Chapter 2 - The One Thing He Couldn't Control
Gabriel’s hand dropped from Clara’s face.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Chicago traffic murmured twelve floors below. Somewhere inside the apartment, the refrigerator clicked on.
Gabriel looked almost unnaturally still.
Then he said, “You think Isabella is why I stopped you?”
“She’s part of it.”
“Then what’s the rest?”
Clara laughed once, without humor.
“You really want the list?”
“Yes.”
“You never ask me what I want.”
His expression changed.
“You decide where I work, where I sit, which security detail follows me, when I’m allowed to leave meetings, and apparently now which country I’m allowed to enter.”
“I canceled one flight.”
“You froze my money.”
“I froze accounts connected to Costa financial infrastructure.”
“They’re my accounts.”
“And they were compromised.”
Clara stared at him.
“What?”
Gabriel reached into his pocket and removed his phone.
He opened an image.
A photograph of Clara leaving the St. Regis the previous night.
Another showed her entering her apartment.
A third showed her at a coffee shop three weeks earlier.
Clara’s stomach tightened.
“I didn’t take those,” Gabriel said.
She looked up.
“Who did?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
Gabriel swiped again.
This photograph had been taken through the window of her apartment.
Clara was asleep on the sofa.
Someone had written a date across the bottom.
Six days ago.
Her anger cooled into something much worse.
Fear.
“When did you get these?”
“This morning.”
“From whom?”
“An anonymous number.”
Gabriel showed her the message.
She knows too much. Decide whether she belongs to you before someone else decides for you.
Clara reread it.
Then again.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because twelve minutes after I received it, you resigned.”
“And instead of explaining, you decided to imprison me financially?”
“I was buying time.”
“You could have used words.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“I’m not particularly good at those.”
“No kidding.”
Something almost resembling amusement flickered across his face, then vanished.
Clara walked to the window.
Her mind was already reorganizing information.
Who knew her schedule?
Almost everyone inside Costa headquarters.
Who knew where she lived?
Far fewer.
Who knew about her role beyond legitimate business?
Maybe twenty people.
Who would benefit from removing her?
Too many.
“The engagement,” she said.
Gabriel watched her.
“What about it?”
“The timing isn’t accidental.”
“No.”
“Someone waited until the Marino merger became official.”
“Yes.”
Clara turned.
“You think someone inside one of the families wants the merger stopped.”
“I think someone wants a war.”
“And I’m useful because?”
Gabriel hesitated.
That hesitation frightened her more than the photographs.
“Tell me.”
“You drafted the merger agreements.”
“So?”
“You also built the financial firewall separating Costa legitimate assets from everything else.”
Her pulse accelerated.
“If I disappear, the firewall doesn’t disappear.”
“No. But if someone makes it look like you stole information before disappearing…”
Clara understood.
“They could accuse the Marinos.”
“Or accuse me of killing you after discovering your betrayal.”
“And either version destroys the merger.”
“Yes.”
Clara folded her arms.
“So now what?”
“You come with me.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You just explained that someone is photographing me through my windows. I understand the danger. That does not mean I’m moving into your penthouse.”
“I didn’t say penthouse.”
“Where?”
“A house in Lake Forest.”
Clara stared.
“The safe house?”
Gabriel nodded.
Only a handful of people knew it existed.
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I am not spending my resignation weekend locked in a mansion with you.”
“You'd rather stay here?”
“Yes.”
A sharp sound cracked from outside.
Gabriel moved before Clara understood it.
He hit her hard enough to send both of them behind the kitchen island.
Glass exploded.
Clara landed beneath him.
A bullet had punched through the window exactly where her head had been.
Gabriel covered her body.
“Stay down.”
Another shot.
The wall splintered.
Gabriel pulled a pistol from beneath his shirt.
Clara stared at it.
“You came armed?”
“I came to your apartment. Of course I came armed.”
“That is not comforting.”
“Wasn't meant to be.”
He touched his earpiece.
“North building. Elevated position. Find him.”
Clara heard voices answer.
Gabriel waited.
His body remained between hers and the windows.
Thirty seconds later, his phone vibrated.
“Shooter moved,” he said.
Clara looked at the shattered glass.
A small framed photograph had fallen from a shelf.
It showed Clara with her mother years ago.
The glass over her mother’s face had cracked.
Something inside Clara changed.
“All right.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Lake Forest.”
He stood and offered his hand.
Clara ignored it and stood herself.
“I’m going because somebody shot at me. Not because you ordered me.”
“Understood.”
“And you restore my accounts.”
“Done.”
“My passport stays with me.”
“Yes.”
“My phone stays with me.”
“Yes.”
“And if I decide to leave after this threat is handled, you do not stop me.”
Gabriel became silent.
“Say it.”
His eyes held hers.
“I won't stop you.”
Clara picked up her duffel.
“Good.”
Gabriel took it from her.
“I can carry my own bag.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you carrying it?”
“Because arguing with you is apparently the only thing I get to enjoy today.”
Despite everything, Clara nearly smiled.
Nearly.
They descended through the service elevator.
Two black SUVs waited underground.
Gabriel opened the rear door.
Clara stopped.
“Where’s your normal security team?”
“Changed.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody knew about your apartment.”
Clara understood.
Gabriel trusted no one.
Not even his own men.
The drive north lasted forty minutes.
Gabriel spent most of it answering messages.
Clara watched Chicago disappear behind them.
She should have been heading toward O’Hare.
Toward London.
Toward freedom.
Instead she was moving deeper into Gabriel Costa’s world.
The Lake Forest property appeared behind iron gates and acres of trees.
Clara had visited once.
She remembered surveillance cameras, reinforced windows, underground generators, and enough food to survive a siege.
Gabriel led her inside.
“Guest room upstairs.”
“Separate rooms?”
He gave her a look.
“Unless you’ve changed your mind about resigning.”
“I haven't.”
“Then very separate rooms.”
Clara climbed halfway up the staircase before her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
One photograph.
Gabriel and Clara entering the safe house five minutes earlier.
Taken from somewhere outside the property.
Beneath it were seven words.
HE CAN'T PROTECT YOU FROM HIS OWN FAMILY.
Clara stopped breathing.
“Gabriel.”
He looked up.
She held out the phone.
He read the message.
His face hardened.
Only six people knew the location of the Lake Forest house.
May you like
Clara knew all six names.
And one of them was Gabriel’s younger brother.
