Chapter 5 - The Dead Man’s LedgerChloe stared at her father’s photograph until the room disappeared.
The underground command center faded into meaningless shadows.
The armed men.
The glowing security screens.
The quiet hum of ventilation.
Even Gabriel.
For one impossible moment, Chloe was twelve years old again, sitting on the carpet of her childhood home while her mother explained that her father had been killed in a car accident outside Joliet.
She remembered the rain that day.
Her mother crying in the kitchen.
A closed casket because the damage had supposedly been too severe.
She remembered asking why her father would have been driving on that road.
Her mother had said he had been meeting a client.
Harper Consulting.
Of course.
Her father had been an accountant.
A small-business accountant.
That was what Chloe had always been told.
She touched the photograph with trembling fingers.
“This is impossible.”
Vince remained silent.
Gabriel dismissed the other men with one glance.
The command room emptied.
Only Vince stayed.
“What exactly did you find?” Gabriel asked.
Vince opened a laptop.
“Harper Consulting was established nineteen years ago. On paper it offered accounting and logistics consulting. In reality, it moved money through import companies associated with Moretti-controlled warehouses.”
Chloe looked at him.
“My father laundered money?”
“We don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“I said the company moved money. That doesn’t mean your father understood everything when he started.”
Gabriel watched her carefully.
“Keep going.”
Vince nodded.
“Sixteen years ago, transactions changed. Harper Consulting began transferring small amounts into offshore holding companies Moretti didn’t control.”
Gabriel leaned toward the screen.
“How small?”
“Fifty thousand here. Seventy there. Never enough to trigger immediate alarms.”
“Total?”
“Over three years? Almost nine million.”
Chloe’s mouth went dry.
“My father stole nine million dollars?”
“Maybe.”
Gabriel studied the records.
“Or he was building something.”
Vince opened another file.
“There’s more.”
Chloe almost laughed.
Of course there was.
Her dead father apparently had an entire second life.
Why not add more?
“Three months before David Harper died, he contacted a federal prosecutor.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“He was turning informant.”
“Looks that way.”
Vince pulled up a scanned record.
“He requested immunity for himself, his wife, and two daughters.”
Chloe went still.
“Two daughters?”
Vince frowned.
“You have a sister.”
“Madison.”
Fear hit Chloe like a physical blow.
Madison.
Twenty-two years old.
Living alone in Evanston.
Working as a kindergarten teacher.
Entirely unaware that the sister who normally complained about overtime and debt was currently hidden beneath Chicago with an armed syndicate boss.
Chloe grabbed her phone.
“No signal down here,” Gabriel said.
“Then give me one that works.”
“Chloe.”
“My sister may be in danger.”
Gabriel immediately handed her a secure phone.
She dialed Madison’s number from memory.
It rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
“Pick up.”
Four times.
Then—
“Hello?”
Chloe almost collapsed with relief.
“Madison.”
“Chloe?”
Her sister sounded sleepy.
“Why are you calling from a weird number? It’s barely seven.”
“I need you to listen carefully.”
Gabriel watched Chloe from across the table.
“I need you to leave your apartment.”
“What?”
“Now.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain everything.”
“Chloe, are you okay?”
No.
Nothing was okay.
“I’m fine.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
She ignored him.
“I need you to get dressed, take your identification, and go downstairs. There will be someone waiting for you.”
Madison was silent.
“What kind of someone?”
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
He already had his phone out.
“Someone safe.”
This time Gabriel almost smiled.
“Chloe, you’re scaring me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Please trust me.”
A long pause.
Then Madison sighed.
“Okay.”
“Don’t tell anyone where you’re going.”
“Where am I going?”
Chloe covered the phone.
Gabriel answered without hesitation.
“My mother’s house.”
Chloe stared at him.
“Your mother?”
“Safest civilian residence in Cook County.”
“You have a mother?”
Vince coughed into his fist.
Gabriel slowly turned toward him.
Vince became very interested in the laptop.
Chloe returned to the call.
“Someone is taking you to a protected house.”
“Protected from what?”
“I’ll explain when I can.”
“Chloe—”
“I love you.”
Madison became quiet.
“I love you too.”
When the call ended, Chloe set the phone down.
Her hands shook.
Gabriel reached for her.
She stepped back.
The movement hurt him.
She saw it.
But she could not let herself care.
“Did you know?”
His gaze sharpened.
“About your father?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re Gabriel Costa. You know everybody’s secrets.”
“Not everybody’s.”
“Apparently Moretti knew mine.”
“That is exactly what I intend to understand.”
Chloe looked at the photograph again.
“My father died fourteen years ago. Why would Moretti care about me now?”
Vince spoke carefully.
“Because the nine million dollars was never recovered.”
Chloe stared.
Gabriel finished the thought.
“And neither was the evidence your father intended to give the government.”
A cold silence filled the room.
Chloe whispered, “A ledger.”
“Probably digital,” Vince said. “Maybe physical. Maybe both.”
“My father left something behind.”
“And Moretti thinks you know where it is,” Gabriel said.
“I was twelve.”
“He may believe your father gave your mother instructions.”
“My mother died six years ago.”
“Then you and Madison are the only people left.”
Chloe sank into a chair.
Brutus, who had been sleeping near the doorway, rose slowly and crossed toward her.
He pressed his heavy head against her thigh.
She buried her fingers in his fur.
Her father.
Her mother.
Her sister.
Everything she believed about her family was unraveling.
Gabriel moved to the chair across from her instead of coming closer.
For once, he gave her space.
“What do you remember about your father’s death?”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“Not much.”
“Try.”
“He left on a Friday morning. My mother was angry with him.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they argue?”
“Yes.”
“Words?”
