Chapter 6
A crystal wineglass exploded.
Leo cried out and collapsed backward into the heavy chair.
His left arm fell uselessly beside him.
A silver snub-nosed revolver dropped from his coat and spun across the hardwood floor until it stopped close to Gabriel’s polished shoes.
The other 5 captains stood almost simultaneously.
Chairs overturned.
5 pistols appeared and pointed toward Leo.
Blood spread through the shoulder of his suit.
He no longer looked like the elder statesman who had manipulated doctors, suppliers, and captains.
He looked like a wounded old man who had gambled for control of a dynasty and lost.
Gabriel did not flinch.
He bent down, picked up Leo’s revolver with his right hand, and set it on the table beside the bag of poisoned thread.
“You always taught me to watch the hands, Leo.”
His voice remained calm.
“But you forgot to watch the corners.”
Gabriel looked toward Sadi.
She had not screamed.
She had not moved.
She remained near the velvet curtains, looking at the violence in front of her and absorbing the reality of the world she had entered.
Gabriel turned toward the captains.
“Put your weapons away.”
Slowly, they holstered their guns.
Their attention stayed on Leo.
“Leo Rossi is no longer a captain of this family.”
Gabriel’s tone allowed no argument.
“His territory, his unions, and his offshore accounts are now under my direct control.”
Nobody objected.
“Anyone who questions the transition joins him in the basement tonight.”
The captains nodded.
Gabriel had survived the drive-by shooting.
He had survived the poisoned sutures.
Now he had exposed the betrayal inside his organization without surrendering control.
“Carmine.”
Gabriel gestured dismissively toward Leo.
“Take him downstairs. Call the cleaner. I don’t want a trace of him left in this city by sunrise.”
Carmine seized Leo by the collar of his damaged coat.
He dragged the wounded man from the room.
The doors closed.
Cordite, copper, roasted lamb, and spilled wine remained in the air.
Gabriel dismissed the other captains with a look.
They left quickly, distancing themselves from Leo and from the blood spreading across the floor.
Eventually, only Gabriel and Sadi remained.
Gabriel released a long breath.
The adrenaline was fading.
Pain returned heavily to his injured shoulder.
He rose slowly from the table, stepped around broken glass, and approached the corner where Sadi waited.
She looked up.
She did not retreat.
“You saw the pocket,” Gabriel said.
“His coat shifted. When he reached inside, the fabric pulled tight across his chest.”
Sadi’s voice remained steady.
“People don’t reach inside their coats when they’re angry unless they have something heavy to pull out.”
Gabriel studied her.
She was not a killer.
She had no experience as a mobster.
Yet she understood mechanisms better than men who had lived in Gabriel’s world for decades.
She saw seams.
Weak points.
The places where things would tear.
“You saved my life again.”
“I stated what I saw. Carmine did the rest.”
Sadi looked toward the blood spreading into the Persian rug.
Gabriel lifted his right hand.
He did not touch her.
Instead, he rested his palm against the wall beside her shoulder, narrowing the space between them.
Sadi looked up.
At that distance, she could see the exhaustion beneath his eyes and the physical damage left by weeks of poisoning.
The force of his presence remained intact.
“I offered to clear your ledger,” Gabriel said quietly. “I paid your mother’s debt. I told you we were even.”
He paused.
“We aren’t anymore.”
Sadi swallowed.
“So what happens now?”
“Now I give you a choice.”
Gabriel stepped back enough to give her room.
“There’s a car waiting behind the house. There’s a duffel bag in the trunk containing $200,000 in untraceable cash.”
Sadi stared at him.
“You get in the car, you drive away, and you never have to see me, Carmine, or another drop of blood again.”
His eyes remained on hers.
“You can go back to being invisible.”
Sadi looked toward the empty hallway.
She thought about the cramped apartment above the factory.
About scrubbing floors for people who did not meet her eyes.
About taking the subway late at night.
About counting loose coins to keep the heat operating.
She had spent 22 years keeping her head down and hoping predators would pass without noticing her.
She thought about being safe.
Poor.
Invisible.
And alone.
Then she looked at Gabriel.
He was wounded.
Dangerous.
Ruthless.
But he had seen her.
When trained surgeons dismissed her, Gabriel had been the one who ordered them to give her the scissors.
“And the 2nd option?”
Gabriel’s dark eyes searched her face.
“You stay.”
He spoke quietly.
“Not as a maid. Not as a guest.”
His expression became serious.
“You stay beside me. You see things I don’t. You catch details everyone else misses. I need that.”
A pause.
“I need you.”
The hard edge in his voice softened slightly.
“But if you stay, Sadi, you can’t walk away later. You become part of the family.”
His eyes remained fixed on her.
“Part of me.”
Silence filled the dining room.
Sadi looked toward the table.
The clear evidence bag containing the poisoned black threads still rested against the white linen.
She had spent her life repairing other people’s seams.
Fixing other people’s mistakes.
Remaining unseen while other people decided the shape of her existence.
For the 1st time, she considered building something of her own, even if she had to build it inside the darkness.
“I’m tired of being invisible.”
Gabriel smiled.
It was not the cold smile of the man who had just condemned one of his oldest captains.
This time, the expression reached his eyes.
He raised his hand carefully and moved a stray lock of Sadi’s hair behind her ear.
The touch was warm and restrained.
“Then we need to get you a new wardrobe.”
His voice was low.
May you like
“Because you’re never scrubbing another floor as long as I breathe.”
Disclaimer: This story is fictional and created for entertainment purposes only. Any names, characters, places, or events are fictitious or used fictitiously. No real person or organization is intended to be portrayed.
