Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE PENTHOUSE
Paige owned exactly what she had carried to work that morning.
A purse.
A phone.
The clothes on her body.
And the framed photograph of Buster that Nico had quietly retrieved from her office.
Everything else was smoke.
Gabriel took her to his penthouse.
Paige protested for most of the drive.
Gabriel ignored most of it.
“You cannot seriously expect me to live with you.”
“Temporarily.”
“You’re my boss.”
“Yes.”
“You’re also possibly a criminal.”
“Possibly?”
She looked at him.
He looked back.
“Fine. Definitely.”
“That’s better.”
The penthouse occupied the top two floors of a building overlooking Central Park.
Paige expected gold furniture, marble statues, perhaps a tiger.
Instead, Gabriel’s home was almost painfully restrained.
Dark wood.
Books.
Black stone.
Warm lamps.
No photographs.
No clutter.
Nothing that suggested anyone actually lived there.
A housekeeper named Rosa greeted Gabriel with the familiarity of someone completely unimpressed by his reputation.
Then she saw Paige.
Rosa smiled.
Gabriel immediately said, “No.”
“I said nothing.”
“You were about to.”
“I was about to ask whether the young woman wants dinner.”
Paige liked her instantly.
Gabriel’s phone rang.
He disappeared into his study with Nico.
Rosa found Paige clothes left by Gabriel’s younger sister, Elena, and showed her to a guest room.
Paige sat on the enormous bed.
Her hands began shaking.
For hours she had been functioning on adrenaline.
Now there was nothing left.
Her apartment was gone.
Kevin might have been involved in something dangerous.
Someone wanted her dead.
And she was sleeping inside the home of Gabriel Moretti.
A knock sounded.
Gabriel entered after she answered.
He carried her photograph of Buster.
Nico must have given it to him.
Gabriel placed it carefully on the nightstand.
It was such a strangely gentle gesture that Paige’s throat tightened.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
“Did you find anything?”
“The fire was deliberate.”
She closed her eyes.
“Of course it was.”
“We also found a dead man in the alley.”
Paige looked up.
“Rizzo?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Kevin.”
Everything inside her stopped.
She did not remember standing.
Only Gabriel suddenly being in front of her.
“Kevin is dead?”
“We don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“The body carried Kevin’s wallet. Height and build match. The face was deliberately damaged.”
Paige felt sick.
“So you don’t know.”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell me he’s dead.”
Gabriel studied her.
“You still care about him.”
“I don’t know.”
That was the truth.
Kevin had betrayed her.
Abandoned her.
Possibly endangered her.
But for four years he had also been the person who brought soup when she was sick and danced terribly in their kitchen.
Human feelings did not disappear merely because someone deserved them to.
Gabriel seemed to understand.
“I’ll confirm the identity.”
“Why are you helping me?”
Silence.
Then he sat in the chair opposite her.
“My father built Moretti Logistics with men who believed fear was more useful than loyalty.”
Paige waited.
“I spent fifteen years proving them wrong.”
“By being terrifying?”
A faint look crossed his face.
“Mostly.”
She almost smiled.
Gabriel continued.
“Someone is using my company. My routes. My employees. If Kevin discovered it, his disappearance is connected to me whether I like it or not.”
“That sounds like business.”
“It is.”
“And me?”
His gaze settled on her.
“You’re not.”
The answer landed strangely.
Before Paige could respond, Nico entered without knocking.
“We found something.”
He handed Gabriel a plastic evidence sleeve.
Inside was a small metal object blackened by fire.
A flash drive.
“It was inside the dog photograph,” Nico said.
Paige stared.
“What?”
Nico removed the back of the frame.
A narrow compartment had been carved behind the photograph.
Kevin had hidden the drive there.
Gabriel looked at Paige.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
They moved downstairs.
Nico used an isolated laptop.
The drive contained hundreds of files.
Shipping records.
Payments.
Photographs.
Names.
Paige recognized several executives.
Then she saw Sylvia.
Her office manager.
A photograph showed Sylvia meeting a man outside a warehouse.
Another showed Kevin.
Alive.
Standing beside her.
Paige leaned toward the screen.
The date was six months ago.
The night before Kevin disappeared.
“They knew each other.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Another folder required a password.
Nico tried Kevin’s birthday.
Nothing.
Paige’s birthday.
Nothing.
Their old address.
Nothing.
Then Paige noticed the password hint.
HONEY.
Everyone went silent.
Gabriel slowly turned toward her.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Paige whispered.
Nico entered the word.
The folder opened.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Inside was a photograph of a ledger page.
At the top was a name.
MORETTI, GABRIEL.
Beside it:
AUTHORIZED TRANSFER — $18,000,000.
Gabriel stared.
“I never authorized that.”
Paige leaned closer.
The signature looked perfect.
Almost.
Her graphic-design training caught what the others missed.
“Wait.”
She enlarged the image.
“What?”
“That signature isn’t handwritten.”
Nico frowned.
Paige pointed.
“It’s constructed.”
She showed them repeating pixel patterns around several curves.
“Someone scanned pieces of your signature and rebuilt it digitally.”
Gabriel looked at her differently now.
Not as an endangered employee.
As someone useful.
Paige opened another file.
Her stomach dropped.
It contained a photograph of Gabriel standing beside a dead man.
Blood covered his shirt.
A gun was in his hand.
The timestamp showed three years earlier.
“That’s fake too,” Paige said.
Gabriel didn’t answer.
“It is fake, right?”
Silence.
Nico looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel finally said, “The photograph isn’t.”
Paige’s pulse jumped.
“But the story behind it is.”
Before he could explain, the penthouse lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Nico drew his weapon.
A gunshot cracked downstairs.
Rosa screamed.
Gabriel grabbed Paige and pulled her behind the stone kitchen island.
Another shot shattered glass.
“Stay down.”
He moved toward the darkness.
Paige caught his sleeve.
“Gabriel.”
He looked back.
For the first time, she did not call him Mr. Moretti.
Footsteps sounded beyond the hallway.
Then a familiar female voice came through the darkness.
“Paige?”
Paige froze.
Sylvia.
“Thank God,” Sylvia called.
“I came to get you out.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
May you like
Paige stared toward the dark doorway.
Because Sylvia should not have known where she was.
