For three seconds, nobody moved.

Nico stood beside Vincent's bed with the syringe in his hand.

Mara remained near the curtains.

Vincent stared at his cousin.

Then the bedroom door opened.

Tony stepped inside with a gun aimed at Nico's chest.

"Drop it."

Nico looked over his shoulder.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Drop the syringe."

"Tony—"

"Now."

Nico slowly placed it on the bedside table.

Vincent pushed himself upright.

The oxygen tubing fell from his face.

"What were you going to inject me with?"

Nico looked at Mara.

Then Tony.

Then back at Vincent.

"Nothing."

"Wrong answer."

"I'm not trying to kill you."

"You entered my bedroom after midnight with a syringe."

"I know how it looks."

Mara stared at him.

"It looks terrible."

"Thank you, Nurse Bennett."

"You're welcome."

Vincent swung his legs over the side of the bed.

Nico's eyes widened.

Vincent stood.

Silence.

Nico stared at him.

"What the hell?"

Vincent took one slow step.

Then another.

His right leg trembled, but he remained upright.

Nico looked genuinely shocked.

"You're walking."

"Apparently."

"Since when?"

"Long enough."

Nico looked toward Tony.

"You knew?"

Tony didn't lower the gun.

Nico laughed once.

"Unbelievable."

Vincent's voice hardened.

"Start talking."

Nico looked at the syringe.

"Test it."

"We will."

"It's naloxone."

Mara frowned.

Naloxone.

Not poison.

An opioid antagonist.

"Why?" she asked.

Nico looked at Vincent.

"Because I heard you were crashing. Respiratory depression."

Vincent said nothing.

"I thought someone had overdosed you again."

"Again?" Mara repeated.

Nico's eyes moved to her.

There it was.

A mistake.

Vincent heard it too.

"How did you know about the drugs?"

Nico went silent.

Tony stepped closer.

"Nico."

"Put the gun down."

"Answer him."

Nico looked at Vincent.

"I've been investigating it."

"Without telling me?"

"I didn't know who to trust."

"You're my cousin."

"Exactly."

Vincent's face hardened.

Nico continued before he could respond.

"Someone leaked your route the night you got hit. Someone knew where the convoy would be. Someone had access to the medical team afterward."

Mara looked at Vincent.

Nico pointed toward the syringe.

"I've been watching everyone."

"Including me?" Tony asked.

"Especially you."

Tony looked offended.

"That's touching."

Nico ignored him.

"I found payments."

Vincent's expression changed.

"What payments?"

"Shell companies. Three of them. Money moving through businesses Gabriel controls."

Mara's stomach tightened.

Gabriel Moretti.

The smiling older man from the photograph.

Vincent's father's adviser.

The man who had practically helped raise him.

"No," Vincent said.

Nico's expression softened.

"Vin."

"No."

"I didn't want to believe it either."

Vincent stepped forward.

His leg almost buckled.

Mara instinctively moved toward him.

He lifted one hand.

Stay.

He looked at Nico.

"Proof."

Nico reached slowly inside his coat.

Tony raised the gun.

"Easy."

Nico removed a flash drive.

"Bank transfers. Security access logs. Calls made from disposable phones."

He placed it beside the syringe.

"Gabriel met with Dominic Vescari three days before the hit."

Even Mara knew the name.

Vescari.

A rival organization on Chicago's West Side.

Vincent's face became empty.

That frightened her more than anger would have.

"Get out," he said.

Nico stared.

"Vincent—"

"Tony."

Tony took the flash drive.

"Come on."

Nico stopped at the door.

"I was trying to protect you."

Vincent didn't look at him.

"Everybody keeps saying that."

The door closed.

Mara and Vincent were alone.

He remained standing.

Barely.

"Sit down."

"No."

"Vincent."

"I said no."

"Your leg is shaking."

"I don't care."

Mara approached.

He stepped away.

That hurt more than it should have.

"Seventeen years," he said.

"What?"

"Gabriel has been in this house seventeen years."

His voice was strangely quiet.

"He stood beside me at my father's funeral."

Mara said nothing.

"He taught me how to shoot."

Vincent laughed once.

Bitter.

"He used to bring my mother wine she liked."

Mara understood.

This wasn't merely betrayal.

Gabriel was family.

"Evidence first," she said.

Vincent looked at her.

