Chapter 4 - The Price of Coming Alone
The address led Gabriel to a small church outside Madison.
No soldiers.
No armored SUVs.
No weapons.
For perhaps the first time since becoming head of the Costa family, Gabriel arrived somewhere entirely alone.
Norah was waiting inside.
The twins were not.
That frightened him more than anything.
“Where are they?”
“Safe.”
Gabriel nodded.
He did not ask again.
Norah sat in the third pew.
Gabriel remained standing.
“You came alone.”
“You asked me to.”
“I've asked you for things before.”
He accepted that too.
She placed a thick file beside her.
“My father spent twelve years building this.”
Inside were financial records connecting Marco to shell corporations, judges, police officers, and international narcotics networks.
Gabriel turned pages slowly.
Then he found his father's name.
Vittorio Costa.
“He knew?”
“My father believed Vittorio discovered what Marco was doing and wanted out.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
“Your father was forty-eight.”
“He had heart problems.”
“According to a doctor Marco paid.”
Gabriel's fingers tightened.
Norah handed him a toxicology report.
A rare cardiac medication had been found in Vittorio's preserved tissue after Anthony secretly requested a second examination.
In high doses, it could trigger fatal arrhythmia.
Gabriel sat down.
Marco had raised him.
Comforted him at his father's funeral.
Taught him to shoot.
Taught him to run the organization.
Perhaps because Marco had created the vacancy himself.
“Why marry me?”
Gabriel finally asked.
Norah looked toward the stained-glass windows.
“I didn't intend to.”
“You knew who I was when we met.”
“Yes.”
“So spilling champagne—”
“Was an accident.”
Despite everything, Gabriel almost smiled.
Norah continued.
“I attended the auction because Marco was buying a painting my father believed contained coded banking records.”
Gabriel remembered.
The Bellini.
He had purchased it after Norah told him the restoration was terrible.
“You followed the painting into my house.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I found something I didn't expect.”
“What?”
“You.”
Silence stretched between them.
“You weren't the monster my father described when he talked about the Costa organization.”
Gabriel looked down.
“I became one.”
“In some ways.”
That was not forgiveness.
He was grateful she did not pretend otherwise.
Norah continued.
“I fell in love with you. That ruined everything.”
“Then why didn't you trust me?”
“I tried.”
She looked at him.
“Remember the night I asked what you'd do if Marco betrayed you?”
Gabriel remembered laughing.
He had said Marco was blood.
Norah had gone quiet.
“I had my answer.”
Gabriel felt sick.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing for me.”
“For our children?”
“For yourself.”
She slid another envelope toward him.
“Walk away from the criminal business. Give federal prosecutors everything on Marco. Dismantle the routes your family controls.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You're asking me to destroy the Costa organization.”
“I'm asking you to decide what you want your son and daughter to inherit.”
That landed harder.
Gabriel imagined Elias at sixteen being handed a gun.
Rose learning which windows were bulletproof.
Children growing up believing violence was heritage.
“No.”
Norah stiffened.
Then Gabriel clarified.
“They won't inherit it.”
He removed the Costa signet ring from his finger.
His father had given it to him at eighteen.
Gabriel placed it on top of Marco's file.
“I'll burn it down.”
Norah studied him.
“Not for me.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked toward her.
“For them.”
A pause.
“And because I should've done it years ago.”
Outside, tires rolled over gravel.
Norah immediately stood.
Gabriel looked toward the windows.
“You expecting someone?”
“No.”
The church doors exploded inward.
Marco walked inside.
Four armed men followed.
He smiled.
“My nephew finally learned to come to church.”
Gabriel stepped in front of Norah.
Marco noticed the files.
His smile vanished.
“So Eleanor Vale finally stopped pretending.”
Norah went pale.
Gabriel heard the name.
Not Norah.
Eleanor.
Marco had known exactly who she was.
For years.
“You knew,” Gabriel said.
“From the beginning.”
“Why let her live?”
Marco shrugged.
“Because she led me to Anthony's evidence.”
Norah's face changed.
“The painting.”
Marco smiled.
“Exactly.”
Gabriel realized the horror.
Their marriage had not protected Norah accidentally.
Marco had kept her alive because he needed her to uncover her father's final evidence.
“And Bianca?” Gabriel asked.
Marco laughed softly.
“Bianca was useful.”
Norah looked at Gabriel.
Marco continued cruelly.
“A lonely man is easy to manipulate. She kept you distracted while I searched your house.”
Gabriel's shame transformed into fury.
Marco raised his weapon.
“Enough.”
Gabriel shifted farther in front of Norah.
Marco tilted his head.
“You would die for her?”
Gabriel answered without hesitation.
“Yes.”
Marco smiled.
“Good.”
A gunshot thundered through the church.
Norah screamed.
Gabriel staggered.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
May you like
And Marco whispered:
“Then die like your father did.”
