Chapter 5 - The Betrayal
Gideon knew something was wrong the moment Ruby stopped arguing.
She became polite.
That was worse.
At breakfast she thanked him when he passed the coffee.
At the office she referred to Apex Maritime as “your company” instead of “our problem.”
When he asked whether she wanted dinner, she said she had plans.
By the third day, Gideon’s patience collapsed.
He found her packing documents into a briefcase.
“What happened?”
Ruby did not look up.
“Nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
“Interesting accusation.”
“Ruby.”
She slammed the case shut.
“Did you meet your father three weeks before my warehouse burned?”
The question stopped him.
Ruby laughed bitterly.
“There it is.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you barely speak to him.”
“I do.”
“What did you discuss?”
Gideon hesitated.
Exactly one second.
It was enough.
Ruby pulled several documents from her desk and threw them across the table.
Bank records.
Security logs.
Photographs.
Gideon’s blood went cold.
“Where did you get these?”
“That is what you care about?”
“They’ve been altered.”
“The meeting wasn’t.”
“No.”
“And the transfer?”
His gaze landed on a wire payment from an offshore account linked to Antonio’s organization.
Five million dollars had entered an Apex subsidiary the day after their meeting.
Gideon swore.
“I didn’t authorize this.”
“Convenient.”
“It’s fabricated.”
“The bank confirmed the transfer.”
Gideon looked again.
Then he understood.
His father had planted the money.
“Ruby, listen to me.”
“I’ve been listening for six months.”
He stepped closer.
“I met Antonio because he threatened to sabotage the redevelopment bid.”
“And?”
“He wanted access to Harrison Terminal.”
Her face changed.
“What did you say?”
“No.”
“Immediately?”
Gideon hesitated again.
Ruby’s eyes filled.
“What did you say?”
“I told him I would consider a temporary storage arrangement.”
She stared.
“You offered my terminal.”
“I was buying time.”
“You promised me.”
“I never intended to let him use it.”
“You promised.”
Her voice broke.
Gideon felt something inside him fracture.
“I was trying to protect the bid.”
“No. You were doing what you always do.”
“What does that mean?”
“You decided for everyone.”
“Because people get hurt when I don’t.”
“And people get hurt when you do.”
Silence.
Ruby pulled the marriage contract from the drawer.
Gideon stared at it.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving.”
His stomach dropped.
“No.”
The word came automatically.
Ruby laughed through tears.
“There he is.”
“You are not walking out while someone is targeting you.”
“You don’t get to decide.”
“I’m your husband.”
“You’re a signature on paper.”
The words hit harder than any physical blow Gideon had ever taken.
Ruby removed her wedding ring.
For the first time, Gideon felt fear become panic.
“Don’t.”
She looked at him.
“I need one thing from you.”
“What?”
“Tell me whether you ever planned to use my terminals without asking me.”
Gideon could lie.
He had lied to politicians.
Police.
Competitors.
Enemies.
Even his father.
But looking into Ruby’s eyes, he couldn’t.
“At the beginning?”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
Her face collapsed.
“Ruby—”
“You were never mine, Gideon.”
He grabbed her wrist.
“You signed a contract.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he hated himself.
Ruby stared down at his hand.
Then at him.
Her voice became almost a whisper.
“I belong to no one.”
Gideon released her instantly.
She placed the ring into his palm.
Then she walked out.
Three minutes later, the marriage contract burned.
Gideon stood before the fireplace watching six months of calculated control turn into ash.
He understood too late that he had used the contract because paper could not abandon him.
Paper could not die.
Paper could not decide it deserved better.
Ruby could.
He threw on his coat.
Rain assaulted Boston.
By the time he reached the street, Ruby was gone.
He called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He contacted security.
They had lost her near Charles Street after she dismissed the driver and walked alone.
Gideon swore.
Then lightning split the sky.
He knew where she was going.
Ruby had once told him that when her grandfather died, she spent an entire night sitting beneath the pavilion on the harbor walk because it was the only place in Boston where she could cry without her father finding her.
Gideon drove there himself.
He found her half a mile from the pavilion.
Walking in rain.
No umbrella.
Her ivory dress from dinner clung to her body beneath a thin coat.
“Ruby!”
She kept walking.
He left the car.
“Ruby!”
“Go home!”
“No.”
“You don’t get to follow me.”
“I know.”
That made her stop.
Gideon approached slowly.
Water ran down his face.
Ruby’s eyes were red.
“You burned the contract?”
He froze.
“How do you know?”
“I saw the fireplace from the elevator security feed.”
Of course she had.
“Why?”
“Because it was the only thing I knew how to destroy instead of myself.”
Ruby stared at him.
Thunder rolled above the harbor.
Gideon stopped several feet away.
“I won’t ask you to come back.”
Her expression changed.
“I won’t remind you of the agreement. It’s gone.”
“Gideon—”
“I won’t touch your terminals. I won’t ask you to remain my wife. I won’t ask you to forgive me.”
His voice nearly failed.
“But I need you alive long enough to hate me properly.”
Despite everything, a broken laugh escaped her.
Gideon’s chest tightened.
Then headlights appeared behind them.
Too fast.
A black SUV accelerated along the wet roadway.
Gideon saw the weapon before Ruby did.
“Down!”
He tackled her behind a stone barrier.
Gunfire cracked through the storm.
Ruby screamed.
Gideon covered her body with his.
More shots.
His shoulder jerked.
Pain exploded through him.
“Gideon!”
“I’m fine.”
He wasn’t.
Blood spread beneath his coat.
Security vehicles arrived seconds later.
The SUV sped away.
Ruby pressed her hands against Gideon’s shoulder.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Stop joking!”
Her hands shook.
He looked at her.
Rain streamed over her face.
She was crying.
For him.
The realization hurt more than the bullet.
“Ruby.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
She pressed harder against the wound.
“Save your apology.”
“I might not get another chance.”
“You are absolutely getting another chance because I refuse to explain to police why my idiot husband followed me into a storm and got himself shot.”
Husband.
The word almost made him smile.
Then darkness took him.
When Gideon woke, he was in Massachusetts General Hospital.
Ruby sat beside the bed.
Her hair was damp.
Her dress had been replaced with hospital scrubs someone had given her.
She was asleep with her head against the mattress.
His father stood near the window.
Gideon’s entire body went cold.
“What are you doing here?”
Antonio turned.
“Visiting my son.”
“Get out.”
Ruby stirred.
Her eyes opened.
When she saw Antonio, she stood immediately.
Antonio looked between them.
“This is exactly what I warned you about.”
Gideon’s good hand curled.
“You arranged the attack?”
Antonio looked offended.
“If I wanted you dead, you would not be discussing it.”
“Comforting.”
Antonio moved closer.
“The men who attacked you work for Preston Vale.”
Ruby stiffened.
Gideon stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because Preston is not the one giving them orders.”
Antonio placed a photograph on the hospital table.
The image showed Preston meeting a woman outside a Cambridge hotel.
Ruby picked it up.
Her face drained of color.
“No.”
Gideon looked.
The woman was elegant, silver-haired, perhaps sixty.
He had never seen her.
But Ruby knew her.
“Who is she?”
Ruby whispered the answer.
“My aunt.”
Gideon frowned.
Ruby’s aunt, Margaret Gallagher, had disappeared from family business years earlier.
May you like
Ruby looked up slowly.
“She was supposed to be dead.”
