No Fortune Can Buy His Mercy

Chapter 007

Maya Brooks came running toward them with all the color drained from her face, and the moment Leo Croft saw her expression, a cold weight dropped into his stomach. Something had happened to his sister.

Elena Croft was Elias Vance's benefactor. Years ago, when Elias had been nothing more than a starving child on the verge of death in the streets, it was Elena who had taken him in, fed him, and brought him back to Everheart Orphanage. Without her kindness, he never would have survived that desperate winter. The following year, the Vance family adopted him and gave him a home.

"She jumped from the third floor," Maya choked out, her voice breaking as tears welled in her eyes. "Both her legs are broken. They rushed her to the hospital, and she's still in emergency care." Her whole body trembled, and she wrapped her arms around herself as though she might fall apart.

"What?" Leo's voice cracked like a whip. "I told you to stay with her! How the hell did she end up jumping from the third floor?"

Maya broke down completely, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I was with her the whole time, I swear. But then she said she needed to speak with Mr. Henderson alone. She asked me to step out. I'd barely been gone a minute when she came through the window." She pressed both hands over her mouth, stifling a sob. "If I'd known, I never would have left that room."

Leo's face cycled between white and ashen, and a burning fury ignited deep in his chest.

Elias spoke, his voice steady and measured. "Which hospital is Elena at? Take us there now." There would be a reckoning for what had happened, but that could wait. What mattered right now was whether she was alive.

"Aegis Medical Center," Maya said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "I already paid the surgery deposit out of pocket."

Elias handed her a tissue. "Let's go. Lead the way."

Gideon had already pulled the car around, and Elias slid into the passenger seat without hesitation.

"Elias, let me handle this," Leo said urgently, grabbing the edge of the door. "Cresthaven belongs to the Sterling family now. You're a Vance. If anyone recognizes you, it's going to cause serious problems."

"Get in the car," Elias said flatly.

"If the Sterlings find out you're back, there'll be hell to pay. Just wait at the orphanage. I'll call you the second I know anything."

Elias looked at him with calm, unshakable eyes. "You talk too much. There's nothing to be afraid of. Get in."

Leo realized arguing was pointless. He pulled Maya into the back seat and shut the door, only to notice how refined the car's interior was. The leather was unmistakably genuine, the stitching immaculate. Had Elias struck it rich during his years away from Cresthaven? But even if he had money now, cash alone wouldn't stand against the Sterling family's stranglehold on this city.

As Gideon drove, Elias asked about Elena's recent circumstances. Leo let out a heavy breath. "She's been killing herself to keep Everheart Orphanage running. She even took out loans. She's terrified that if the orphanage goes under, those kids will end up trafficked by predators."

Elias nodded slightly. Everheart, a name that meant keeping your original heart forever. After all these years, Elena hadn't changed.

They reached Aegis Medical Center within minutes. Maya leapt out before the car fully stopped and jogged ahead through the sterile corridors. "Nurse! The woman who was just brought in, Ms. Croft, where is she?"

The nurse's expression twisted with discomfort, and she pointed down the hallway without meeting Maya's eyes. "She's over there."

Elias walked in the direction she indicated, and what he saw made the temperature around him plummet. Elena Croft lay unconscious on a gurney shoved into a corner of the hallway like discarded equipment. Both of her legs were bent at sickening, unnatural angles. Abrasions covered her body, and across her face, the unmistakable bruising of a handprint bloomed dark against her skin. Someone had struck her before she jumped.

"Her legs," Elias said, turning slowly to face the nurse. His voice was quiet, almost conversational, but something in it made the air feel thinner. "You haven't set them."

The nurse withered under his gaze. "Sir, it's not that we don't want to help her. Someone ordered us not to. The attending surgeon was about to begin the operation when he was told to stop."

Leo shot to his feet, fury radiating from every pore. "We already paid for the surgery! What gives you the right to refuse?"

"It was Mr. Hayes," the nurse whispered. "The young Mr. Hayes. No one here can afford to cross him."

"Which Hayes?" Elias asked, expression betraying nothing.

The nurse's legs gave out and she sat down hard on the floor, voice coming in hiccupping sobs. "Dexter Hayes. None of the doctors will touch her now that he's given the order. I overheard him talking to himself. He said something about how Ms. Croft liked playing the virtuous woman, that she'd rather die than give in, so he'd let her keep playing that role from a hospital bed for the rest of her life."

Leo kicked a nearby wheelchair so hard it flipped and skidded across the linoleum with a metallic screech.

Elias merely narrowed his eyes, a subtle shift that anyone who truly knew him would recognize as something far more dangerous than rage.

"Get a doctor in here," he said to the nurse. "Now. She needs surgery."

"The doctors won't do it, sir! Every orthopedic surgeon on this floor has refused."

Gideon stepped forward, looming over the nurse. "Take me to the attending physician. I'll have a word with him myself."

The nurse scrambled to her feet and led Gideon down the corridor at a near-run toward Dr. Victor Finch's office.

"Leo." Elias placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder, his grip firm and grounding. "Don't do anything rash. Every single person who hurt Elena is going to answer for it. Not one of them walks away."

Leo's knees buckled, and he slumped against the wall, sliding to the floor. His voice came out hollow. "Elias, when Kingpin Vance was still alive, I'd have believed you without question. But the Vance family is finished. There's no place left for your people in this entire city."

