Nick closed his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Traumatic brain injury. There's internal bleeding. The doctors are monitoring him minute by minute."
Allison began crying.
Nick put his arm around her.
Neither of them slept that night.
If the City Won't Do It
At 4:12 in the morning, Nick sat alone in the hospital waiting room.
His laptop illuminated his face.
He couldn't sleep.
He couldn't pray anymore.
He needed answers.
The HOA website was poorly secured.
Nick knew computer systems.
He knew networks.
He knew how organizations stored internal information.
What he found disturbed him.
Emails.
Internal messages.
Inspection reports.
Complaints.
Names.
And one name appeared repeatedly.
Kelly Mason.
President of the HOA.
She had complained about the Grace property several times.
Unauthorized construction.
Uncooperative homeowners.
Failure to comply.
Then Nick found an email dated three days before the attack.
He read it once.
Then again.
Then a third time.
The message was from Kelly Mason.
Seven words stood alone at the bottom.
If the city won't do it, we will.