Chapter 4 - The Man Who Sold Them OutDawn came to Lake Michigan without sunlight.
A wall of gray clouds still covered the horizon, turning the water beyond Gabriel Costa’s shattered mansion into a sheet of black steel. Smoke drifted from the ruined sunroom. Broken glass glittered across the marble floor, and somewhere beneath the main staircase, a damaged security alarm emitted a weak electronic chirp every few seconds.
Chloe Harper stood in the middle of the destruction with dried blood on her hands again.
This time, most of it was not Brutus’s.
Three of Gabriel’s security men had been injured during the assault. One had taken a bullet through the upper arm, another had been struck by flying glass, and Vince had a deep cut stretching from his temple to the corner of his jaw.
Chloe had spent the last hour turning one of the mansion’s dining tables into an improvised treatment station.
“Hold still,” she ordered.
Vince sat in a chair while Chloe cleaned the wound on his face.
The enormous enforcer actually obeyed.
“You know,” he muttered, “most people don’t tell me what to do.”
“Most people probably aren’t holding a needle near your eye.”
Vince considered this.
“Fair point.”
Across the room, Gabriel stood with a phone pressed to his ear.
He had changed nothing about his appearance since the fight. His white shirt was stained with soot and blood. A tear along the shoulder exposed a thin line of skin beneath it, and a bruise was already forming across his jaw.
Yet he somehow looked more dangerous than he had before the attack.
Maybe because he was quiet.
Chloe had learned that Gabriel Costa was most frightening when he stopped raising his voice.
“Lock down the northern properties,” he said into the phone. “Move the families connected to the senior crews. Nobody travels alone. Nobody uses their regular vehicles.”
A pause.
“And find Reynolds.”
Chloe’s hand stopped.
Gabriel noticed.
Even across a room filled with wounded men, damaged furniture, and armed guards, he noticed the smallest change in her expression.
He ended the call.
“Vince.”
“Boss?”
“Finish later.”
Vince looked between them, understood immediately, and stood.
Chloe glared at him.
“I’m not done stitching your face.”
“I suddenly feel much better.”
He disappeared.
Coward.
Gabriel crossed the room slowly.
“Chloe.”
“You’re going to kill him.”
Gabriel did not pretend otherwise.
“If Reynolds gave Moretti our clinic location, men died because of him.”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
“I know enough.”
“No. You know what you think happened.”
His eyes hardened.
“That is usually enough in my world.”
“Then maybe your world is the problem.”
The words left Chloe’s mouth before common sense could stop them.
The room went silent.
Two guards near the doorway suddenly became extremely interested in examining the floor.
Gabriel stared at her.
Chloe folded her arms.
She was terrified.
But she refused to show it.
After several long seconds, something almost amused flickered in Gabriel’s expression.
“You’ve known me less than twenty-four hours.”
“And somehow I already know when you’re about to do something stupid.”
One guard coughed.
Gabriel looked toward him.
The man immediately walked outside.
When Gabriel returned his attention to Chloe, he was standing close enough that she had to tilt her head back.
“Thomas Reynolds sold my location.”
“Then find out why.”
“I already told you why. Gambling debt.”
“That explains why he might betray you. It doesn’t explain everything.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean?”
Chloe took a breath.
“At the clinic, Moretti’s men arrived fast. Really fast. Reynolds could have sent the message after you arrived. Fine.”
She pointed toward the ruined mansion.
“But this?”
Gabriel said nothing.
“They reached a private lakefront estate before sunrise with transport vans, explosives, tactical equipment, and enough men to assault a fortress. You said Reynolds only knew about the clinic.”
A new stillness entered Gabriel’s face.
Chloe continued.
“So how did Moretti know we were coming here?”
Gabriel turned his head slowly toward the windows.
For the first time, anger disappeared from his face.
Something colder replaced it.
Calculation.
“Someone else told them.”
“Exactly.”
Gabriel immediately pulled out his phone.
“Vince!”
The enforcer returned almost instantly.
“You heard?”
“Most of it.”
“Pull every access log from the estate. Security rotations. GPS records. Gate authorizations. Anyone who knew we used this location after emergencies.”
Vince’s expression darkened.
“That’s a short list.”
“Make it shorter.”
Before Vince could answer, headlights appeared beyond the damaged security gates.
Three black SUVs approached.
Every armed man in the room reacted.
Weapons came up.
Gabriel stepped in front of Chloe automatically.
“Identification,” he ordered.
A voice sounded through Vince’s earpiece.
His shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Our people.”
The vehicles stopped in the courtyard.
Two men emerged first.
Then a third door opened.
Dr. Thomas Reynolds stumbled out.
His hands were bound.
His face was gray with terror.
Chloe’s stomach dropped.
“Gabriel.”
He ignored her.
The clinic veterinarian was dragged through the front doors and forced to his knees on the ruined marble.
“Mr. Costa, please.”
Reynolds’s voice cracked.
“I can explain.”
Gabriel approached him.
The entire room seemed to shrink around the two men.
“Then explain.”
Reynolds looked at Chloe.
Shame filled his face.
“I’m sorry.”
Gabriel grabbed the front of his jacket.
“Look at me.”
Reynolds obeyed.
“I owed money,” he whispered.
“How much?”
“Forty-seven thousand.”
“To whom?”
“A bookmaker connected to Cicero.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“And Moretti paid the debt?”
Reynolds nodded.
