Chapter 5 - Her Father’s Final Recording
Footsteps crossed the floor above them.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Marcus moved toward the stairs.
Gabriel caught his sleeve.
“No shooting unless necessary.”
Claire whispered, “That’s a sentence I never expected to hear during a visit to my childhood home.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
He looked ready to argue.
A second sound came from upstairs.
Glass breaking.
Marcus disappeared up the stairs with another security officer.
Seconds later, a man shouted.
Furniture crashed.
Then silence.
Claire’s pulse hammered.
Gabriel maneuvered his wheelchair toward the stairs, furious at the physical limitation.
“Marcus!”
A voice answered.
“All clear.”
They went upstairs.
A young man lay facedown on the kitchen floor while Marcus restrained him.
Claire stared.
She knew him.
“Ethan?”
Dr. Ethan Kline looked up.
Blood ran from a cut near his eyebrow.
“Claire.”
Gabriel’s expression became lethal.
“What are you doing here?”
Kline struggled.
“Trying to save your life.”
Marcus tightened his grip.
“Explain quickly.”
Kline looked at Claire.
“Mercer is my uncle.”
Claire froze.
“He recruited me into the hospital fourteen months ago.”
Gabriel rolled closer.
“For what?”
“To watch you.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know at first.”
Kline swallowed.
“He told me Vale money controlled the hospital and somebody needed an independent record. I believed him.”
“And now?”
“Now he’s missing, somebody altered your medication, and he sent me a message telling me Claire Donovan was about to uncover something in Philadelphia.”
Claire stared.
“How did he know where we were?”
Kline looked toward Gabriel.
“Your wheelchair.”
Everyone looked down.
Marcus immediately crouched.
He ran a detector beneath the frame.
A red light blinked.
“Tracker.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
Marcus removed a tiny device.
Claire looked at Kline.
“What did Mercer tell you to do?”
“Destroy the recording.”
The room went quiet.
Gabriel said, “You knew about it?”
“No. He described it. Said Daniel Donovan left false evidence that could get innocent people killed.”
Claire folded her arms.
“And you broke into my house?”
“I panicked.”
“Doctors usually have better judgment.”
“Not tonight.”
Gabriel looked at Marcus.
“Let him up.”
Marcus released Kline.
Gabriel continued.
“If you lie again, you’ll wish he hadn’t.”
Claire shot Gabriel a look.
“Helpful.”
Kline rubbed his wrists.
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Then prove it.”
He pulled out his phone.
“There’s a message.”
Claire read it.
FIND DONOVAN RECORDING. DESTROY BEFORE G.V. HEARS NAME.
Gabriel stared.
“The name.”
Claire suddenly remembered the recorder.
They returned downstairs.
Daniel’s recorded voice resumed.
“If Ghost is listening, he will want revenge. Don’t let him have it.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Claire almost smiled despite the danger.
“That sounds like Dad.”
Daniel continued.
“The person behind the Helmand shipments, the attack on Gabriel’s unit, and my death is someone whose public reputation depends on appearing harmless.”
Static.
Then:
“His name is—”
The recording cut.
Claire stared.
“No.”
She pressed play.
Same result.
Again.
Nothing.
Gabriel examined the device.
“The audio was erased.”
“Can it be recovered?”
“Maybe.”
Marcus bagged it carefully.
Kline sat on an old crate.
“Mercer must know the name.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Then we find Mercer.”
They returned to New York before sunrise.
Gabriel slept in the ambulance for part of the ride.
Claire watched him.
Without the cold expression, he resembled the man she remembered from Afghanistan.
Younger Gabriel had been impossible.
He would wake before doctors wanted him awake.
Ask about teammates before asking about his own condition.
Pretend jokes did not hurt because laughing pulled his stitches.
She had fallen in love with him then.
She had never admitted it.
Apparently he had not forgotten either.
Back at the hospital, Gabriel’s rehabilitation intensified.
Over the next two days, sensation slowly returned.
His right leg responded first.
Then the left.
Doctors warned recovery could take months.
Gabriel behaved as though months were an insult personally invented to annoy him.
Claire found him trying to stand alone at three in the morning.
“What are you doing?”
He froze with both hands gripping the bed rail.
“Nothing.”
“You are attempting to fall professionally.”
“I was testing.”
“You can test when therapy is present.”
“I don’t need an audience.”
“You need functioning hips.”
He lowered himself back into the wheelchair.
Claire checked his pulse.
“You are impossible.”
“You said that twelve years ago.”
“You remember?”
“Every word.”
She looked at him.
Something shifted.
Gabriel reached up.
His fingers brushed a loose strand of hair beside her face.
Claire did not move.
“I thought about finding you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Your father.”
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“That excuse expired eight years ago.”
His hand dropped.
“After Daniel died, I became worse.”
“Worse how?”
Gabriel looked away.
“My father became ill. Julian wasn’t ready. The family businesses were collapsing into people who preferred illegal money to legitimate work.”
Claire studied him.
“And you became their boss.”
“Yes.”
“A mafia boss.”
He almost smiled.
“Newspapers enjoy that phrase.”
“Is it inaccurate?”
“Not entirely.”
Claire sighed.
Gabriel continued.
“I took control because if I hadn’t, men worse than me would have.”
“That sounds suspiciously like how criminals explain becoming criminals.”
“It is.”
“Are you still?”
He understood.
“Still involved?”
“Yes.”
Claire’s expression fell.
“But not the way I was,” he added. “I’ve spent four years dismantling the worst operations. That may be why somebody wants me dead.”
“Then finish dismantling them.”
“I intend to.”
“Legally.”
He looked at her.
“That word limits creativity.”
“Gabriel.”
“Legally.”
She relaxed slightly.
Later that afternoon, a package arrived.
No return address.
Inside was Gabriel’s father’s missing ring.
And a flash drive.
Marcus isolated a laptop before opening it.
A video appeared.
Samuel Mercer sat in a dim room.
His face was bruised.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Commander Vale, if you are watching this, I failed.”
Claire leaned closer.
Mercer continued.
“I altered nothing in your medication. Someone used my credentials. I left because I was told my daughter would die if I stayed.”
Claire felt sick.
Gabriel’s face remained unreadable.
Mercer looked frightened.
“The person behind this has controlled parts of Vale International for years. Daniel Donovan found him. I found him too.”
Static distorted the image.
Then Mercer said:
“Do not trust your brother.”
Julian.
Claire looked at Gabriel.
His face went cold.
But Mercer wasn’t finished.
“Not Julian.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
Mercer swallowed.
“Your other brother.”
The video ended.
Claire stared at Gabriel.
“You have another brother?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Marcus looked almost shocked.
Claire moved closer.
“Gabriel?”
His voice was barely audible.
“He died twenty-three years ago.”
Then the private elevator chimed.
The doors opened.
An elderly man stepped out carrying a cane.
Gabriel stared at him as though he had seen a ghost.
May you like
The man smiled.
“Hello, little brother.”
