Chapter 2 - The Bullet That Changed Everything
The bullet struck the wall exactly where Gabriel's head had been.
He pulled me to the floor.
Another shot shattered the kitchen window.
“Stay down!”
His voice was no longer angry.
It was protective.
Instinctive.
Familiar.
The same voice I remembered from the year we had been together.
I pressed myself against the floor while Gabriel crawled toward the fallen pistol.
He grabbed it and moved toward the broken window.
“Gabriel, don't!”
He ignored me.
He looked outside.
Nothing.
Rain.
Dark rooftops.
A flickering streetlamp.
Then he saw something.
A black sedan disappeared around the corner.
Gabriel's expression became murderous.
He pulled out his phone.
“Lock down the building.”
A voice answered immediately.
“Boss?”
“Now.”
He ended the call.
I stared at him.
“You're not leaving?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He looked at my scar.
“Because somebody just tried to kill you in front of me.”
“You thought I deserved to die an hour ago.”
“I was wrong.”
The words stunned me.
Gabriel Russo rarely admitted mistakes.
Especially not in front of the person he had spent eight months hunting.
He walked toward me.
I instinctively backed away.
He stopped.
“I'm not going to touch you.”
“Good.”
“I need to know everything.”
“I don't remember everything.”
“Then tell me what you remember.”
I hesitated.
Eight months earlier, I had been working a night shift at St. Catherine Medical Center.
At 1:17 a.m., a man wearing hospital scrubs entered the staff corridor.
He had Gabriel's security insignia clipped to his belt.
He told me Gabriel needed me immediately.
I followed him.
I never reached the parking lot.
A cloth covered my face.
When I woke up, I was in a basement.
My hands were tied.
Daniel Shaw stood in front of me.
At first, I couldn't believe it.
Daniel had always treated me like family.
He had brought Gabriel home after our dates.
He had joked about Gabriel being hopelessly in love.
He had even attended my birthday dinner.
Yet there he stood.
Cold.
Expressionless.
“You know too much,” he told me.
I asked what he meant.
He said Gabriel had discovered someone inside his organization was stealing from him.
He said I had become a liability.
Then he showed me a document.
It contained my signature.
A transfer authorizing millions of dollars to Connor Bell's organization.
I stared at it.
“I didn't sign that.”
Daniel smiled.
“Gabriel will believe you did.”
And he was right.
I spent weeks trapped in different locations.
Eventually, someone tried to kill me.
A blade cut across my abdomen.
I don't remember screaming.
I remember blood.
I remember thinking about the baby.
And I remember a woman appearing afterward.
She wasn't with Daniel.
She secretly helped me escape.
Her name was Sofia.
She worked for Connor Bell.
But she told me something I never understood.
“Connor didn't order this.”
“Then who did?”
She looked terrified.
“Someone who wants both bosses dead.”
Before she could explain, men came searching.
Sofia pushed me through a service door.
“Run.”
I ran.
I never saw her again.
Gabriel listened without interrupting.
When I finished, he asked one question.
“Why didn't you contact me?”
I laughed bitterly.
“Because Daniel showed me recordings.”
“What recordings?”
“Your men talking about killing me.”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“Fake?”
“I didn't know.”
He sat across from me.
“Clara, I would have burned Chicago down before letting anyone hurt you.”
“That's exactly why they used me.”
His eyes closed.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then Gabriel's phone rang again.
This time, it was one of his security men.
“Boss, Daniel is asking where you are.”
Gabriel slowly looked at me.
“Tell me something,” I whispered.
“What?”
“Did you tell Daniel you were coming here tonight?”
“No.”
“Then how did he know?”
Gabriel stood.
He stared at the broken window.
Someone had been listening.
Someone had followed him.
Someone had wanted him to find me.
He walked toward the door.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Where are you going?”
“To find Daniel.”
“You can't.”
His eyes met mine.
“Why?”
“Because if Daniel is behind this, he knows you're coming.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
He suddenly understood.
Daniel wasn't waiting for him.
Daniel was leading him.
And somewhere beneath all the lies was a much bigger trap.
Then Gabriel noticed something on my kitchen table.
A small envelope.
I had never seen it before.
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Gabriel and me.
Taken two years earlier.
On the back, five words were written in black ink:
YOUR CHILD IS THE KEY.
Gabriel stared at the photograph.
May you like
Then he looked at my stomach.
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