“He contacted me months ago. He said if you ever came through the clinic, I should send a number a message. That was all.”
“You endangered everyone in that building for forty-seven thousand dollars?”
Reynolds broke down.
“I didn’t know they would shoot the place!”
Gabriel pulled his pistol.
Chloe moved immediately.
She stepped between them.
Every man in the room froze.
Gabriel looked at her as though she had lost her mind.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“Kill him after he tells us everything.”
Reynolds stared at her.
Gabriel’s nostrils flared.
“You think I need interrogation advice now?”
“I think angry men make terrible detectives.”
Vince turned away, possibly hiding a smile.
Gabriel lowered the gun by one inch.
“Everything,” he told Reynolds. “Now.”
Reynolds swallowed.
“There was another message.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“When?”
“After you left the clinic.”
“What did it say?”
Reynolds closed his eyes.
“It said, ‘The veterinarian goes with Costa. Phase two confirmed.’”
Chloe felt ice crawl along her spine.
“The veterinarian?”
Gabriel repeated it.
Reynolds nodded.
“They knew about Chloe.”
Gabriel slowly looked toward her.
Chloe could barely breathe.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Reynolds shook his head rapidly.
“I swear I never gave them her name. I only sent the code that Costa had arrived. The response came immediately.”
“What number?” Vince demanded.
“A burner.”
“Do you have it?”
“My phone.”
One of the guards handed Vince a clear evidence bag.
Vince removed Reynolds’s phone, scrolled through it, and frowned.
“Message is here.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Vince showed him.
Chloe watched Gabriel’s face change.
Not fear.
Gabriel Costa probably did not allow himself fear.
But something dangerously close appeared.
“They weren’t tracking me,” Chloe whispered.
Gabriel looked at her.
“They were waiting to see if you left with me.”
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
Brutus entered the room.
The massive dog moved slowly because of his injuries, but the moment he saw Chloe, he crossed directly toward her.
She dropped to one knee.
“You’re supposed to be resting.”
Brutus ignored the criticism and pushed his head beneath her hand.
For several seconds, Chloe concentrated on the familiar warmth of the animal beneath her fingers.
Something solid.
Something uncomplicated.
Dogs did not lie about what they wanted.
People did.
Behind her, Gabriel issued orders.
“Search Reynolds’s accounts. Trace the number. I want every tower ping, every encrypted server, every contact connected to it.”
Vince nodded.
Gabriel looked down at Reynolds.
“And take him downstairs.”
Reynolds panicked.
“No. Please.”
Chloe stood.
“Gabriel.”
“He stays alive.”
She studied him.
“For now?”
“For as long as he remains useful.”
It was not mercy.
But it was more than she had expected.
Two guards led Reynolds away.
When everyone else had moved, Gabriel approached Chloe.
His hand settled on the back of her neck.
“Pack.”
Her heart tightened.
“What?”
“We’re leaving.”
“Where?”
“A location only three people know exists.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
He glanced toward Vince.
“Vince.”
Then his eyes returned to Chloe.
“And soon, you.”
A strange warmth moved through her despite everything.
“You trust me with one of your secret locations?”
“I trusted you with Brutus.”
The dog gave a quiet huff.
Gabriel almost smiled.
“That means more.”
Thirty minutes later, the convoy left the damaged estate.
Chloe sat beside Gabriel in the rear of an armored SUV while Brutus lay across the floor between their feet.
She watched the mansion disappear behind pine trees.
Twenty-four hours earlier, her biggest fear had been missing a student loan payment.
Now an organized crime family was hunting her by name.
Gabriel sat beside her in silence, his hand resting close to hers on the seat.
Neither of them touched.
For several miles, Chloe watched rain slide down the dark windows.
Finally she spoke.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“What if Moretti knew who I was before last night?”
His jaw tightened.
“Then I find out why.”
“And if I don’t like the answer?”
Gabriel turned toward her.
“You probably won’t.”
The honesty frightened her more than reassurance would have.
Two hours later, they arrived beneath an abandoned warehouse near the Chicago River.
A concealed hydraulic door opened in the concrete floor, allowing the SUVs to descend into an underground garage.
Beyond it was an entire hidden residence.
Medical facilities.
Weapons storage.
Sleeping quarters.
Security screens.
A command center.
Gabriel led Chloe through the corridors.
“This was built by my father during the federal investigations in the nineties.”
“Comforting.”
“You’ll be safe here.”
Chloe stopped.
“I’m beginning to think you use that word differently than everyone else.”
Gabriel turned.
Before he could respond, Vince emerged from the command room.
His face had lost all color.
“Boss.”
Gabriel read the expression immediately.
“What did you find?”
Vince held a folder.
“Reynolds’s burner number bounced through three servers. But we recovered one recurring payment account linked to Moretti.”
“And?”
“The account is attached to a shell corporation.”
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened.
“Whose?”
Vince hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Gabriel’s voice became dangerously soft.
“Say it.”
“Harper Consulting.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Gabriel looked at her.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Vince opened the folder.
“The corporation was registered eighteen years ago.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
Chloe stared at it.
Her knees almost gave way.
The man in the photograph was younger than she remembered him.
Brown hair.
Gentle eyes.
The same crooked smile she saw every morning when she looked in the mirror.
Her father.
David Harper.
He had died when Chloe was twelve.
At least, that was what she had always believed.
May you like
Vince’s next words tore the floor out from beneath her.
“Your father worked for Moretti.”
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