"We don't know everything yet."

"I know enough."

"No. You know enough to be angry."

"Don't."

"That's exactly when you make bad decisions."

His eyes flashed.

"You don't understand how this works."

"Then explain it."

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

Mara froze.

The words hung between them.

Vincent realized immediately.

But neither could take them back.

Mara nodded.

"Right."

She turned.

"Mara."

"Get some sleep."

"Stop."

She did.

Vincent's voice softened.

"I didn't mean that."

"You did."

"No."

"You're right."

She looked back.

"I'm your nurse. That's all."

Something moved across his face.

"You know that's not true."

"Then what am I?"

Vincent didn't answer.

Mara waited.

Five seconds.

Ten.

Still nothing.

She smiled sadly.

"Exactly."

---

By morning, the evidence was confirmed.

The payments were real.

The security logs were real.

Gabriel had accessed route information hours before Vincent's convoy entered Lower Wacker Drive.

But Gabriel was gone.

His house was empty.

His phone was dead.

His accounts were being drained.

Vincent wanted to go after him immediately.

Mara refused.

"You can barely cross a room."

"I crossed one."

"With me standing three feet away."

"I'll manage."

"No."

Vincent looked at Tony.

"Get the car."

Mara stepped in front of the wheelchair.

"No."

"Mara."

"If you leave this house, I'm done."

Silence.

Tony wisely disappeared.

Vincent stared at her.

"Move."

"No."

"This isn't your decision."

"Your medical care is."

"Not anymore."

Mara went still.

Vincent's anger was driving him now.

She knew it.

He knew it.

Neither stopped.

"Fine," she said.

She removed the identification badge clipped to her scrubs.

Vincent's expression changed.

"What are you doing?"

"You just terminated my authority over your care."

"I didn't fire you."

"You don't get half a nurse."

She placed the badge on the bedside table.

"Mara."

"You want to be Vincent DeLuca, the man everyone obeys?"

Her eyes burned.

"Go ahead."

She stepped away.

"But I'm not going to stand here and watch you destroy your recovery because you're angry."

"You don't understand what's at stake."

"And you don't understand that I care whether you live!"

The words exploded out of her.

Silence.

Mara stopped breathing.

Vincent stared.

She looked away.

There.

It was out.

The thing she'd been avoiding for days.

Vincent's voice was quieter.

"Mara."

"No."

She picked up her jacket.

"I'm going back to Chicago."

His face closed.

"Tony will drive you."

"Fine."

"And you're not going back to your apartment."

She laughed in disbelief.

"You really can't stop."

"Gabriel knows who you are."

"I'll stay near Ethan."

"Not safe enough."

"Not your decision."

Vincent's jaw tightened.

"Take the north guest apartment at the medical facility."

"No."

"Mara."

She opened the door.

"Find another nurse."

Then she left.

---

The black SUV passed through the DeLuca gates at 4:18 p.m.

Mara sat in the back seat alone.

Tony had assigned one of his security men to drive.

She didn't look back.

She wanted to.

That made her angrier.

The mansion disappeared behind the pines.

Her chest hurt.

Ridiculous.

She had known Vincent for less than two weeks.

Less than two weeks of arguments, medication, blood, physical therapy, threats, sleepless nights and almost-kisses.

It shouldn't feel like leaving something important.

But it did.

Mara closed her eyes.

Twenty minutes later, the SUV slowed.

She opened them.

"Why are we stopping?"

The driver didn't answer.

A black van blocked the road ahead.

Mara sat upright.

"Turn around."

The driver reached toward his jacket.

The side window shattered.

Mara screamed and ducked.

The SUV door flew open.

Hands grabbed her.

She kicked.

Bit someone.

He cursed.

A cloth covered her mouth.

A chemical smell.

No.

No—

The world tilted.

The last thing Mara heard was a man's voice.

"Careful with her."

Then darkness.

---

At the estate, Tony entered Vincent's room without knocking.

Vincent was staring at Mara's nursing badge on the bedside table.

Tony's face made him stand.

"What?"

"The SUV never reached the medical center."

Vincent went completely still.

"What happened?"

"Found it abandoned."

Vincent grabbed the edge of the table.

Tony continued.

"Driver's alive. Unconscious."

"Where's Mara?"

Tony said nothing.

Vincent's eyes became lethal.

"Where is she?"

"They took her."