Chapter 1 - THE LAST EPIPEN
Adrian Moretti had survived bullets, bombs, and men who wanted his empire.
He was about to die because of one sip of wine.
And the only person who could save him was four years old.
Adrian lay on the carpet of his locked study, clawing at his throat as his lungs stopped working.
His phone was less than three feet away.
It might as well have been three miles.
His fingers scraped the carpet.
Nothing.
His chest tightened harder.
Air came in tiny whistles.
His vision darkened around the edges.
For the first time in twenty years, Adrian Moretti was completely helpless.
Then the study door moved.
A small face appeared in the gap.
Ellie Carter froze.
“Mr. Moretti?”
Adrian tried to answer.
Only a choking sound came out.
Ellie pushed the door open.
Her stuffed rabbit, Rosie, dangled from one hand.
She stared at Adrian’s blue lips.
At his swollen face.
At the way he was trying and failing to breathe.
She knew that face.
She had seen it in the mirror.
“Your throat is closing.”
Adrian’s eyes locked onto hers.
Ellie dropped Rosie.
Then she ran.
Adrian heard her tiny footsteps disappear down the hall.
He shut his eyes.
Of course she ran.
She was a child.
Then the footsteps came back.
Faster.
Ellie slid to her knees beside him and ripped open her pink backpack.
Inside was a single EpiPen.
Their last one.
Her mother’s voice lived inside her head.
Only use it if you can’t breathe, baby.
Ellie stared at the injector.
Then at Adrian.
“Mommy says this is mine.”
His lips moved.
No sound.
Ellie’s eyes filled with tears.
“If I give it to you, I don’t have one.”
Adrian tried to shake his head.
Don’t.
Save yourself.
But his body barely moved.
Ellie swallowed.
“You’re scared.”
That nearly destroyed him.
Because she was right.
Adrian Moretti, the man half of New York feared, was terrified.
Ellie pulled off the blue safety cap.
“Mommy says orange to the leg.”
She pressed it against his thigh.
“One…”
Click.
“Two…”
Adrian gasped.
“Three.”
Ellie held it there.
Then she pulled it away and sat beside him.
Twenty seconds passed.
Nothing.
Thirty.
Adrian’s chest suddenly jerked.
A brutal breath tore through his throat.
Then another.
The blue began fading from his lips.
Ellie smiled through tears.
“You’re breathing.”
Adrian stared at her.
This little girl had just given him the medicine she might need to survive tomorrow.
Ellie grabbed Rosie and ran toward the stairs.
“HELP!” she screamed.
Men came running.
Guards.
Staff.
Hannah.
The moment Hannah saw the EpiPen on the floor, her face went white.
“No.”
She looked at Ellie.
“No, no, no. Ellie, what did you do?”
“He couldn’t breathe.”
Hannah dropped beside her daughter.
“That was your last one!”
Ellie’s smile disappeared.
“I know.”
Across the room, Adrian heard every word.
And something inside the man people called heartless cracked open.
But before he could speak, his chief of security picked up the shattered wineglass.
“Boss.”
Adrian looked at him.
Marco Russo sniffed the spilled wine.
His expression hardened.
“This wasn’t an accident.”
Silence filled the study.
Marco looked toward Hannah.
“You carried the tray in here, didn’t you?”
Hannah slowly stood.
“Yes.”
May you like
Five armed men turned toward her.
And Ellie suddenly realized that saving Adrian’s life might have put her mother in danger.
