Chapter 6 - An Uneasy Alliance
Gabriel stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing dangerously. The storm howled through the broken window, whipping his dark hair across his forehead. ""Explain yourself. Now.""
""My brother worked logistics for Marcus's shipping firm,"" Clara confessed, her voice tight but unflinching. ""Six months ago, he found out Marcus was laundering money and using abandoned dry docks for human trafficking and off-the-books transport. My brother tried to blow the whistle. Two days later, he drowned in the bay. The police ruled it an accidental fall.""
Gabriel stared at her, the pieces of the puzzle violently locking into place. ""You took this job to get close to Marcus through me.""
""I took this job because I knew Marcus wanted to destroy you,"" she said, stepping forward. ""I wanted proof of what he did to my brother. I didn't know about Mia, I swear on my life. But if Marcus is moving a child out of the city tonight, there's only one place he controls completely: Pier 42 at the naval shipyards.""
Gabriel scrutinized her face. He had spent years trusting no one, living in an ivory tower of grief and paranoia. But looking into Clara's fierce, sorrowful eyes, he recognized the exact same fire that had kept him breathing since the car crash that stole his family. It was the burning need for justice, disguised as survival.
""If you're lying to me, Clara,"" Gabriel warned in a low, chilling tone, ""the ocean won't be deep enough to hide you from me.""
""Then let's go find out,"" she fired back without hesitation.
Gabriel threw her a dark woolen jacket from the closet. ""Put this on. The service elevator is wired to an independent diesel generator. We take my car.""
They moved through the darkened penthouse, stepping over debris and broken glass. Julian was already being attended to by building medical staff in the lower lobby when they emerged into the private subterranean garage. Gabriel unlocked a matte-black armored SUV with a click of his remote.
As they climbed inside and Gabriel brought the twin-turbo engine to a roaring life, Clara looked at his hands on the steering wheel. His knuckles were white, trembling with an explosive mixture of terror and rage.
May you like
""We'll get her back, Gabriel,"" she said softly, dropping the formal honorific for the first time.
Gabriel glanced at her, the hard lines of his face momentarily softening before he slammed the accelerator, rocketing the SUV up the ramp and into the blinding storm.
