The Mob Boss's Reluctant Bride

third time in ten minutes, vibrating

scent lights of Boston Memorial's emergency department hummed overhead, casting eve

e crowded nurses' station. "Your pager's having

hair behind her ear. "Sorry. Just fi

had a soft spot for the hardworking med students, especially o

id. "Then I need you

er. All three messages were from Helena at Golden Oaks C

he first ring, her normally calm voice

e bustling ER fading to backgroun

d the entire facility. Security footage shows him leav

ead, feeling a headache forming. "Did h

man who visited him yesterday. Not on the approved lis

d he loo

y said he had a distincti

tching from his black sedan as she'd helped her father from the c

Helena. "Call me immedi

g against her ribs. The GSW was being wheeled in, paramedics

. "Family emergency. My father's missing from his ca

p from the trauma patient. "

nge his mind, sprinting to the

her cheeks as she fumbled for her car

ic. She hadn't been there in weeks. Not since she'd moved him to Golden Oaks after finding

as in a neighborhood th

collected in the corners of stoops. She parked haphazardly, ignori

apartment 3B

hand on the scr

to the disease eating away at his mind, but Miguel Alvarez h

ing the door slowly. "I

was wrong. It took her a moment to reali

scattered across the coffee table,

ad changed that. The last time she'd been here, the place had bee

had cl

ent

ce, checking the bedroom and ba

jumbled inside as if someone had rummaged through them in a hur

loria Alvarez smiled up at her, beautiful and vibrant in her nur

and death, but too young to shoulder the responsi

one bu

wn nu

" she a

earer than it had been in months.

are you? A

Spanish accent thickening with stress. "Some things from befo

ease tell me where you

ch. "Stay away from the Morellis. I thought it

n old case her father had worked on, perhaps? "

fled voices. Then her father again, words tumbling ou

ne wen

d as she dropped the phone into her pocket and went to her father's closet. S

op shelf-a blue

imbed up, pulling it down. It was surp

? Where had her

emember if he'd ever mentioned a

organized, paranoid even. A habit fr

Her mothe

frame over, prying open the backing. A small si

into the lockbox. With

yellowing at the edges, a small leather notebook, and an envelope s

ield her father had carried, but something else.

F

ll, Dad?" sh

otes on surveillance operations, names, dates, locati

ed repeatedly:

ked it up, her blood freezing in her veins. It showed her father, much younger, in a suit

e camera. Written on the back in her father's handwr

across the floor. Sera scrambled to gather them, shoving

came again, m

ra approached the

afina Alvarez," c

no one delivered packages this la

in lock before openi

is face impassive. He was young, maybe early thirt

s coming," she said, her vo

ed into his jacket and produced a black envelope, sealed with dar

ed before taking it, her fingers

y father?"

used. "Oh, and Ms. Alvarez? Don't bother calling t

or w

e stairwell. Sera shut the door, sliding

ore an intricate design- a stylized "M

d, cream-colored and embossed with the same sy

her's deb

ow. A black sedan had pulled up outside the building. A

ge from another unknown number: Co

e blue lockbox still on her mind. Whatever her father had

n from it, or face the man he

ne idled patient

t leaving w