Chapter 4 - Untouchable
Gabriel slowly raised his hands.
“Turn around.”
He did.
Chloe stood behind him.
Her hands shook around the gun.
Gabriel stared at her.
“You?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Put it down.”
“I can’t.”
“Who are you working for?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“They have my mother.”
Gabriel’s anger changed.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because they never use names.”
Gabriel glanced at the black box.
“What do they want?”
“That.”
“And Beatrice?”
Chloe’s face crumpled.
“They want the baby.”
Gabriel stopped moving.
Across the river, Beatrice listened as Adrian explained the meaning of the old ledger.
Thomas Bell had uncovered a financial network connecting politicians, judges, corporations and crime families.
The ledger was leverage.
Enough to destroy empires.
But Adrian believed the physical ledger had been replaced years ago by encrypted files.
The black box might contain the key.
“Why my baby?” Beatrice asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Adrian watched her.
“I will.”
“No. We will.”
For the first time, Beatrice was no longer merely escaping.
She was investigating.
Adrian arranged legal counsel.
Independent counsel.
Not his.
Beatrice filed documents protecting her assets and establishing that no medical or custodial decisions could be made without her consent.
Then Adrian did something Gabriel never expected.
He publicly announced that Beatrice Rossi was under Vale protection.
Not as property.
Not as a bargaining chip.
As a guest.
Anyone attempting to seize or harm her would answer to him.
The message spread before sunset.
Gabriel heard it while still inside the archive.
Chloe’s gun remained pointed at him.
“Your phone,” she ordered.
He placed it down.
Then the lights went out.
Gabriel moved.
A gunshot cracked.
When emergency lights returned, Chloe was on the floor.
Alive.
Gabriel had disarmed her.
But the black box was gone.
Someone else had entered during the darkness.
Someone Chloe had never seen.
Gabriel looked toward the open archive door.
Then at Chloe.
“They used you as a distraction.”
She began sobbing.
“My mother—”
“I’ll find her.”
Chloe stared.
“Why would you help me?”
“Because Beatrice still loves you.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“And because whoever did this threatened my son.”
That night, Gabriel went alone to Adrian’s territory.
No army.
No convoy.
One car.
Adrian met him outside the gates.
“You’re not coming in.”
“I need to speak to my wife.”
“She decides that.”
“Ask her.”
Adrian did.
Beatrice said yes.
Gabriel entered the library.
He stopped when he saw her.
Cream sweater.
Loose pants.
Hair tied back.
No wedding ring.
That hurt more than he expected.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“The baby?”
“Healthy.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Thank God.”
“Why did you kiss Chloe?”
No greeting.
No delay.
Gabriel looked at her.
“I was drunk.”
“Not enough.”
“No.”
“Did you want her?”
He could have lied.
“No.”
Beatrice’s face hardened.
“Then why?”
“Because I was angry.”
“At me?”
“At myself.”
She waited.
Gabriel sat opposite her.
“You’d been asking me for months to leave the business.”
“Yes.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Both.”
“And your solution was my sister?”
“There is no excuse.”
That answer stopped her.
Gabriel continued.
“I kissed her. I betrayed you. Whatever happens after tonight, I won’t insult you by pretending you caused it.”
Beatrice looked away.
“I loved you.”
“I love you.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“I know.”
Adrian stood outside the room but within sight.
Gabriel noticed.
“You trust him?”
“I trust that he hasn’t lied to me yet.”
“He will.”
“Maybe. Then I’ll leave him too.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
There she was.
The woman he had fallen in love with.
Then Beatrice showed him the photograph.
“Tell me about my father.”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
He told her Thomas Bell had approached Gabriel’s father, Vittorio Rossi, eighteen years earlier.
Thomas possessed evidence of an organization operating above individual crime families.
A consortium.
The Bell ledger contained names.
Thomas disappeared before exposing them.
Gabriel had spent years searching.
“Did your father kill mine?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you investigate?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Gabriel looked toward Adrian.
“Evidence pointed to Adrian’s father.”
Adrian entered.
“And evidence pointed to yours.”
Beatrice looked between them.
“Convenient.”
Neither man answered.
“Two sons inherited a war because both fathers were accused.”
Again silence.
“And neither of you thought maybe someone wanted that?”
Adrian and Gabriel exchanged a look.
It was the first moment their hatred showed uncertainty.
Beatrice leaned back.
“My father was an accountant. Maybe he didn’t just discover money.”
“What are you thinking?” Adrian asked.
“He discovered how to manufacture a war.”
Gabriel’s phone vibrated.
A message.
He read it.
His face changed.
Beatrice noticed.
“What?”
Gabriel turned the screen.
A photograph of Chloe’s mother tied to a chair.
Beside her was the stolen black box.
Text appeared beneath it.
BRING BEATRICE ROSSI TO PIER 17 BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
A second message arrived.
COME ALONE OR HER SISTER BECOMES AN ONLY CHILD.
Then a third photograph loaded.
Beatrice stared.
It was not Chloe’s mother.
May you like
It was Chloe.
And whoever had taken her was standing inside the Vale property.
