Chapter 9 - Brothers
Chaos erupted.
Gabriel's men moved.
Vittorio's men fired.
Julian grabbed Noah and dove behind a shipping container.
Gabriel reached Emma's captor before the man could raise his weapon.
One brutal strike.
Then another.
Emma fell toward the concrete.
Gabriel caught her.
She screamed.
He held her against his chest.
“Daddy's here.”
This time the word came naturally.
Audrey ran from the command vehicle despite every order.
“Emma!”
Gabriel handed their daughter to her.
“Get down!”
Audrey crouched behind the armored SUV.
Gabriel went for Noah.
He found Julian behind the container.
His brother was bleeding.
Noah sat against Julian's chest, frightened but unharmed.
Gabriel stared at him.
Five years.
Five years of grief.
Five years of conversations he had imagined having with a dead man.
There was no time.
Julian held Noah out.
“Take your son.”
Gabriel did.
Noah immediately wrapped his arms around Gabriel's neck.
Julian smiled.
“He looks like me.”
“Unfortunately.”
Julian laughed.
Gabriel almost did too.
Then another shot struck the container.
“Later,” Gabriel said.
“If we live.”
“We're living.”
They moved together.
Like brothers again.
Vittorio had been hit in the shoulder, not the chest.
He was escaping toward a waiting boat.
Evelyn stood in his path.
“Move,” Vittorio ordered.
“No.”
He raised his weapon.
Gabriel saw it.
So did Julian.
“Mom!” Audrey screamed.
The shot fired.
Evelyn fell.
Audrey screamed.
Gabriel handed Noah to Lena and ran.
Julian reached Vittorio first.
He tackled their father onto the wet pier.
The gun skidded away.
Vittorio punched Julian's wound.
Julian collapsed.
Gabriel grabbed his father.
For years, Gabriel had imagined what he would feel if he ever discovered the truth behind Julian's death.
Rage.
Justice.
Satisfaction.
Instead he felt tired.
Vittorio smiled through blood.
“You won't kill me.”
“Why?”
“Because your children are watching.”
Gabriel looked back.
Audrey held both twins.
She was watching.
So was Noah.
Gabriel released his father.
Vittorio laughed.
“You've become weak.”
“No.”
Gabriel stepped back.
“I became something you never were.”
Sirens approached.
Federal vehicles.
Vittorio's expression changed.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“A father.”
Agents flooded the pier.
The ledger Evelyn carried was enough.
So were the files Julian had spent five years collecting.
Vittorio looked around.
For the first time, the old man understood.
Gabriel had not come to kill him.
He had come to end him.
Legally.
Publicly.
Permanently.
Federal agents placed Vittorio in restraints.
“You're destroying your own family,” he spat.
Gabriel looked at Audrey.
Then at Noah and Emma.
“No.”
He turned back.
“I'm choosing it.”
Evelyn survived.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
Julian survived too.
Carmine eventually recovered.
By sunrise, federal warrants had been executed across three states.
Gabriel surrendered financial records, port documents and internal ledgers.
His attorneys negotiated immunity regarding certain nonviolent financial offenses in exchange for evidence against Vittorio's network.
It cost Gabriel millions.
Businesses.
Properties.
Influence.
Men who had once called him boss stopped answering.
Gabriel did not care.
Three days later, he sat beside Noah's hospital bed while doctors checked the toddler after the kidnapping.
Noah was healthy.
Gabriel looked ridiculous in a tailored suit covered with animal stickers.
Audrey entered.
She stopped.
“What happened to you?”
Gabriel looked down.
“Noah attacked.”
“With stickers?”
“Violently.”
She laughed.
There it was.
That laugh.
The one that had stopped him in the grocery store.
Gabriel looked at her.
Audrey noticed.
“What?”
“I missed that.”
Her smile faded.
“You barely knew it.”
“I remembered it.”
Silence settled.
Then Gabriel removed an envelope from his jacket.
Audrey stared at it.
“What is that?”
“Divorce papers.”
Her expression became unreadable.
Gabriel continued.
“The annulment was fraudulent. We're legally married.”
“I know.”
“These will end it properly.”
Audrey looked at the envelope.
“You want a divorce?”
Gabriel's answer took too long.
Audrey nodded.
“Okay.”
She reached for the papers.
Gabriel did not release them.
She looked up.
“I didn't say I signed them.”
“Gabriel.”
“I said they're divorce papers.”
“What are you doing?”
He looked almost uncomfortable.
A rare sight.
“I spent two years believing our marriage was a mistake.”
Audrey went still.
“I was wrong.”
He tore the papers in half.
Audrey stared.
Gabriel dropped the pieces into the trash.
“I don't want one night anymore.”
Her eyes filled.
“What do you want?”
Gabriel looked toward Noah.
May you like
Then back at her.
“I'm trying to figure out how to ask for the rest.”
