Chapter 6 - THE CLINIC
The strobe lights of the fire alarm flashed in blinding bursts of white. The siren was a physical pressure in the room.
Blair stood completely still, supporting Leo’s dead weight against her shoulder.
Dr. Evans was weeping, his hand shaking violently, but the sharp edge of the surgical scalpel remained pressed against Lily’s neck. The little girl was frozen in pure terror, her blue eyes locked on Blair.
“Let her go,” Blair yelled over the siren.
“I can’t!” Evans screamed back. “Klaus’s men have my wife! They’ll skin her alive! Throw the ledger on the floor, or I’ll cut the kid!”
Leo groaned, his head rolling against Blair’s neck. The sedative was fighting him, but the sight of his daughter with a blade to her throat sent a surge of pure, lethal adrenaline through his veins.
He tried to reach for his empty holster, but his legs buckled.
Blair caught him, keeping him upright.
She looked at Evans.
He wasn’t a killer. He was a cowardly, desperate man backed into a corner.
“If you hurt her, you’re dead anyway,” Blair yelled. “Leo will wake up. And he will tear you apart with his bare hands. Klaus doesn’t care about you! He’s unconscious on the floor!”
Evans glanced down at Klaus, who was bleeding onto the linoleum.
The momentary distraction was all Blair needed.
She reached into her oversized coat. But she didn't pull out the ledger.
She pulled out the heavy, tarnished silver pocket watch that had belonged to her father.
She didn't throw it at Evans’s head. She threw it directly at the glass cabinet of medical supplies right next to him.
The heavy silver smashed through the glass with an explosive crash.
Evans flinched violently, instinctively raising his arms to shield his face from the falling shards.
Lily pulled away.
Blair lunged forward, grabbed Lily’s hand, and yanked her away from the doctor.
Leo, fueled by a terrifying surge of paternal rage, threw himself forward. He wasn't coordinated, but he was huge. He slammed his body into Dr. Evans, pinning the man against the shattered cabinet.
Leo’s hands closed around the doctor’s throat.
“Daddy, no!” Lily screamed, terrified of the violence.
Leo froze. His knuckles were white, his eyes burning with murder. But the sound of his daughter’s voice cut through the sedative and the rage.
He released Evans, letting the doctor slide to the floor, sobbing and defeated.
“Rocco,” Leo slurred, turning to Blair. “Back room.”
Blair grabbed Lily’s hand and ran to the recovery room. Rocco was lying on a cot, his leg heavily bandaged. He was groggy, but awake.
“Boss,” Rocco grunted, sitting up and drawing a backup piece from his ankle holster.
“Can you walk?” Blair asked.
“I can drive,” Rocco growled, standing up and putting his weight on his good leg.
The four of them moved out the back door, leaving Klaus and the weeping doctor behind in the flashing chaos of the clinic.
They piled into the grey sedan. Rocco took the wheel, peeling out into the alley just as police cruisers, drawn by the fire alarm, began pulling up to the front of the building.
In the backseat, Leo pulled Lily onto his lap, burying his face in her hair. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”
Blair sat in the passenger seat, her hands trembling so violently she couldn’t buckle her seatbelt.
She reached into her waistband and pulled out the leather-bound ledger. She handed it back to Leo.
Leo took it, his dark eyes meeting hers in the rearview mirror.
“You got it,” he whispered.
“It’s all there,” Blair said, her voice cracking. “My father’s notes. The proof of Klaus’s theft.”
Leo opened the book. The pages were filled with meticulous, handwritten columns of numbers. But as Leo flipped to the back, his expression changed.
He stopped on the very last page.
The adrenaline seemed to instantly drain from his face, leaving him looking hollow. Devastated.
“What is it?” Blair asked.
Leo slowly turned the ledger around so Blair could see.
It wasn't a page of numbers. It was a taped-in document. A bank wire transfer.
It showed Klaus transferring five million dollars.
But it wasn't going to a German account.
It was going to an account owned by Don Carlo.
Leo’s mentor. The man who had raised him in the syndicate. The man Leo loved like a father.
“Answer One, Open Two,” Blair realized with a sickening drop in her stomach. Klaus was the trigger man. But Carlo was the architect.
“Carlo sanctioned the hit on my wife,” Leo whispered, his voice cracking. “Klaus didn't act alone. Carlo allowed it.”
Before Leo could process the ultimate betrayal, Rocco’s phone buzzed on the dashboard.
Rocco put it on speaker.
May you like
“Leo,” a raspy, older voice came through the speakers. It was Carlo. “I hear you had a rough night at the restaurant. I’m glad you’re alive. Bring the girl and the ledger to my estate. I have men waiting to protect you.”
Carlo didn't know they had the ledger. He didn't know they knew the truth. He was luring them into the final trap.
