Chapter 11 - The Echo in the Grand Foyer
The bullet didn't hit Gabriel.
From the flanking gallery, Marco’s backup sniper fired through the high glass window, shattering the glass in a cascade of glittering rain. Daniel took the hit to the shoulder, spinning violently and crashing against the marble pedestal of the statue. His gun clattered away across the floor.
"Move!" Gabriel shouted, grabbing my hand and dragging me through the service corridors behind the exhibit halls.
We burst through the museum’s private freight entrance into the rainy night. Gabriel’s armored Maybach was already idling at the curb, tires smoking as the driver threw it into gear the moment we dove inside.
"The estate," Gabriel commanded through the partition. "Drive! Code Black!"
I sat on the leather seat, gasping for breath, my hands trembling uncontrollably. My midnight-blue gown was splattered with glass dust and rain. Gabriel reached over, his hands gripping my shoulders, his hazel eyes searching mine with frantic concern.
"Are you hit? Elena, look at me. Are you bleeding?"
"I’m fine," I choked out, tears of adrenaline spilling down my face. "I’m fine, but... Daniel... he said something before you took the key."
Gabriel’s brow furrowed. "What did he say?"
"He didn't just want the ledger," I said, a cold, sickening realization tightening around my heart like a vice. "He said... *'Tell Gabriel the fire at the north docks fifteen years ago was never an accident.'*"
Gabriel froze. Every muscle in his broad frame turned to solid stone. The color drained from his face, leaving behind a terrifying, feral darkness that I had never seen in him before.
"The north docks," Gabriel whispered, his voice barely audible above the roar of the Maybach’s engine. "My brother died in that fire."
Before I could ask what he meant, his encrypted radio on the console began to shriek with a high-pitched alarm.
It was the signal from Lucy's bedroom.
The driver slammed on the brakes as Gabriel lunged for the receiver, his knuckles white with panic.
"Lucy?!" Gabriel roared into the mic. "Marco, respond! Status on the third-floor suite!"
A burst of static hissed through the speaker. Then, a chillingly calm, unfamiliar voice answered from the other end of the line—speaking from inside my daughter’s bedroom at the Caruso estate.
*"Good evening, Mr. Caruso. The little girl has such lovely manners. She’s currently fast asleep. But if you want to see her wake up tomorrow morning... you’d better bring Daniel’s ledger to Pier 42 alone. You have thirty minutes."*
The line went dead with a hollow, metallic click.
The car fell into a suffocating, breathless silence. Outside the rain-slicked windows, the storm raged furiously against the glass. Gabriel slowly lowered the radio, his hazel eyes blazing with a monstrous, lethal promise that terrified me more than any gun ever could.
May you like
He looked at me, his jaw set like an executioner’s blade.
"Elena," he said softly, reaching down into his jacket and pulling out a heavy, loaded automatic pistol. "It's time to end this."
