Chapter 9 - THE MAN IN THE HOSPITAL
Dante reached Clara’s floor in less than two minutes.
Two federal agents stood outside her room.
Alive.
Alert.
Dante exhaled.
“Anyone enter?”
“No.”
“Where’s my mother?”
“Fourth floor.”
Dante turned.
Nico followed.
Matteo answered on the first ring.
“Where are you?”
“With Ma.”
“Lock the door.”
“What happened?”
“Carlo may be inside.”
Matteo swore.
Dante heard the lock engage through the phone.
“I’m coming.”
Hospital security sealed three elevators.
Federal agents covered stairwells.
For the next forty minutes, nothing happened.
Then surveillance found him.
A man wearing a maintenance uniform had entered through a loading area.
The face was partially hidden.
But the height matched.
The walk matched.
And one frame caught silver hair.
Carlo.
“He came here himself,” Matteo said.
Dante stared at the monitor.
“Why?”
“To finish something.”
Clara.
Rosa.
Or both.
A nurse interrupted.
“Mr. Marino?”
Dante turned.
“Ms. Hughes’s blood pressure is dropping.”
Everything else disappeared.
He rushed back upstairs.
Doctors filled Clara’s room.
A complication.
Internal bleeding.
They pushed her toward surgery again.
Dante stood frozen as the doors closed.
Not again.
Matteo appeared beside him.
“She survived the first one.”
Dante did not answer.
“She’ll survive this.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
Matteo looked at him.
“But apparently she’s stubborn.”
Dante almost laughed.
“Extremely.”
“Then trust that.”
For the first time in eight years, the brothers sat together.
No father.
No business.
No argument.
Just fear.
Matteo eventually asked, “Do you love her?”
Dante looked at him.
“You always were subtle.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Matteo nodded.
“Does she know?”
“No.”
“Then she has to live.”
“That your medical opinion?”
“My architectural one.”
Despite everything, Dante smiled.
That was when the hospital alarm sounded.
A fire alarm.
Nico appeared instantly.
“Not a fire.”
Dante stood.
“What?”
“Smoke device in the west corridor.”
“Carlo.”
“Probably.”
Hospital staff began moving patients away from the affected area.
Chaos spread.
Dante’s attention snapped toward Rosa.
“She’s on four.”
Matteo ran.
Dante followed.
When they reached Rosa’s room, the door was open.
Empty.
Dante stopped breathing.
A nurse lay unconscious near the bathroom.
Not badly hurt.
Drugged.
Rosa’s wheelchair was gone.
“Ma!”
No answer.
Nico touched his earpiece.
“Lock every exit.”
Dante saw tire marks from the wheelchair near the service corridor.
They followed them.
Down one hall.
Through a utility door.
Toward a freight elevator.
The elevator had already gone down.
Dante hit the button.
Nothing.
“Stairs.”
They ran.
Three floors.
Two.
One.
The loading dock door was open.
Outside, rain had started.
A white hospital van stood near the curb.
Carlo was pushing Rosa toward it.
Dante stopped.
“Carlo.”
His uncle turned.
Rosa looked over her shoulder.
“Dante!”
Carlo held one hand against the wheelchair handle.
The other remained inside his jacket.
Dante knew what that meant.
Nico and Matteo spread apart.
Carlo smiled.
“You brought the whole family.”
“Let her go.”
“Why?”
“This is over.”
“No.”
Carlo’s expression changed.
“You destroyed what your father built.”
“You killed Gabriel.”
Silence.
Rosa closed her eyes.
Carlo’s smile disappeared.
“So you found the ledger.”
“You murdered your nephew.”
“He was going to expose me.”
“He was twenty-two.”
“He was weak.”
Dante’s hands curled.
Clara’s voice lived in his head.
Evidence.
Law.
Not fear.
Carlo continued.
“Gabriel wanted to walk away. Matteo walked away. And you…”
He laughed.
“You became strong enough to inherit everything, then decided to become respectable because a therapist smiled at you.”
