Chapter 7 - The Last War
Gabriel wanted Norah hidden behind steel doors.
Norah refused.
“I spent eleven years hiding.”
“This is different.”
“No. It's exactly the same.”
Gabriel paced the safe house.
“Marco threatened you.”
“He has threatened me since I was sixteen.”
“And now you have children.”
“Which is why I won't teach them fear is normal.”
Gabriel stopped.
Six months earlier, he would have ordered her.
Now he asked.
“What do you want?”
Norah seemed surprised.
“I want this finished.”
So they finished it together.
The federal task force wanted Marco alive.
Gabriel provided every property, contact, and escape route he knew.
Nothing.
Then Norah noticed something everyone else missed.
Marco had spent twenty years collecting art.
One painting had vanished from his penthouse before the raids.
A nineteenth-century portrait called The Widow in Winter.
“Why take a painting when you're running for your life?” Norah asked.
Gabriel understood.
“Because something is inside it.”
The painting had been moved to an auction-storage facility near Navy Pier.
Marco was coming for it.
Federal agents surrounded the building.
Gabriel was ordered to stay away.
He didn't.
Neither did Norah.
Marco arrived at 2:17 a.m.
He made it inside before realizing the trap.
Gabriel found him in the restoration room cutting open the back of the painting.
Inside were bearer bonds and an encrypted ledger.
Marco laughed when he saw his nephew.
“You always were sentimental.”
“It's over.”
“Nothing is over.”
Marco raised a gun.
Gabriel did not.
That confused him.
“Where's your weapon?”
“I don't need one.”
“You think police will save you?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at the surveillance camera.
“I think you talking will bury you.”
Marco's face changed.
Gabriel had deliberately come alone to make him confess.
“You killed my father.”
Marco smiled.
“Vittorio was weak.”
“And Anthony Vale?”
“Persistent.”
“Did you kill him?”
“Of course.”
Behind the observation wall, federal agents recorded everything.
Marco continued, intoxicated by his own superiority.
“Your father wanted legitimacy. Anthony wanted justice. Men like that always believe principles protect them.”
Gabriel heard footsteps approaching.
Marco heard them too.
His expression changed.
He aimed the gun.
Then Norah entered.
“Don't.”
Gabriel turned.
“What are you doing here?”
“Making sure neither of you does something stupid.”
Marco laughed.
“Eleanor.”
“My name is Norah.”
“You'll always be Anthony's frightened little girl.”
Norah looked directly at him.
“No.”
Her voice was calm.
“That's the problem with men like you. You remember people at the moment you hurt them and assume they never grow afterward.”
Sirens approached.
Marco grabbed Norah.
The gun pressed against her side.
Gabriel's entire body tightened.
“Let her go.”
“Give me the ledger.”
“You already have it.”
“I need a vehicle.”
“Take mine.”
“And you.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Fine.”
Norah looked at him.
He understood her expression.
Trust me.
Marco forced them toward the exit.
Outside, snow had begun falling.
Federal vehicles surrounded the building.
“Back off!” Marco shouted.
Gabriel slowly raised his hands.
Then Norah moved.
Not dramatically.
Not recklessly.
She simply stepped hard on Marco's foot and dropped her weight exactly as Samuel had taught her years earlier.
Marco's weapon shifted.
Gabriel seized his wrist.
The gun discharged into the air.
Agents rushed forward.
Seconds later, Marco Costa was face-down in the snow.
Handcuffed.
Alive.
Gabriel stood over him.
Marco looked up.
“You think this makes you clean?”
Gabriel considered the question.
“No.”
Marco seemed surprised.
Gabriel continued.
“I'll spend the rest of my life answering for what I've done.”
Then he walked away.
He didn't hit Marco.
Didn't threaten him.
Didn't look back.
Norah was waiting near the ambulance.
Gabriel approached her.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
Then she slapped him.
Gabriel blinked.
“What was that for?”
“For coming here when federal agents told you not to.”
“Fair.”
Then Norah threw her arms around him.
Gabriel froze.
He slowly embraced her.
Neither spoke.
They remained there beneath falling snow while twenty years of violence finally ended behind them.
But their story wasn't repaired.
Not yet.
Three weeks later, Gabriel stood before a federal judge.
Norah sat in the back row.
The prosecutor listed his cooperation.
Then listed his crimes.
Gabriel pleaded guilty.
Norah's breath caught.
He had never told her he planned to do that.
The judge looked down.
“Mr. Costa, do you understand that this plea may result in imprisonment?”
Gabriel looked toward Norah.
Then at Elias and Rose sleeping beside her.
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“And you still wish to proceed?”
Gabriel answered calmly.
“Yes.”
May you like
Because dismantling an empire was not enough.
For the first time in his life, Gabriel Costa was willing to pay what he owed.
