Chapter 5 - A Price on Nora RossiTechnically, Nora was not Nora Rossi.
The distinction mattered to her.
Apparently, it did not matter to whoever created the file on Colin’s flash drive.
At the top of a twenty-three-page intelligence report, beneath a grainy photograph of Nora leaving Gabriel’s penthouse, someone had typed:
NORA ROSSI — PRIMARY LEVERAGE ASSET.
She stared at the words for almost a full minute.
Gabriel stood behind her.
Leo remained near the door.
Nobody spoke.
Finally, Nora leaned back in the chair.
“I dislike the surname less than the description.”
Gabriel did not smile.
“What description?”
“Asset.”
“I dislike both.”
Nora looked up.
“You object to me being a Rossi?”
“I object to someone assigning my name.”
“Interesting philosophy from a man who spent years introducing me as his.”
Gabriel’s mouth tightened.
Leo found something fascinating on the floor.
Nora returned to the report.
The file contained photographs.
Dozens.
Nora at restaurants.
Nora entering shops.
Nora stepping into Gabriel’s SUV.
Nora walking beside Leo through the dockyards.
Nora standing on the penthouse balcony.
Some photographs were months old.
Others had been taken within the previous week.
The detail was extraordinary.
Her preferred coffee.
The route she used for morning walks.
The salon she visited.
The gym she had stopped attending six months earlier.
The names of two friends from her old life.
Even the fact that she disliked elevators when crowded.
Gabriel read the information over her shoulder.
With every page, his anger became quieter.
Nora had learned this was when he was most dangerous.
“What does PRIMARY mean?” she asked.
Leo opened another document.
“There are four leverage categories.”
“Who else?”
“Me.”
Leo’s expression remained neutral.
“Gabriel’s attorney. His accountant.”
He looked toward Gabriel.
“And Nora.”
Gabriel’s voice was flat.
“She is not leverage.”
Leo did not respond.
Nora did.
“We established that I am.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“This is not the time.”
“It is exactly the time.”
She turned the laptop.
“Someone spent months documenting my life because they believe hurting me can control you.”
“They are wrong.”
“Are they?”
“Yes.”
“If they kidnapped me and demanded one warehouse?”
Gabriel did not answer.
“One route?”
Silence.
“One million dollars?”
His jaw hardened.
Nora nodded.
“That is the problem.”
“I would give them nothing.”
Leo glanced at him.
Nora almost laughed.
“Gabriel.”
“I would give them nothing.”
“And then?”
“I would find you.”
“How?”
“By removing everyone between me and your location.”
“That is still leverage.”
Gabriel leaned over the desk.
“Semantics.”
“It is strategy.”
Nora closed the laptop.
“They know how you react.”
“They believe they know.”
“That may be enough.”
Gabriel turned toward Leo.
“Who owns Hale Strategic?”
“We’re working on it.”
“Work faster.”
Leo nodded.
“The company’s registered through three shells. Final holding company is in Delaware.”
“Directors?”
“Nominees.”
“Clients?”
“Mostly corporations, political campaigns, private wealth.”
“Find former employees.”
“Already started.”
Gabriel looked toward Nora.
“You are not leaving the penthouse.”
Nora sighed.
“We were doing so well.”
“I am not negotiating this.”
“That sentence means we are definitely negotiating it.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked toward Leo.
“Leave.”
Leo was gone before the final consonant.
Gabriel closed the door.
“Nora, there is a file describing how to abduct you.”
“Yes.”
“There are diagrams of our building.”
“Yes.”
“Photographs of your friends.”
“I saw them.”
“And you think I am allowing you to walk outside?”
“Allowing.”
Gabriel closed his eyes briefly.
“Wrong word.”
“Wrong instinct.”
His eyes opened.
“I cannot learn restraint while someone actively plans your murder.”
“Kidnapping.”
“That is your comforting distinction?”
“I am saying that disappearing inside this penthouse proves their assessment correct.”
“How?”
“They think I am passive.”
Gabriel laughed.
“No one who has met you thinks that.”
“They have not met me.”
Nora stood.
“They have watched me.”
