Chapter 8 - The Traitor at Gabriel’s TableGabriel locked down every Costa property within twenty minutes.
Nobody entered.
Nobody left.
Phones were surrendered.
Vehicles were disabled.
Security codes were changed.
Men who had served the Costa family for decades suddenly found themselves searched by younger guards.
Chloe watched the transformation from the hidden command center beneath the warehouse.
The man who had touched her face gently hours earlier disappeared.
In his place stood the crime boss Chicago feared.
Gabriel did not shout.
He did not threaten.
He simply gave orders.
That was worse.
“Only eleven people had access to that security override,” Vince said.
He displayed names across the main screen.
Gabriel read them.
“Three are dead.”
“Two were with us during the lake house assault.”
“Remove them.”
“Four have been under surveillance since dawn.”
“Leaving?”
Vince hesitated.
“Two.”
Names appeared.
MARCUS DELEON.
LUCA COSTA.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“Costa?”
“My cousin.”
Luca Costa.
Thirty-three.
Gabriel’s second cousin on his father’s side.
Chief financial officer for several legitimate Costa businesses.
Educated at Northwestern.
No criminal record.
No arrests.
No photographs in crime reports.
Exactly the kind of man nobody would suspect.
“Where is he?” Gabriel asked.
Vince checked.
“On his way here.”
Gabriel’s gaze sharpened.
“He volunteered to come?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You think that makes him guilty?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“It makes him confident.”
Fifteen minutes later, Luca entered.
He looked nothing like Gabriel.
Blond-brown hair.
Expensive navy suit.
Easy smile.
He stopped when he saw Chloe.
“So the rumors are true.”
Gabriel’s expression remained cold.
“What rumors?”
“That you finally met someone capable of making you irrational.”
Chloe almost disliked him immediately.
Almost.
Luca extended a hand.
“Luca Costa.”
Chloe did not take it.
“Chloe Harper.”
His smile flickered.
“You know my name.”
“Yes.”
“Then this meeting is probably less social than I hoped.”
Gabriel pointed toward a chair.
“Sit.”
Luca obeyed.
Vince stood behind him.
Gabriel placed the security-access report on the table.
“The Skokie storage unit was opened with a Costa override.”
Luca looked at the document.
“And?”
“Your credential was used.”
Luca’s face changed.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
“My access token is encrypted.”
“So is mine.”
Luca looked toward Vince.
“When?”
“Eleven sixteen this morning.”
“I was at the Monroe office.”
Gabriel nodded.
“We checked.”
“And?”
“Security cameras show you entering at ten forty.”
Luca relaxed slightly.
“There you go.”
“They also show you leaving at eleven.”
His smile disappeared.
“Where did you go?”
“Lunch.”
“Where?”
“RPM Italian.”
“Reservation?”
“I didn’t make one.”
“Receipt?”
“Cash.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Convenient.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“You think I betrayed you?”
“I think somebody did.”
“And because my name appeared on a computer—”
“You had access.”
“So did others.”
“Only two possibilities remain.”
Luca looked at the screen.
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
Luca laughed once.
“Then arrest Marcus.”
“We did.”
“And?”
“He was shot in his apartment thirty minutes ago.”
Silence.
Chloe understood.
Somebody was cleaning up loose ends.
Luca looked genuinely shaken.
Gabriel watched him.
Then Chloe noticed something.
Luca’s right hand.
A faint scratch across his knuckles.
Dark red.
Fresh.
“You’re bleeding.”
Everyone looked at her.
Luca glanced down.
“Paper cut.”
“That isn’t a paper cut.”
He smiled weakly.
“You’re a veterinarian.”
“I know what torn skin looks like.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
Luca immediately moved back.
Wrong move.
Vince grabbed him.
“Hey!”
Gabriel seized Luca’s hand.
Embedded near the cut was a tiny flake of blue paint.
Chloe remembered the Skokie facility.
The storage unit doors.
Blue.
Gabriel saw recognition on her face.
“You saw that color?”
“Yes.”
Luca suddenly drove his elbow backward into Vince.
Chaos exploded.
He reached beneath his jacket.
Gabriel hit him before the weapon cleared the holster.
The two men crashed into the table.
Vince recovered and slammed Luca against the wall.
A pistol fell.
Gabriel pressed Luca’s face against the concrete.
“Why?”
Luca laughed.
Blood stained his teeth.
“You always thought you were smarter than everyone.”
Gabriel’s grip tightened.
“Why?”
“Because your father stole everything from mine.”
“Your father died wealthy.”
“He died serving Matteo Costa.”
“Carlo betrayed him.”
Luca’s eyes burned.
“My father chose the winning side.”
“Moretti lost.”
“Not yet.”
Gabriel pulled Luca away from the wall.
“Where is Madison Harper?”
Luca smiled.
“Ask Salvatore.”
Gabriel struck him.
Chloe flinched.
“Gabriel.”
He ignored her.
“Where?”
Luca spat blood.
“Midnight.”
Gabriel hit him again.
“Gabriel!”
This time Chloe grabbed his arm.
He turned.
Rage filled his face.
“He helped take your sister.”
“And killing him won’t bring her back.”
“He knows where she is.”
“Then make him talk.”
“I am.”
“No. You’re making yourself feel better.”
That stopped him.
Luca laughed.
“She understands you already.”
Gabriel looked at him with murder in his eyes.
Chloe stepped between them.
