Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO RETURNED
The voice came from the entrance.
Low.
Controlled.
Dangerously familiar.
Frankie turned.
Leo stood beneath the flickering fluorescent light, his dark overcoat still buttoned, rain shining on his shoulders.
He had returned twenty minutes earlier than Donnie expected.
The meeting at the docks had ended abruptly when a shipping supervisor mentioned an employee named Rey Alvarez.
Leo had recognized the name from Donnie's preliminary report.
He had come back intending to ask Sadi one question.
Instead, he found her on the floor.
"Mr. Moretti," Frankie stammered. "I didn't know you were coming back."
Leo ignored him.
His attention settled on Sadi.
She was kneeling among broken dishes, her right hand pressed against the floor, her left arm trapped beneath the weight of the canvas apron.
Her breathing was shallow.
Her lips had lost their color.
Leo crossed the diner.
"Don't touch her," he said when Frankie reached down.
Frankie recoiled.
Leo crouched beside Sadi.
"Sadi."
She flinched.
"It's Leo. Can you hear me?"
She nodded faintly.
"Can you tell me where it hurts?"
"Nowhere."
He looked at the sweat running down her temple.
"That's a terrible answer."
She tried to smile.
It broke his heart in a way he was not prepared to acknowledge.
"Please," she whispered. "I need to finish my shift."
Leo looked at the shattered plates.
Then at Frankie.
"Call an ambulance."
Sadi's eyes widened.
"No."
"Sadi—"
"No hospitals."
Her panic was immediate.
She tried to stand.
Pain shot through her shoulder.
A strangled cry escaped her.
Leo held out his hand but stopped before touching her.
"Listen to me. I think you've broken your collarbone. You need medical care."
"I can't."
"Why?"
She stared at him.
Because Rey would know.
Because Rey knew people.
Because Rey had promised that if she ever told anyone what happened in their apartment, he would make sure she never worked again.
Because he had done worse before.
But she could not say any of it.
Leo saw the fear.
"All right," he said quietly. "You don't have to explain right now."
He turned toward Frankie.
"Get a chair. And clear the floor."
Frankie hurried away.
The teenager who had bumped into Sadi stood nearby, pale and trembling.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Leo looked at him.
"It was an accident. Give her some space."
Then he returned his attention to Sadi.
"Can I help you sit?"
She hesitated.
Finally, she nodded.
Leo supported her carefully on her uninjured side while a nurse who had been eating at the counter approached to help.
The nurse took one look at Sadi's shoulder.
"She needs an emergency department."
Sadi closed her eyes.
Leo's voice softened.
"You're not in trouble."
A tear slid down her cheek.
He had said the one thing nobody had told her in years.
"I'm not?"
"No."
She looked toward Frankie.
"My job—"
"Will be here if you want it," Leo said.
Frankie opened his mouth.
Leo turned.
"Won't it?"
Frankie swallowed.
"Of course."
Sadi almost laughed.
Even now, the powerful man frightened her.
But something about the way he was looking at her felt different.
He was not angry because she had inconvenienced him.
He was angry because she was hurting.
May you like
And when the ambulance arrived, Leo did something nobody expected.
He followed it to the hospital.
