Chapter 2 - THE BOY WHO REFUSED TO LET HER DISAPPEAR
Sarah learned two things on her second day awake.
The first was that three bullets could turn ordinary actions into negotiations.
Breathing hurt. Sitting up required assistance. Laughing was impossible, which became inconvenient when the nurse discovered that Sarah used sarcasm to survive discomfort.
The second thing she learned was that Leo Rossi had refused to speak to anyone since the attack.
“He eats if I sit with him,” Gabriel told her from the chair beside the window. “He sleeps for twenty minutes at a time. He wakes up screaming.”
Sarah stared at him.
“Why are you telling me?”
Gabriel's jaw tightened. “Because he asked for you.”
That surprised her more than the pain medication.
“Me?”
“He drew you.”
Gabriel handed her a folded sheet of paper.
The picture showed three figures in crayon. One small. One tall. One lying down. Over the lying figure, Leo had drawn a giant green shape like a shield.
Sarah swallowed.
“He shouldn't see me like this.”
“I agree.”
She looked up sharply.
Gabriel continued, “But Dr. Levin says avoiding reality may make his fear worse. If you consent, he can visit for five minutes.”
Consent.
Sarah noticed the word.
Three days ago, Gabriel had spoken in instructions. Now he was asking.
“Five minutes.”
Leo arrived holding the wooden train.
He stopped in the doorway when he saw the IV lines and bandages. His lower lip trembled.
Sarah smiled as best she could.
“Hey, engineer.”
He crossed the room fast enough that the nurse lifted a warning hand.
Gabriel caught him gently around the waist before he reached the bed.
“Slow.”
Leo nodded.
Gabriel lifted him onto the visitor chair. Leo placed the wooden train on Sarah's blanket.
“You fixed it,” he whispered.
“The track?”
He shook his head.
“Me.”
Sarah's throat closed.
“No, sweetheart. You were never broken.”
Leo stared at the white bandage beneath her hospital gown.
“You got hurt.”
“I did.”
“Because of me.”
“No.”
His eyes filled.
Sarah wished she could sit up and hold him. Instead, she laid her fingers palm-up near the edge of the mattress.
Leo took them.
“Bad men made a bad choice,” she said. “That is not your fault.”
Gabriel stood behind the chair. Sarah saw something move through his expression—pain, perhaps, or recognition.
Leo leaned closer.
“Are you coming home?”
Sarah did not know how to answer.
The Rossi estate had never been home.
Before she could speak, Gabriel said, “When Sarah is ready, she decides where she goes.”
Sarah looked at him.
Again: decides.
Leo nodded solemnly as if receiving a legal ruling.
After five minutes, the nurse ended the visit. Leo left the train behind.
Gabriel remained.
“You should go with him,” Sarah said.
“He has Dr. Levin and two people he trusts.”
“That sounds like a committee.”
“It is.”
She closed her eyes.
A silence settled between them.
When she opened them, Gabriel was still watching her.
“Why?” he asked.
Sarah knew exactly what he meant.
“Why what?”
“You had no weapon. No training. No reason to believe my guards would reach the room in time.” His voice dropped. “Why did you step in front of him?”
She thought about the answer.
There was no heroic speech inside her. No hidden devotion to the Rossi name. No belief that sacrifice made her good.
“He was six.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Sarah continued. “That's it. He was six, and they were aiming at him.”
Something hardened in Gabriel's eyes, but not toward her.
“You could have died.”
“So could he.”
“He is my responsibility.”
“He was the only person in the room who couldn't protect himself.”
Gabriel turned toward the window.
For a man accustomed to giving orders, he seemed offended by an argument he could not defeat.
Sarah studied him.
“What happened to the men?”
His shoulders went still.
“Two are dead. One is in custody.”
She did not ask who killed them.
A minute later, Gabriel added, “The attack was not random.”
“I assumed masked men driving through electric fencing were probably organized.”
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Then his expression returned to stone.
“They knew the security rotation. They knew Mrs. Gable was absent. They knew Leo would be in the west wing at that hour.”
Sarah's humor disappeared.
“Someone inside the house helped them.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
Sarah looked toward the door.
The hospital suddenly felt less safe.
Gabriel read it immediately.
“This floor is secure.”
“You said the estate was secure.”
His eyes met hers.
She had expected anger.
Instead, he nodded.
“That is fair.”
The admission unsettled her.
A few hours later, a hospital administrator arrived with paperwork.
All of Sarah's medical bills had been paid.
A rehabilitation suite had been reserved.
A private physical therapist had been retained for six months.
There was also a transfer of two hundred thousand dollars sitting in an account established in her name.
Sarah stared at the figure.
Then she asked the administrator to call Gabriel.
He arrived ten minutes later.
“You paid me.”
“I paid expenses.”
“You transferred two hundred thousand dollars.”
“Compensation.”
“For getting shot?”
“For saving my son.”
She pushed the folder toward him.
“No.”
Gabriel's expression did not change.
“You need rehabilitation.”
“I'll accept medical care because I was hurt in your house. I will not accept a reward for keeping a child alive.”
“It is not a reward.”
“It feels like one.”
“Sarah—”
“If I take that money, every time you look at me you get to believe the debt is settled.”
His gaze sharpened.
“That is not what I believe.”
“Then prove it by taking it back.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Finally Gabriel picked up the folder.
“Fine.”
Sarah blinked.
She had prepared for a fight.
He turned toward the door.
“Gabriel.”
It was the first time she had called him by his first name.
He stopped.
“Thank you for paying the hospital.”
His face softened almost imperceptibly.
“You're welcome.”
That evening, security brought him the preliminary breach report.
Sarah did not see it.
She only saw Gabriel return to her room after midnight with a look that made every guard outside stand straighter.
“Mrs. Gable did not call in sick,” he said.
Sarah pushed herself higher against the pillows.
“What?”
“She received a message saying Leo had been moved to another wing and she was not needed.”
“From whom?”
Gabriel placed a phone on the table between them.
The message had been sent from the private number of Rossi security chief Carlo Vane.
May you like
A man Gabriel had trusted for eleven years.
And according to the hospital security feed, Carlo had entered the building twenty minutes earlier.
