Chapter 4 - The Ghost in the Hospital
The gunshot exploded through the dark room.
The man in blue scrubs spun backward, striking the doorframe before collapsing in the corridor.
Mave screamed as Rafe threw himself across her bed.
Pain tore through her ribs, but the weight of his body shielded her from the doorway.
“Stay down.”
“I’m attached to six machines. Where would I go?”
Even terrified, she sounded irritated.
Rafe almost admired it.
Emergency lights flickered on. Nurses ran from nearby rooms while security alarms began sounding across the floor.
Rafe rose with his gun trained on the fallen attacker.
The man was alive.
Barely.
The bullet had entered below his collarbone.
Rafe kicked the pistol away and pulled down the surgical mask.
A narrow face appeared beneath it.
Mave stared.
“I know him.”
Rafe looked at her. “From where?”
“He came to the Salt Line last week.”
“As a customer?”
“No. He asked for a job. Gerald told him there were no openings.”
The attacker laughed weakly from the floor.
“He remembers you,” Mave whispered.
The man turned his head toward her.
“Declan remembered you too.”
Rafe crouched beside him.
“Where is Declan Donovan?”
The attacker smiled.
“Under the harbor.”
Rafe pressed two fingers into the bullet wound.
The man’s smile vanished.
“Who sent you?”
“You think this began tonight?”
Rafe increased the pressure.
The attacker gasped.
“The waitress was selected weeks ago.”
Mave’s face lost color.
“For what?”
The man looked at her.
“To see whether you would still throw yourself in front of someone innocent.”
Rafe’s eyes hardened.
“The attack on Sofia was staged.”
The attacker began to cough.
“Not staged. Tested.”
“By whom?”
A dark stain spread beneath him.
The wound should not have killed him so quickly.
Rafe grabbed his jaw.
The attacker’s pupils widened.
Poison.
A capsule must have been hidden in his mouth.
“Who sent you?”
The man’s breathing slowed.
“The man who killed your father.”
Then he died.
Rafe remained motionless.
His father, Antonio Colazo, had been killed eleven years earlier when a bomb destroyed his car near the Charlestown docks.
Rafe had been twenty-three.
Sofia had been eight.
The Moretti family had been blamed, and Rafe had spent years breaking their organization in revenge.
He had never questioned the evidence.
Not until now.
Nico entered with armed security behind him.
He looked from the body to Rafe.
“Hospital cameras went down on three floors. Whoever arranged this had internal access.”
“Lock down the building.”
“Already happening.”
Rafe stood.
“Move Mave to a secure location.”
Mave shook her head. “I’m not leaving Finn.”
“You will not survive another attempt here.”
“Then take me to his hospital.”
“You are not medically stable.”
“He is nine years old, and someone wrote about my missing brother on his photograph.”
Rafe faced her.
“And if the person watching him expects you to go?”
“Then they already know me better than you do.”
She tried to move toward the side of the bed.
Pain stopped her.
Rafe placed a hand carefully against her uninjured shoulder.
“I will bring Finn to you.”
“He cannot be moved without a cardiac team.”
“I will bring the team.”
Mave stared at him, trying to decide whether he was arrogant enough to believe that was possible.
He was.
Less than an hour later, an entire secured wing at St. Catherine’s was being prepared for Finn.
Rafe’s money opened doors.
His name made them open faster.
But he did not remove Finn from the transplant list, purchase special priority, or take medical resources from another child. Instead, he funded the staff, equipment, and transport necessary to move Finn safely while maintaining his place in the system.
When Mave learned what he had done, she looked angrier than grateful.
“I can’t repay you.”
“I did not ask you to.”
“That’s what people say before they decide what you owe.”
Rafe stood beside her bed as nurses prepared the transfer.
“You saved my sister.”
“Then we’re even.”
“No.”
“We are.”
“You broke your body protecting her.”
“You brought Finn here.”
“That is not equal.”
Mave looked directly at him.
“Maybe kindness isn’t supposed to be measured.”
The words unsettled him.
Everything in Rafe’s life was measured.
Money.
Loyalty.
Blood.
Revenge.
He had never trusted anything without a price.
Finn arrived shortly before dawn.
His bed was rolled into the room beside Mave’s, and the moment he saw her, every brave expression disappeared from his face.
“Mave.”
She reached toward him with her good arm.
“Hey, trouble.”
Finn began crying.
Not loudly.
That made it worse.
A nurse released the brake on his bed so it could be moved closer. Finn stretched across the narrow space and held Mave’s hand.
“You promised fries.”
“I got distracted.”
“You’re terrible.”
“I know.”
Rafe turned away, giving them privacy.
Sofia stood in the doorway.
She had changed clothes, but Mave’s blood remained beneath one fingernail.
Finn looked at her.
“You’re the girl?”
Sofia nodded.
“Mave saved you?”
“Yes.”
Finn considered this.
“Are you nice?”
Sofia blinked. “I try to be.”
“Good. Because she keeps saving mean people too.”
Mave gave him a tired look.
Finn noticed Rafe.
“And you’re Mr. Trouble.”
Rafe raised an eyebrow at Nico.
Nico looked innocent.
“I’m Rafe.”
Finn studied him.
“You look expensive.”
Sofia laughed for the first time that night.
Rafe stepped closer.
“Your sister’s photograph helped us identify a danger.”
Finn reached for Captain.
“That bear belonged to Declan.”
Mave turned sharply.
“You told them?”
“They asked.”
Rafe looked at the bear’s missing fur and damaged stitching.
“Was it with Declan when he disappeared?”
“No,” Finn said. “Dad found it outside our old house.”
Mave frowned.
“What?”
Finn hugged Captain more tightly.
“Dad gave it to me when I was six. He said Declan left it behind.”
Mave stared at the bear.
Declan had carried Captain everywhere as a child, but by seventeen, he kept it hidden in a locked drawer.
There was one detail Mave had never told Finn.
Captain’s left paw had been repaired by their mother using bright red thread.
The bear in Finn’s arms had black stitching.
“Give him to me,” Mave whispered.
Finn hesitated, then passed the bear across.
Mave turned it over.
The seam along the back had been opened and poorly repaired.
Rafe took a small knife from Nico and carefully cut one stitch.
Inside the bear, wrapped in yellowed plastic, was a tiny brass key.
A number had been engraved into its side.
Mave stared at it.
“Declan hid this.”
Rafe looked toward Nico.
“Safe-deposit box?”
“Possibly.”
Before Nico could take the key, Finn spoke.
“There’s something else inside.”
Rafe opened the seam farther.
A miniature voice recorder fell onto the blanket.
The battery was dead, but a white label remained attached.
May you like
Written in Declan’s handwriting were six words.
If I disappear, Rafe’s uncle did it.
