Chapter 3 - The Father Who Came Back for a Secret
Mave woke to the sound of medical equipment and immediately thought of Finn.
That was what hospitals had done to her.
Other people heard monitors and thought illness.
Mave heard monitors and thought little brother.
Her eyes opened.
White ceiling.
Curtains.
A pressure cuff around her arm.
Then pain arrived.
She inhaled sharply.
"You fractured your shoulder blade."
Mave turned her head.
A doctor stood beside the bed.
Sofia Colazo sat near the window.
And beside her, looking completely wrong in a plastic hospital chair that appeared too ordinary to hold him, sat Rafe.
Mave frowned.
"Why are you still here?"
Sofia leaned forward.
"Hello to you too."
"What time is it?"
"Almost midnight."
Mave tried sitting up.
The doctor immediately stopped her.
"Slowly."
"Finn."
"Mrs. Alvarez brought him here."
Every trace of sleep disappeared from Mave's face.
"What?"
Sofia stood.
"He's fine."
"Where is he?"
"Downstairs."
"Why?"
"Because he refused to go to bed until he saw you."
Mave closed her eyes.
"That sounds like him."
The doctor explained her injuries.
No surgery appeared necessary.
Pain management.
Rest.
Follow-up imaging.
Several weeks away from strenuous work.
Each sentence sounded like money disappearing.
When the doctor left, Mave stared at the blanket.
"I can't miss several weeks."
Sofia looked at her brother.
Rafe said nothing.
Mave noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're doing that thing."
Rafe raised an eyebrow.
"What thing?"
"Looking like you're deciding something for somebody who didn't ask."
For the first time, Sofia actually laughed.
"She figured you out in six hours."
Rafe ignored her.
"Mave, your medical expenses tonight are being covered."
"No."
"Already done."
"Undo it."
"That isn't how hospital billing works."
"I'll repay you."
"No."
"Then don't pay it."
Rafe leaned forward.
"You were injured protecting my sister."
"I was injured because somebody attacked her."
His gaze stayed on her.
Something about it bothered Mave.
"What aren't you saying?"
Sofia stopped smiling.
Rafe looked at his sister.
"Give us a minute."
"No."
"Sofia."
"Absolutely not. She's my friend now."
Mave blinked.
"We've known each other approximately forty minutes."
"You saved me. It accelerates the process."
Despite everything, Mave smiled.
Rafe didn't.
"Mave, we need to talk about the man who attacked you."
"Attacked Sofia."
"No."
The room became very quiet.
Mave's smile disappeared.
Rafe continued.
"We searched him."
"Okay."
"He had a photograph."
Mave felt something cold move through her.
"Of who?"
"You."
She stared at him.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It gets worse."
Rafe removed his phone and showed her an image.
A photograph of Mave leaving her apartment building.
Taken from across the street.
The date in the corner was four days earlier.
Her mouth went dry.
"I've never seen him."
"He had your work schedule."
Mave looked at Sofia.
Then back at Rafe.
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I."
She remembered the attack.
The man's gaze.
Had she mistaken where he was looking?
Had he been watching table fourteen because Mave kept moving near it?
"Why would anyone want to hurt me?"
Rafe's eyes narrowed.
"That's what we're going to find out."
"No."
His expression hardened.
"What?"
"No 'we.'"
"Mave—"
"I don't know you."
"You know enough."
"I know people are afraid of you."
Sofia winced.
Rafe remained still.
Mave continued.
"I know half the city pretends not to know why they're afraid of you. And I know whatever world you're involved in is not a world I want near Finn."
Rafe looked at her for a long moment.
"Fair."
She hadn't expected that.
"But someone followed you," he continued. "Someone entered your workplace carrying your photograph. Whether you want my help or not does not change the danger."
Mave looked away.
He was right.
She hated that.
The door opened.
A small figure appeared.
"Mave?"
Finn stood there wearing pajama pants, sneakers without socks, and an oversized sweatshirt.
Mr. Buttons hung from one hand.
Mrs. Alvarez stood behind him.
Mave's entire face changed.
"Hey, bug."
Finn ran forward.
Rafe moved automatically, ready to stop him from jumping against her injuries, but Mave raised one hand.
"Careful."
Finn froze beside the bed.
His eyes filled immediately.
"Are you dying?"
"No."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Like real promise or sister promise?"
