Chapter 3 - The Choice That Cost Her Safety
Harper stared at the photograph until the letters blurred.
Her name had been on Derek’s paper before she had worked a single shift inside the mansion.
That meant the one thing she had been clinging to was already gone.
He knew.
Maybe he had always known.
“No.”
The word came out quietly.
Gabriel lowered the phone.
“Elias is checking when the image was taken.”
“You just said three days ago.”
“I want the original timestamp.”
Harper looked at Mrs. Morrison.
“You told me nobody checked references.”
“They didn’t.”
“You said nobody asked questions.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how did Derek get my application?”
Mrs. Morrison’s eyes moved toward Gabriel.
Harper followed the glance.
Gabriel’s jaw hardened.
“You think it came from me?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
“That makes two of us.”
Harper pulled the zipper of her uniform the rest of the way up.
The motion hurt.
She ignored it.
“I’m leaving.”
Gabriel stepped aside rather than blocking the door.
That surprised her.
Mrs. Morrison did block it.
Not physically.
Just with a sentence.
“If Derek has your address, going home may lead him directly to Noah.”
Harper stopped.
“He doesn’t have my address.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You don’t either.”
“No.”
Mrs. Morrison’s voice softened.
“But you know him.”
Harper hated that she was right.
Derek never rushed when he believed time favored him.
He watched.
He learned routines.
He waited until a person felt safe.
Then he used whatever they loved most.
Noah.
Harper reached into the pocket of her uniform for her phone.
She called him.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
Her hands started shaking.
“He sleeps hard.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Harper called a third time.
Voicemail.
She was already moving.
Gabriel followed.
“Elias is bringing the car around.”
“I’m not waiting.”
“You’ll get there faster in my car.”
“I’m not putting Noah in one of your cars.”
“That isn’t the choice.”
Harper stopped at the staircase.
Gabriel stood two steps above her.
“What is?”
“Whether you arrive with people who know how to see a threat before it reaches the door.”
Harper wanted to refuse.
She also wanted Noah alive more than she wanted pride.
That was the first cost.
She nodded once.
“Fine.”
Gabriel took out his phone.
“Elias, Dorchester.”
Harper gave the address.
His eyes shifted toward her.
“You sure?”
“No.”
That answer came from somewhere exhausted and honest.
“But go.”
Ten minutes later, Harper sat in the back of a black SUV beside Mrs. Morrison.
Gabriel sat in front.
Elias Ward drove.
He looked to be in his early forties.
Close-cropped dark hair.
Broad shoulders.
A scar disappeared beneath the collar of his coat.
He spoke very little.
Harper preferred him immediately for that reason.
Gabriel had insisted Mrs. Morrison come.
Harper did not understand why.
Then she realized he no longer trusted the house manager alone in the mansion.
That frightened her almost as much as Derek.
“What does Caleb do?”
Harper asked.
Gabriel watched the road.
“He handles operations.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if a truck moves, a club opens, money changes hands, or somebody needs to know something before I do, Caleb usually hears about it.”
“And he has staff applications?”
“He shouldn’t.”
Mrs. Morrison folded her hands.
“Applications stay in my office.”
Gabriel looked over his shoulder.
“Who has access?”
“Me.”
“Only you?”
Mrs. Morrison hesitated.
“Elias has an emergency key.”
Elias kept driving.
Gabriel’s gaze moved toward him.
Elias did not react.
Mrs. Morrison continued.
“Your office also has master access.”
Gabriel’s eyes returned to the windshield.
Harper noticed.
Caleb was suspicious.
Mrs. Morrison was hiding something.
Elias had a key.
Gabriel had access.
She was sitting in a vehicle surrounded by four people who all knew more about her life than she did.
Her phone rang.
Noah.
Harper answered instantly.
“Noah?”
A small sleepy voice came through.
“Harper?”
She closed her eyes.
“Hey.”
“Why are you calling?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Is the door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Chain too?”
“Yes.”
“Bedroom window?”
“Locked.”
He yawned.
“You said not to open it.”
“Good.”
“Are you coming home?”
Harper looked at Gabriel.
He was listening without pretending otherwise.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
A pause.
“Did you sing Mom’s song?”
Noah asked.
Harper swallowed.
“Not tonight.”
“You always sing it when you’re scared.”
Mrs. Morrison turned sharply toward her.
Harper noticed.
So did Gabriel.
Noah continued.
“I heard you singing on the phone before I fell asleep.”
“I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay.”
She lowered her voice.
“Go back to bed.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
The call ended.
Mrs. Morrison stared at Harper.
“What song?”
Harper’s patience snapped.
“A lullaby.”
“What lullaby?”
“My mother sang it.”
“What language?”
Harper looked at her.
“Kuna.”
