Chapter 5 - Shadows in the Hospital
The third floor of the private wing at St. Jude’s Hospital—a facility owned entirely through holding companies by the Torino family—was locked down tighter than Fort Knox. Armed guards dressed in dark suits stood at every elevator bank and stairwell entrance.
In Room 308, Elena Martinez was slowly waking up.
The white lights burned her eyes. Her entire body felt as if it had been run over by a freight train. Every breath pinched her fractured ribs, and her face throbbed under heavy layers of white gauze.
"Don't try to sit up," a quiet, deep voice said from the armchair by the window.
Elena turned her head painfully. Sitting in the morning sunlight streaming through the blinds was Vincent. He was wearing a fresh grey suit, holding a silver cup of espresso.
"Where... where is Sophie?" Elena managed to ask, her dry throat croaking.
"She’s at my estate," Vincent replied softly, setting his cup down and walking to her bedside. "She ate two bowls of chicken soup, watched three cartoons, and is currently asleep in a bedroom twice the size of your entire apartment. My housekeeper is watching her. She is safe, Elena. I give you my word."
Tears trickled from the corners of Elena’s eyes into her bandage. "Thank you... oh God, thank you... I thought... I thought they were going to kill her..."
"Who was your husband, Elena?" Vincent asked gently, taking a chair beside her bed. "Why was Victor Vane tearing your life apart for a ledger?"
Elena squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a ragged sigh. "My husband... his name was Carlos. He was an accountant. Three years ago, he realized his firm was laundering money for Victor Vane’s human trafficking ring. Carlos was horrified. He secretly kept a master ledger—a black encrypted flash drive containing every name, every bank account, every corrupt politician and police captain Victor paid off."
Vincent’s eyes narrowed. "A master ledger. That's why Victor is frantic."
"Carlos tried to go to the FBI," Elena wept softly. "But someone tipped Victor off. Carlos was killed in a staged car accident three days later. Before he died, he hid the flash drive somewhere... he told me he buried it, but he never got the chance to tell me where! I swear to you, Mr. Torino, I don't have it! I never had it!"
Vincent reached out and gently patted her arm. "I believe you. You don't need to worry about the ledger anymore."
Suddenly, the red emergency light above the door flashed once, twice, three times.
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The glass window in the heavy oak door shattered into a hundred pieces as a high-caliber bullet tore through the frame, embedding itself in the wall inches above Vincent’s head.
Screams echoed from the hallway outside, followed instantly by the thunderous, terrifying roar of automatic gunfire.