Chloe searched through old memories.
Fragments surfaced.
A kitchen.
Her father wearing his gray coat.
Her mother whispering harshly because she thought the girls were asleep.
“I remember my mother saying, ‘You promised this was over.’”
Gabriel exchanged a look with Vince.
“What else?”
“My father said he was fixing it.”
Chloe’s chest tightened.
“He said something about keeping us safe.”
“Anything about documents?”
She shook her head.
Then stopped.
A memory surfaced.
Her father kneeling beside her bed the night before he died.
He had given Chloe a small wooden music box.
Dark cherrywood.
A silver horse engraved on the lid.
She had forgotten about it for years.
“My music box.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“What?”
“He gave me a music box.”
“Where is it?”
Chloe’s face drained.
“At my apartment.”
Gabriel stood immediately.
“No.”
“What?”
“You’re not going there.”
“If there’s something inside—”
“Then my men retrieve it.”
“You don’t even know where I keep it.”
“You tell them.”
“No.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Chloe.”
“My father gave it to me. If there’s something inside, I’m the one opening it.”
“Moretti may already have people watching your building.”
“Then we go carefully.”
“We?”
“Yes.”
“You are not going.”
She rose.
“You don’t own me.”
Something dark flashed through Gabriel’s eyes.
“I know.”
It surprised her.
His voice lowered.
“I said things last night that I shouldn’t have.”
Chloe stared at him.
Gabriel Costa apologizing might have been more shocking than discovering her father laundered millions.
He continued.
“When I say you are mine, what I mean is that I will protect you as if my life depends on it.”
“That still sounds possessive.”
“It is.”
“Gabriel.”
“I’m working on it.”
Vince suddenly found a reason to leave.
“I’ll prepare vehicles.”
The moment he disappeared, Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“You can’t decide my entire life.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“Then teach me how to survive instead of locking me in rooms.”
That stopped him.
Chloe stepped closer.
“I don’t want guards deciding when I eat, where I sleep, and who I’m allowed to call. If Moretti is hunting me, I need to understand the danger.”
Gabriel studied her.
“You want to learn my world.”
“No.”
She held his gaze.
“I want to survive it.”
Something almost proud entered his face.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“You come with us.”
Chloe blinked.
“That was easier than expected.”
“I haven’t explained the conditions.”
“There it is.”
“You wear armor.”
“Fine.”
“You stay beside me.”
“Fine.”
“If I say run, you run.”
She hesitated.
“Chloe.”
“Fine.”
“And you do not touch a weapon unless someone gives you one.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Gabriel moved closer.
Their bodies nearly touched.
“What about when I tell you to get behind me?”
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Whether you’re being sensible.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“You are going to shorten my life.”
“Statistically, your profession is already doing that.”
A laugh escaped him.
A real laugh.
It transformed his entire face.
For one dangerous second, Chloe forgot about Moretti.
Then Gabriel leaned down.
His forehead rested gently against hers.
“I nearly watched you die twice last night.”
His voice had changed.
The powerful syndicate leader disappeared.
A man remained.
“I don’t know how to handle that.”
Chloe’s anger softened.
“You don’t get to handle it by controlling me.”
“I know.”
“You have to trust me.”
“That is worse.”
“Why?”
“Because trust means I can lose something.”
Her heart stopped.
Gabriel lifted his head.
His hand brushed her cheek.
“I have spent my entire adult life making sure I had nothing anyone could use against me.”
Chloe whispered, “And then I walked into a clinic.”
“No.”
His eyes moved toward Brutus.
“You saved the thing I already loved.”
Then back to her.
“And somehow became the second.”
Chloe forgot how to breathe.
Gabriel did not kiss her.
Maybe that was what made the moment more intimate.
He simply stood there.
Letting the truth exist between them.
An hour later, the convoy surfaced from the underground garage.
They traveled toward Chloe’s apartment in two decoy groups.
Vince drove.
Gabriel sat beside Chloe in the rear seat.
Brutus had been left with the medical team, much to his obvious displeasure.
As they approached her neighborhood, Chloe felt reality returning.
The laundromat.
The corner grocery store.
The coffee shop where she sometimes bought a muffin after night shifts.
Her normal life.
It looked unbearably fragile now.
Vince slowed.
“Something’s wrong.”
Gabriel immediately reached beneath his jacket.
“What?”
“No pedestrians.”
Chloe looked outside.
It was morning.
There should have been people.
Dog walkers.
Delivery drivers.
The old man from apartment 2B smoking beside the entrance.
Nobody.
Then Chloe saw it.
Her apartment window.
Third floor.
Broken.
“Gabriel.”
“I see it.”
The SUV stopped.
A second vehicle blocked the street behind them.
Gabriel reached for Chloe.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
She looked through the windshield.
Her front door was hanging open.
And painted across it in black letters were four words.
WHERE IS THE LEDGER?
Chloe felt her blood turn cold.
Gabriel stared at the message.
Then another detail appeared.
Something had been nailed to the center of the door.
A photograph.
Gabriel walked forward and pulled it free.
His expression changed instantly.
“What is it?”
He did not answer.
Chloe grabbed the photograph from his hand.
It showed Madison leaving her apartment that morning.
Taken from across the street.
At the bottom, someone had written:
ONE SISTER IS ENOUGH.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“My sister.”
Gabriel was already reaching for his phone.
“Vince.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Confirm Madison arrived.”
Vince called.
Seconds passed.
His face darkened.
“She never made it.”
Chloe’s stomach dropped.
“What?”
“The escort vehicle was found abandoned three blocks from her apartment.”
Gabriel’s voice became lethal.
“Where is Madison?”
May you like
Vince slowly lowered the phone.
“We don’t know.”
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