Chapter 7 - Trapped Inside Lakeview
Emergency lighting bathed the conference room in red.
Dominic reached the door first.
Locked.
“Move back.”
He kicked beside the handle.
Nothing.
Weber stared at the ceiling.
“They isolated this section.”
“You knew they could do that?” I demanded.
“It’s part of disaster protocol.”
“Convenient.”
Dominic tried the handle again.
“Is there another exit?”
Weber pointed toward a small adjoining office.
“Service corridor behind the storage cabinets.”
I looked at him.
“You just happen to know that?”
“I’ve worked here twelve years.”
Before I could answer, the intercom crackled.
Kathryn’s voice returned.
“Dominic.”
He looked up.
“I’m sorry about Luca.”
No reaction.
“You should be,” he said.
“I always liked him.”
Dominic’s face became frighteningly calm.
“Keep talking.”
She laughed softly.
“You think you discovered something tonight.”
“We discovered enough.”
“No. You discovered what Anthony wanted you to discover.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Weber whispered, “She’s stalling.”
“For what?” I asked.
Then we smelled smoke.
Weber’s face changed.
“Oh no.”
Dominic grabbed my arm.
“Where’s that corridor?”
We moved the storage cabinet.
Behind it was a narrow maintenance door.
Smoke had already entered beneath the conference-room door.
Grant struggled to stand.
I helped him.
Dominic opened the service door.
Dark passage.
“Go.”
Weber led.
Grant followed.
I went next.
Dominic behind me.
The space was barely wide enough for one person.
Alarms suddenly began blaring.
“Fire detected. Evacuate immediately.”
Except none of the regular hallway doors opened.
Someone had triggered a lockdown and fire alarm simultaneously.
“They’re trying to create panic,” Weber said.
“Or kill us,” Grant replied.
We emerged near a stairwell.
Smoke filled the main corridor.
Employees were pounding on locked doors.
Patients shouted.
Whatever Kathryn was doing, innocent people were now trapped.
I stopped.
Dominic caught my arm.
“What?”
“We have to help them.”
“No.”
“There are patients in those rooms.”
“Clare.”
“I am not leaving them.”
His eyes burned.
“This building is being used as a trap.”
“And there are people who can’t walk.”
“I care about you getting out.”
“Well, I care about them.”
We stared at each other.
Then Dominic swore.
“Five minutes.”
“That’s not how emergencies work.”
“It is now.”
He began forcing open doors.
For the next fifteen minutes, we moved patients toward a functioning stairwell.
Weber helped.
Grant, despite still being weak, guided people away from smoke.
Dominic carried an elderly man two flights down without complaint.
And I realized something strange.
The terrifying man from the rain behaved differently when nobody was watching.
No speeches.
No reputation.
He simply did what needed doing.
On the fourth floor, we found Emily.
She was standing beside a wheelchair patient.
I froze.
“Emily?”
She looked shocked.
“Clare!”
I ran to her.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to work.”
“You came back?”
“I thought acting normal was safer.”
“Clearly not.”
She hugged me hard.
Over her shoulder, I saw Weber.
Emily’s face changed.
“You.”
Weber raised both hands.
“I can explain.”
“Later,” Dominic said.
We reached the lower level.
Rafael’s men met us near the loading dock.
But Kathryn was gone.
So was Anthony.
The fire was contained quickly.
It had been deliberately started inside a storage room.
No one died.
That felt like a miracle.
Outside, police cars filled the street.
Dominic kept us away from them.
Grant sat inside one of the SUVs wrapped in a blanket.
I joined him.
“Tell me everything.”
He looked older than I remembered.
“I worked with Margaret Cole.”
“I know.”
“She discovered medical-supply invoices that were inflated by millions.”
“Where did the money go?”
“To shell companies connected to Anthony Romano.”
“Why would a hospital help him?”
“He wasn’t only stealing from the Romanos.”
Grant swallowed.
“He was building his own network.”
“For what?”
“To remove Dominic.”
I glanced outside.
Dominic stood with Rafael beneath the rain.
Grant continued.
“Anthony believes Dominic has become weak.”
“Why?”
“Because Dominic has been pulling the family away from certain businesses.”
“What businesses?”
“Drugs. Weapons. Anything involving civilians.”
I looked at Grant.
“That makes him the good mafia boss?”
Grant almost smiled.
“There are no good mafia bosses.”
That answer I trusted.
“But there are different kinds of dangerous men.”
“And Anthony?”
“He doesn’t care who gets hurt.”
I looked back at Dominic.
“What does my family have to do with this?”
Grant hesitated.
“Bluebird.”
“My parents worked there.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Bluebird wasn’t just a freight company.”
“What was it?”
“A ledger.”
I frowned.
Grant continued.
“Dominic’s father used the company to record every hidden financial relationship the family had. Politicians. Contractors. Police. Businesses.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Blackmail.”
“Sometimes those are the same thing.”
I hated this world more with every answer.
“My mother?”
“She kept the books.”
“And my father?”
“He found something.”
“What?”
Grant looked away.
“What did he find?”
“A second set of accounts.”
My pulse hammered.
“Anthony’s?”
“Yes.”
“So Anthony tried to kill him?”
“We think so.”
“Think?”
“The warehouse burned before Michael could testify to Dominic’s father.”
I struggled to breathe.
“Was he killed?”
“No one knows.”
Dominic approached the SUV.
Grant stopped speaking.
I looked at him.
“You knew.”
Dominic’s face was tired.
“Not all of it.”
“How much?”
“That your parents worked for Bluebird.”
“Anything else?”
“That Michael disappeared after the fire.”
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
The simple answer made me angrier.
“You don’t get to decide what I can handle.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you’re right.”
That stopped me.
He stepped closer.
“I have spent most of my life controlling information because information keeps people alive.”
“And sometimes it destroys them.”
“Yes.”
Rain ran down his coat.
His pale eyes held mine.
“I’m learning that too.”
For a second, everything else disappeared.
Then Rafael called Dominic’s name.
He held up a phone.
“Luca’s awake.”
Dominic answered immediately.
“Luca?”
We could hear his brother’s voice faintly.
“Dom.”
“You’re safe.”
“No, I’m not.”
Dominic stiffened.
“What happened?”
A pause.
Then Luca said something that made every face around us change.
May you like
“Uncle Anthony is here.”
The line went dead.
