Chapter 1 - THE ROOM WITHOUT A HOSPITAL NAME
The first person I saw when I woke was not a doctor.
It was Gabriel Rossi.
He sat in a chair beside my bed wearing the same black shirt he'd worn beneath his ruined suit. The sleeves were rolled to his elbows, and dried blood darkened one cuff.
My blood.
His eyes opened the instant I moved.
“You're awake.”
My throat felt scraped raw.
“Where...?”
“Private medical facility.”
That explained nothing.
I looked around.
No hospital logo.
No nurses' station visible through the glass.
One door.
One window covered by steel shutters.
A heart monitor.
An IV.
And a man outside the room with a shoulder holster.
“Am I kidnapped?”
Gabriel stared at me.
“You were shot three times protecting my son.”
“So that's a maybe.”
For half a second, his mouth almost moved.
Then his expression hardened again.
“The shoulder round passed through. The rib wound missed your lung by less than an inch. The third bullet lodged near your lower spine.”
My stomach tightened.
“Can I walk?”
“Yes.”
The relief nearly made me cry.
Gabriel looked away while I did.
Interesting.
“Leo?”
His face changed.
“He won't leave the hallway.”
“Why?”
“He thinks you died.”
I closed my eyes.
“Bring him in.”
“You need rest.”
“Gabriel.”
It was the first time I'd ever used his first name.
His eyes narrowed.
I expected correction.
Instead he stood.
Two minutes later, Leo appeared in the doorway wearing dinosaur pajamas and holding the wooden train engine from the sunroom.
His face crumpled when he saw me.
I had never heard him cry before.
He ran.
Gabriel caught him gently before he climbed onto my injuries.
“Careful.”
Leo reached for my hand.
“You woke up.”
“Apparently.”
“You had blood.”
“A little.”
Gabriel gave me a look.
Fine.
A lot.
Leo placed the wooden train beside my pillow.
“For you.”
My eyes burned.
“Thank you.”
Then Leo leaned closer and whispered:
“I saw the bad man before.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“What?”
Leo looked frightened.
I squeezed his fingers.
“Where?”
“The house.”
Gabriel knelt beside him.
“When?”
Leo looked toward the door.
“At Mommy's picture day.”
Gabriel's face changed.
“What picture day?”
“The day Mrs. Gable put flowers by Mommy's picture.”
The annual anniversary of Gabriel's wife's death.
Three weeks earlier.
“Which man?”
Leo pointed through the glass wall.
Not at a stranger.
At one of Gabriel's own security men standing in the corridor.
Vincent Hale.
Head of estate security.
Gabriel stared at him.
Vincent couldn't hear us through the glass.
Then Leo whispered:
“He told the shooting men where my painting room was.”
May you like
The attack hadn't breached Gabriel's security.
Gabriel's security had opened the door.
