Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN IN THE STAIRWELL
Sadie chased Rachel into the stairwell.
“Stop!”
Rachel ran downward, clutching the cassette.
Victor followed, but the fire door slammed between them. An electronic lock clicked.
Sadie was alone.
Rachel reached the third-floor landing and pulled a small gun from her scrub pocket.
“Don’t make me do this.”
Sadie stopped.
“You told me what Bell did to Sam.”
“I told you what I was ordered to tell you.”
“So Anthony Costello owns you too?”
“He owns everyone.”
“No. That’s what cowards tell themselves.”
Rachel’s hand trembled.
“You don’t understand. My son needs a heart transplant. Anthony moved him to the top of the list.”
“And what happens after the surgery? You spend the rest of your life doing whatever he asks?”
“If it keeps my son alive, yes.”
Sadie stepped closer.
Rachel aimed at her chest.
“I would burn this whole city down for my brother,” Sadie said. “So I understand you better than you think.”
“Then let me leave.”
“I can’t.”
Rachel began to cry.
Sadie moved suddenly, knocking the gun aside. It fired into the wall. They crashed against the railing.
Rachel clawed at Sadie’s face.
Sadie grabbed the cassette, but Rachel pulled her toward the edge.
For one terrible second, both women nearly went over.
Victor broke through the upper door and ran down.
“Sadie!”
Rachel slipped.
Sadie caught her wrist.
The cassette fell, bouncing down the stairs.
Rachel dangled over the railing.
“Let me go,” she sobbed.
Sadie tightened her grip.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your son needs his mother more than Anthony needs another servant.”
Victor pulled Rachel to safety.
At the bottom of the stairwell, the cassette had cracked open. Black tape spilled across the floor.
Victor lifted it carefully.
“Can it be repaired?”
“Maybe,” Rachel whispered.
She gave them everything she knew.
Anthony Costello was being kept alive in an underground wing at Hopewell. Bell planned to take marrow from Sam, but Sam’s weakened condition made the procedure dangerous.
“He could bleed out,” Rachel said.
Sadie grabbed her by the shoulders.
“When?”
“Within the hour.”
Rachel also revealed that Mick O’Shea was heading to the facility with the original debt contracts. If Anthony died, Mick planned to take over the entire operation.
Victor ordered Rachel placed under guard, then led Sadie toward the parking garage.
“You’re staying here,” he said.
“No.”
“This isn’t an argument.”
“My brother is in that facility because of my father’s evidence and your father’s sickness.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t think clearly.”
Sadie stepped in front of him.
“You don’t get to protect me by leaving me behind. Men have been making choices for my family for eleven years. That ends tonight.”
Victor studied her face.
Then he handed her a bulletproof vest.
“Stay close to me.”
They entered the garage.
Gabriel was waiting beside a black van.
His clothes were stained with blood.
Victor raised his gun.
Gabriel opened the van’s rear doors.
Inside sat his wife and daughter, alive but terrified.
“I got them out,” Gabriel said. “But Anthony knows we’re coming.”
A red laser dot appeared on Gabriel’s chest.
Sadie saw it first.
She shoved him aside.
A rifle shot shattered the van window.
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Across the garage, Mick O’Shea smiled from behind a concrete pillar.
Then he fired again.