“Luca.”
He looked at her.
“You went to my mother’s storage unit.”
Silence.
“You found the second key.”
Still nothing.
“Moretti needs all three.”
A faint reaction.
There.
Chloe continued.
“You don’t know where the third is.”
Luca smiled.
“Neither do you.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“So are you.”
His eyes narrowed.
Chloe moved closer.
“My father designed the system so neither family could control everything.”
“Your father was a coward.”
“My father managed to keep Moretti searching for fourteen years.”
Luca’s smile vanished.
“Where is the second key?” Chloe asked.
“Go to hell.”
“Then Moretti doesn’t have it.”
Gabriel understood.
“If Moretti had the second key, Luca would brag.”
Vince nodded.
Luca went still.
Chloe looked down at him.
“You stole it.”
“No.”
“You planned to trade it yourself.”
Silence.
Gabriel smiled without warmth.
“Greedy.”
Luca’s confidence cracked.
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know Moretti never trusted your father.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“And he doesn’t trust you.”
Luca breathed harder.
“Where is it?”
Nothing.
Gabriel straightened.
“Search his properties.”
Vince began issuing orders.
Luca laughed.
“You’ll never find it before midnight.”
Chloe studied him.
Something was wrong.
Too confident.
She looked at his suit.
Then his watch.
His shoes.
A dark stain on the edge of the sole.
Not mud.
Grease.
Industrial grease.
“Where did you park?”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“When you came here.”
“Garage.”
“What car?”
He hesitated.
Gabriel looked toward Vince.
“Check it.”
Luca surged against the guards.
Too late.
Vince left.
Three minutes later he returned carrying a small black case.
Luca’s face collapsed.
Inside was another USB drive.
Key two.
Chloe exhaled.
Gabriel looked at her.
“You noticed grease.”
“My clinic shoes looked like that every time the loading-bay door needed repair.”
Luca glared at her.
“I hate veterinarians.”
“Dogs usually like me.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Then Chloe remembered the third clue.
Where the Costa and Harper blood first became connected.
“What does that mean?”
Elena had explained the business partnership.
But blood?
Not business.
Blood.
She looked at Gabriel.
“Did your father ever get injured around mine?”
Gabriel frowned.
“Many times.”
“Anything significant?”
He thought.
Then stopped.
“When I was eight.”
“What happened?”
“My father was shot.”
“Where?”
“At the old South Branch warehouse.”
Chloe’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Who saved him?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“David Harper.”
Blood first connected.
Her father had saved Gabriel’s father.
“Where is the warehouse?”
Vince answered.
“Still Costa property.”
Gabriel checked the time.
Three hours until midnight.
“We move now.”
Luca laughed behind them.
“You’re too late.”
Gabriel turned.
“Why?”
Luca smiled.
“Because Salvatore knows the clue too.”
The old South Branch warehouse sat beside the Chicago River like a rusted monument.
By the time Gabriel’s team arrived, fire was already consuming one side of the building.
“Moretti’s men,” Vince said.
Gabriel cursed.
Chloe stared at the flames.
“The key is in there.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Yes, we do.”
Gabriel grabbed her arm.
“You are not entering a burning warehouse.”
“There are firefighters coming.”
“That building may collapse.”
“My sister has less than three hours.”
“Chloe.”
She looked at him.
“If it were me Moretti had taken, would you walk into that building?”
Gabriel said nothing.
“That’s what I thought.”
He hated her logic.
“Stay beside me.”
They entered through a side door with two guards.
Smoke rolled along the ceiling.
Gabriel covered Chloe’s mouth with a cloth.
“Your father was shot near the old loading office.”
They moved through debris.
A section of roof collapsed behind them.
Chloe’s heart pounded.
Finally they reached a concrete office separated from the main warehouse.
On the wall was an old photograph frame.
Matteo Costa standing beside David Harper.
Both covered in blood.
Below it was a plaque.
LOYALTY IS PAID IN BLOOD.
Chloe pulled the frame away.
Nothing.
Gabriel examined the plaque.
It moved.
Behind it sat a tiny safe.
Chloe entered her father’s birthday.
Nothing.
Gabriel tried Matteo’s.
Nothing.
Then Chloe looked at the photograph.
Two men.
Blood.
Connection.
“What date was your father shot?”
Gabriel remembered.
“October seventeenth.”
She entered 1017.
The safe opened.
Inside was a third USB drive.
Gabriel stared.
“We have all three.”
Chloe grabbed it.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
“Move!” Gabriel shouted.
They escaped through the loading bay seconds before a fuel line ignited.
The explosion threw them onto the pavement.
Gabriel covered Chloe with his body.
Again.
When the ringing faded, she opened her eyes.
He was above her.
Smoke behind him.
Blood along his forehead.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“You?”
“Fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Later.”
Vince ran toward them.
“Boss!”
“We have it.”
Gabriel held up the drive.
Vince looked relieved.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
“Moretti moved the meeting.”
Chloe’s stomach tightened.
“To where?”
“He sent coordinates.”
“Midnight?”
“No.”
Vince looked at Chloe.
“Thirty minutes.”
Chloe stared.
“We can’t decrypt three drives in thirty minutes.”
Gabriel’s eyes went cold.
“Then we don’t.”
“What?”
“We give Moretti exactly what he asked for.”
May you like
He took the drives.
“And make sure he lives long enough to regret it.”
