Chapter 3 - Room 814
Finn Donovan was nine years old, weighed less than sixty pounds, and had learned to recognize bad news by the way adults avoided using simple words.
Doctors said his heart was “underperforming.”
Nurses said his condition was “complex.”
Hospital administrators said his treatment faced “financial uncertainty.”
Mave was the only person who told him the truth.
His heart was sick.
She was trying to save it.
That night, Finn sat awake in Room 814 of Boston Children’s Hospital, a worn brown bear beneath one arm and a comic book open across his knees.
Mave was late.
She was never late without calling.
At 10:43 p.m., three men in dark suits appeared outside his door.
Finn watched them through the glass.
The tallest one entered after speaking with a nurse.
He had close-cropped dark hair, a scar across one eyebrow, and the uncomfortable posture of a man who would rather stand during surgery than sit in a child’s room.
“My name is Nico Vale,” he said.
Finn closed the comic book.
“You’re not a doctor.”
“No.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“Social worker?”
Nico looked faintly insulted. “No.”
Finn tightened his grip around the bear.
“Then why are you here?”
“Your sister was injured tonight.”
The heart monitor beside Finn accelerated.
“How badly?”
“She is alive.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Nico studied him.
Finn had Mave’s eyes.
“She was struck across the back. She is receiving treatment.”
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s.”
Finn pushed aside the blanket.
Nico stepped forward. “You cannot leave.”
“Mave hates hospitals.”
“You are currently in one.”
“She hates being the patient.”
Finn reached for the IV stand.
Nico gently lowered his hand.
“Mr. Colazo sent us to protect you.”
“Who is Mr. Colazo?”
“The brother of the young woman your sister saved.”
Finn blinked.
“Mave saved someone?”
“Yes.”
“Of course she did.”
There was no surprise in his voice.
Only tired acceptance.
Finn leaned back against the pillow.
“She thinks saving everyone is her job.”
Nico looked at the worn bear. “What is his name?”
“Captain.”
“Captain what?”
“Just Captain. Mave says not everyone needs a last name.”
Finn glanced toward the door.
“Is she awake?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you call?”
Nico took out his phone.
Before he dialed, Finn spoke again.
“Tell me the truth first.”
“I have.”
“No. You told me she’s alive because you thought that was enough.”
Nico paused.
“She has broken bones. The doctors are worried about her lung. She may need surgery.”
Finn stared at Captain.
His lower lip trembled once, but he refused to cry.
“Mave said she’d bring me fries after her shift.”
Nico did not know how to answer.
At St. Catherine’s, Rafe stood outside an operating room while surgeons repaired the damage caused by the steel baton.
Sofia sat across from him with Mave’s blood still marking the front of her pale dress.
Rafe had offered her a coat.
She refused to cover it.
“I want to remember,” she said.
“Remember what?”
“That she bled because everyone else was too slow.”
Rafe looked away.
The words belonged to him too.
A doctor emerged nearly two hours later.
“Mr. Colazo?”
Rafe stood.
“Ms. Donovan suffered a fractured scapula, two broken ribs, and a partial collapse of the left lung. We inserted a chest tube and stabilized the fractures. She was fortunate.”
Sofia stared at him.
“Fortunate?”
The doctor chose his next words carefully.
“The blow could have severed the spinal cord. Another inch toward the neck could have killed her.”
Rafe’s hands curled into fists.
“When will she wake?”
“Possibly tonight. She will be in severe pain.”
“Can we see her?”
“Briefly.”
Sofia entered first.
Rafe remained outside and called Nico.
“What do you know?”
Nico’s voice came through quietly. “Finn has dilated cardiomyopathy. His condition deteriorated six months ago.”
“Transplant?”
“He needs one. He completed initial testing, but several procedures were delayed after Mave’s insurance refused coverage.”
“How much?”
“I’m calculating it.”
“I did not ask for calculations.”
“You want it paid.”
“Anonymously.”
Nico was silent for a moment.
“Rafe, you should know something about the photograph.”
Rafe touched the picture inside his jacket.
“What?”
“Finn says it was taken three weeks ago. A volunteer photographer visits the cardiac ward.”
“That does not explain why someone wants the boy dead.”
“I haven’t established that anyone does.”
“The attacker wore a black crow.”
Nico lowered his voice. “I saw it.”
“Three months ago, someone marked one of our containers with that symbol.”
“The container that disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“Officially, medical equipment.”
“And unofficially?”
Rafe looked through the window at Mave.
“I never found out.”
Nico continued. “There is something else. Mave and Finn had an older brother named Declan Donovan. He disappeared nine years ago.”
“Runaway?”
“That was the official conclusion.”
“And unofficially?”
“The father reported him missing, then withdrew the report forty-eight hours later.”
Rafe’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“I’m trying to find him.”
The door opened.
Sofia stepped out, crying silently.
“She asked for Finn.”
Rafe ended the call and entered.
Mave lay beneath white blankets, surrounded by tubes and monitors. Her face was pale, but her eyes were open.
She turned toward him.
“You found him?”
“Yes.”
“Is he safe?”
“My men are with him.”
“That doesn’t sound safe.”
Rafe pulled a chair closer.
“He is in Room 814. His nurse’s name is Lauren. He is holding a bear called Captain and pretending not to be afraid.”
Mave’s eyes filled.
“You spoke to him?”
“My security chief did.”
“Does Finn know what happened?”
“He knows you were hurt helping someone.”
Mave closed her eyes.
“He’ll think it’s his fault.”
“Why?”
“Because every time I take an extra shift, he thinks it’s because he’s sick.”
Rafe looked at her.
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
The directness struck him.
Mave opened her eyes again.
“But that doesn’t make it his fault.”
Rafe removed the photograph from his pocket and placed it beside her.
The moment she saw it, relief moved across her face.
Then she noticed something on the back.
Her expression changed.
“What is it?” Rafe asked.
Mave picked up the picture with trembling fingers.
Beneath the handwritten words For Mave. Be brave, someone had added a line in black ink.
The message had not been there when she placed the photograph in her apron that morning.
Your brother begged too.
Mave stopped breathing.
Rafe took the photograph from her.
“Who is your brother?”
Her eyes remained fixed on the words.
“Declan.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared when I was eighteen.”
“Did he have enemies?”
“He was seventeen years old.”
“That is not an answer.”
Mave looked at Rafe, and for the first time, he saw real fear in her face.
“The night Declan vanished, he told me he had found proof that powerful men were using Boston’s docks to move people like cargo.”
Rafe went still.
“What proof?”
“He never told me.”
“Did he name anyone?”
Mave’s gaze dropped toward the black crow tattoo Rafe had described.
“He drew a bird on my bedroom wall before he left.”
Rafe leaned closer.
“What kind of bird?”
“A crow.”
Before either of them could speak again, every light in the hospital room went out.
The machines switched to emergency power.
A nurse shouted in the corridor.
Rafe drew his gun.
The door opened slowly.
A hospital employee stepped inside wearing blue scrubs and a surgical mask.
May you like
He raised a silenced pistol toward Mave’s bed.
Rafe fired first.
