Chapter 9 - Sunrise Comes for Everyone
Gabriel disappeared for eleven days.
No official agency admitted transferring him.
No prison possessed paperwork authorizing his removal.
Richard Vale appeared on television and described allegations against him as “desperate criminal misinformation.”
Sheree watched from a secure room beneath Moretti Shipping.
“Turn it off.”
Anthony did.
Matteo paced.
“We need proof.”
“We have Marcus’s ledger.”
“A dead accountant’s handwritten notes won’t be enough.”
Sheree stared at the wall.
Then she remembered Gabriel’s business card.
The cream-colored card he had left beside the $10,000.
She had kept it.
Not because of the number.
Because on the back, almost invisible beneath the embossing, was a tiny handwritten symbol.
Marcus used to draw the same symbol.
A crooked M inside a square.
Sheree found the card.
Anthony examined it.
“That isn’t Gabriel’s handwriting.”
“I know.”
They called the number.
Disconnected.
Anthony traced it.
The number had originally belonged to an answering service purchased by Marcus seven years earlier.
Its archived data remained on an old server.
Inside were recordings.
Hundreds.
Marcus had recorded conversations with Salvatore.
Police captains.
Judges.
And Richard Vale.
They finally had him.
But they still did not have Gabriel.
Then one recording provided the answer.
Vale mentioned a private correctional transport facility outside Joliet.
Anthony mobilized everyone he trusted.
Sheree insisted on coming.
“No,” Anthony said.
“Gabriel will murder me if you get hurt.”
“He can file a complaint after we rescue him.”
Federal internal affairs received copies of the recordings.
So did three major newspapers.
Sheree had learned something from Gabriel.
Never keep only one copy of dangerous information.
At 4:32 a.m., legitimate federal agents raided the facility.
Sheree waited outside.
Snow began falling.
Again.
She hated the universe’s sense of humor.
Ambulances arrived.
Agents emerged.
Then a stretcher appeared.
Sheree ran.
Gabriel lay beneath a gray blanket.
His face was bruised.
His beard had grown.
But his eyes opened when she touched him.
“Hey, stranger.”
He stared at her.
Then smiled.
“You again.”
She started crying.
“You look awful.”
“You always say the sweetest things.”
She bent down and kissed him.
Around them, agents suddenly found other places to look.
Richard Vale was arrested before sunrise.
Within weeks, the entire network began collapsing.
The evidence Marcus had died protecting became public.
His name was cleared.
He was no longer remembered as a robbery victim.
He became the accountant who had quietly exposed one of the largest corruption networks in Illinois history.
Gabriel’s sentence was reduced because of unlawful detention, extensive cooperation, and evidence proving that several charges had been manipulated by Vale.
He came home six months later.
No motorcade.
No armed convoy.
No reporters.
Sheree waited outside the prison in her twelve-year-old Honda.
Gabriel stared at it.
“You kept this?”
“It runs.”
“It makes a noise.”
“That’s the engine.”
“That is not an engine noise.”
“Get in.”
He did.
They drove toward Chicago.
For nearly an hour Gabriel said little.
Then Sheree noticed him staring at ordinary things.
A gas station.
Children leaving school.
A couple arguing beside a grocery store.
Freedom.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
He took her hand.
“I just forgot how much life happens when nobody is trying to kill you.”
“Give it time.”
He laughed.
They stopped at her apartment.
The same building.
The same alley.
Gabriel stood where Sheree had found him.
“You really dragged me all the way upstairs?”
“Yes.”
“I weighed two hundred and fifteen pounds.”
“I was angry.”
“That explains it.”
Inside apartment 2B, the old couch remained.
Gabriel touched it.
“You kept this too?”
“Unlike certain billionaires, I don’t replace furniture because it offends me.”
He turned toward her.
“Sheree.”
Something in his voice changed.
She looked up.
Gabriel reached into his coat.
Her heart jumped.
Then he pulled out the same cream-colored business card.
On the back he had written:
One question.
Sheree looked at him.
Gabriel lowered himself onto one knee.
She covered her mouth.
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I haven’t asked yet.”
“You’re doing this here?”
“Apparently.”
“On this carpet?”
“I almost died on this carpet. It seemed sentimental.”
Sheree laughed through tears.
Gabriel opened a small ring box.
“I spent most of my life believing power meant never needing anyone.”
His voice trembled slightly.
“Then a woman who had every reason to walk past me dragged me out of the snow.”
Sheree cried harder.
“You gave me a second life before you knew my name.”
He looked up at her.
“I want to spend that life giving you reasons to never regret it.”
Then someone pounded on the door.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Sheree burst out laughing.
Anthony shouted from the hallway.
“Are you two alive?”
Gabriel muttered something in Italian.
Sheree opened the door.
Anthony saw Gabriel kneeling.
He immediately backed away.
“Wrong time.”
“Very.”
The door closed.
Gabriel looked up again.
“Where were we?”
Sheree smiled.
“You were asking me something.”
“Yes.”
He took her hand.
“Sheree Carter, will you marry me?”
She let him wait exactly three seconds.
“Yeah.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“That’s better.”
Then she kissed him.
But their story was not quite finished.
May you like
Because three months before the wedding, Sheree woke at 2:17 a.m., stared at the test in her hand, and whispered:
“Oh, Gabriel is going to lose his mind.”
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