Chapter 5 - The Secret Hidden Inside St. Jude’s
We reached the Vale mansion in eighteen minutes.
I do not recommend riding in a convoy driven by men who believe speed limits are personal insults.
Dominic did not speak.
Neither did I.
The message had changed everything.
Victor Kane had remained at the house.
Victor controlled security.
Victor knew Adrian’s location.
And now someone had ordered Dominic to return.
It was either a trap.
Or arrogance.
Both were dangerous.
When the gates appeared ahead, Dominic’s phone buzzed through the vehicle’s secure console.
Marco answered.
“Sofia.”
Her voice filled the SUV.
“Dominic?”
“I’m here.”
“Something is wrong.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“What?”
“Victor told the staff there was a security breach and moved everyone into the east wing.”
“Where is Adrian?”
A pause.
“Still in the medical suite.”
“Who is with him?”
“Dr. Hale.”
“Victor?”
“I haven’t seen him in ten minutes.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Lock exterior gates remotely.”
Marco worked his tablet.
“Already locked.”
“Do not let Sofia leave her room,” Dominic said.
Sofia interrupted.
“I am not hiding in my room.”
I almost smiled.
Dominic did not.
“Sofia.”
“You’re wasting time arguing with an old woman.”
The call ended.
I looked at Dominic.
“I like her.”
“Everyone does.”
“That must be difficult for you.”
He gave me a tired look.
We entered through a secondary garage.
Dominic wanted me to remain in the vehicle.
I refused.
He was too exhausted to argue properly.
We moved through the lower corridor with Marco and four men.
The house was unnaturally quiet.
No employees.
No footsteps.
Only distant thunder and the faint hum of backup systems.
At the medical hallway, we found Dr. Hale sitting against the wall.
Alive.
Dazed.
I dropped beside him.
“Hale?”
His eyes focused.
“Clare.”
“What happened?”
“Victor.”
Dominic went still.
“He came in. Said there was an emergency evacuation.”
“Adrian?”
“Still inside.”
Dominic moved toward the door.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
He looked down.
“What?”
“If Victor wanted Adrian dead, why leave him alive?”
His expression changed.
Marco understood.
“Because he needs something from him.”
We entered carefully.
Adrian was awake.
Pale.
Weak.
But awake.
Alone.
Dominic crossed the room instantly.
“Adrian.”
His brother opened his eyes.
“Dom.”
Relief broke through Dominic’s face.
Only for a second.
“Who ordered it?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Victor.”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
“But not alone.”
“Who?”
Adrian looked toward me.
“The hospital.”
My stomach tightened.
“Dr. Weber?”
“Yes.”
I stepped closer.
“What does Weber have to do with your family?”
Adrian breathed slowly.
“Not our family. Horizon.”
He looked at Dominic.
“Leo found out Horizon shipments were being used to hide illegal transfers.”
“What transfers?”
“Cash. Records. Payments.”
I remembered the blue boxes.
“Through St. Jude’s.”
Adrian nodded.
“Weber handled medical access. Victor handled routes. Uncle Julian discovered part of it and tried to warn Leo.”
“So Julian wasn’t involved,” Dominic said.
“No.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“Where is he?”
“We don’t know,” I said.
Adrian’s eyes opened wider.
“They took him?”
“And Evelyn.”
He cursed weakly.
“Why?”
I leaned closer.
“Because Evelyn found the altered records.”
Adrian nodded.
“She had something else.”
“What?”
“Original shipping documentation.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Where?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Leo said she hid it inside the hospital.”
A sound came from the hall.
Marco moved.
A phone had been left on the floor outside the room.
It rang.
Dominic picked it up.
Victor’s voice.
“You made it home.”
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
“Where are they?”
“Safe for now.”
“You touched my brother.”
“You should be asking why.”
“I don’t care why.”
“You will.”
Victor laughed quietly.
“You built an empire and never noticed the door was open.”
Dominic’s eyes went cold.
“What do you want?”
“The drive Julian gave you.”
Dominic looked at me.
“He doesn’t have it,” I whispered.
Julian’s envelope had only contained the photograph.
Victor continued.
“And the nurse.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“No.”
“Then Ms. Davis and your uncle disappear permanently.”
Dominic said nothing.
Victor lowered his voice.
“Bring Clare Brennan to St. Jude’s.”
My skin went cold.
“Why me?” I asked loudly.
Victor paused.
“So she’s there.”
“Yes,” Dominic said.
I glared at him.
Victor laughed.
“Because she knows where the evidence is.”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
The line disconnected.
I stared at the phone.
“He’s wrong.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Is he?”
“Yes.”
“Think.”
“I have been thinking.”
“Leo spoke to you.”
“Three words. Check the blue boxes.”
Dominic went still.
Marco looked at me.
“What if he wasn’t telling you what to inspect?”
I frowned.
“What?”
“What if he was telling you where something was hidden?”
The room became silent.
Blue boxes.
Trauma storage.
One had been moved there.
I thought back to the night Leo came in.
We had opened multiple supply kits.
One Horizon shipment had sat unopened near the back shelving.
Evelyn could have hidden something.
Or Leo might have known someone else did.
“There’s a storage room behind Trauma Two,” I said.
Dominic’s eyes locked onto mine.
“The blue boxes are there.”
“You are not going.”
“Victor already expects me.”
“Exactly.”
“If we can get the records first—”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“No.”
I stood.
“Two people are missing.”
“I will get them.”
“How?”
“My way.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you remain here.”
“You still haven’t learned anything.”
His eyes flashed.
“I learned that every time you walk into danger, I stop thinking clearly.”
That silenced me.
