Chapter 13 - The Last Threat
Emergency lights flashed red.
People screamed.
Gabriel vanished into the crowd.
Penny stared at the frozen image of Noah.
Lorenzo grabbed the phone Gabriel had dropped.
The video resumed.
Noah was inside a vehicle.
Penny recognized the sound behind him.
Church bells.
Elaine identified them.
St. Matthew's.
The church where Anthony Moretti's funeral had been held.
They arrived in eight minutes.
The sanctuary was empty.
A phone sat on the altar.
It rang.
Penny answered.
Gabriel.
"Come downstairs."
Lorenzo shook his head.
Penny ignored him.
"I'm coming."
A staircase behind the sacristy led underground.
Penny descended with Lorenzo and police positioned outside.
They found Noah.
Alive.
Gabriel stood behind him.
No gun.
Just a detonator.
Explosives had been wired beneath the old church basement.
Gabriel wanted the evidence.
All copies.
Impossible now.
Penny told him that.
His composure cracked.
"You think this is about evidence?"
"What else?"
"Legacy."
Penny almost pitied him.
A man who had destroyed lives because he couldn't tolerate being less important than his father.
"Then you already lost."
Gabriel's thumb tightened.
Lorenzo stepped forward.
"Gabriel."
"Stay back."
"You wanted the Moretti name."
"I deserved it."
"You had it."
Lorenzo's voice remained quiet.
"You destroyed yourself trying to own something you already possessed."
Gabriel's eyes filled with rage.
Penny moved toward Noah.
Gabriel noticed.
"Don't."
Penny stopped.
Then Noah kicked backward.
Gabriel stumbled.
Lorenzo lunged.
The detonator fell.
Penny grabbed Noah.
Police rushed in.
Gabriel fought.
Then stopped.
For the first time, he looked old.
Handcuffs closed around his wrists.
It should have ended there.
But outside, Penny saw another car.
Derek stood beside it.
He had escaped custody during a hospital transfer.
And he was holding a gun.
"Penny."
Lorenzo stepped in front of her.
Derek shook his head.
"This isn't about you, Moretti."
Penny moved around Lorenzo.
"Then talk to me."
Derek's hand trembled.
"I saved you."
"Yes."
"You know what I did at the restaurant."
"Yes."
"Then you know I love you."
"No."
His face twisted.
"I risked everything."
"That doesn't erase what you did."
"I changed."
"You threatened to kill me."
"I needed Lorenzo to hear!"
"Not the first time."
Derek went silent.
Penny continued.
"What about the bedroom door?"
His eyes dropped.
"My bruises?"
Nothing.
"My friends?"
Nothing.
"The night you grabbed my neck?"
His hand holding the gun lowered slightly.
Penny's voice stayed calm.
"You don't get to use one good decision as payment for years of cruelty."
Police surrounded him.
Derek looked at Penny.
Then at the gun.
For one frightening second, nobody moved.
Finally he dropped it.
It hit the pavement.
Police took him.
Penny watched.
No triumph.
Only relief.
Then her phone vibrated.
One message.
From an unknown number.
YOU THINK GABRIEL WAS THE LAST ONE?
May you like
Attached was a photograph taken from inside Penny's apartment.
Taken five minutes earlier.
