Chapter 8 - The Empire He Chose to BurnThree months passed.
Gabriel changed.
Slowly.
He sold businesses.
Closed routes.
Cut relationships.
Some men protested.
Others left.
Leo stayed.
“What are you doing?” Norah asked one evening.
Gabriel sat in Benny's renovated diner.
The same booth.
The same cracked neighborhood outside.
“Retiring.”
Norah laughed.
“Mob bosses don't retire.”
“This one does.”
“Why?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Because Carmine was right about one thing.”
She waited.
“I built an empire because I was afraid of being powerless.”
He looked around the diner.
“But somewhere along the way, the thing I built became another form of fear.”
Norah sat opposite him.
“What happens to your men?”
“Legitimate businesses.”
“Can you do that?”
“I own trucking companies. Warehouses. Construction firms. Restaurants. Half the criminal empire was legitimate enough to begin with.”
“And the other half?”
“Gone.”
Norah studied him.
“This isn't because of me.”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Gabriel smiled.
“Not entirely.”
“Good.”
“I learned something when Moretti had me tied to that chair.”
“What?”
“That I didn't care about losing the docks.”
His voice softened.
“I cared that I might never see you again.”
Norah reached across the table.
Gabriel took her hand.
“You don't need to destroy yourself to prove you love me.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“But I do need to become someone who can stand beside you without dragging you into a grave.”
That answer frightened her because she believed it.
Gabriel Hayes had spent his life solving problems with force.
May you like
Now he was doing something harder.
Changing.
