Chapter 9 - Gunther’s Most Dangerous Betrayal
Gabriel Sr. surrendered.
Mrs. Gable did not.
She escaped before federal agents surrounded the building.
Gunther met his father in an interrogation room.
The reunion contained no embrace.
Gabriel smiled.
“You've become exactly what I trained you to be.”
Gunther sat.
“No.”
His father frowned.
“I became what survived you.”
Gabriel admitted everything.
Thomas Hughes had discovered the criminal accounts.
Gabriel ordered him intimidated.
Eleanor escalated it to murder.
Kayla's mother found proof.
She was threatened into silence.
Years later, Eleanor arranged Sam's crash because she feared he had found his mother's records.
Gabriel had allowed it.
Gunther stared at him.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
“Collateral damage.”
Gunther stood.
For one terrible second, everyone thought he would attack him.
He didn't.
He walked away.
That restraint marked the first true defeat of Gabriel Woods.
Outside, Kayla waited.
Gunther couldn't speak.
She took his hand.
That was enough.
Federal agents raided properties across the city.
Accounts were frozen.
Men were arrested.
Gunther surrendered weapons, records, companies.
His empire shrank by the hour.
And he seemed lighter.
Then Victor disappeared.
His phone went dead.
His car was found beneath an overpass.
Inside was blood.
Gunther assumed Eleanor had taken him.
Anthony disagreed.
“Victor knows too much.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning maybe he wasn't taken.”
Gunther stared.
Kayla remembered the photograph.
Victor had known her father.
Victor had hidden Anthony's flash drive.
Victor had lied before.
That night, a message arrived from Victor's number.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT KAYLA'S MOTHER.
Gunther deleted it.
Kayla had already seen it.
“You're not going alone.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“You're becoming difficult.”
“I learned from you.”
Gunther kissed her forehead.
Then security cameras went black.
Every light in the estate died.
A backup alarm began sounding.
Gunther drew his weapon.
“Stay behind me.”
Footsteps came from the corridor.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then Victor's voice called from the darkness:
“Gabe, don't shoot.”
A second voice followed him.
A woman's voice.
Kayla stopped breathing.
May you like
Because she recognized it from an old home video.
The voice belonged to her mother.