Mrs. Morrison leaned back slowly.
Gabriel glanced at her through the mirror.
“You know it?”
“No.”
Mrs. Morrison answered too quickly.
Harper stored that reaction beside the others.
They reached Dorchester nine minutes later.
Harper saw nothing unusual from the street.
That made it worse.
Elias parked half a block away.
Gabriel turned.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Harper.”
“My brother is inside.”
“Which is why Elias and I go first.”
“I’m going.”
Gabriel studied her.
Then nodded.
“Behind me.”
The apartment building smelled like old cooking oil and damp plaster.
A television blared behind one door.
Somebody argued two floors down.
Harper climbed the stairs too quickly.
Her ribs protested with every step.
At the third-floor landing, Elias lifted one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Harper followed his gaze.
Her apartment door was closed.
The chain hung through the gap.
But the lock had scratches around it.
Fresh ones.
Harper’s stomach tightened.
Elias touched the metal.
“Somebody tested it.”
Gabriel looked at Harper.
“Stay.”
She ignored him.
“Noah?”
She knocked in their pattern.
Two quick.
One slow.
Two quick.
The chain moved.
Noah opened the door three inches.
Harper pushed inside and wrapped both arms around him.
He was warm.
Sleepy.
Alive.
For several seconds, nothing else mattered.
Then Noah whispered into her shoulder.
“A policeman came.”
Harper went still.
“What?”
“He knocked.”
“When?”
“After you called the first time.”
Gabriel looked toward Elias.
“What did he say?”
Harper asked.
Noah rubbed his eye.
“He said he was checking apartments.”
“Did you open the door?”
“No.”
“What did he look like?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“Did he say his name?”
Noah shook his head.
“He knew yours.”
Harper’s grip tightened.
“What did he say?”
Noah looked confused.
“He said, ‘Tell Harper she forgot something.’”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“What?”
Harper asked.
Noah pointed toward the kitchen.
There was an envelope on the floor.
It had been pushed underneath the door.
Harper approached slowly.
Her name was written across the front.
She knew the handwriting.
Derek.
Elias put on gloves before picking it up.
He opened the flap.
Inside was a photocopy.
Harper recognized the document before she read it.
Petition for Guardianship.
NOAH QUEEN.
The paper had been filed fourteen months earlier.
Harper had never seen it.
Her mother had died two years ago.
Harper read the next line.
Petitioner.
HARPER MARISOL QUEEN.
Her own name.
Then the disposition.
WITHDRAWN AT PETITIONER’S REQUEST.
Harper shook her head.
“I never withdrew this.”
Mrs. Morrison took a step closer.
“Did you file for guardianship?”
“Yes.”
“Fourteen months ago?”
“Yes.”
“Who helped you?”
Harper already knew why the question mattered.
“Derek.”
Silence.
Gabriel took the paper.
“He told me it was denied.”
Harper’s voice sounded far away.
“He said the court thought I wasn’t financially stable.”
Gabriel examined the signature at the bottom.
“Is this yours?”
Harper looked.
It resembled her signature.
But the Q was wrong.
She had stopped curling the bottom of the letter when she was fifteen.
Her mother used to tease her about it.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Elias.
“Get Sofia.”
Elias was already dialing.
Harper stared at the paper.
Derek had not merely abused her.
He had forged her name.
He had deliberately prevented her from becoming Noah’s legal guardian.
The question was why.
Noah tugged her sleeve.
“Harper?”
She crouched carefully.
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
His voice was small but certain.
She almost smiled.
“You sound like Mom.”
“I know.”
He glanced at the adults.
“Are they bad people?”
Harper looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel did not answer for her.
“I don’t know yet.”
Noah accepted that.
Children sometimes tolerated uncertainty better than adults.
Mrs. Morrison moved toward the window.
She looked down at the street.
Then she suddenly stepped back.
“Gabriel.”
Elias crossed the room.
“What?”
Mrs. Morrison pointed.
Across the street, beneath a broken streetlamp, a dark sedan idled.
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Elias reached inside his coat.
The sedan moved.
It passed slowly beneath the apartment window.
Harper saw the driver.
Derek.
He looked directly up.
Their eyes met through three floors of darkness and glass.
Derek smiled.
Then he raised his phone.
Harper’s phone buzzed in her hand.
A message appeared.
YOU PICKED AN INTERESTING HOUSE TO HIDE IN.
A second message followed.
ASK ASHFORD WHAT YOUR MOTHER STOLE FROM HIS FATHER.
Before Harper could read it aloud, Mrs. Morrison whispered behind her.
“Oh, God.”
Harper turned.
The older woman was staring at Derek’s message.
Not at the threat.
May you like
At the word stole.
And for the first time since Harper had met her, Mrs. Morrison looked guilty.
