Chapter 2 - Take It Off
Nora looked at Gabriel for several seconds.
Not frightened.
Not apologetic.
Just tired.
That disturbed him more than anger would have.
Gabriel leaned closer, his voice low enough that no one beyond the closed door could have heard it.
“Take it off.”
Nora’s eyes sharpened.
“No.”
One word.
Quietly spoken.
Yet Gabriel reacted as though someone had fired a gun beneath the table.
He stared at her.
Nobody told Gabriel Rossi no.
Not politicians.
Not businessmen.
Not the men who carried weapons outside the door.
Nora did.
Regularly.
And somehow she was still the only person in Chicago who could do it without immediately wondering whether she had shortened her life expectancy.
“Take,” Gabriel repeated slowly, emphasizing every word, “the ring off.”
“Why?”
“Because I told you to.”
A bitter smile touched her mouth.
“There it is.”
His brow tightened.
“There what is?”
“The problem.”
Nora pushed her chair backward.
Gabriel caught her wrist before she could stand.
His grip was firm, but not painful.
Her gaze dropped to his hand.
Immediately, Gabriel released her.
That small movement changed something.
Nora noticed.
So did he.
“You think because you buy my clothes, choose the restaurants, send a driver everywhere I go, and put guards outside the apartment that you own every inch of my life.”
“I keep you safe.”
“You keep me contained.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“That is not the same thing.”
“Sometimes it feels exactly the same.”
The words landed harder than Nora intended.
For months, there had been something between them neither was willing to name.
Nora had entered the Rossi penthouse 2 years earlier as temporary household staff after Gabriel’s longtime housekeeper injured her hip.
Temporary became permanent.
Maid became personal assistant.
Personal assistant became confidante.
Then confidante became something far more dangerous.
She sat beside him at dinners.
She knew which whiskey he drank when he was angry and which nightmares made him walk through the penthouse at 3 in the morning.
She knew Gabriel hated thunderstorms because his father had been murdered during one.
She knew he secretly paid the college tuition of 3 children whose father had died working for him.
She knew the feared Gabriel Rossi fed a stray orange cat behind his warehouse every Thursday and threatened anyone who mentioned it.
But they had never crossed the final line.
Gabriel had never asked her to stay as his woman.
Nora had never asked him what she was.
Instead, he gave her jewelry.
Protection.
Money she rarely touched.
And jealousy he refused to call jealousy.
Nora lifted her hand.
“Do you know why Colin gave me this?”
“I don't care.”
“Yes, you do.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“He gave it to me when I was twenty-four.”
Nora slowly turned the silver band around her finger.
“I thought he was going to propose.”
Gabriel’s jaw flexed.
“He didn’t.”
Her voice changed.
The edge disappeared.
“He told me he wasn’t ready. Three weeks later, I discovered he’d been seeing someone else.”
Gabriel’s anger shifted.
Jealousy remained, but something colder moved beneath it.
“What happened?”
“I left.”
“And the ring?”
“I threw it into a box.”
“Then why are you wearing it?”
Nora looked toward the dark window.
“Because someone mailed it to me yesterday.”
Gabriel went still.
“What?”
“It arrived at the penthouse.”
His chair moved backward.
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Who delivered it?”
“No return address.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I wanted to know whether it meant anything before you turned Chicago upside down.”
Gabriel stood.
The jealousy vanished from his face.
Now Nora saw the man other people feared.
Focused.
Cold.
Dangerously calm.
“Where is the package?”
“My room.”
Gabriel reached for his phone.
“Marco.”
Nora stood quickly.
“Gabriel—”
He raised one finger.
She stopped.
“Lock down the penthouse. Nobody enters or leaves. Pull yesterday’s security footage. Find every courier who came within 2 blocks.”
He ended the call.
Nora watched him.
“You think Colin sent it?”
“I think somebody wants me to think Colin sent it.”
A chill moved across her shoulders.
Gabriel noticed.
His expression softened almost imperceptibly.
“Come here.”
“I’m fine.”
“Nora.”
This time his voice was not an order.
She stepped toward him.
Gabriel took her hand.
His thumb brushed the silver band.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then he looked into her eyes.
“Did the package contain anything else?”
“No.”
“Think.”
She hesitated.
“The box smelled strange.”
“What kind of smell?”
“Cedar.”
Gabriel’s hand stopped moving.
Nora saw the change immediately.
“What?”
He released her.
“Gabriel.”
Nothing.
She stepped in front of him.
“What does cedar mean?”
His eyes met hers.
And for the first time that evening, Nora saw something she had almost never seen in Gabriel Rossi.
Fear.
“My father was buried in a cedar coffin.”
Nora’s breath caught.
Gabriel looked at the ring again.
“That isn’t a love token.”
May you like
His voice became almost a whisper.
“It’s a warning.”
