Chapter 6 - The Night Mina's Mother Saved Him
Leo had been twenty-three.
Mina had been seventeen.
Neither had known the other existed.
The shooting happened behind a nightclub in Cicero.
Leo remembered the cold pavement.
Blood in his mouth.
Thomas shouting.
Then fluorescent lights.
A woman in blue hospital scrubs standing over him inside a private examination room.
Elaine Hayes.
“She wasn't supposed to treat me,” Leo told Mina that night.
They sat alone in the estate kitchen after the gala.
“She was finishing a double shift.”
Mina stared at him.
“My mother never told me.”
“She shouldn't have been involved.”
“Then why was she?”
“Because Thomas brought me to St. Agnes instead of a hospital.”
“What happened?”
Leo looked down at his hands.
“I was shot.”
“Obviously.”
“Twice.”
Mina’s expression changed.
“Where?”
“Shoulder and abdomen.”
“And my mother operated?”
“She stabilized me until a surgeon arrived.”
Mina looked away.
“I remember that night.”
Leo looked up.
“She came home at five in the morning.”
He said nothing.
“She sat at the kitchen table for an hour without taking off her coat. I asked what happened.”
“What did she say?”
“That she'd had a difficult patient.”
Leo almost smiled.
“Accurate.”
Mina did not.
“Dante said she saved you.”
“She did.”
“And you never recognized my name?”
“Hayes isn't rare.”
“But Thomas did.”
“Yes.”
Mina pushed away from the table.
“So everybody knew pieces of my life except me.”
Leo stood.
“Mina.”
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
She faced him.
“You grew up knowing exactly what your family was.”
Leo laughed bitterly.
“No.”
She stopped.
“My father told me we protected neighborhoods.”
He leaned against the island.
“He told me politicians were corrupt and we simply operated outside their rules. He told me money came from gambling, shipping and people who understood the risks.”
“And you believed him?”
“For a while.”
Mina’s anger softened.
Leo continued.
“I was nineteen the first time I understood someone had been beaten because of an order I delivered.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
The answer was brutally honest.
“I told myself it wasn't my decision.”
Mina looked at him.
“You regret it.”
“Yes.”
“Would you do it now?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Leo met her eyes.
“Because excuses become identities if you use them long enough.”
Mina was quiet.
That sentence sounded like something learned painfully.
“Why didn't my mother expose all of this publicly?”
“She tried.”
“Not enough.”
Leo flinched.
Mina immediately regretted it.
“My mother was dying. I shouldn't—”
“You're allowed to be angry.”
“She left me with pieces.”
“So did my father.”
They stood across from each other in the kitchen.
Two children of dead parents discovering their families had been entangled before they ever met.
Mina whispered:
“This is insane.”
“Yes.”
“I'm your housekeeper.”
“You locked me out.”
“You deserved it.”
“I probably did.”
She laughed despite herself.
Leo smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Not dimmed.
Out.
Mina froze.
Leo reached for her.
“Don't move.”
The backup generator should have activated automatically.
It didn't.
A soft electronic click came from the hallway.
Security system disabled.
Leo pulled a handgun from beneath the kitchen cabinet.
Mina stared.
“You keep guns in the cabinets?”
“Not the time.”
Footsteps.
Leo moved her behind the stone pantry wall.
“Stay.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“Mina.”
His voice changed.
She stopped arguing.
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Leo raised the weapon.
“Drop it.”
Thomas stepped into view.
His hands were empty.
“It's me.”
Leo did not lower the gun.
“Why is the system down?”
“Someone accessed the controls remotely.”
“Who?”
“Dante.”
“How?”
Thomas hesitated.
Leo understood.
“His credentials still work.”
“They shouldn't.”
“Apparently they do.”
Mina whispered:
“Where are the guards?”
“Front perimeter.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Leo moved.
Mina caught his wrist.
“You told me to stay.”
“Yes.”
“You're going up alone.”
“Yes.”
“That's hypocritical.”
“It is.”
He pulled free.
Thomas followed.
Mina waited approximately eight seconds.
Then went after them.
Leo would have been furious if he had seen her.
He did not.
He reached his office first.
The safe was open.
A figure stood beside it.
Dante.
He held Anthony’s copied ledger.
“Put it down,” Leo said.
Dante smiled.
“Family meeting?”
Thomas entered.
Dante’s smile faded.
“You.”
Thomas raised his weapon.
Dante looked toward the hallway.
Mina flattened herself against the wall.
Dante spoke calmly.
“You really think handing records to the government makes you clean?”
“No.”
Leo stepped closer.
“I think stopping you makes me less dirty.”
Dante laughed.
“Victor was right. The maid ruined you.”
Leo's voice dropped.
“She has a name.”
Dante’s eyes flicked toward the hall.
He had heard her.
Leo realized too late.
Dante fired.
Not at Leo.
Toward the hallway.
Leo moved instinctively.
He slammed into Mina as she appeared, driving both of them behind the doorframe.
The bullet buried itself in wood.
Thomas fired once.
Dante dropped his weapon, clutching his shoulder.
Nonfatal.
Alive.
Leo pinned him to the floor.
He could have killed him.
Mina saw the decision in his face.
“Leo.”
He looked at her.
One word.
Enough.
Leo stepped back.
“Thomas.”
Thomas secured Dante.
Mina’s legs began shaking after the danger passed.
Leo noticed.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He touched her face.
Then seemed to realize what he was doing.
His hand stopped.
Mina did not move away.
Neither spoke.
The moment stretched.
Thomas loudly cleared his throat from across the room.
Leo lowered his hand.
Mina almost laughed.
Then Dante, kneeling with his hands restrained, spoke.
“You think Victor cares about me?”
Leo turned.
Dante grinned through the pain.
“He's already gone.”
“Where?”
Dante looked at Mina.
“St. Agnes.”
Her blood turned cold.
“Why?”
May you like
His smile widened.
“Because that's where Elaine hid the original files.”
