Chapter 12 - THE HOSPITAL LOCKDOWN
The alarm sounded before I reached the hallway.
Security locked the pediatric floor.
Nurses rushed patients away from windows.
Mateo called.
“Salazar entered through the underground parking garage.”
“How?”
“Fake hospital credentials.”
I looked at Isabella.
Her face went pale.
“Dad?”
“Stay with the nurse.”
“No.”
“Isabella.”
“No.”
She grabbed my hand.
“Don’t leave me.”
I crouched.
“I’m not leaving the building.”
“That’s what you said before Dubai.”
The sentence stopped me.
I changed the plan.
“Okay.”
I turned to Mateo.
“We move together.”
He nodded.
We took Isabella toward a secure staff area.
Halfway there, the lights went out.
Emergency lights flashed red.
Someone screamed.
Mateo pulled his weapon.
“Behind me.”
Footsteps came from the stairwell.
A man appeared.
Gray hair.
Silver watch.
Scar beneath left ear.
Héctor Salazar.
He held a pistol.
“Gabriel.”
Mateo aimed.
“Drop it.”
Salazar smiled.
“You think this ends with Beatriz?”
“It already ended.”
“No.”
He lifted the gun.
“Your company is bleeding.”
“I can rebuild.”
“Your board is divided.”
“I can replace them.”
He looked at Isabella.
“And your weakness is standing next to you.”
My entire body went cold.
“Do not look at her.”
Salazar laughed.
“That is why you lose.”
“No.”
I stepped in front of Isabella.
“That is why you never understood me.”
He aimed.
Mateo fired first.
The bullet struck Salazar’s shoulder.
His gun discharged.
The sound was deafening.
Glass shattered behind us.
Nurses screamed.
Police flooded the hallway seconds later.
Salazar collapsed.
Alive.
Handcuffed.
As officers dragged him away, he looked at me.
“You’ll lose everything anyway.”
I looked down at Isabella.
She was shaking.
I knelt.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Then she wrapped both arms around my neck.
“I thought he was going to kill you.”
“He didn’t.”
“What if somebody else tries?”
I looked at her.
“Then I stop building my life like there will always be more time.”
She frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m done missing what matters.”
Three days later, Salazar’s arrest triggered raids across Spain, Dubai, and Monaco.
Accounts were frozen.
Board members were questioned.
Two bankers were arrested.
The conspiracy collapsed.
But one problem remained.
Beatriz.
Her lawyer announced she would fight every charge.
May you like
And worse—
She requested visitation with Isabella.
