Chapter 4 - The Man at the Dinner TableGabriel did not storm into his uncle's home.
That was what frightened Elena.
He simply invited him to dinner.
Two nights later, Vittorio Russo arrived at Gabriel's Gold Coast mansion at exactly seven o'clock.
Elena had not wanted to attend.
Gabriel insisted.
“You discovered the attempt,” he told her. “You deserve to know why.”
“I don't want to know how mafia families resolve internal disputes.”
“You're assuming there will be a dispute.”
“There is a suspicious amount of plastic covering the dining-room carpet.”
That earned her the smallest smile.
The plastic, fortunately, turned out to be protection for renovations.
At least Elena hoped so.
Vittorio Russo was sixty-two and handsome in the aging, expensive way of men who had never waited in line for anything.
He kissed Isabella's cheek.
He embraced Gabriel.
Then he noticed Elena.
“So this is the famous nurse.”
Elena disliked him immediately.
His smile never reached his eyes.
“Apparently.”
“You saved our Leo.”
“Our Leo?”
Gabriel's voice was mild.
Vittorio turned.
“Family is family.”
Gabriel poured wine.
“Indeed.”
Dinner began.
Nobody mentioned the poisoned medication.
They discussed politics, construction contracts, restaurants, and the weather.
Elena barely ate.
Halfway through the meal, Gabriel placed his fork beside his plate.
“Uncle.”
Vittorio looked up.
“Yes?”
“Leo nearly died again.”
Vittorio's expression changed perfectly.
Concern.
Shock.
Fear.
Too perfectly.
“My God.”
“He received the wrong medication.”
“How?”
“We don't know.”
Vittorio reached for his wine.
Elena watched his hand.
Steady.
Too steady.
Gabriel continued.
“The strange thing is that someone accessed his medical record shortly afterward.”
Vittorio drank.
“And?”
“The information was transmitted.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“To a device inside your building.”
Silence swallowed the table.
Vittorio lowered his glass.
Isabella stared at him.
“No.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Uncle Vittorio?”
He looked toward her.
“My darling, this is obviously some mistake.”
Carmine entered.
He placed a phone on the table.
A recording began playing.
A man's voice.
“The medication was administered. The kid should crash before morning.”
Another voice responded.
Vittorio's voice.
“And the nurse?”
“Still there.”
“Then handle her if necessary.”
Elena felt cold.
Isabella began crying.
Vittorio did not deny it.
Instead, his face changed.
The affectionate uncle disappeared.
A calculating stranger remained.
“You recorded me.”
Gabriel stared across the table.
“You tried to murder my nephew.”
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Vittorio looked toward Isabella.
“The boy is Carlo DeLuca's son.”
Isabella flinched.
“He is my son.”
“He is DeLuca blood.”
Vittorio struck the table.
“That child becomes a claim. Twenty years from now, every DeLuca loyalist who survives will gather behind him.”
“He is a premature infant,” Elena said.
Vittorio looked at her.
“You understand medicine, Nurse. Stay away from matters beyond you.”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“She speaks whenever she wants.”
Vittorio laughed bitterly.
“So that's what this is.”
He looked between them.
“You've replaced judgment with affection.”
Elena's face warmed.
Gabriel did not react.
“You poisoned a child,” Gabriel said.
“I protected this family.”
“No.”
Isabella stood.
“You tried to kill my son.”
Vittorio looked toward her.
“One day you will understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Her voice shook.
“You hated Carlo more than you loved me.”
The words landed heavily.
Vittorio's expression faltered.
Gabriel stood.
Carmine and two men moved behind Vittorio.
Elena's stomach tightened.
She knew what would happen next.
“Gabriel.”
He looked toward her.
She shook her head.
“Not here.”
Vittorio smiled.
“The nurse thinks she controls you.”
Gabriel walked around the table.
He stopped beside his uncle.
“She doesn't.”
He looked at Elena.
“She reminds me that I still control myself.”
Then he turned toward Carmine.
“Take him downstairs.”
Vittorio's smile vanished.
“Gabriel.”
“Your accounts are frozen.”
“You cannot—”
“Your crews answer to me now.”
Vittorio stood violently.
“You ungrateful little—”
Carmine seized him.
Gabriel did not blink.
“You are finished.”
Vittorio was dragged away.
