Chapter 3 - The Patient Who Chose Me
Tommy was alive.
That was the only sentence keeping me upright twenty minutes later.
Hospital security found him asleep after somebody had entered his room pretending to be a maintenance worker. Nothing appeared stolen. He hadn't been harmed.
Which somehow made it worse.
Whoever had entered hadn't gone there to hurt him.
They had gone there to prove they could.
I stood in Liam's room with my arms folded.
“You're going to explain everything.”
Leo looked toward Liam.
Liam nodded.
“Sit.”
“I'll stand.”
“Nora.”
“Talk.”
He did.
His name was Liam Mercer, but Mercer wasn't merely a family with money.
His grandfather had built an organization controlling trucking, construction, unions, and illegal gambling across Chicago.
Liam had inherited it at thirty-one.
By thirty-six, he'd spent five years trying to dismantle the most violent parts without appearing weak enough to be killed.
“Very noble,” I said. “You still have armed men downstairs.”
“I didn't say I became a priest.”
Leo almost smiled.
Liam continued.
A man named Victor Calder had once been his father's closest lieutenant.
Calder wanted the old organization back.
Drugs. Extortion. Trafficking.
Things Liam had forbidden.
Three weeks earlier, Liam had discovered someone inside his own organization was feeding Calder information.
Before he could identify the traitor, he was ambushed.
“The window,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And you think Calder knows about me because I'm here?”
“Probably.”
“Then why was I hired?”
Silence.
My stomach tightened.
“Liam.”
He looked at Leo.
Leo left the room.
That frightened me more than anything.
“Who called me?”
Liam answered quietly.
“I did.”
I stared at him.
“You?”
“I had Leo make the call.”
“Why me?”
“There were hundreds of private nurses in Chicago.”
“Yes.”
“Why me?”
His eyes held mine.
“Because of your father.”
My breath stopped.
“My father has been dead twelve years.”
“I know.”
Daniel Bennett had been a paramedic.
At least, that was what I had always believed.
He died in a highway accident when I was sixteen.
Liam reached toward the bedside drawer and removed a worn photograph.
He handed it to me.
My father stood beside a much younger Liam.
Behind them was an ambulance.
I stared.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
“You knew him?”
“He saved my life.”
I looked up.
“When?”
“I was seventeen.”
Liam told me the story.
His father had sent him along on a collection that turned violent. Liam was shot accidentally by one of his father's men.
Nobody wanted to take a mafia heir to a hospital.
My father found him bleeding behind a warehouse.
Daniel Bennett ignored the armed men surrounding him, loaded Liam into an ambulance, and told Liam's father that if anybody interfered with treatment, he'd personally let his son die.
I laughed despite myself.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“He stayed with me through surgery.”
“Why didn't he ever tell us?”
“Because afterward, he wanted nothing from my family.”
Liam paused.
“But I never forgot him.”
I looked at the envelope of cash.
“You've been watching us?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know about Tommy?”
“Your application crossed a medical staffing company I own.”
I stared at him.
“You own the agency?”
“Indirectly.”
“And you chose me because of Dad.”
“Yes.”
Anger came before gratitude.
“So this wasn't a job.”
“It was.”
“It was charity.”
“No.”
“You knew I was desperate.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about Tommy.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of offering help, you brought me into a house where assassins apparently check the guest list?”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn't know Calder was monitoring the estate.”
“But he was.”
“Yes.”
I threw the photograph onto the bed.
“I quit.”
Something flickered across Liam's face.
“Fair.”
That answer irritated me even more.
I grabbed my duffel.
“I'll return the money.”
“No.”
“I didn't earn it.”
“You kept me alive.”
“For four days.”
“Four more than I expected.”
I stopped.
There was no humor in his voice.
I looked at him.
“You thought you were going to die.”
Liam turned toward the dark window.
“Yes.”
The anger inside me shifted.
Not disappeared.
Shifted.
“Why?”
“Because the bullet through that window came from inside the estate perimeter.”
I understood.
“One of your own men.”
“Yes.”
“And you don't know who.”
“No.”
A horrible thought occurred to me.
“The previous nurses.”
“They weren't harmed.”
“But you drove them away deliberately.”
His silence confirmed it.
“You threw things at them because you wanted them gone.”
“Partly.”
“Why?”
“Anyone close to me becomes leverage.”
I stared at him.
“You've spent five weeks acting like a monster to protect people from being near you?”
“Don't romanticize it. I can be unpleasant without effort.”
I almost laughed.
Then Leo burst inside.
“We have a problem.”
“When don't we?” I muttered.
Leo ignored me.
“The hospital transferred Tommy.”
I spun around.
“What?”
“Mercer security moved him ten minutes ago.”
I looked at Liam.
“You ordered that?”
“No.”
The room became still.
Leo's face had gone gray.
“If you didn't order it…”
Liam reached for the pistol hidden beneath his pillow.
“Who authorized the transfer?”
Leo checked his phone.
“Your electronic signature.”
Liam's eyes hardened.
“Where did they take him?”
“We don't know.”
My duffel slipped from my hand.
I couldn't breathe.
“No.”
Liam tried to stand again.
I pushed him back.
“You're not going anywhere.”
“My men will find him.”
“Your men just kidnapped him!”
The words echoed.
Liam stared at me.
I expected anger.
Instead, he said, “You're right.”
He looked at Leo.
“Lock the estate down.”
Then at me.
“You wanted the truth, Nora?”
“Yes.”
“Now you're getting all of it.”
He opened the drawer beneath his medications and removed a small black notebook.
Inside were names.
Dozens.
One had been circled three times.
I recognized it.
Dr. Ellis.
“The doctor?”
“He had access to my signatures, medication, staff records.”
My mind raced backward.
Ellis had handed me the money.
He knew Tommy's hospital.
He knew Liam's condition.
“Why would he—”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then gunfire.
Leo drew his weapon.
Liam grabbed my wrist.
“Bathroom. Lock the door.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“You can't even walk.”
More shots.
Closer.
Liam looked toward the hallway.
Then at me.
May you like
“Apparently,” he said quietly, “Calder decided not to wait.”
The bedroom door handle began to turn.
