Chapter 10 - THEY FRAMED ME FOR STEALING THE MEDICINE
Luca wanted a trade.
Me for Elena.
He said it plainly.
No theatrics.
No ransom amount.
No negotiation.
Major Tessa Ward in exchange for Raphael’s sister.
That told us something important.
I mattered to the conspiracy for more than what I had seen.
Raphael refused before Luca finished speaking.
“No.”
Luca smiled through the screen.
“You didn't ask the nurse.”
“I don't need to.”
I stepped beside Raphael.
“Yes, you do.”
He turned toward me.
“No.”
“Stop saying no for me.”
“This is not a debate.”
“Everything with you is apparently a debate.”
Luca looked delighted.
“I see why you like her.”
Raphael’s expression turned lethal.
“Touch Elena—”
“You've been saying that for eight years.”
Then the feed ended.
Raphael smashed the tablet against the wall.
I stared at the broken screen.
“That was useful.”
“I'll buy another.”
“Not the point.”
He turned on me.
“You are not trading yourself.”
“Elena has been imprisoned for eight years.”
“And you think Luca releases her after getting you?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“We use the trade.”
His eyes narrowed.
“As bait?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I almost screamed.
Mercer arrived an hour later with Pike.
Seeing Pike in person after the fake photograph was strange.
He looked exactly like himself.
Tired.
Annoyed.
Real.
Mercer confirmed the image had been digitally altered.
Pike was clean.
The morphine evidence against me was unraveling too.
Server logs showed someone used Mira’s administrative credential to enter the clinic’s inventory system.
But my locker remained a problem.
Then one young medic came forward.
Private Leah Monroe.
Twenty-two.
First deployment.
Terrified.
She confessed that Mira had asked her to deliver a sealed “equipment packet” to my locker.
Leah had access because she assisted pharmacy.
“I thought it was paperwork,” she said, crying.
“It’s okay.”
“No. It isn't.”
“You didn't know.”
She looked at me.
“Neither did you when you went under that building.”
That stopped me.
People had started turning my rescue of Raphael into legend.
I hated it.
I had made a decision.
Not performed a miracle.
The investigation cleared me provisionally.
My medical duties remained restricted until formal review.
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, Elena's face haunted me.
Raphael stood alone on the balcony that night.
I joined him.
“You haven’t slept.”
“Neither have you.”
“I’m not recovering from two major injuries.”
He looked toward the mountains.
“She hates coffee.”
I waited.
“When Elena was thirteen, she told everyone she loved espresso because our father drank it.”
I smiled slightly.
“She secretly poured it into plants.”
“Three plants died.”
“You're telling me this because?”
“I need to remember she is a person.”
I understood.
Not hostage.
Not leverage.
His sister.
“Tell me more.”
So he did.
Elena played piano badly.
Collected cheap postcards even though the family owned private aircraft.
Once broke Raphael’s nose with a tennis racket by accident.
Hated formal dinners.
Loved stray dogs.
Raphael smiled while talking.
A real smile.
It transformed him.
For ten minutes, he wasn't a Mafia Boss.
He was someone's brother.
Then he looked at me.
“If she dies because I refused the trade—”
“She won't.”
“You cannot know that.”
“No.”
I leaned against the railing.
“But Luca doesn't want Elena dead.”
“Why?”
“She has been alive eight years.”
Raphael went still.
I continued.
“If she were only leverage, she would have been used before.”
“What are you saying?”
“She knows something.”
His eyes sharpened.
“About Matteo.”
“Or your father. Or the trafficking network.”
That changed everything.
Elena wasn’t merely hostage.
She was evidence.
The next morning, Mercer traced Luca’s video through a chain of relays.
Final signal origin:
Northern Nepal.
Not India.
He had doubled back.
Closer than anyone expected.
The mountain compound in Dante’s photograph was real.
And only six hours away.
We prepared an operation.
Officially, I had no place in it.
I argued.
Pike said no.
Mercer said no.
Raphael said no.
I told all three men exactly what I thought of their sudden unity.
Then Elena changed the plan herself.
A new message arrived.
Not from Luca.
From an unknown number.
Three words.
RED DOOR. BASEMENT.
Then coordinates.
Raphael stared.
“Her.”
“How do you know?”
“Red door.”
He looked at me.
“When we were children, Elena and I had a hiding place in our grandmother’s house.”
“What color?”
“Red.”
The coordinates matched the mountain compound.
Elena had somehow reached a phone.
She wasn't waiting to be rescued.
She was helping us find her.
Mercer immediately forwarded the coordinates to Nepalese authorities.
Then another message arrived.
CHILDREN BELOW ME.
My stomach dropped.
Not just Elena.
More victims.
Then a final message.
THE DOCTOR MUST COME.
Everyone looked at me.
Pike swore.
Raphael’s face darkened.
I folded my arms.
“Well.”
“No,” he said.
Mercer sighed.
“Here we go.”
May you like
This time I smiled.
“You heard your sister.”
