Chapter 4 - THE MAN EVERETT TRUSTED
Sterling held the photograph between two fingers.
“Looking for this?”
Willa stopped.
Crowley’s face went blank.
Everett’s bed stood between them.
Water dripped from Willa’s hair.
Smoke rolled along the ceiling behind her.
“How did you get that?”
Sterling smiled.
“You’re living in my house.”
“Everett’s house.”
“Not for much longer.”
Crowley stepped forward.
“We need to move Mr. Kane away from the smoke.”
Sterling looked at him.
“You seem unusually concerned tonight.”
“I’m doing my job.”
“Are you?”
Crowley didn’t answer.
Sterling tore the photograph in half.
Then again.
He dropped the pieces onto the wet floor.
“Tomas Reyes doesn’t work here anymore.”
Willa watched him.
“Why?”
“He betrayed the family.”
From the bed, Everett’s monitor accelerated.
Sterling glanced toward it.
Willa immediately touched Everett’s shoulder.
“Easy.”
Sterling’s eyes narrowed.
It was the first time she had spoken to Everett as if she expected him to understand.
She realized her mistake too late.
Sterling looked at her.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Whitfield arrived with two nurses.
He examined Everett.
Then he looked at Willa.
“You should have left him in the room.”
“The room was on fire.”
“The suppression system would have handled it.”
“There was a man with a syringe.”
Whitfield stopped.
Sterling smiled.
“A man?”
“Masked.”
“Convenient.”
Willa stared at him.
“You sent him.”
“Careful.”
“Or what?”
Sterling stepped closer.
“Accidents happen to desperate women too.”
Crowley heard it.
So did Whitfield.
Neither reacted.
That told Willa everything she needed to know about the house.
Later, Everett was moved into a guest suite.
Whitfield increased security.
Or claimed to.
Willa sat beside Everett until dawn.
At 6:30, Crowley entered with coffee.
He set the cup beside her.
Under the saucer was a folded piece of paper.
Willa waited until he left.
Then opened it.
SOUTH SERVICE GATE.
11:40 P.M.
Willa destroyed the note.
That night, she pretended to sleep.
At 11:25, she tucked pillows beneath her blanket.
Then she kissed Everett’s forehead.
“I’m coming back.”
His finger moved once.
Willa used the servants’ staircase.
The south service gate was hidden beyond the greenhouse.
At 11:39, she reached it.
A black pickup truck waited outside.
The passenger door opened.
A man stepped out.
The man from the photograph.
Tomas Reyes.
He looked at Willa.
“You’re Everett’s wife?”
“Apparently.”
“You’re late.”
“It’s 11:39.”
For the first time, Tomas almost smiled.
“You sound like him.”
Willa stepped closer.
“Everett is conscious.”
Tomas stopped smiling.
“What?”
“He can hear us.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He follows commands.”
Tomas stared at her.
“He’s been drugged.”
Tomas’s expression hardened.
“By Whitfield?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the mansion.
“I knew it.”
“You knew?”
“I knew something was wrong.”
“Then why did you leave him there?”
Tomas stepped toward her.
“I didn’t leave.”
“Sterling had six men put me in a hospital.”
Willa went silent.
Tomas pulled up his shirt.
A long scar crossed his ribs.
“When Everett’s car went off the bridge, I started asking questions.”
“Sterling fired me.”
“When I refused to go, somebody broke three ribs and punctured my lung.”
“After that, every man loyal to Everett either disappeared or suddenly decided to retire.”
Willa thought of the three hundred men who once answered Everett’s calls.
“How many are left?”
“Enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“To start a war.”
Willa shook her head.
“I don’t want a war.”
Tomas stared at her.
“Then you married the wrong family.”
“My mother was kidnapped.”
“By Sterling?”
“Yes.”
Tomas’s jaw tightened.
“Then we find her first.”
“And Everett?”
“We wake him.”
Willa looked back toward the mansion.
“I’m already trying.”
Tomas studied her.
“You really were a nurse.”
“Once.”
“Everett told me about you.”
Willa froze.
“What?”
“Not you personally.”
Tomas reached into his jacket.
He removed a file.
Willa’s name was printed across the front.
WILLA MARIE HAYES.
She stared at it.
“What is that?”
“Something Everett was investigating before the accident.”
Willa couldn’t breathe.
“Why was Everett investigating me?”
“He wasn’t.”
Tomas handed her the file.
“He was investigating Dr. Alan Whitfield.”
Willa opened it.
Inside were copies of hospital records.
Medication logs.
Financial transfers.
Names.
Then she saw one she recognized.
HAROLD FISK.
The patient whose death had destroyed her career.
Willa looked up.
Tomas spoke quietly.
“Everett believed Whitfield had been killing people for years.”
The ground seemed to move beneath her.
“And my case?”
“Was one of them.”
Willa turned pages frantically.
Then she found a handwritten note.
It was signed by Everett.
HAYES MAY HAVE BEEN FRAMED.
PROTECT HER UNTIL WE KNOW WHY.
Willa’s eyes filled.
Three years.
For three years, everyone had treated her like a killer.
A stranger had believed her.
And that stranger was lying helpless inside the mansion behind her.
Tomas touched her arm.
“There’s more.”
He handed her another photograph.
It showed Sterling.
Whitfield.
And hospital administrator Grant Allison.
The three men were sitting together inside a restaurant.
The photograph was dated two days before Everett’s accident.
Willa looked at Tomas.
“They all know each other.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That’s what Everett discovered.”
Tomas leaned closer.
“And it nearly got him killed.”
A light switched on at the mansion.
Tomas looked up.
“You need to go.”
Willa shoved the file beneath her coat.
“Tomorrow night.”
“What?”
“I’ll get Everett to the south wing.”
“You can’t move him alone.”
“I’ll find a way.”
Tomas grabbed her arm.
“Willa.”
She looked at him.
“If Sterling realizes Everett is awake, he won’t wait for Whitfield’s drugs anymore.”
Willa understood.
“He’ll kill him.”
“No.”
Tomas looked toward the mansion.
“He’ll kill both of you.”
Willa returned through the service gate.
She reached Everett’s room.
The door was open.
Her stomach dropped.
She ran inside.
The bed was empty.
Whitfield stood beside it.
Sterling was at the window.
Willa stopped.
“Where is Everett?”
Sterling turned.
His expression was almost cheerful.
“We moved him.”
“Where?”
“To somewhere you can’t interfere.”
Willa’s hands curled into fists.
Sterling walked toward her.
“And tomorrow morning, dear cousin-in-law…”
May you like
He placed a pen on the table.
“…you’re going to sign those papers.”
