Chương 2
“I’m at work.”
“You sound awful.”
“I’m fine.”
Victor looked at her. Anna avoided his eyes.
The young man on the phone coughed. “You always say that right before you fall over.”
“I didn’t fall over.”
Victor glanced at the damaged bedroom door behind them.
“Almost didn’t,” she amended.
There was movement on the other end, followed by a nurse’s voice telling Thomas to keep his arm straight.
“They’re talking about discharging me,” he said. “Something about the account.”
Anna closed her eyes.
Victor took the phone from her before she could protest.
“This is Victor Russo.”
The silence on the line lasted long enough to become recognizable fear.
Thomas finally said, “Am I supposed to know who that is?”
Victor almost smiled. It did not reach his eyes.
“No.”
“Then why do you have my sister’s phone?”
“She’s sick.”
“What happened?”
“She worked when she should’ve been in a hospital.”
Anna tried to take the phone back. Victor turned away from her reach.
Thomas’s voice sharpened. “Put her on.”
“Someone is coming to bring her to Chicago General.”
“I said put her on.”
Victor looked at Anna. Even half-conscious, she was glaring at him.
He handed her the phone.
“I’m okay,” she told her brother. “He’s just—”
She stopped.
Victor waited to hear what she thought he was.
She turned her face toward the back of the sofa and lowered her voice. “He’s helping.”
The words sounded less like gratitude than a warning she did not trust.
Dr. Samuel Levin arrived twelve minutes later in a camel coat thrown over navy scrubs. He had treated gunshot wounds in Victor’s kitchens, stitched knife cuts in parked cars, and once removed a bullet from Raymond’s shoulder while a hockey game played on mute in the next room. His refusal to show surprise was one reason Victor paid him so well.
He took one look at Anna and said, “Hospital.”
Victor folded his arms. “What is it?”
“Could be influenza. Could be pneumonia. Could be something bacterial. Her blood pressure is low, pulse is high, and I don’t have a laboratory in your guest room.”
“She says she needs to work.”
“She also appears to think she’s standing when she’s lying down.”
Anna opened her eyes. “I know I’m lying down.”
“Good,” Levin said. “That eliminates one neurological concern.”
He placed a stethoscope against her back. Anna flinched at the cold metal but did not complain.
Victor remained close enough to watch her breathing.
Levin glanced over his shoulder. “You could give us privacy.”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
The doctor listened again, then packed his instruments. “She needs fluids, bloodwork, and chest imaging. Call an ambulance.”
“No ambulance,” Victor said.
Anna turned her head toward him. “Why?”
“Because there are forty people downstairs, six of whom make their living noticing weakness.”
“That’s your problem, not mine.”
Levin looked between them.
Victor’s jaw shifted. People did not speak to him that way, particularly not while lying beneath his blanket.
Anna swallowed. “My brother’s at Chicago General. Take me there.”
Victor told Leo to bring the car.
The dinner ended without dessert. Victor sent apologies through Dominic, who appeared in the guest suite as the last alderman’s sedan disappeared through the iron gates.
Dominic wore a charcoal suit and a burgundy tie. His dark blond hair was combed back from a face that had grown heavier in recent years. He looked at Anna, at Levin, then at Victor.
“The judge thinks you had a family emergency.”
“I did.”
Dominic’s gaze moved to the wool blanket covering the maid. “Whose family?”
Victor handed him the bill.
Dominic unfolded it. Nothing changed in his expression, but he read the page twice.
“You canceled dinner for this?”
“I ended dinner.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No. You said canceled. It happened. It’s over.”
Dominic glanced at the bedroom hallway. “She went into your room?”
“She collapsed.”
“In your bed.”
Victor watched him closely. “You sound offended.”
“I sound concerned. Temporary staff aren’t supposed to be upstairs without supervision.”
“She was assigned upstairs.”
“By who?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out.”
Dominic folded the hospital bill along its existing crease. “Let the agency handle it.”
Victor took the paper from him.
“The agency didn’t handle it.”
Something tightened near Dominic’s mouth, then disappeared. “You want me to call them?”
“I want every payroll record, insurance deduction, schedule, complaint, and disciplinary notice for the household staff on my desk by morning.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked.”
Dominic glanced at Anna again. This time she was watching him.
“Fine,” he said. “Morning.”
Victor heard the resistance beneath the agreement. It had been there before, in smaller matters, concealed by years of loyalty and the assumption that loyalty could excuse irritation. That night it struck him differently.
“Midnight.”
Dominic checked his watch. “That’s two hours.”
“You have people.”
“So do you.”
Victor stepped closer. The room seemed to adjust around him.
“Midnight.”
Dominic smiled without warmth. “You’re the boss.”
Anna’s eyes followed him as he left.
“Who is he?” she asked.
Victor looked at the closed door. “Someone who thinks two hours is a long time.”
The ride to Chicago General took fourteen minutes because Raymond drove through three red lights while Leo called ahead. Anna sat in the back seat beside Victor, wrapped in the gray wool blanket over her uniform. Her head rested against the window. Each time the car turned, her eyes opened as though she expected to wake somewhere else.
Victor kept the hospital bill on his knee.
At a stoplight near Ashland, Anna said, “You can put the gun somewhere else.”
He looked at her.
“The handle is digging into the seat.”
Victor removed the weapon from his waistband and placed it in the center console.
She watched him close the lid.
“You’re really him,” she said.
“Who?”
“Victor Russo.”
“You heard me tell your brother.”
“I thought fever could cause hallucinations.”
“It can.”
“You don’t look like the pictures.”
May you like
“What pictures?”
She gave him a tired, almost irritated look. “The ones where you’re leaving federal court.”