Dominic looked almost angry that he had said it.
I stared at him.
“What?”
He turned away.
“Forget it.”
“No.”
“This is not the time.”
“You said—”
“I know what I said.”
Marco suddenly became deeply interested in his tablet.
Adrian closed his eyes with the faintest suggestion of amusement.
I lowered my voice.
“Dominic.”
He faced me.
For the first time, the controlled man from the rain was gone.
He looked exhausted.
Scared.
And furious with himself for being either.
“You saved Leo,” he said. “Then Adrian. Twice. You walked into my house and treated everyone like my name meant nothing.”
“It mostly means trouble.”
“I noticed.”
I almost smiled.
He continued.
“And now someone wants to use you because of me.”
“Because of what happened at St. Jude’s.”
“Because you came with me.”
“I chose to.”
“No. I brought you into this.”
I stepped closer.
“And now you think protecting me means making every decision for me.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I don’t know another way.”
There it was.
Not arrogance.
Habit.
Dominic Vale had spent years solving threats by controlling everything around him.
People.
Routes.
Doors.
Information.
He did not know how to care about someone without trying to contain the risk.
I spoke quietly.
“Then learn.”
He looked at me.
“I’m going to St. Jude’s.”
His expression hardened.
“With me.”
“That was the plan.”
We arrived shortly after eight in the morning.
St. Jude’s looked exactly the same.
That offended me.
People moved beneath umbrellas.
Ambulances came and went.
Windows glowed.
Less than twenty-four hours earlier, I had belonged there.
Now I entered through a service door with Dominic Vale and two men in plain clothes while the hospital probably still considered me terminated.
“Security cameras?” Marco asked.
“I know the blind spots.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Why?”
“Every nurse knows which camera doesn’t cover the vending machines.”
He actually smiled.
It transformed his face.
For half a second he looked younger.
Then it vanished.
We reached Trauma storage.
My badge no longer worked.
“Great.”
Marco reached for something.
I stopped him.
“No breaking locks.”
He looked disappointed.
I used an old mechanical override nurses knew.
The door opened.
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
“Legal?”
“Mostly.”
Inside, shelves rose to the ceiling.
Boxes.
Supplies.
Blue Horizon containers.
I searched.
One.
Two.
Three.
Nothing.
Then I found a box with the wrong weight.
I opened it.
Inside were sealed medical kits.
Beneath them was an envelope.
My name was written across the front.
CLARE BRENNAN.
My hands went cold.
Dominic stood beside me.
“Open it.”
Inside was a flash drive and a handwritten note from Evelyn.
Clare,
If you are reading this, I was not able to fix what I allowed to happen.
I took money.
At first I believed it was consulting work related to supply contracts.
When I learned what Weber and others were doing, I tried to withdraw.
They threatened the hospital, my family, and anyone who knew.
Yesterday Weber ordered me to alter Leo Russo’s treatment record after he survived.
I refused.
He changed the records anyway.
Then he demanded I terminate you before you could be questioned.
I am sorry.
You deserved better from me.
The drive contains the original shipping records and security backups.
Give them to someone who can finish this.
Do not trust hospital leadership.
—Evelyn
I read it twice.
My anger at Evelyn did not disappear.
But it changed shape.
“She fired me to get me away from the hospital,” I said.
Dominic nodded.
“She was trying to protect you.”
“Badly.”
“People do that sometimes.”
I looked at him.
He understood the irony.
Before I could answer, the storage room door closed behind us.
Locked.
Dominic turned.
A voice came through the small intercom.
Dr. Weber.
“Clare.”
My blood went cold.
“You should have signed the agreement and disappeared.”
Dominic moved toward the door.
Weber laughed.
“And you brought Dominic Vale. Even better.”
“What do you want?” I demanded.
“The drive.”
“You’re not getting it.”
“You misunderstand.”
A pause.
“I don’t need it anymore.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“Because the federal investigators who were supposed to receive it are never going to see it.”
A faint smell reached me.
Sharp.
Chemical.
I looked toward the air vent.
Dominic noticed too.
“What is that?”
My stomach dropped.
“We need out.”
Marco tested the door.
Locked electronically.
The intercom clicked again.
Weber’s voice remained calm.
“Clare, you saved Leo when you should have let him die.”
The air began to sting my throat.
Dominic took off his jacket and pressed it against the lower vent.
I did the same with a blanket from a shelf.
“Weber!” I shouted.
“You cost me everything.”
“No,” I said. “You did that yourself.”
Silence.
Then coughing.
Not ours.
Weber’s.
A struggle sounded through the speaker.
A woman yelled.
A crash.
Then the door unlocked.
It swung open.
Evelyn Davis stood outside.
Bruised, exhausted, but alive.
Behind her, Julian Vale had Dr. Weber pinned against the wall.
Evelyn looked at me.
“I told you not to come back to the hospital.”
I coughed.
“You’re terrible at giving useful instructions.”
She laughed once.
Then started crying.
For the first time since she fired me, I hugged her.
It lasted only seconds.
Because alarms began sounding across the hospital.
Marco looked at his tablet.
“What now?”
Julian’s face went grim.
“Victor knows we have the drive.”
Dominic’s phone buzzed.
A video message.
We opened it.
Victor stood somewhere dark.
Behind him was a wall of surveillance screens.
He smiled.
“Congratulations.”
Then the camera shifted.
The screens displayed live images.
One showed Dominic’s mansion.
One showed Adrian’s medical room.
One showed Sofia.
And another showed my apartment building.
Victor leaned toward the camera.
“You found the records.”
His smile faded.
May you like
“Now let’s see how many people you can save at once.”
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