“Yes.”
“And apparently learned very little.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What are you proposing?”
“I continue my schedule.”
“No.”
“With adjustments.”
“No.”
“Additional security.”
“No.”
“Different routes.”
“No.”
“Then why did you ask what I proposed?”
“I hoped you might propose something intelligent.”
Nora smiled coldly.
“I am going to pretend that was fear speaking.”
“It was.”
The admission silenced her.
Gabriel approached.
There was no anger in his expression now.
Only something rawer.
“I have spent most of my life making certain people fear losing things.”
His voice lowered.
“I did not understand the other side until you.”
Nora’s face softened.
Gabriel continued.
“Every door you walk through becomes something I calculate.”
He touched the platinum ring.
“Every unfamiliar vehicle. Every delay. Every telephone call after midnight.”
His thumb moved across the metal.
“I know it is not healthy.”
Nora almost smiled.
“That is an understatement.”
“But I also know what people in my world do.”
“So do I.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You understand violence.”
His voice hardened slightly.
“You still do not understand how patient monsters can be.”
Nora’s expression changed.
“You think I do not understand patient monsters?”
The words struck him instantly.
Gabriel released her hand.
“That was not what I meant.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Nora looked away.
“Colin taught me one version.”
Then back at Gabriel.
“You taught me another.”
He frowned.
“What version?”
“That dangerous men can be honest.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“I am uncertain whether that is a compliment.”
“It is the best you are receiving.”
Nora stepped closer.
“I will not be reckless.”
“Define reckless.”
“I will use guards.”
“Six.”
“Three.”
“Five.”
“Four.”
“Agreed.”
She blinked.
“That was suspiciously easy.”
“Because the other eight will be invisible.”
“Gabriel.”
“Four visible.”
Nora stared.
Then shook her head.
“You are impossible.”
“You are alive.”
The compromise began the next morning.
Nora left the penthouse at nine.
Four visible guards.
Unknown additional surveillance.
Her first destination was the same bookstore from the photograph.
Gabriel nearly objected.
Then understood why she had chosen it.
Running from the location would transform it into something frightening.
Nora refused.
She spent forty minutes browsing.
Purchased two books.
Drank coffee.
Nothing happened.
Her second destination was the offices of the Rossi Foundation.
The foundation had existed for years as one of Gabriel’s more respectable instruments.
It funded neighborhood programs, hospitals, and scholarships.
Some of the money was genuinely charitable.
Some cleaned profits.
Most accomplished both.
Nora had recently begun reviewing its operations.
By noon, she was inside a conference room discussing a youth employment program when her telephone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She ignored it.
It rang again.
She ignored it again.
A message appeared.
You still choose men who hurt people.
Nora’s body went cold.
She did not show it.
The meeting continued another ten minutes.
Then she excused herself.
The message remained.
Her first instinct was to call Gabriel.
Her second instinct hated that first instinct.
She stood alone in the hallway and stared at the screen.
Then another message appeared.
Ask him what happened to Michael Bellini.
Nora frowned.
She knew the name.
Barely.
Michael Bellini had once been one of Gabriel’s accountants.
He disappeared three years earlier.
Officially, he moved overseas.
Unofficially, Nora had never asked.
A third message arrived.
Ask what Gabriel does to people who stop being useful.
Nora’s fingers tightened around the phone.
The manipulation was obvious.
That did not make it ineffective.
She called Gabriel.
He answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Foundation office.”
“What happened?”
“How did you know something happened?”
“You never call me during meetings.”
Nora looked through the glass doors toward her guards.
“I received messages.”
Silence.
“What messages?”
“I am sending screenshots.”
She forwarded them.
For twenty seconds, Gabriel said nothing.
Then his voice returned.
“Come home.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“Tell me who Michael Bellini is.”
Another silence.
That answered too much.
“Gabriel.”
“Not on the phone.”
“What happened to him?”
“Not on the phone.”
“Is he dead?”
Gabriel exhaled.
“Yes.”
Nora closed her eyes.
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
“Yes.”
The hallway seemed suddenly too bright.
Nora had known.
Not specifically.