Dante’s face did not change.
Carlo saw the reaction anyway.
“Ah.”
His eyes sharpened.
“So that’s it.”
“Leave Clara out of this.”
“She took five bullets for your mother.”
Carlo laughed.
“And what did you do? Hand the shooter to police?”
Dante said nothing.
Carlo shook his head.
“Your father would be ashamed.”
“My father is dead.”
“He built you.”
“No.”
Dante looked toward Rosa.
“She did.”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
Carlo became furious.
He pulled his hand from his jacket.
Nico reacted.
So did federal agents emerging from the far side of the loading dock.
“Hands!”
Carlo froze.
Dante did not move toward him.
That was the hardest thing he had ever done.
Not moving.
Not ending it himself.
Carlo looked at him.
“You’re going to let strangers take me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re weak.”
Dante looked at his uncle calmly.
“No.”
Federal agents seized Carlo.
Rosa was pulled away safely.
Carlo continued shouting.
“You think prison changes what you are?”
Dante stepped closer.
“No.”
He looked into the eyes of the man who had destroyed his family.
“I change what I am.”
Then he walked away.
Clara survived the second surgery.
Again.
For three days, she remained unconscious.
Dante rarely left.
On the fourth morning, sunlight filled the room.
Dante had fallen asleep in the chair beside her.
A weak voice whispered, “You look terrible.”
His eyes opened.
He froze.
Clara was looking at him.
Dante stood so quickly his knee struck the chair.
“You’re awake.”
“So it seems.”
He reached for the nurse button.
Clara caught his hand weakly.
“Rosa?”
“Alive.”
“Walking?”
“Already complaining about the hospital food.”
Clara closed her eyes.
“Good.”
Dante stared at her.
She opened them again.
“What?”
He could not speak.
Clara’s expression softened.
“Dante.”
“You got shot five times.”
“I noticed.”
“Five.”
“I’m apparently bad at moderation.”
He laughed.
Then his face broke.
Clara had never seen him cry.
Not once.
Dante lowered his head toward her hand.
“I thought you were going to die.”
Her fingers moved weakly through his hair.
“I didn’t.”
“You almost did.”
“But I didn’t.”
Dante lifted his face.
Clara saw something vulnerable and unguarded.
He whispered, “I love you.”
Silence.
This time Clara was awake to hear it.
Her lips parted.
Dante continued before fear could stop him.
“I don’t know when it happened. Maybe the first time you told my mother she insulted the concept of movement. Maybe when you argued with me in my kitchen.”
A faint smile touched Clara’s mouth.
“That was early.”
“I know.”
“I was very charming.”
“You were impossible.”
“Still am.”
“I know.”
He took her hand.
“I love you anyway.”
Clara watched him for a long moment.
Then tears filled her eyes.
“Good.”
Dante frowned slightly.
“Good?”
“Because I’m pretty sure I love you too.”
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, Dante Marino had absolutely no idea what to say.
Clara smiled.
“You look scared.”
He laughed through tears.
“Good.”
She squeezed his fingers.
“Means you’re not stupid.”
Dante leaned down carefully and kissed her forehead.
For a few seconds, there were no enemies.
No family wars.
No old secrets.
Only them.
Then Clara whispered, “I need to tell you something.”
Dante straightened.
“What?”
“Before the SUV crashed…”
Her smile disappeared.
“I saw the driver’s face in the mirror.”
Dante waited.
Clara swallowed.
“It wasn’t one of your regular drivers.”
His body went still.
“What?”
“The man driving us.”
“Clara, the driver died at the scene.”
“I know.”
She looked frightened now.
“He said something right before the first shot.”
“What?”
Clara closed her eyes, remembering.
Then she repeated it.
“Tell Salvatore his debt is paid.”
Dante’s blood ran cold.
His father had been dead for four years.
Carlo had been arrested.
May you like
But someone was still settling Salvatore Marino’s debts.
And Dante realized their nightmare was not over.