Mave looked offended.
"What's the difference?"
"Sister promises sometimes mean 'I don't want you to worry.'"
Sofia covered her mouth.
Rafe looked down.
Mave sighed.
"Real promise."
Finn carefully hugged her around the waist.
Mave kissed his hair.
For several seconds, nobody else mattered.
Then Finn noticed Rafe.
"Who's that?"
Mave opened her mouth.
Sofia answered first.
"My brother."
Finn considered Rafe.
"Why does he look angry?"
"I'm not angry," Rafe said.
Finn looked unconvinced.
"You look like the principal when somebody puts soap in the fountain."
Sofia burst out laughing.
Rafe stared at his sister.
"Don't encourage him."
Finn grinned.
Mave felt something in her chest loosen.
Then Finn coughed.
Just once.
But Mave knew every sound he made.
Her eyes went to him.
"You okay?"
"Yep."
"Finn."
"Just tired."
He sat beside her.
Rafe watched their exchange.
Noticed Mave counting Finn's breaths.
Noticed the boy unconsciously pressing two fingers against his chest.
Noticed how quickly Mave saw it.
"What treatment does he need?" Rafe asked.
Mave looked up sharply.
"We're not discussing that."
Finn answered anyway.
"My heart's dumb."
"Finn."
"What? That's what it is."
Rafe crouched slightly so he wasn't towering over the boy.
"How dumb?"
Finn considered.
"Very."
"Technical."
"I know lots of technical words too."
"I'm sure you do."
"I need a procedure."
Mave closed her eyes.
Finn kept talking.
"Mave says we're waiting for the doctors to decide stuff."
Rafe looked at Mave.
Mave looked back with a clear warning.
Finn leaned toward Rafe.
"Are you rich?"
"Finn!"
"What?"
Rafe almost smiled.
"Yes."
Finn nodded thoughtfully.
"Like dentist rich or spaceship rich?"
Sofia sat down because she was laughing too hard.
Even Mave couldn't completely hide her smile.
Rafe answered, "Somewhere between."
Finn accepted this.
Then his expression turned serious.
"Don't give Mave money."
Rafe's eyebrows lifted.
Mave stared at Finn.
Finn continued.
"She gets weird when people help."
"Thank you, Finn."
"You're welcome."
Rafe looked at Mave.
"I had noticed."
An hour later, Mrs. Alvarez took Finn home after Mave promised three times she'd be there in the morning.
When they were alone again, Rafe stepped into the hallway and called his security chief, Mateo.
"What do you have?"
"A name on the attacker. Nolan Pierce."
"Who paid him?"
"We're working on it."
"Work faster."
"There's something else."
Rafe waited.
"Pierce made two calls last week to a company called North Harbor Collections."
Rafe frowned.
"Debt collection?"
"Looks like it."
"Why would a debt collector hire someone to assault a waitress?"
"That's the interesting part. North Harbor isn't really a debt collector. It's a shell."
"For who?"
"Still tracing it."
Rafe looked through the glass panel in Mave's room.
She was talking quietly to Sofia.
"Find everything."
"On Pierce?"
"On Mave."
Mateo hesitated.
"She won't like that."
"I'm aware."
By sunrise, Rafe knew more about Mave Donovan than she would ever have willingly told him.
Mother dead.
Father absent.
Legal guardian of Finn since he was four.
Three jobs over five years.
No arrests.
No lawsuits.
No suspicious associations.
Mounting medical debt.
Denied loan applications.
One strange detail.
Six months earlier, Mave had inherited something from an aunt she barely knew.
Not money.
A storage unit.
The inheritance paperwork described its contents simply as personal family property.
Mave had visited the unit once.
After that, someone else started watching her.
Rafe stared at the report.
"What's inside?"
Mateo shook his head.
"Don't know."
"Find out."
At nine the next morning, Mave was discharged.
Rafe expected an argument over transportation.
He got one.
"I can take the train."
"With a fractured shoulder?"
"I've done worse."
"That isn't the persuasive argument you think it is."
Sofia stepped between them.
"I'm driving."
Mave looked at her.
"Are you always like this?"
"Only when I'm right."
Rafe said dryly, "She's always like this."
They reached Mave's apartment building just before ten.
It stood in an older neighborhood outside downtown Boston.
Brick walls.
