Chapter 2 - The Man in Black
The man walking through the front doors was Gabriel Mercer.
Matthias knew him immediately.
So did almost everyone else in the room.
Conversation did not stop all at once. It disappeared in pieces, beginning near the entrance and spreading across the ballroom until even the string quartet seemed too loud.
Gabriel was thirty-eight, six-foot-three, and dressed entirely in black beneath a long wool coat dusted with snow. He had the controlled expression of a man who had learned years ago that he never needed to raise his voice to make people listen.
Officially, Gabriel ran Mercer Strategic Risk, a private security and corporate investigations firm headquartered in Manhattan.
Unofficially, the Dre family hated him.
Four years earlier, Gabriel had testified during a federal inquiry into one of Dre Holdings’ overseas subsidiaries. Nobody had been charged, but Matthias’s father had lost two contracts and nearly seventy million dollars.
Matthias looked from Gabriel to me.
“You brought Mercer?”
“I called him.”
“Why?”
Gabriel reached us before I answered.
“Mrs. Dre.”
He did not shake my hand.
Instead, his eyes moved briefly around the room.
Doors.
Windows.
Staircase.
Security personnel.
Then Matthias.
“Gabriel,” Matthias said coldly.
“Matthias.”
“This is a private family event.”
“Not tonight.”
Matthias gave a humorless smile.
“I think I decide that.”
“No,” I said. “Actually, I do.”
His head snapped toward me.
I opened my clutch.
Inside was a copy of the anonymous document.
Gabriel had the original.
I handed the copy to Matthias.
For three seconds, he did not react.
Then the color disappeared from his face.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
“You've seen this before,” I said.
“No.”
“Matthias.”
“I said no.”
Gabriel watched him.
“You recognized the format.”
Matthias folded the paper.
“I recognized nothing.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Then why did you look at the west service corridor before you looked at the property diagram?”
Matthias froze.
I hadn't noticed.
Gabriel had.
“What is this?” I whispered.
Matthias looked at me.
For the first time that night, the arrogance was gone.
“Where did you get it?”
“It was delivered to my lawyer.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“And you still came here?”
“My husband insisted Christmas with his family was important.”
His face tightened.
“You should have told me.”
“I tried calling you six times.”
“I was working.”
“With Fiona?”
His silence answered enough.
Across the room, Fiona was watching us.
She no longer looked like a triumphant mistress.
She looked terrified.
Then Gabriel touched the microphone clipped beneath his coat.
“Lock the north gate.”
Matthias grabbed his wrist.
“You don't give orders on my property.”
Gabriel looked down at Matthias’s hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
Something in his voice made Matthias obey.
Gabriel spoke quietly into the microphone.
“Team Two, begin evacuation protocol.”
That got Matthias’s attention.
“You brought a team?”
“Twenty-two people.”
“To my parents’ Christmas party?”
“To a potential mass-casualty event.”
I felt my daughter move beneath my palm.
Gabriel noticed.
His voice softened slightly.
“Serena, I need you somewhere secure.”
“No.”
“That's not a request I enjoy repeating.”
“My mother-in-law is upstairs. Matthias’s grandmother uses a walker. There are children in the library.”
“We'll get everyone.”
Suddenly Fiona appeared beside us.
“We need to leave.”
Matthias turned.
“What?”
“Now.”
Her hand was trembling.
The champagne was gone.
So was her confidence.
Gabriel studied her.
“Why?”
Fiona looked toward the front windows.
“Because if he's here, they know something went wrong.”
Gabriel moved so quickly I barely saw it.
He caught Fiona by the arm before she could step away.
“Who are they?”
“I don't know.”
“Bad answer.”
“I swear.”
Matthias stared at her.
“Fiona.”
She began crying.
Not delicately.
Not theatrically.
Her entire body started shaking.
“I wasn't supposed to know what it meant.”
“What meant?” I demanded.
She looked at me.
And suddenly I understood.
The necklace.
The hotel.
The affair.
They were real.
But they were not the whole story.
Fiona swallowed.
“The acquisition isn't an acquisition.”
Matthias whispered her name like a warning.
She ignored him.
“Hensley Systems has been moving money through shell companies for years. I found records while preparing communications for the merger.”
Gabriel's expression sharpened.
“What kind of records?”
“Payments. Contractors. Security consultants.”
“To whom?”
“I don't know their real names.”
Gabriel released her.
“Where are the files?”
Fiona looked at Matthias.
He closed his eyes.
That was when I knew.
My husband knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
“Matthias,” I whispered.
He turned to me.
“I was trying to protect you.”
The sentence hurt more than the necklace.
Because people only said that after deciding you did not deserve the truth.
“From what?”
Before he could answer, the lights went out.
The Christmas tree remained glowing for half a second on backup power.
Then darkness swallowed the room.
Someone screamed.
Glass shattered.
Gabriel grabbed me.
“Down.”
He pulled me behind a stone column as the emergency lights flickered red.
Guests began shouting.
Matthias yelled my name.
Then came a sound from outside.
Not a gunshot.
A deep mechanical concussion.
The windows trembled.
Gabriel spoke into his radio.
“Report.”
Static.
Then:
“West generator compromised.”
Another voice followed.
“Gate camera is down.”
Gabriel looked at me.
The anonymous diagram flashed through my mind.
The west side.
Service corridor.
Generator.
This had been planned.
Across the darkness, Fiona screamed.
“Matthias!”
A figure moved near the staircase.
Gabriel reached beneath his coat.
Then the emergency lights brightened.
And I saw the impossible.
A man stood at the far end of the ballroom wearing a Dre security uniform.
Blood covered one sleeve.
He raised his hand.
Not toward Matthias.
Toward me.
Gabriel stepped between us.
The man shouted across the room.
“Serena Dre!”
Everyone froze.
He reached slowly inside his jacket.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The man pulled out an envelope.
Then dropped to his knees.
“I’m not here to hurt her.”
His breathing was ragged.
“They are.”
He pointed toward Matthias.
“No,” he gasped. “They need her alive.”
My stomach tightened.
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
May you like
The wounded man looked directly at me.
“Because her father left her something the Dre family was never supposed to find.”
