribution.”
My heart began beating faster.
Because Leo had not said “Help me.”
He had not said “They’re coming.”
He had whispered:
“Check the blue boxes.”
May you like
And St. Jude’s supply room was filled with blue Horizon boxes.
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