Elias's voice carried the weight of bedrock. "As long as I'm still breathing, the Vance family will never fall."

He turned his gaze back to Elena's unconscious form, and a dull ache settled in his chest. He'd been sent to Valoria City precisely so he could gain the power to protect the people he loved. Yet here he was, finally home, and his family had been trampled, his friends brutalized.

A sudden commotion shattered his thoughts. "Let go of me, you maniac! Put me down!"

Gideon emerged from the far end of the corridor, one arm extended, carrying a man in a white coat by the scruff of his neck as effortlessly as one might carry a kitten. The nurse trailed behind, face pale with shock. Gideon deposited the doctor on the floor in front of Elias like cargo being delivered.

Elias glanced at the man's name badge. "Dr. Finch. Perform the surgery on this woman immediately."

Victor Finch scrambled to his feet, cursing. He shot Gideon a venomous glare, then turned to Elias with undisguised contempt. "Are you out of your mind? I already said I'm not doing it! Dexter Hayes gave the order. Every orthopedic specialist in Cresthaven knows better than to touch her."

"What about the Hippocratic Oath?" Leo demanded from the floor. "You're supposed to be a doctor."

"Screw medical ethics! If I operate on her, I'm a dead man! I'm not crossing the Hayes family, end of discussion!"

Elias regarded him with the same flat calm one might show a piece of furniture. "You're afraid of Dexter Hayes. Tell me, are you not afraid of me?"

Victor scoffed. "Who the hell are you? You think you compare to Mr. Hayes? Why would I be afraid of some nobody?"

Gideon's expression darkened, but Elias raised a hand to stop him. "Which military unit is garrisoned here in Cresthaven?"

"The 24th Division, under Phoenix Sector jurisdiction."

"Get their best orthopedic specialist here now."

Gideon stepped aside and made the call, issuing the demand without preamble: send Dr. Harrison Mercer immediately.

"Sir, Dr. Mercer is currently operating on a VIP. Could we send someone else?" Lieutenant General Bradley's aide asked on the other end.

"You have ten minutes. I want to see Dr. Mercer." Gideon's voice was ice, and he hung up without waiting for a response.

Victor Finch let out a mocking laugh. "You idiots. Even if you get someone else to do the surgery, you think Dexter Hayes won't come after you for it?"

Elias didn't spare him a glance. He simply raised his wrist and watched the seconds tick by. At the eight-minute mark, a violent thudding filled the air, growing louder until the windows rattled in their frames. A heavily armed gunship descended past the hospital building, its rotors whipping the air into a frenzy as it settled into the courtyard below. The moment its skids touched the ground, a man in a white coat leapt from the aircraft and hit the pavement running.

"A military gunship?" Onlookers pressed against the windows, stunned. "Who in the world has the pull to arrive at a hospital in one of those?"

The man in the white coat took the stairs two at a time and burst onto the floor. When his eyes found Elias Vance, he froze mid-stride, shock washing across his features.

Elias stepped forward and extended his hand. "The patient is over there. Thank you for coming."

"Marshal Vance, please, call me Harrison." The middle-aged man seized Elias's hand with both of his own, shaking it with barely contained emotion. "It's an honor."

Victor Finch stood rooted to the spot, jaw hanging open. Around him, every doctor on the floor wore identical expressions of disbelief. Dr. Harrison Mercer was a living legend in orthopedics, renowned not just in the Federation but across the entire world. There wasn't a single bone specialist in this hospital who hadn't studied his published research or watched his keynote address at the Avalon World Medical Conference dozens of times over.

"Dr. Mercer!" Victor scrambled forward, his earlier arrogance evaporating like dew in sunlight. "I'm a huge fan of your work!"

Harrison Mercer didn't so much as look at him. He directed his two assistants to wheel Elena's gurney toward the operating theater without delay.

"Please, do everything you can for her," Leo called after him.

"I'll give her my absolute best. You have my word, Marshal." Harrison bowed his head respectfully toward Elias, then disappeared through the surgical doors.

The staff of Aegis Medical Center remained frozen in stunned silence. A world-class medical authority had just arrived by military aircraft to personally operate on a single patient in their hospital. Victor Finch looked like a man who had been struck by lightning. He'd assumed these people would drag in some second-rate army medic at best. Instead, they had summoned a figure who belonged to the realm of medical science itself.

"Elias," Leo breathed, staring at Gideon with newfound awe. "Your man is incredible. One phone call and he brings in someone like that. Is he your backer?"

Gideon opened his mouth to clarify that he was merely Elias's subordinate, but Elias cut him off with a single word. "Yes."

Since Elias had already spoken, Gideon held his tongue.

Elias was about to tell Leo to relax and wait for the surgery to conclude when a clamor of heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor, the unmistakable sound of a group moving with hostile purpose.

A young man rounded the corner, flanked by more than a dozen thugs who fanned out behind him like a wall of muscle and malice. It was Dexter Hayes, the very man who had ordered every doctor in Cresthaven to let Elena Croft suffer.

His voice reached them before he did, loud and dripping with contempt. "That Croft woman should still be lying in the hallway, right? I wonder if she's awake yet. Let's see if she's still feeling so virtuous now."