Narrow steps.
A small grocery on the corner.
Rafe stepped from the car first.
Then stopped.
The front door to Mave's building was slightly open.
Mave saw it too.
"My landlord never leaves that unlocked."
Rafe's arm moved in front of her.
"Stay here."
"My brother is upstairs."
Rafe looked at the driver.
"Call Mrs. Alvarez."
Mave was already reaching for her phone.
No answer.
Her face changed.
"Rafe."
He heard it.
Fear.
Not for herself.
Never for herself.
For Finn.
Rafe signaled his men.
They entered quickly.
Mave ignored his instruction and followed.
"Stay behind me."
"That's my home."
"And somebody may be inside it."
They climbed to the third floor.
Mave saw her apartment door.
Broken lock.
She stopped breathing.
"Finn!"
Rafe caught her good arm.
"Wait."
She tore free.
"FINN!"
Then someone inside the apartment answered.
"Mave?"
Finn appeared at the end of the hallway.
Alive.
Safe.
Mrs. Alvarez behind him.
Mave nearly collapsed.
Finn ran toward her.
"I was in Mrs. Alvarez's apartment. Somebody broke our door."
Rafe's men searched every room.
No intruder.
Nothing valuable appeared stolen.
The television remained.
Mave's small jar of emergency cash remained.
Finn's tablet remained.
But the bedroom had been destroyed.
Drawers emptied.
Closet searched.
Mattress lifted.
Someone had been looking for something.
Mave stood in the middle of it.
Rafe watched her.
"What do you own that somebody wants?"
"Nothing."
"Think."
"I am thinking."
"Anything inherited?"
Mave's face changed.
Rafe saw it.
"What?"
"My aunt."
"What did she leave you?"
Mave looked toward Finn.
Then lowered her voice.
"A storage unit."
Rafe's expression sharpened.
"What's inside?"
"I don't know."
"You never opened it?"
"I did."
"And?"
Mave hesitated.
"Boxes."
"Of what?"
"Old photographs. Records. Family stuff."
"Anything unusual?"
Her silence answered.
Rafe stepped closer.
"Mave."
She stared at him.
Then finally spoke.
"There was a locked metal case."
Rafe went still.
"Did you open it?"
"No."
"Where is it now?"
"In the storage unit."
"When were you there last?"
"Six months ago."
Rafe looked at Mateo.
"Get the address."
Mave shook her head.
"Wait."
Rafe turned.
"You don't get to order people into my life."
"No. But whoever did this already entered it."
He gestured toward the ruined apartment.
"And I'm starting to think the man in the restaurant wasn't trying to punish you."
Mave's face tightened.
"What was he trying to do?"
Rafe looked at her.
"Scare you into giving someone something."
Finn appeared in the doorway clutching Mr. Buttons.
"Mave?"
She immediately changed expression.
"Everything's okay."
Finn looked around the destroyed room.
"No, it's not."
Mave had no answer.
Rafe watched her kneel painfully beside her brother.
Watched her promise safety she couldn't guarantee.
Something shifted inside him.
He had spent his life believing protection came from power.
Mave had none.
Yet every instinct she possessed was still pointed outward.
Toward Finn.
Toward Sofia.
Toward everyone except herself.
Rafe looked at Mateo.
"Double security."
Mave heard him.
"No."
Rafe didn't turn.
"Yes."
She stood.
"This isn't your house."
"Right now, your door doesn't lock."
"I'll call the police."
"You should."
"And you should leave."
Sofia stared at her brother, waiting for the explosion.
It didn't come.
Rafe looked at Mave calmly.
"I will."
Mave was surprised.
Then he added:
"After your brother is somewhere safe."
Mave's jaw tightened.
"I can protect him."
Rafe's voice softened.
"I know."
Those three words affected her more than any argument would have.
He wasn't saying she was helpless.
He was saying she shouldn't have to do it alone.
Before Mave could answer, Mateo's phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
"Boss."
Rafe looked at him.
"We traced North Harbor."
"And?"
Mateo glanced at Mave.
"The company belongs to someone named Patrick Donovan."
Mave went white.
Sofia looked between them.
"Who's Patrick Donovan?"
Mave whispered the answer.
"My father."
May you like
And for the first time since the attack, fear appeared on her face for a reason that had nothing to do with Finn's health.
---
