Chapter 3 - WHEN THE DON WOKE UP
Alejandro opened his eyes eighteen hours later.
His throat burned.
His chest felt as though someone had tightened steel around it.
Gabriel stood beside the bed.
The empty EpiPen rested inside a sealed evidence bag.
Alejandro stared at it.
“The child?”
“Safe.”
“Her mother?”
“Also safe.”
“Bruno?”
“Gone.”
Alejandro attempted to sit.
The doctor stopped him.
“You almost died.”
Alejandro looked toward Gabriel.
“Show me.”
Gabriel placed a tablet on the bed.
Alejandro watched Bruno poison the wine.
He watched himself collapse.
Then he watched Emma run into the study.
Her small hands moved without hesitation.
She pulled the cap.
Raised the injector.
Pressed.
Alejandro turned away after the click.
Kiara had owned a pink rabbit backpack.
Kiara had once practiced giving medicine to her stuffed bear.
The resemblance hurt in places the poison had not reached.
“Play the older file,” Gabriel said.
Alejandro watched the recording from the night his daughter died.
Bruno’s voice filled the clinic.
The girl will ride in the second car.
The bear will be beside her.
Then the ring appeared.
Alejandro knew the hand.
His uncle Salvatore had broken that finger during a hunting accident.
The bone healed crooked.
The ring always tilted slightly toward the palm.
Alejandro had kissed that hand at his father’s funeral.
Salvatore had ordered Kiara’s death.
Bruno had helped arrange it.
Alejandro removed the oxygen tube.
“Bring Salvatore here.”
“Alive?”
Alejandro looked at the EpiPen.
The old answer would have been different.
“Alive.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Bruno too.”
“Alive if possible.”
The clinic door opened.
Mariana entered with Emma.
She had agreed to one brief visit before the police moved them.
Emma approached the bed cautiously.
Alejandro looked less frightening in a hospital gown.
He looked tired.
“Can you breathe?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She examined his face.
“All the way?”
“Almost.”
“You need another EpiPen.”
“The doctor gave me one.”
“I gave you mine.”
“I know.”
Emma opened her rabbit backpack and showed him two new injectors.
“My mommy bought more.”
Alejandro looked at Mariana.
“I will pay for every medical cost she has for the rest of her life.”
“No.”
The refusal surprised everyone.
Mariana stepped closer.
“My daughter’s medicine will not become a chain between us.”
“I owe her.”
“She saved you because you could not breathe.”
“She did not enter a contract.”
Alejandro studied her.
No one in his world refused money without wanting something larger.
Mariana wanted distance.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“Police protection that does not report to your family.”
“A safe place.”
“And the truth about why Bruno knew my daughter’s school address.”
Alejandro looked toward Gabriel.
“We do not know that he does.”
Emma touched her mother’s coat.
“He said he knew where you sleep.”
Alejandro’s expression changed.
Bruno had gathered information before entering the study.
The attack included a plan for every possible witness.
Alejandro spoke to Ruiz.
“Give Mariana everything she requested.”
Ruiz answered before Gabriel could.
“I do not take orders from you.”
“Then consider it agreement.”
Emma held out a drawing.
It showed Alejandro lying beside red wine.
A blue circle floated above the scene.
“The eye saved you too,” she said.
Alejandro accepted the paper.
“You saved me.”
“The eye helped.”
She corrected him without fear.
Alejandro almost smiled.
Then Emma pointed at the gold ring in the older camera image.
“I saw one like that downstairs.”
“Where?”
“On the doctor.”
The smile disappeared.
Dr. Victor Rossi had treated Alejandro for fifteen years.
May you like
He was the person who confirmed Kiara’s death at the scene.
He was also the person who had nearly been alone with Alejandro after the poisoning.
