Chapter 6 - The ExamMonday morning, Gabriel personally drove Norah to the testing center.
No convoy.
No visible guards.
But Norah knew Leo had men positioned throughout the neighborhood.
Gabriel stopped the car.
“You have four hours.”
“I know.”
“I'll wait.”
“You absolutely will not.”
“I absolutely will.”
Norah looked at him.
“You have an empire.”
“It can survive four hours.”
She smiled.
Then nerves returned.
“What if I fail?”
Gabriel stared at her as though she had suggested the sun might forget to rise.
“You won't.”
“You don't know that.”
“I've watched you study until three in the morning for six weeks.”
“That isn't how standardized testing works.”
“You survived me.”
Norah laughed.
“That's your motivational speech?”
“Yes.”
“Terrible.”
Gabriel reached across the console.
He squeezed her hand.
“Go.”
Norah entered.
Four hours later, she emerged exhausted.
Gabriel was still there.
He had bought coffee.
She climbed into the car.
“Well?”
“I don't know.”
“You passed.”
“You cannot know that.”
“I know you.”
Results arrived forty-eight hours later.
PASS.
Norah stared at the screen.
She cried.
Not delicately.
Years of exhaustion broke loose.
Her mother's double shifts.
Benny's diner.
Cheap textbooks.
Missed meals.
The Narrows.
Everything.
Gabriel found her sitting on the kitchen floor.
“What happened?”
She turned the laptop toward him.
He read.
Then smiled.
Not the dangerous smile.
Not the king.
Gabriel.
He crouched.
“Nurse Bennett.”
Norah laughed through tears.
“I did it.”
“You did.”
He pulled her into his arms.
She held him tightly.
For once she did not think about the war.
Or Chicago.
Or the bounty.
She had done something entirely her own.
That night Gabriel arranged dinner.
No captains.
No guns visible.
Only Leo, Benny, Norah's mother, and several people from the diner.
Gabriel had renovated Benny's place completely.
Norah discovered that only when Benny hugged her.
“You saved the diner.”
She looked at Gabriel.
He shrugged.
“Investment.”
“You're terrible at anonymous charity.”
“I wasn't aiming for anonymous.”
Later, when everyone had gone, Norah found an envelope beside her plate.
Inside was a contract.
She read it.
Her employment as Gabriel's private cook was terminated.
Effective immediately.
Norah looked up.
“What is this?”
“Your freedom.”
She stared.
Gabriel continued.
“No guards. No restrictions. No obligation.”
Her chest tightened.
“You're letting me leave.”
“I should have done it weeks ago.”
“Why now?”
“Because you stayed when you didn't have a choice.”
His voice lowered.
“I need to know what you do when you do.”
Norah understood.
He wasn't asking her to stay.
That mattered.
She packed the next morning.
Gabriel did not stop her.
She moved back to her apartment.
For the first time in months, she slept alone.
No armed guards outside her bedroom.
No burner phones ringing.
No Gabriel eating midnight soup while she studied.
She expected freedom to feel enormous.
Instead the apartment felt strangely empty.
Three days later, Mercy Hospital offered her a position.
Night shift.
Emergency department.
Exactly what she had wanted.
Norah accepted.
Her life had returned.
Almost.
At 2:11 a.m. during her first week, paramedics rushed in a gunshot victim.
Norah froze.
Not because of the blood.
Because she recognized him.
Dominic.
Gabriel's captain.
“Where is Gabriel?”
Dominic grabbed her sleeve.
“They took him.”
Norah's heart stopped.
“Who?”
“Moretti.”
May you like
The war wasn't over.
And this time, Gabriel was the hostage.
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