Chapter 3 - My Best Friend Knew Too Much
Emily had always been terrible at lying.
During our first year at Lakeview, she once broke a physician’s favorite coffee mug and spent twelve straight hours acting so suspicious that he eventually asked if she had stolen morphine.
Now she stood in the rain with both hands raised while Dominic Romano’s men watched her like they were measuring where to bury the body.
“Clare,” she said again, “I didn’t know where else to go.”
Dominic stepped in front of me.
“Who sent you?”
“No one.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I came myself.”
“Rafael.”
The scarred man moved toward her.
I grabbed Dominic’s arm.
“Don’t.”
Every man around us noticed.
So did Dominic.
His gaze dropped to my hand.
I removed it.
“She’s my friend.”
“That does not make her safe.”
“Neither does pointing guns at her.”
Emily looked ready to faint.
I walked toward her.
“Why are you here?”
She stared at Dominic.
“Can we talk without him?”
“No,” Dominic said.
I ignored him.
“Emily.”
Her eyes filled.
“I saw them change the records.”
My stomach tightened.
“What records?”
“Elias Grant’s.”
The patient I had saved.
Dominic moved closer.
Emily swallowed.
“Yesterday, after they took you to HR, Weber went back into Grant’s chart. I thought he was documenting the incident.”
“He wasn’t?”
“He deleted medication entries.”
I stared at her.
“What medication?”
“Midazolam.”
That made no sense.
Grant had not been ordered midazolam.
I knew because I had reviewed his medication list less than ten minutes before he crashed.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough to suppress his breathing if combined with what he’d already received.”
A sick feeling spread through me.
Dominic’s voice turned dangerously calm.
“So Weber drugged him.”
Emily shook her head.
“I didn’t see Weber administer anything.”
“But he deleted the record.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I thought back to Grant’s sudden respiratory decline.
At the time, there had been no obvious reason.
Unless somebody had given him something.
“Who entered the medication originally?” I asked.
Emily looked at me.
“Kathryn Davis.”
I actually laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“HR doesn’t administer medication.”
“I know.”
“Then why would her credentials be in a medical chart?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic looked toward Rafael.
“Get everything she has.”
Emily backed away.
“I don’t have anything.”
“Then why are you here?”
Her face crumpled.
“Because I copied the audit log.”
I stared at her.
“You what?”
“When I realized they were deleting things, I downloaded the access history.”
“Where is it?”
She hesitated.
“Emily.”
“I hid it.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Where?”
She looked at me rather than him.
“In your old locker.”
My heart stopped.
“My locker?”
“They didn’t clear your things immediately. I put the flash drive inside the lining of your spare shoe.”
Dominic swore quietly.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Before my man retrieved the badge?” he asked.
“I don’t know when your man was there.”
Rafael was already calling someone.
I looked at Emily.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I tried.”
“My phone never rang.”
“I called from the nurses’ station.”
Dominic asked, “What time?”
“Around nine.”
He exchanged a look with Rafael.
“What?”
Rafael ended the call.
“Hospital security logs show an outgoing call from that station to Clare’s number.”
“I didn’t receive it.”
“Because somebody rerouted it.”
I stared at Dominic.
“You can know that already?”
“We’ve been looking.”
Of course they had.
Emily whispered, “Clare, there’s more.”
I turned back.
Her voice dropped.
“Grant woke up.”
“What?”
“This morning.”
“Is he stable?”
“He was.”
“Was?”
She looked toward the men surrounding us.
“Ten minutes after he woke up, Weber transferred him.”
“To where?”
“Nobody knows.”
“Patients don’t just disappear from an ICU.”
“This one did.”
My pulse began racing.
“Who signed the transfer?”
“No one.”
Dominic’s face became expressionless.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
“Get in the car.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“You came here because you believed someone was trying to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Then standing on a Chicago street is an interesting strategy.”
I almost smiled despite everything.
Emily looked at me.
“Can I trust him?”
“No.”
Dominic turned his head slowly.
I added, “But right now, I trust him more than I trust Lakeview.”
Emily nodded.
We entered one of the SUVs.
Halfway to Mercer’s facility, she finally stopped shaking.
I examined her more closely.
“You haven’t slept.”
“Neither have you.”
“Fair.”
She rubbed her eyes.
“Kathryn came to the nurses’ station after you left.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked whether you had ever talked about patients outside work.”
“What?”
“She wanted to know if you kept notes at home.”
“I don’t.”
“I told her that.”
“Then?”
“She asked if you were dating anyone.”
Dominic’s gaze shifted toward us.
I pretended not to notice.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you say?”
Emily gave the first weak smile of the morning.
“I said the last date you went on ended when you left during appetizers because an elderly woman at the next table started choking.”
Dominic’s mouth twitched.
I glared at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Emily continued.
“Then Kathryn asked if you had family.”
“My mother is dead. My father left when I was eight.”
“I know.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were alone.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
Alone.
It was technically true.
But hearing it said that way made my apartment feel emptier.
Dominic looked out the window.
Something in his expression changed, though I couldn’t identify it.
When we reached Mercer’s facility, chaos was waiting.
Rafael’s men had searched every room.
Security feeds showed no intruder.
Yet someone had managed to enter Luca’s recovery room and photograph him.
Mercer met us at the door.
“Good news first,” he said.
“Luca?”
“Stable.”
I exhaled.
“Bad news?”
Mercer looked toward Emily.
“Who’s she?”
“My friend.”
Dominic said, “Bad news.”
Mercer held up a small plastic vial.
“This was found under Luca’s bed.”
I took it.
No label.
Clear liquid.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Someone tried to drug him?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
I headed toward Luca’s room.
He was pale but breathing normally.
I checked his pupils.
Pulse.
Infusion.
Nothing immediately wrong.
Then his eyes opened.
“Hey,” I whispered.
He blinked.
“Am I dead?”
“No.”
“That’s disappointing.”
I smiled.
“You sound better.”
His eyes shifted.
“Dom?”
“I’m here.”
Dominic stepped beside the bed.
Luca looked at him.
“You look terrible.”
“You got shot.”
“Still prettier than you.”
The room seemed to exhale.
Dominic briefly closed his eyes.
Then Luca’s gaze moved to me.
“You’re Clare?”
“Yes.”
“I owe you.”
“You owe me nothing.”
He looked at Dominic.
“Told you she’d say that.”
I frowned.
“You talked about me?”
Luca’s smile disappeared.
Before Dominic could answer, Luca whispered, “I knew they were going to fire you.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
His breathing grew shallow.
Mercer moved closer.
“Don’t overdo it.”
I ignored him.
“How did you know?”
Luca looked toward the doorway as if afraid someone might hear.
“Because they were supposed to fire you last week.”
My heart hammered.
“Why?”
He swallowed.
“Because you saw something.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No.”
His eyes fixed on mine.
“The woman in Room 614.”
The number hit me like a physical blow.
Room 614.
Three weeks earlier.
A woman named Margaret Cole had died there unexpectedly.
I had been the nurse who found her.
Luca whispered, “She didn’t die from heart failure.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“How do you know?”
“Because she was my source.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Your source for what?”
Luca’s eyes started closing.
Mercer reached for medication.
But Luca forced out one final sentence.
“She found the account that connects Lakeview to our missing money.”
May you like
Then the monitor began alarming.
And before we could ask anything else, Luca’s heart rate crashed.
