The Wrong Boy
Chapter 09 - The Wrong Boy
For three full seconds, Sadi could not understand the message.
You took the wrong boy.
Her arms were wrapped around Sam. She could feel the sharp bones of his shoulders beneath the hospital gown. She could hear his breath, too shallow but real, against her chest.
"It's him," she said.
Mara looked back from the front seat.
"What?"
"The message says we took the wrong boy. But this is Sam. This is my brother."
Sam lifted his head weakly.
"What message?"
"Nothing. Lie down."
"I hate when adults use the nothing voice."
The phone buzzed again.
A photo appeared.
Not Sam.
Another teenage boy lay in a hospital bed, bald from chemotherapy, asleep beneath a faded superhero blanket. A chart hung near his bed.
NICHOLAS FERRELL.
Mara whispered, "Oh God."
The driver's hands tightened on the wheel.
"Paul's son," he said.
Sadi's blood chilled.
"Paul has a son in treatment?"
Mara nodded slowly.
"Private facility. No one was supposed to know."
A third message arrived.
COSTELLO CHOSE THE MAID'S BROTHER. LET'S SEE HOW PAUL FEELS ABOUT THAT.
Sam closed his eyes.
"This is my fault."
"No," Sadi said sharply.
"They took someone because of me."
"They took someone because they're evil."
Mara turned forward.
"Call Victor."
Sadi tried.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
At the clinic, Victor stood in a dark hallway with blood running down his left arm and rage held so tightly inside him it had become useful.
Paul had received the same photograph.
For the first time in the years Victor had known him, Paul's face broke.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just a fracture behind the eyes.
"They have Nicky," Paul said.
Victor looked at the dead phone signal indicator.
"We get him back."
"You should've let the girl stay."
The sentence came out before Paul could stop it.
Every man in the hallway went still.
Paul's hands shook.
"I'm sorry."
Victor stepped closer.
"No. You're scared. Say what you mean while it still has teeth."
Paul's face twisted.
"You moved half the house for her brother. You brought her into rooms because you wanted to believe one clean person could still exist near us. And now my son—"
His voice failed.
Victor absorbed every word.
"Your son is not punishment for my choices. He's leverage. That means he is alive."
"For now."
"For now is enough to work with."
The clinic's backup generator hummed.
Victor turned to Adrian.
"Find Voss."
"He escaped through the west exit."
"Then find who helped him."
Adrian looked down.
That hesitation told Victor the next blow before it came.
"Who?"
"Rina."
Victor's jaw hardened.
"Impossible. She was under guard."
"She collapsed in the blue parlor. Guards called the doctor. It was a diversion. She left through the pantry tunnel."
Paul looked murderous.
"She took my son?"
"No," Adrian said. "But she gave them the private facility address."
Victor stared down the dark hall.
Fear made people betray.
Love made them do worse.
His phone finally reconnected.
Sadi's missed calls flooded the screen.
He called her back.
She answered before the first ring finished.
"Victor."
Just his name.
No Mr. Costello. No careful distance.
Something in his chest moved despite the blood on his sleeve.
"Sam?"
"Safe. Shaken. Needs a doctor, but safe. What happened to Paul?"
"They took his son."
Silence.
"Where do we go?"
"You go nowhere."
"Victor."
"Sadi."
Her voice hardened.
"Do not protect me by making me useless."
He closed his eyes for half a second.
Of all the people he had surrounded himself with, only a maid with bleeding hands had learned how to strike directly at his worst habit.
"Fine. Tell Mara to take you to the old rectory on Harbor Road. Safe house. Doctor waiting. Stay there until I call."
"And Nicky?"
"I will find him."
"You found Sam because people underestimated me. Maybe let them do it again."
Victor opened his eyes.
"What are you suggesting?"
"Mick called me because he believed I was desperate enough to obey. Let me call him back."
"No."
"You said choice."
"This choice can get you killed."
"So can poverty," she said. "It just takes longer and makes you apologize while it does it."
Victor went silent.
Sadi continued.
"Mick wants leverage. He thinks I still owe him. He thinks Sam makes me weak. Let me be weak in the direction you need."
Paul looked at Victor, pain and hope warring on his face.
Victor hated every part of it.
"You will not speak to him alone."
"I won't."
"You will not promise anything without my approval."
"I won't."
"And if I tell you to hang up—"
"I'll hang up."
"You better."
For one small, impossible second, she almost smiled at the threat because it sounded less like control and more like terror wearing a familiar coat.
At the safe house, a doctor examined Sam while Sadi sat at a kitchen table with Mara, Victor on speaker, and the burner phone between them.
She dialed Mick.
He answered with a laugh.
"Miss me, darling?"
Sadi closed her eyes.
When she opened them, her voice shook exactly enough.
"I have something Victor doesn't know about."
Mick stopped laughing.
"What?"
"The orange mug wasn't empty."
Victor went very still on the other end of the line.
Sadi continued.
"I kept a copy."
Mara looked at her sharply.
Mick's breathing changed.
"Where?"
"Not until I know you'll leave Sam alone. And the other boy."
"There is no other boy."
"Then I guess you don't want the copy."
She moved to end the call.
"Wait."
Sadi's pulse hammered.
Mick lowered his voice.
"Where are you?"
She looked at Mara, then at the burner, then at the small window reflecting her own pale face.
"Somewhere Victor can't hear me."
On Victor's line, no one breathed.
Mick said, "Prove it."
Sadi swallowed.
May you like
Then she did something that made Victor Costello's blood turn cold.
She hung up on him first.