Elena did not ask what happened downstairs.
She did not want to know.
The following morning, newspapers reported that Vittorio Russo had unexpectedly retired from several Chicago businesses and left the country for undisclosed personal reasons.
Elena read the article twice.
Then deleted it from her phone.
Some questions were safer unanswered.
Three weeks passed.
Leo gained nine ounces.
To everyone except a neonatal nurse, nine ounces sounded insignificant.
To Elena, it was victory.
He breathed with less assistance.
He tolerated feeding.
He began recognizing Isabella's voice.
The foundation also accepted its first charity cases.
That surprised Elena.
She had assumed Gabriel's clinic would become an expensive private hospital for wealthy families.
Instead, half of the beds were reserved for children whose parents could not afford treatment.
One afternoon Elena discovered why.
She entered Gabriel's office without knocking.
He was holding an old photograph.
A woman stood beside two children.
A teenage Gabriel.
A little girl Elena recognized as Isabella.
“Your mother?”
Gabriel immediately placed the photograph facedown.
“Yes.”
Elena hesitated.
“Sorry.”
“You don't need to apologize.”
She placed paperwork on his desk.
“We admitted twins this morning. Their mother has no insurance.”
“Treat them.”
“I know.”
“All expenses covered.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“Then why are you here?”
Elena folded her arms.
“Because you've covered every uninsured patient we've admitted.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Is that a complaint?”
“It's curiosity.”
“Dangerous habit.”
“So I've heard.”
He remained silent.
Elena waited.
Finally Gabriel picked up the photograph again.
“My mother died when I was seventeen.”
Elena's expression softened.
“I'm sorry.”
“She had an infection.”
He stared at the photograph.
“Treatable.”
Elena understood before he continued.
“We had no insurance. My father was already involved in things he shouldn't have been involved in, but he had no money yet.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“One hospital turned her away.”
Elena sat across from him.
“She died two days later.”
Gabriel looked toward the city.
“My father decided poverty would never make our family powerless again.”
“And you decided no child would be turned away.”
He looked at her.
“I didn't decide anything.”
“You bought a hospital.”
“A clinic.”
“Seven floors.”
“A large clinic.”
Despite herself, Elena smiled.
Gabriel did too.
For several seconds the darkness surrounding him seemed to disappear.
Elena saw the seventeen-year-old boy who had watched his mother die because his family could not pay.
It changed something.
That frightened her.
Gabriel Russo was easier to understand when she considered him a criminal.
Understanding the man underneath was dangerous.
“Dinner.”
Elena blinked.
“What?”
“Have dinner with me.”
Her heart stumbled.
“That sounded suspiciously like an order.”
Gabriel considered this.
“Would you have dinner with me?”
“Why?”
“Because I've spent four weeks trying to find a reason to ask.”
Elena stared.
Gabriel Russo looked uncomfortable.
The realization was astonishing.
The most feared man in Chicago could threaten physicians, command armed men, and purchase medical buildings before breakfast.
But asking a woman to dinner made him nervous.
Elena should have said no.
Her life had only recently returned to stability.
Dating Gabriel Russo was approximately the opposite of stability.
Then she remembered him standing beside Leo's incubator.
She remembered the clinic.
She remembered his mother's photograph.
“One dinner.”
Gabriel's eyes changed.
“One.”
“No bodyguards at the table.”
“Agreed.”
“No guns.”
He hesitated.
“Gabriel.”
“Fine.”
“And somewhere normal.”
“What qualifies as normal?”
“Somewhere the waiter doesn't know your criminal history.”
“That eliminates most of Chicago.”
She laughed.
Gabriel watched her.
The laughter faded slowly.
Something shifted between them.
Something neither acknowledged.
Then Elena's pager sounded.
She checked it.
Leo.
Her expression changed.
They ran upstairs.
Isabella stood beside the incubator.
Leo was stable.
But beside him lay an envelope.
No one knew how it had entered the locked unit.
Carmine opened it carefully.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena recognized herself.
She was leaving her apartment three weeks earlier.
A red circle had been drawn around her head.
On the back were six words.
YOU SAVED THE WRONG CHILD, NURSE.
Gabriel read them.
His face became stone.
May you like
Elena realized the danger had never ended.
Vittorio had not been working alone.
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