Chapter 2 - The Men at the Door
Bridget’s needle stopped halfway through the next stitch.
“You’re telling me your chief financial officer stabbed you?”
Victor looked down at the blood staining the towel beneath him.
“I’m telling you he arranged for someone else to do it.”
“That is somehow worse.”
“It usually is.”
Bridget tied the stitch.
Victor barely reacted.
She had treated frightened patients during her clinical rotations. She remembered grown men swearing over needles and children crying before anyone touched them.
Victor Lacombe behaved differently.
He watched everything.
The windows.
The door.
Her hands.
Every sound from the pharmacy.
He was not calm.
He was prepared.
Bridget understood the difference when headlights swept across the front windows.
Victor moved instantly.
His hand disappeared beneath his discarded jacket.
“Don’t.”
Bridget caught his wrist.
His eyes snapped to hers.
“If that’s a gun, it stays exactly where it is. My daughter is 20 feet away.”
For several seconds neither moved.
Then Victor slowly removed his hand.
Bridget stared at him.
“You brought a gun into my pharmacy?”
“I brought myself into your pharmacy. The gun happened to be attached.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
The headlights stopped.
A black SUV stood outside.
Victor’s expression changed.
“Turn off the lights.”
“What?”
“Now.”
Something in his voice made her obey.
Bridget killed the storage-room light first, then most of the pharmacy.
Pippa appeared in the doorway clutching her glow stick.
“Mom?”
Bridget crossed the room quickly.
“Come here.”
Victor stood despite Bridget’s immediate protest.
Blood had already begun seeping through the fresh dressing.
“You’re going to reopen it.”
“There are 2 men outside.”
“How do you know?”
“The vehicle.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one we have time for.”
The front door rattled.
Locked.
Then came a knock.
3 slow taps.
Bridget felt Pippa’s fingers tighten around hers.
Victor leaned close.
“If they ask, you never saw me.”
“And if they don’t believe me?”
“They will.”
“That sounded suspiciously confident.”
Victor reached into his pocket and removed his phone.
The screen was cracked.
Dead.
He looked at it once, then at Bridget.
“Do you have another exit?”
“Delivery door.”
“Where?”
She pointed.
Victor started toward it.
He made it 4 steps.
Then his knees buckled.
Bridget caught his arm.
“You are not going anywhere.”
The knocking came again.
Harder.
“Mommy?”
Pippa whispered.
Bridget looked from her daughter to Victor.
Then she made the worst reasonable decision of her life.
“Storage room.”
Victor frowned.
“You’re hiding me?”
“I’m preventing you from bleeding to death in my cold-medicine aisle.”
She pushed him toward the back.
“You can repay me by not getting murdered before sunrise.”
Victor almost smiled.
Almost.
Bridget closed him inside the storage room, leaving Pippa with him only long enough to cross the pharmacy.
She switched on the front lights.
2 men stood outside.
Neither looked like police.
One wore a dark raincoat. The other wore a navy jacket over a white shirt.
Bridget unlocked the door but kept the security chain attached.
“We’re closed.”
The taller man smiled.
“We’re looking for someone.”
“At 3 in the morning?”
“He may be injured.”
Bridget forced herself not to glance toward the blood she had already wiped from the floor.
“Haven’t seen anyone.”
The man studied her.
His smile disappeared.
“You sure?”
“Very.”
His gaze moved behind her.
For one terrible second, Bridget thought he had noticed something.
Then Pippa appeared.
Holding her teddy bear.
Bridget’s heart stopped.
The child walked toward her mother with sleepy innocence.
“Mommy, can we go home now?”
Bridget understood immediately.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Pippa looked through the narrow opening at the strangers.
Then frowned.
“You’re letting the rain in.”
The shorter man almost laughed.
The taller one did not.
He continued staring at Bridget.
Finally, he stepped backward.
“If you see him, call this number.”
A card slid through the opening.
Bridget took it.
No name.
Only digits.
The men returned to their SUV.
Bridget locked the door.
She waited until the taillights vanished.
Then she turned.
Pippa stood behind her.
Victor stood farther back, one hand against the wall.
Bridget stared at her daughter.
“Pippa Carone.”
Pippa’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“You were supposed to stay hidden.”
“I helped.”
“You absolutely did not help.”
Victor spoke quietly.
“She did.”
Bridget pointed at him.
“You don’t get a vote.”
For the first time, Victor Lacombe smiled.
It changed his entire face.
Pippa grinned.
Bridget did not.
Not much, anyway.
Twenty minutes later, Bridget made another questionable decision.
She took Victor home.
Her apartment was small enough that the living room, kitchen, and dining area seemed to be negotiating custody of the same 300 square feet.
Victor stood in the doorway looking strangely enormous.
Pippa marched inside.
“You can sleep on the couch.”
Victor looked at the couch.
It was approximately 5 feet long.
He was well over 6 feet.
“I appreciate the generosity.”
“I have rules,” Pippa said.
“Pip—”
“No shoes on the couch. No bad words. And Teddy gets the left pillow.”
Victor nodded solemnly.
“Understood.”
Bridget closed the door.
“You’re leaving at sunrise.”
Victor’s eyes met hers.
“Yes.”
She wanted to believe him.
At 6:14 a.m., Bridget woke in a kitchen chair.
Victor was gone.
On the table sat an envelope containing enough cash to cover several months of rent.
Bridget stared at it.
Then she saw the note.
Three words.
You saved me.
She immediately became angry.
She grabbed the envelope.
“No.”
Pippa wandered in rubbing her eyes.
“Where’s Victor?”
“Gone.”
Her face fell.
“He didn’t say goodbye?”
Apparently that bothered Bridget more than the money.
“No.”
Pippa looked toward the window.
A black sedan was parked across the street.
Bridget froze.
Another stopped behind it.
Then another.
Within 30 seconds, 5 dark vehicles surrounded the building.
Men in suits stepped onto the sidewalk.
Pippa brightened.
“He came back.”
Bridget did not share her enthusiasm.
Because Victor had indeed returned.
May you like
But he was not alone.
And the men surrounding him looked less like employees than soldiers.
