Chapter 2 - The Order Nobody Was Allowed to Disobey
By the time they reached the emergency entrance, Elias had stopped pretending he was calm.
He carried Maya through the sliding doors, ignoring the startled nurses and the security guards who immediately recognized him. A young doctor stepped forward, then hesitated when he saw the tattoos climbing Elias's throat.
"She's suffering from severe cold exposure," Elias snapped. "Help her."
"We need you to wait outside, sir."
"No."
"Sir, we need room to work."
Elias looked at him.
The doctor swallowed. "Please."
For the first time in years, someone had told Elias Conti what to do and survived the experience without an apology.
He laid Maya on the stretcher himself.
"Save her," he told the medical team. "Whatever it costs."
Then the doors closed between them.
Elias stood motionless in the corridor, his overcoat soaked with melting snow. Marco approached cautiously.
"Boss, the party is still going. Senator Walsh is asking—"
"Cancel it."
"All of it?"
"Every guest. Every meeting. Every goddamn thing."
Marco stared at him.
Elias took out his phone and called his head of security.
"Pull the building footage from nine tonight onward. I want every camera, every access log, every employee who entered my floor."
"Understood."
"And find out why the street cameras near the office went dark."
A pause followed.
"Boss, those cameras weren't part of our system."
"Then find out who controlled them."
He ended the call.
Twenty minutes passed. Then forty.
Finally, a doctor emerged.
"She's stable," he said. "Her body temperature was dangerously low, but we caught it in time. She'll need monitoring and rest. She's lucky someone found her when he did."
Elias's shoulders lowered by a fraction.
"Can I see her?"
"Briefly."
Maya lay beneath warm blankets, an oxygen tube beneath her nose. Without her usual neat clothes and carefully arranged hair, she looked heartbreakingly young. Elias pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down.
He had seen men die without blinking. Yet the sight of a hospital monitor counting Maya's heartbeat made him feel strangely helpless.
Her eyes opened.
"Mr. Conti?"
"You're in the hospital."
She looked around, confused. "Why are you here?"
The question hit harder than it should have.
"Because I found you freezing in the street."
"Oh."
She looked away.
Elias leaned forward. "Why didn't you call me?"
Maya gave a small, humorless laugh.
"Call you? You were having a party."
"So?"
"So I wasn't invited."
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
She had said it without accusation, which somehow made it worse.
Before he could answer, Maya's phone vibrated inside the plastic belongings bag a nurse had placed on the table.
Elias reached for it, intending to silence the noise.
The screen lit up with a message from an unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT HER IN THE SNOW. NEXT TIME, SHE WON'T BE SO LUCKY.
Elias read it twice.
Then he looked at Maya.
For the first time that night, she seemed more frightened of the phone than of him.
"Who sent this?" he demanded.
Maya's fingers tightened around the blanket.
May you like
"I don't know."
But her face told him she was lying.
