Chapter 2 - The Price of Victor Costello’s Help
Sadi didn’t sleep.
At seven the next morning, she found Victor in the breakfast room reading documents while three men spoke quietly around him.
She stopped at the doorway.
Victor looked up immediately.
“You need something?”
“I need to repay you.”
One of the men almost smiled.
Victor didn’t.
“Sit.”
“I’d rather stand.”
“Fine.”
Sadi placed an envelope on the table.
“My paycheck.”
Victor looked at it.
“You earned that.”
“And you paid my debt.”
“I settled a problem.”
“My problem.”
Victor leaned back.
“How long would sixty thousand take you to repay?”
“I don’t know.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I. Keep your money.”
Sadi’s jaw tightened.
“I don’t want to owe you.”
The room went silent.
One of Victor’s men suddenly became extremely interested in his coffee.
Victor studied her.
“You think I’m going to collect?”
“I don’t know what men like you collect.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Victor’s lieutenant, Marco Bell, muttered, “Jesus.”
Sadi went pale.
Victor raised one hand.
Marco fell silent.
Then Victor looked back at Sadi.
“Smart answer.”
She blinked.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for telling the truth.”
He pushed the envelope toward her.
“Your debt to me is zero.”
“Why?”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Because threatening a sick nineteen-year-old to control his sister disgusts me.”
Sadi almost laughed at the contradiction.
Victor noticed.
“Something funny?”
“You’re Victor Costello.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you’re talking about morality.”
Marco coughed into his hand.
Victor’s eyes stayed on hers.
“I have rules.”
“That doesn’t make you good.”
“No.”
The simplicity of the answer surprised her.
Victor continued.
“But it makes me predictable.”
Sadi took her envelope.
“Then predict this. O’Shea won’t let it go.”
“No.”
Her stomach tightened.
“You know that?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re sitting here eating breakfast?”
Victor folded the document.
“O’Shea believes I humiliated him.”
“You did.”
“He’ll want to restore his reputation.”
“How?”
Victor didn’t answer.
He looked toward Marco.
“Double the hospital detail.”
Sadi stiffened.
“What hospital detail?”
Marco answered carefully. “Two men have been watching Sam’s floor since last night.”
“You put guards around my brother?”
Victor said, “O’Shea threatened him.”
“You can’t just take over our lives.”
“I can remove them.”
Sadi opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Victor’s eyebrow lifted.
“That’s what I thought.”
She hated that he was right.
Three days passed.
Sam improved slightly after a new round of treatment.
Sadi kept working.
Victor kept pretending nothing had changed.
But something had.
He stopped allowing her to disappear.
When she entered a room, he noticed.
When she skipped dinner, food appeared in the staff kitchen.
When she left for the hospital, a car was waiting.
On Sunday evening, Sadi found him in the library.
“I didn’t ask for a driver.”
“No.”
“Stop doing things I didn’t ask for.”
Victor looked up from his book.
“Stop walking home alone at midnight.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’m told.”
“By who?”
“Mostly people who are no longer invited to dinner.”
Despite herself, Sadi smiled.
Victor stared.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You smiled.”
“So?”
“I’ve never seen you do that.”
“You’ve barely looked at me for eight months.”
“I noticed you.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
Sadi looked away first.
Her phone rang.
Hospital.
She answered immediately.
“Hello?”
A nurse spoke rapidly.
Sadi’s expression changed.
“What happened?”
Victor stood.
“I’m coming.”
She disconnected.
“Sam has a fever.”
“I’ll drive.”
“No.”
“Sadi.”
“I said no.”
Victor stopped.
She breathed hard.
“I need one part of my life that doesn’t belong to you.”
His expression shifted.
Then he nodded.
“Marco will drive.”
“That is literally the same thing.”
“No. Marco talks too much.”
From the doorway Marco said, “I’m standing right here.”
For one strange second, Sadi laughed.
Then a tremendous crash exploded from downstairs.
Glass shattered.
The lights went out.
Victor’s face changed instantly.
“Down.”
Sadi froze.
Victor grabbed her and pulled her behind the heavy desk.
More glass broke downstairs.
Men shouted.
Marco drew his weapon and moved toward the doorway.
Victor spoke sharply.
“Lock the east hall. Nobody reaches the staff quarters.”
Marco disappeared.
Sadi stared at Victor.
“O’Shea?”
Victor listened to the chaos below.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Mick isn’t this stupid.”
A shot cracked somewhere inside the estate.
Victor looked toward the door.
Then back at Sadi.
“Stay here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find out who is.”
He disappeared into the darkness.
May you like
And for the first time, Sadi realized Mick O’Shea might not be the most dangerous problem in Victor Costello’s house.
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