Chapter 5 - The Traitor Inside Gabriel’s House
Gabriel did not move.
Neither did Victor.
For several seconds, uncle and nephew stared across the warehouse.
Then a baby cried.
Douglas.
The sound changed everything.
Victor looked toward Chalice.
Gabriel saw it.
Not affection.
Not grief.
Calculation.
“You murdered Antonio for paperwork?” Chalice asked.
Victor smiled faintly.
“People have killed for much less.”
Gabriel’s hands curled.
“Say it again.”
Victor ignored him.
“Douglas comes with me. Nurse Imhof leaves alive.”
Chalice laughed once.
“No.”
Victor looked surprised.
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
“I’m not negotiating.”
Gabriel glanced at her.
Chalice met his eyes.
Something passed between them.
Trust.
New.
Fragile.
Enough.
Gabriel dropped his gun.
Victor smiled.
Then every light died.
Mercer had cut the power.
Luca opened a service door.
They escaped through the harbor tunnels.
By sunrise, Victor’s warehouse was empty.
But Gabriel had heard the confession.
So had Chalice.
Unfortunately, they had no recording.
Victor would deny everything.
Back at the compound, Gabriel doubled security.
Chalice refused to let Douglas out of sight.
Gabriel finally told her the truth about his own life.
Antonio had been the better brother.
The kinder one.
Gabriel had accepted the violent responsibilities Antonio hated.
“I thought that protected him.”
“It probably did for years.”
“Not when it mattered.”
Chalice understood that kind of guilt.
She had replayed Isabella’s death every night.
What if she had understood sooner?
What if she had called Gabriel?
What if she had trusted the police?
“You kept Douglas alive,” Gabriel said.
“You didn’t know me ninety-one days ago.”
“I know you now.”
Their eyes met.
Then Mercer interrupted.
Antonio’s ledger had been found.
Or rather, part of it.
Hidden inside the medal was a microscopic storage chip.
The initials A.H.D. were not initials.
They were a password clue.
Antonio Holmes Douglas.
The drive contained payments to judges, police officers, and hospital employees.
But one payment shocked Gabriel.
Luca Romano.
The guard standing ten feet away.
Gabriel slowly looked up.
Luca’s face drained.
“Gabriel—”
Mercer reached for his weapon.
Luca raised both hands.
“I can explain.”
“Start.”
“Antonio paid me.”
“For what?”
“To protect Douglas if something happened.”
Gabriel stared.
“You knew?”
“Not until the shooting.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Antonio specifically ordered me not to.”
Gabriel slammed him against the wall.
“My brother is dead.”
“I know.”
“My nephew was hunted.”
“I know!”
Luca’s voice cracked.
“And every time I tried to get near the nurse, somebody followed me.”
Chalice remembered the cars.
The footsteps.
The strangers.
One of them had been Luca.
He had not been hunting her.
He had been guarding her.
Luca reached into his jacket.
Mercer aimed.
“Slow.”
Luca removed an old key.
“Antonio gave me this.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
Chalice recognized the engraved number.
Hospital room 317.
The room number from Isabella’s photograph.
Gabriel looked at Chalice.
Mass General had closed that wing six years earlier.
They entered through a maintenance corridor that night.
Room 317 appeared empty.
Then Chalice noticed scratches beneath the sink.
The key opened a concealed compartment.
Inside was Antonio’s real ledger.
And beside it was a birth certificate.
Gabriel picked it up.
He read the mother’s name.
Then the father’s.
His face turned white.
Chalice stepped closer.
“What is it?”
Gabriel looked at her.
Before he could answer, a voice came from the dark corridor.
“Put the certificate down, Gabriel.”
May you like
Dr. Evelyn Shaw stood in the doorway.
And she was pointing a gun directly at Chalice.
