Chapter 3 - Someone Wanted Him Dead
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Dominic swung his legs toward the edge of the bed.
I immediately stepped forward.
“No.”
He ignored me.
“Leo, lock the property down.”
“Already happening.”
“Every gate.”
“Yes.”
“No one leaves.”
Leo nodded.
“And pull every camera recording from the last seventy-two hours.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dominic tried to stand.
His knees nearly gave out again.
I planted myself in front of him.
“You’re going nowhere.”
“There is an impostor inside my house.”
“And you can deal with him after you stop trying to collapse dramatically onto expensive furniture.”
His eyes turned dangerous.
“Nora.”
“No.”
Leo looked down, clearly hiding a reaction.
Dominic noticed.
“Something funny?”
“No, sir.”
“Leave.”
Leo left far too quickly.
Dominic leaned back against the bed.
“I don’t collapse dramatically.”
“You absolutely do.”
He exhaled.
For a moment, the feared Dominic Rossi looked tired more than dangerous.
I checked his temperature.
One hundred two point four.
Better.
Not safe.
“Who would impersonate your doctor?” I asked.
“Someone who knew Mercer had left.”
“Why did he leave?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you threaten him?”
“No.”
“Did someone else?”
“Possibly.”
I sat down.
“Dominic, if I'm responsible for keeping you alive, you need to stop giving me half the information.”
“You're responsible for medicine.”
“Medicine doesn't exist in a vacuum.”
His eyes sharpened.
“You always challenge your patients?”
“Only the stubborn ones.”
He studied me.
Then, unexpectedly, he said, “I was shot four nights ago.”
I waited.
He stared toward the covered windows.
“There was a meeting at one of our legitimate shipping warehouses outside the city. Only five people knew I would be there.”
“Who?”
“Leo. Anthony. Mercer. My security chief, Vincent. And me.”
“What happened?”
“Lights went out.”
His voice remained calm.
“Someone fired from the second level.”
“One shot?”
“Three.”
“You were hit once?”
“Yes.”
“And the shooter escaped?”
“Yes.”
“What about security?”
“Two men were injured in the confusion. No one saw the shooter.”
I understood the implication.
“Inside information.”
“That was my conclusion.”
“And now your medication gets switched.”
“Yes.”
I looked at the bedroom door.
“If whoever did this thinks you're getting weaker, they may try again.”
Dominic looked at me.
“They already are.”
He wasn't speaking about himself.
He was watching me.
I suddenly felt cold.
“What?”
“You found the medication.”
“So?”
“So if they know you found it, you became inconvenient.”
“I've been inconvenient my entire life.”
“This is different.”
Before I could answer, the lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the room.
I froze.
Dominic did not.
“Down.”
His voice was barely audible.
I dropped instinctively beside the bed.
A second later Dominic pulled open the nightstand.
I heard metal.
“Do you seriously keep a gun next to your thermometer?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
Footsteps moved through the hallway.
Slow.
Then stopped outside the door.
My pulse pounded.
The handle turned.
Locked.
Someone tested it again.
Dominic was breathing quietly now.
Controlled.
The sick patient disappeared.
The man beneath him emerged.
The handle stopped moving.
Footsteps retreated.
Thirty seconds later emergency lights flickered on.
I looked at Dominic.
“That wasn't normal.”
“No.”
The power returned.
Almost immediately, Leo knocked using the same pattern.
Dominic opened the door remotely using a small control.
Leo entered with two security men.
“Generator fault,” he said.
“No,” Dominic replied. “Someone tried my door.”
Leo’s expression tightened.
One guard touched his earpiece.
“We'll sweep the floor.”
Dominic pointed toward me.
“She doesn't leave this room.”
I stood.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“You are not imprisoning me.”
“It's temporary.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Must you disagree with everything?”
“Only the ridiculous things.”
“You're safer here.”
“I need supplies downstairs.”
“Leo can bring them.”
“I need a shower.”
“There are four bathrooms attached to this suite.”
I blinked.
“Four?”
“Five if you count the steam room.”
“That is obscene.”
Dominic looked almost offended.
“It came with the house.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
The sound surprised both of us.
The tension broke for half a second.
Then one of the security men returned.
“Mr. Rossi?”
“Yes?”
“We found something.”
The guard held out a black access card.
“Outside the west stairwell.”
Leo took it.
His expression shifted.
Dominic noticed.
“Whose?”
Leo didn't answer.
“Leo.”
The older man looked at him.
“Anthony’s.”
Silence.
Dominic's cousin.
The man who had administered one of the injections.
Dominic looked away.
Something tightened beneath his expression.
Not shock.
Disappointment.
That was worse.
“Find him.”
“Yes, sir.”
But Anthony was already gone.
His room was empty.
His car remained in the garage.
His phone lay on the kitchen counter.
And the security cameras covering the west gate had mysteriously stopped recording for eleven minutes.
At 2:14 a.m., Dominic’s fever spiked again.
One hundred four.
I administered the new antibiotic, gave him fluids and monitored him minute by minute.
His consciousness drifted.
At 3:06 he began talking.
Not clearly.
Fragments.
A name.
“Marco.”
Then: “Don't open the door.”
Then something that sounded like, “I promised her.”
I placed a cool cloth against his forehead.
His hand suddenly closed around mine.
“Nora.”
“I’m here.”
His eyes remained closed.
“Don't trust Anthony.”
“I don't.”
“Don't trust…”
His voice faded.
“Who?”
He tried again.
“Leo.”
My blood ran cold.
I looked toward the closed bedroom door.
The man who managed the household.
The man who had brought me upstairs.
The man who controlled access to Dominic.
“Dominic?”
His eyes opened briefly.
“Not Leo.”
“What?”
“Don't trust…”
He struggled for the word.
Then whispered a different name.
“Vincent.”
And passed out.
At dawn, Leo returned with security footage.
We watched it on a laptop.
The hallway recording showed the bedroom door at 6:03 p.m.
The same time the supposed Dr. Mercer had been inside.
A man wearing Mercer’s coat and carrying his medical bag entered the suite.
His face was partially hidden.
At 6:41 he left.
Leo froze the frame.
“Zoom.”
The image sharpened slightly.
I stared at the screen.
Something wasn't right.
“His hand.”
Leo looked at me.
“What?”
“The man pretending to be Mercer.”
I pointed.
“He's wearing a watch.”
“So?”
“I saw Mercer’s employee photo when Dr. Park verified his credentials. He wears his watch on his left wrist.”
The man on the recording wore his on the right.
Leo enlarged the image.
Dominic, awake again, watched from the bed.
Then he said quietly:
“I know that watch.”
Leo looked at him.
“So do I.”
The room fell silent.
I asked the question neither man seemed willing to say aloud.
“Whose is it?”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“My security chief’s.”
“Vincent?”
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
Dominic looked toward Leo.
“Bring him to me.”
Leo didn't move.
“Sir…”
“What?”
“He disappeared twenty minutes ago.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Leo continued.
“But before he left, he accessed the east security office.”
“So?”
“There was only one file opened.”
Leo rotated the laptop toward us.
The screen showed a personnel record.
My personnel record.
My photograph.
My old hospital.
My apartment address.
My emergency contact.
Everything.
Dominic's gaze slowly moved from the screen to me.
Vincent had stopped trying to hide his identity.
May you like
And now he knew exactly where I lived.
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