Chapter 2 - THE RHYTHM NOBODY ELSE FELT
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Damian Volkov’s hand remained over Lila’s tiny fingers, holding her palm against his chest.
His breathing was shallow.
Mine had almost stopped completely.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Damian looked at me.
“She reacted before the pain started.”
One of the guards at the door shifted.
“Boss?”
Damian ignored him.
His eyes stayed on Lila.
“She touched my chest. Then she pulled her hand back before the spasm.”
I looked at my daughter.
“Lila?”
She watched my lips.
I signed slowly.
What did you feel?
Lila placed her rabbit beside her.
Then she pressed two fingers against her own chest.
Tap.
Tap.
Pause.
Tap-tap-tap.
She frowned.
Then she shook her hand as though something had startled her.
Wrong, she signed.
Damian stared.
“What did she say?”
“She says your heartbeat feels wrong.”
His expression hardened.
Every doctor in Baltimore had probably told him that already.
But Lila kept signing.
Fast. Stop. Fast.
Then she pointed toward the bedside table.
A half-full glass of water stood beside several orange prescription bottles.
Lila pointed at the water.
Then at Damian.
Then shook her head violently.
“No,” she said aloud.
It was one of the few words she pronounced clearly.
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
I moved quickly.
“She may just be confused.”
But Lila climbed off the bed.
She picked up the glass.
I grabbed her wrist before she could spill it.
“Sweetheart—”
She pointed toward the bottom.
A faint white residue clung to the glass.
Damian saw it too.
His voice dropped.
“Anton.”
The older guard stepped forward.
“Sir.”
“Nobody touches that glass.”
Then Damian looked toward the hallway.
“Get Dr. Kessler.”
Anton hesitated.
“Dr. Harrow is downstairs.”
“I didn’t ask for Harrow.”
That changed something.
The guards looked at one another.
Damian saw it.
“So he’s here already?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t call him.”
“No, sir.”
Damian’s face became frighteningly still.
“Then don’t let him leave.”
I should have taken Lila and run.
Instead, Damian suddenly doubled forward.
His fingers crushed the blanket.
His breath caught.
“Mr. Volkov!”
I reached toward him.
He pushed my arm away.
“Don’t.”
Then Lila climbed back onto the bed.
“Lila!”
She ignored me.
She placed her small hand against Damian’s chest again.
Her eyes widened.
Then she grabbed his wrist.
She signed urgently.
Too fast.
Damian swore under his breath.
Anton rushed into the hall.
“Call emergency medical!”
Damian grabbed his sleeve.
“No hospital.”
“Boss—”
“No hospital controlled by people who know my name.”
His face twisted with pain.
“Bring Kessler here.”
I knew nothing about mafia politics.
I knew enough to understand that Damian believed someone had already reached his doctors.
Dr. Kessler arrived twenty-two minutes later.
She was a cardiologist from Johns Hopkins whom Anton apparently trusted because she had treated Damian’s mother years earlier and had no connection to his organization.
She took one look at the residue in the glass and ordered everyone out except Damian, one guard, and me.
I tried to leave with Lila.
Damian stopped me.
“She stays.”
I stared at him.
“She’s four.”
“And she noticed before every adult in this house.”
Dr. Kessler examined Damian.
Blood pressure.
Heart tracing.
Blood samples.
Questions.
“What medications have you been taking?”
“Harrow controls them.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Damian’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Kessler stared at him.
“You’re telling me a man who checks the license plates of everyone who enters his property doesn’t know what medication he swallows?”
Damian looked almost offended.
“I trusted my physician.”
“That sentence may become important.”
For the next hour, Grayhaven House transformed.
Doors locked.
Phones collected.
Kitchen staff separated.
Medicine cabinets sealed.
Even the wine cellar was placed under guard.
Nobody was allowed to leave.
I sat with Lila on a couch near Damian’s bed.
She colored on paper Anton brought her.
Damian watched her.
Finally he asked, “How much can she hear?”
I stiffened.
“She’s deaf.”
“I can see the device.”
“She uses a hearing aid, yes. It helps with some sounds.”
“But not speech?”
“Sometimes. Depends on the room. She mostly reads lips and signs.”
Damian stared toward the rain hitting the windows.
“My sister learned sign language.”
I looked up.
“You have a deaf sister?”
“Had.”
His voice closed the subject.
Lila suddenly climbed off the couch.
She walked toward him.
Damian raised an eyebrow.
“You again.”
She signed something.
He looked at me.
“What?”
“She wants to know if you’re scared.”
Anton looked away.
Nobody asked Damian Volkov whether he was scared.
Damian surprised all of us.
“Yes.”
Lila studied his face.
