Chapter 3 - THE PRICE OF A LIFE
Rosa Reyes was found forty-three minutes later.
She had not been taken from the hospital.
She had been moved into a service elevator and left unconscious inside a laundry cart.
The man responsible never made it out of the building.
Adrien found him first.
Lena waited beside her grandmother’s bed while doctors checked Rosa’s heart and blood pressure. She held the older woman’s hand, fighting tears.
Adrien stood outside the room with blood on his cuff.
It did not belong to him.
“What did you do?” Lena asked when she saw it.
“What was necessary.”
“Is he alive?”
Adrien’s silence answered her.
She stepped into the hallway and pulled the door closed behind her.
“I need the truth.”
“The truth will not help you sleep.”
“I’m not sleeping anyway.”
His expression tightened.
“Moretti sent him.”
“Who is Moretti?”
“Vittorio Moretti controls most of the South Side operations my organization has spent the last year dismantling.”
“Your organization.”
“You know what people say about me.”
“I know what they whisper.”
“Most whispers are exaggerations.”
“And the rest?”
Adrien glanced toward Rosa’s room.
“The rest are why your grandmother is alive.”
Lena felt cold.
“Why would your enemy target her?”
“He did not know she was your grandmother until someone inside Lavelle told him.”
“Someone at the restaurant?”
Adrien nodded.
“He wants leverage against me.”
Lena stared at him.
“Why would I be leverage?”
Adrien did not answer.
He did not need to.
The truth passed between them anyway.
Because he cared.
Perhaps not gently. Perhaps not rationally.
But enough for his enemies to notice.
Lena stepped back.
“This is because of you.”
“Yes.”
She expected him to deny it.
His honesty hurt more.
“You need to stay somewhere secure,” he continued.
“I’m not moving into one of your safe houses.”
“You are.”
“No.”
“Lena—”
“My grandmother is having surgery in two days. I’m not leaving her.”
“Then you will both be moved.”
“You don’t get to control my life.”
Adrien stepped closer.
“You nearly lost that life tonight.”
“So that gives you ownership of it?”
His face went still.
“No.”
“Then stop acting like it does.”
For several seconds, they stood in the corridor while nurses moved around them.
Adrien’s voice lowered.
“I do not own you.”
“Good.”
“But until Moretti is dealt with, your safety is my responsibility.”
“I never asked for that.”
“You touched me.”
Lena blinked.
Adrien seemed to regret the words as soon as they left him.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
He looked away.
Everything in him resisted confession.
Then Rosa’s voice came faintly from the room.
“Lena?”
Lena rushed inside.
Rosa looked weak but awake.
Her silver hair spread over the pillow, and an oxygen tube rested beneath her nose.
“Abuela, I’m here.”
Rosa’s eyes shifted toward Adrien.
The moment she saw him, the color drained from her face.
“No,” she whispered.
Lena looked at Adrien.
He had gone completely still.
Rosa clutched Lena’s wrist.
“You must stay away from that family.”
“Abuela, do you know him?”
Rosa stared at Adrien as if seeing a ghost.
“I knew his father.”
Adrien entered the room.
“How?”
Rosa’s breathing quickened.
“Twenty-two years ago, your father came to our home with a gunshot wound. My son brought him.”
Lena frowned.
“My father?”
She had been told her father died in a construction accident when she was a baby.
Rosa closed her eyes.
“Your father did not die in an accident.”
Lena’s world shifted.
“He worked for the Varelli family.”
Adrien’s face hardened.
“What was his name?”
“Gabriel Reyes.”
Adrien inhaled sharply.
He knew the name.
Every man in his father’s organization knew it.
Gabriel Reyes had been the trusted driver accused of betraying Antonio Varelli during the bloodiest war in the family’s history.
He had supposedly sold information to the Morettis.
Because of that betrayal, twelve Varelli men had died.
Including Adrien’s older brother.
Adrien looked at Lena.
The woman whose touch brought him peace was the daughter of the man blamed for destroying his family.
Rosa began to cry.
“Gabriel was innocent.”
Adrien’s expression turned to stone.
“My brother died because of him.”
“No,” Rosa said. “Your brother died because someone inside your family framed my son.”
“Who?”
Rosa’s eyes moved toward the doorway.
A shadow disappeared from the small window.
Adrien pulled his gun and rushed into the hallway.
It was empty.
When he returned, Rosa was struggling to breathe.
Lena reached for the nurse call button.
Rosa grabbed Adrien’s hand.
He flinched at the contact.
“You have the same enemy,” she whispered.
Then her eyes rolled back.
Machines began to scream.
Doctors rushed into the room.
Lena was pushed aside.
Adrien pulled her against his chest before she could fall.
For the first time in years, he held another human being.
May you like
And while Rosa Reyes fought for her life, Adrien realized the past had not returned to haunt him.
It had been waiting inside his own house all along.
