Chapter 6 - The Man Beside Him
Elias Kane had been standing three floors below them.
By the time Gabriel’s men reached the lobby, he was gone.
His phone lay on the security desk.
His car remained in the garage.
And two guards were unconscious in a stairwell.
Gabriel stared through the hospital windows.
Ava approached quietly.
“How long has he been with you?”
“Since I was twelve.”
“He raised you?”
“After my father died.”
Gabriel laughed once, without humor.
“He taught me how to drive. How to shoot. How to tell when a man was lying.”
Ava stood beside him.
“Maybe that’s why he became good at it.”
Gabriel looked at her.
She expected anger.
Instead, he looked tired.
“He was there for every birthday after my father died.”
“That doesn’t erase what he may have done.”
“No.”
“But the photograph doesn’t prove everything either.”
“You’re defending him?”
“I’m saying we find facts before we bury someone.”
Gabriel’s gaze softened.
“You would make a terrible member of my organization.”
“Good.”
His phone buzzed.
A message from Elias.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH. OLD REED HOUSE.
Gabriel showed Ava.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You’re definitely not going alone.”
“Ava—”
“You dragged me into your mansion, my apartment got burned down, someone shot at me, and now I know more about your family than my own. We are well past the point where you tell me to stay home.”
Forty minutes later, they reached the abandoned Reed estate outside the city.
Gabriel did not come alone.
He simply made sure Elias thought he had.
Ava wore a small transmitter beneath her coat.
Dylan remained with Jennifer under guard.
Inside the house, dust covered furniture that had not moved in years.
Elias waited in Daniel Reed’s old study.
A gun rested on the desk.
Gabriel entered first.
Ava followed.
Elias looked at her.
“I said alone.”
“She doesn’t listen.”
“I noticed.”
Gabriel’s voice hardened.
“Did you kill my father?”
Elias stared at him.
“No.”
“Were you there?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Marcus planted the bomb?”
Silence.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
The word devastated him.
Ava saw it.
Gabriel’s hand moved toward his gun.
Elias did not reach for his own.
“I found out ten minutes before Daniel boarded the boat.”
“And you let him?”
“Marcus had your mother.”
Gabriel froze.
“My mother died when I was nine.”
“No.”
The room changed.
Gabriel stared.
Elias continued.
“The woman buried in that grave was not your mother.”
Gabriel looked almost angry enough to laugh.
“Careful.”
“Daniel lied to protect you.”
Elias opened a drawer.
Inside was an old photograph.
A young woman stood beside Daniel holding a baby.
Gabriel.
“She was Elena Marconi,” Elias said. “Her family controlled the east docks. Daniel married her secretly. When Marcus began taking control, Elena became leverage. Daniel staged her death and sent her away.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe this?”
“No. I expect you to verify it.”
Elias slid a folder across the desk.
“Marcus discovered Elena was alive shortly before Daniel died. He threatened to kill her and you unless Daniel surrendered the evidence.”
“And you?”
“I was supposed to stop Daniel from going to the marina.”
“But you failed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elias’s eyes filled with something Gabriel had never seen there.
Shame.
“Because Robert Kelly called and told me his men had you.”
Gabriel went still.
“You were fourteen.”
Elias continued. “I chose you.”
“My father died because you chose me.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel punched him.
Elias hit the floor.
Ava did not intervene.
Gabriel stood over him shaking.
“You let me call you family.”
“I loved you like family.”
“Don’t.”
“I made the wrong choice for the right reason.”
Gabriel drew his gun.
Ava stepped between them.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Ava.”
“You said you wanted truth.”
“I have it.”
“No. You have pain.”
Gabriel stared at her.
She refused to move.
“Kill him now and you’ll never know the rest.”
Seconds passed.
Gabriel lowered the gun.
Elias wiped blood from his mouth.
“Marcus is preparing to leave the country.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“With Kelly?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A private airfield north of the city.”
Gabriel turned.
Elias spoke again.
“There’s something else.”
Gabriel stopped.
“Marcus has Dylan.”
Ava’s blood froze.
“No.”
Her phone rang.
Jennifer.
Ava answered.
Jennifer was sobbing.
“They took him.”
Ava nearly dropped the phone.
“How?”
“One of Gabriel’s guards turned on us.”
Gabriel grabbed his own phone.
Elias closed his eyes.
“Marcus still has people inside your organization.”
A message arrived.
A photograph.
Dylan sat tied to a chair.
Blood ran from his lip.
Beside him was a handwritten sign.
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW. BRING AVA.
Gabriel looked at her.
“No.”
Ava’s eyes remained fixed on her brother’s photograph.
“Gabriel.”
“No.”
“They want me.”
“I’m not trading you.”
She looked at him.
“He’s my little brother.”
“I know.”
“He is the reason I worked doubles. The reason I stayed at that restaurant. The reason I kept going after Mom died.”
Her voice trembled.
“I promised her I would protect him.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“And I’m promising you I’ll bring him home.”
Ava shook her head.
“You can’t promise that.”
Gabriel gently touched her cheek.
For once there was no mafia king.
No feared heir.
Only a man looking at a woman he could no longer pretend meant nothing to him.
“No,” he said quietly.
“I can promise something else.”
May you like
“What?”
“You won’t face this alone.”