Then signed:
Me too.
Something changed in him.
Not much.
But enough.
Dr. Kessler returned after receiving the first rapid toxicology results.
She shut the door.
“Damian.”
He immediately knew.
“What?”
“You have a cardiotoxic compound in your bloodstream.”
Anton swore.
I pulled Lila closer.
Damian did not react.
“How long?”
“That depends on the dose.”
“Can you treat it?”
“Yes, but I need to know what we’re dealing with and whether exposure is continuing.”
Damian looked at the glass.
“The wine.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
His face changed.
“The first attack happened after the wine.”
He looked toward Anton.
“Three weeks ago.”
Anton nodded.
Damian continued.
“Since then, I haven’t touched alcohol.”
Dr. Kessler frowned.
“Then if the compound is still showing at this level, someone may have continued administering it.”
Silence filled the room.
My skin turned cold.
Every pill.
Every glass of water.
Every meal.
Damian had not survived one poisoning.
Someone had been poisoning him repeatedly.
Dr. Kessler opened the medicine case Dr. Harrow had supplied.
She removed one capsule.
Then another.
Her expression tightened.
“These need laboratory analysis.”
Damian’s voice was quiet.
“Harrow.”
“Possibly.”
Anton stepped toward the door.
Damian stopped him.
“No accusations yet.”
Anton stared.
“Boss—”
“If Harrow is involved, he isn’t alone.”
That was the first intelligent thing anyone had said all morning.
A doctor could poison Damian.
But a doctor could not change his food, replace his water, manipulate schedules, and control access to the east wing without help.
Someone inside Grayhaven House wanted him dead.
Dr. Kessler began replacing his medications with sealed hospital stock she had personally brought.
She opened an injectable vial.
Lila’s head turned.
She stared at it.
Then she stood.
“What?” I asked.
Lila approached the tray.
She pointed at the vial.
Then at another unopened vial.
One had a blue ring around the glass neck.
The other did not.
Dr. Kessler froze.
“What did she notice?”
“I don’t know.”
Lila pointed again.
Blue ring.
No blue ring.
Dr. Kessler picked them up.
“They’re supposed to be identical.”
She held them toward the window.
The labels looked the same.
The packaging looked the same.
But the glass was different.
One vial had been replaced.
Inside a sealed medical case that had arrived less than thirty minutes earlier.
Anton drew his weapon instinctively.
Damian’s voice cut through the room.
“Put that away.”
Anton obeyed.
Dr. Kessler stared at the tampered vial.
“My assistant carried this case from my car.”
“Where is she?” Damian asked.
“Downstairs.”
Anton went pale.
Damian understood immediately.
“Seal the house.”
“It’s already sealed.”
“Then seal it again.”
His eyes moved around the room.
At Anton.
At me.
At Dr. Kessler.
At Lila.
“Nobody leaves. Nobody eats. Nobody drinks anything that hasn’t been opened in front of us.”
He pointed toward the vial.
“Because whoever is trying to kill me knows we discovered the poison.”
Thunder rolled outside.
Lila climbed beside him again.
She touched his wrist.
Damian looked down.
Her fingers rested over his pulse.
Tap.
Tap.
Pause.
She frowned.
Then she signed:
Better.
For the first time all day, Damian smiled.
Barely.
But then Anton returned.
His face told us the good moment was over.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“Dr. Harrow is gone.”
Damian’s smile disappeared.
“How?”
“We found his coat downstairs.”
“And him?”
“No.”
“Cars?”
“All accounted for.”
Damian stared at Anton.
Grayhaven House had stone walls, locked gates, armed guards, cameras, and men watching every exit.
Yet Damian’s doctor had vanished from inside it.
Anton swallowed.
“There’s something else.”
He held up a small security tablet.
“We checked the east-wing cameras.”
“And?”
“They stopped recording last night from 2:11 to 2:26.”
Damian’s eyes darkened.
“Who has access to that system?”
Anton said nothing.
“Who?”
“Only three people.”
“Names.”
“Me.”
Anton hesitated.
“You.”
Another hesitation.
“And Viktor Soren.”
I had heard that name.
Everyone at Grayhaven had.
Viktor was Damian’s closest adviser.
The man who had stood beside him for almost twenty years.
The man the servants called his shadow.
And according to every whisper in the mansion, the only man Damian trusted more than himself.
Damian looked toward the rain-streaked window.
“Where is Viktor?”
Anton swallowed.
“On his way here.”
Damian’s expression turned colder than the storm.
“Good.”
He looked down at Lila’s hand over his heart.
May you like
“Then we’ll find out whether the man who saved my life twenty years ago is the same man trying to end it now.”
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