Chapter 9 - The Price of LeavingNorah read both messages.
Her expression did not change.
That frightened Gabriel more than panic would have.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Would Luca?”
“Not without telling me.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Norah handed back the phone.
“What happens if they believe you?”
“They assume my retirement was a deception.”
“And then?”
“They come looking.”
“For you?”
“For leverage.”
Her eyes moved toward the hallway.
Gabriel stood.
“I need you to take the children somewhere.”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“We just had this conversation.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Donati is dead.”
“And I’m still not letting you make decisions for me.”
Gabriel paced.
The old urge to control everything had become almost unbearable.
“Please.”
Norah looked at him.
The word stopped both of them.
Gabriel Costa had commanded thousands.
He had rarely asked.
Now he said it again.
“Please. I don’t know what happened yet. Give me one day.”
Norah considered.
“Not running.”
“No.”
“Temporary.”
“Yes.”
“My decision where.”
“Yes.”
“No armed men.”
Gabriel clenched his jaw.
“Yes.”
“I’ll take them to Maggie’s.”
“Who is Maggie?”
“A coworker. She lives outside Seaside.”
Gabriel hated not knowing the location.
He forced himself to accept it.
“Okay.”
Thomas entered.
“Why Mommy bag?”
Gabriel crouched.
“You’re going on a sleepover.”
“You come?”
“Not tonight.”
Thomas’s face fell.
“Why?”
“I have some work.”
“You work fish?”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“Different work.”
Thomas hugged him.
“Come tomorrow.”
“I’ll try.”
“No.”
Thomas pulled away.
“Promise.”
Gabriel remembered the previous night.
I promise I will not leave because I’m scared.
“I promise I’ll do everything I can.”
Thomas nodded reluctantly.
Sophia appeared.
“Daddy.”
She lifted both arms.
Gabriel picked her up.
The action already felt natural.
He kissed her hair.
“Listen to Mommy.”
“I always.”
Norah snorted.
“No.”
Sophia laughed.
Forty minutes later, the house was empty except for Gabriel.
He stood in the living room.
Toys remained on the rug.
Half a cup of milk sat on the table.
The silence reminded him of the Chicago nursery.
He hated it.
His phone rang.
Luca.
“What happened?”
“Donati left a restaurant at eleven last night. Car exploded two blocks later.”
“Bomb?”
“Yes.”
“Professional?”
“Very.”
“Who benefits?”
“Half the city.”
“And everyone blames me.”
“You threatened him on the call.”
“I asked him to leave my family alone.”
“He told people you threatened him.”
Gabriel swore.
“Commission meeting?”
“Emergency session tonight.”
“I’m not going to Chicago.”
“I know.”
“Who killed him?”
“Working on it.”
“Work faster.”
A pause.
“That sounded familiar.”
Gabriel did not respond.
Luca continued.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Donati’s driver survived.”
“The one who followed me?”
“Yes.”
“He told investigators Donati ordered surveillance in Oregon. That means people know you were there.”
“How many?”
“Too many.”
Gabriel walked toward the window.
“No one comes near the family.”
“I can send a team.”
“No.”
“For God’s sake, Gabriel.”
“I promised her.”
“You promised before someone murdered a commission boss.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Then help me without coming here.”
“How?”
“Find the killer.”
He ended the call.
The next twelve hours dragged Gabriel mentally back into a world he had left.
Encrypted calls.
Financial records.
Vehicle movements.
Chicago camera footage.
Luca sent information.
Gabriel analyzed it at Norah’s kitchen table surrounded by crayons and children’s drawings.
The contrast was obscene.
At four, a detail appeared.
Donati’s driver reported stopping at a private social club before the restaurant.
Security footage showed a delivery van entering the underground parking structure.
The van belonged to Salerno Foods.
Gabriel stared.
Salerno had supported his retirement.
Why?
He called Luca.
“Salerno.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
“That’s dangerous.”
“Check his nephew.”
“Which one?”
“Marco. He handles the Cicero crews.”
Twenty minutes later Luca called back.
“Marco lost two warehouses when Donati took your western routes.”
“Motive.”
“Not enough.”
“Track explosive materials.”
“Already doing it.”
Gabriel looked at the clock.
Norah had not called.
He wanted to call her.
Did not.
At six, someone knocked on the door.
Gabriel froze.
Nobody should know he was there.
He moved silently toward the kitchen.
No gun.
For the first time in decades, Gabriel lived without one.
The knock came again.
He grabbed a heavy iron skillet.
Almost laughed at himself.
Former Chicago crime boss.
Armed with cookware.
He approached the door.
“Who is it?”
“Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Gabriel became still.
“Open the door, Mr. Costa.”
His first thought was Norah’s ledgers.
Second: Donati.
Third: the twins.
He opened.
Two agents stood outside.
Badges.
One man.
One woman.
“Gabriel Costa?”
“Yes.”
“Special Agent Evelyn Price. This is Agent Holloway. We’d like to talk.”
“About?”
“Dominic Donati.”
Gabriel stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“You don’t enter the house.”
Price glanced at him.
“Why?”
“It isn’t mine.”
“Where’s your wife?”
“Not here.”
“The children?”
Gabriel’s stare hardened.
“Do not ask about them again.”
Holloway shifted slightly.
Price remained calm.
“We know Donati had someone following you.”
“Then you know why my family isn’t relevant.”
“We also know you threatened Donati forty-eight hours before his death.”
“I warned him not to approach my family.”
“Witnesses characterize it differently.”
“Witnesses lie.”
“You would know.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Price continued.
“You transferred control of the Costa organization days before Donati was killed. Some might call that convenient.”