But generally.
She knew what Gabriel was.
Knowing theoretically and hearing him admit an individual death were different experiences.
“Why?”
“He sold financial records to federal investigators.”
“So you killed him.”
“Yes.”
Nora looked at her platinum ring.
The anonymous message had achieved its purpose.
Not because it revealed that Gabriel was violent.
She already knew.
Because it attached a name to the violence.
A face would come next.
“Nora.”
“I’m here.”
“Come home.”
This time she agreed.
Gabriel was waiting when she entered the penthouse.
No drink.
No jacket.
He stood beside the windows.
Nora gave her coat to security and walked inside.
Neither spoke immediately.
Finally, Gabriel said, “Ask.”
Nora remained several feet away.
“How many people have you ordered killed?”
His expression did not change.
“I do not know.”
“Approximately.”
“I do not count.”
“That many?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because he did not soften it.
Nora crossed her arms.
“Michael Bellini.”
“He gave records to an agent.”
“Why?”
“He wanted immunity.”
“For what?”
“Tax fraud. Laundering. Conspiracy.”
“He had a family?”
Gabriel’s gaze shifted.
“Yes.”
“Children?”
“One daughter.”
Nora looked away.
Gabriel remained still.
“You think I should lie.”
“No.”
“I could tell you Bellini was violent. He was not.”
Nora looked back.
“I could tell you he threatened you. He did not.”
Gabriel’s voice remained quiet.
“He stole from me for years. When he realized I knew, he attempted to trade information for protection.”
“And you killed him.”
“Yes.”
Nora rubbed her forehead.
“This is what they want.”
“I know.”
“They are going to give me names.”
“Yes.”
“People you killed.”
“Yes.”
“People who deserved it?”
“Some.”
“And people who did not?”
Gabriel considered.
“Deserve is not a useful concept in my business.”
Nora gave a bitter laugh.
“At least you are consistent.”
He stepped closer.
“Do you want to leave?”
The question surprised her.
“What?”
Gabriel’s face remained controlled.
“If the information changes what you believe about me, leave.”
He swallowed once.
“I will give you protection. Money. Any location you choose.”
Nora stared at him.
“You would let me go?”
“No.”
His answer came instantly.
“I would hate every second.”
He continued.
“But yes.”
Something inside Nora shifted.
The anonymous messages had tried to expose Gabriel as another man who would imprison her once she became inconvenient.
Instead, standing before her, he offered the door.
Nora walked closer.
“I am not leaving.”
Gabriel’s eyes changed.
“But I am going to ask questions.”
“Ask.”
“And you are going to answer.”
“Yes.”
“Even when you think I will hate the answer.”
“Yes.”
Nora nodded.
“Then whoever is doing this has a problem.”
“What?”
“They think truth separates us.”
Her hand closed around his.
“It only works if you lie.”
Gabriel looked down at their joined hands.
His grip tightened.
The next message arrived two hours later.
This time it did not contain a name.
It contained a photograph.
Nora standing inside the Rossi Foundation.
Taken that afternoon.
Beneath it:
Four guards are not enough.
Gabriel saw the image.
His face became pale with rage.
Leo received the order within thirty seconds.
Lock down every exit.
Find every camera.
Nobody leaves.
But they were already too late.
Security footage revealed a maintenance worker entering the building at 10:14 a.m.
He wore a legitimate uniform.
Carried legitimate identification.
Passed three security checkpoints.
At 1:06 p.m., he exited through the underground garage.
The man was not an employee.
The badge belonged to a worker whose body police found that evening inside the trunk of an abandoned vehicle.
The killer had been approximately thirty feet from Nora.
Three times.
Gabriel watched the footage without moving.
Then Leo enlarged the frame.
The impostor turned slightly toward the camera.
For less than one second, his face became visible.
Gabriel recognized him.
Leo did too.
Nora did not.
“Who is that?”
Neither answered.
Nora looked between them.
“Gabriel.”
His voice became very quiet.
“His name is Adrian Vale.”
“Who is he?”
May you like
Gabriel stared at the frozen image.
“A man I killed twelve years ago.”
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