“Some might.”
“Did you order the bombing?”
“No.”
“Did Luca Romano?”
“No.”
“You sound confident.”
“I am.”
“Would he tell you?”
“Yes.”
Price watched him carefully.
Gabriel understood interrogation.
Silence was a weapon.
He had used it himself.
Finally Price asked, “Why did you leave Chicago?”
Gabriel looked through the window.
A child’s drawing was taped to the wall.
Four stick figures.
Norah.
Thomas.
Sophia.
And a fourth figure recently added in black crayon.
Daddy.
“Because I found something more important.”
Price followed his gaze.
Her face changed slightly.
“You’re trying to disappear?”
“No.”
“Retire?”
“Yes.”
“Men in your position don’t retire.”
“So I keep hearing.”
“What if I told you there’s another way?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Cooperate.”
He laughed once.
“No.”
“You’re already halfway out.”
“No.”
“You have information that could dismantle organizations responsible for dozens of murders.”
“And put targets on my children.”
“We can protect them.”
Gabriel’s face went cold.
“I know what federal protection looks like. New names. New cities. Constant relocation. Norah already built that life once.”
Price did not ask how he knew.
“We can make a deal.”
“No.”
She handed him a card.
“If you change your mind.”
Gabriel did not take it.
Price placed it on the porch railing.
“Someone killed Donati. If the commission believes it was you, there may be retaliation. If law enforcement believes it was you, there may be charges. You’re running out of neutral ground.”
“I’ve never had neutral ground.”
The agents left.
At eight, Luca called.
“You were right.”
“Marco?”
“Explosives purchased through one of his shell construction companies.”
“Proof?”
“Enough.”
“Give it to the commission.”
“Anonymous?”
“Directly.”
“They’ll ask where I got it.”
“Tell them I found it.”
“That makes you look involved.”
“It makes me look useful.”
“And if Salerno denies it?”
“He will.”
“Then?”
“Donati’s driver saw Marco at the club?”
“Checking.”
At nine-thirty Luca called again.
“He did.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“Send everything.”
The commission meeting occurred at midnight Chicago time.
Gabriel joined by audio only.
Moretti spoke.
“Costa.”
“I didn’t kill Donati.”
Salerno interrupted.
“Convenient.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Marco Salerno ordered the bombing.”
Silence.
Salerno exploded.
“You lying son of—”
“Delivery van entered Donati’s garage at 9:42. Explosive compound was purchased through Bellini Construction, controlled by Marco. Donati’s driver saw Marco inside the club twenty minutes before departure.”
Moretti asked, “Evidence?”
Luca uploaded it.
For ten minutes nobody spoke.
Then Salerno disconnected.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
The commission no longer had reason to come after him.
But another conflict had begun inside Chicago.
One he had helped ignite simply by defending himself.
He ended the call.
His phone immediately rang again.
Norah.
“Are you safe?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“The children?”
“Asleep.”
Gabriel exhaled.
“It’s over.”
“For us?”
“I think so.”
“That doesn’t sound certain.”
“Nothing in that world is certain.”
“Then leave it.”
“I did.”
“No.”
Her voice softened.
“You physically left Chicago. Tonight you spent all day behaving like the boss again.”
Gabriel looked at the laptop.
She was right.
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Protect yourself.”
“That’s what I did.”
“I know.”
She was not criticizing him.
That made it worse.
Norah continued.
“But every time they call, you become him again.”
Gabriel looked at his blistered hands.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can’t pretend the past doesn’t exist.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then?”
“I want you to decide which direction your life faces.”
Gabriel understood.
For years, even while searching for Norah, he had faced Chicago.
Astoria had merely been something he looked toward.
Now he needed to turn around.
“I’m deleting Luca’s encrypted line.”
Norah paused.
“Don’t do something dramatic because I said—”
“I’m not.”
He opened the secure application.
“The commission has proof. Donati’s death is handled.”
“What if something else happens?”
“Something else will always happen.”
He pressed delete.
The encrypted network disappeared.
Gabriel felt a strange finality.
“Done.”
Norah was quiet.
Then she said, “Come home.”
Gabriel froze.
“What?”
“The children’s home.”
He understood the correction.
Still, the first two words echoed.
Come home.
“I’m driving back from Maggie’s. We’ll be there in forty minutes.”
“I’ll wait.”
When Norah arrived, Thomas was asleep.
Sophia was not.
The moment Gabriel opened her car door, she launched herself at him.
“Daddy!”
He caught her.
Norah lifted Thomas from the other side.
Thomas woke enough to see Gabriel.
“You came tomorrow.”
Gabriel looked at the clock.
12:48 a.m.
Technically tomorrow.
“Yes.”
Thomas smiled sleepily.
“Promise.”
Gabriel carried Sophia inside.
Norah carried Thomas.
For one brief moment, they moved through the doorway together like an ordinary family returning from a late trip.
No gunmen.
No empire.
No aliases mattered.
Gabriel tucked Sophia into bed.
Then Thomas.
At the hallway, Norah touched his arm.
He turned.
“Stay.”
Gabriel’s heart stopped.
Norah immediately looked toward the couch.
“On the couch.”
He smiled.
“I understood.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
She started walking away.
“Norah.”
She looked back.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For coming back.”
Her face softened.
“This is our home.”
Gabriel nodded.
He understood she meant herself and the children.
May you like
But as he lay on the couch later, with Thomas’s inhaler on the table and Sophia’s rabbit accidentally trapped beneath his shoulder, Gabriel allowed himself one quiet hope.
Someday, perhaps, the word our might include him too.
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