Chapter 6 - THE DINNER TABLE TRAP
Z
We stopped trusting phones.
Then cars.
Then houses.
Eventually, we stopped trusting plans.
Gabriel moved Rosa to an old townhouse owned through a company nobody connected to him.
Vincent went with her.
Leo remained at Gabriel’s side.
Samuel disappeared.
Not physically.
His office remained open.
His staff claimed he was working.
But every attempt I made to contact him failed.
Three days passed.
Three days in which Gabriel barely slept.
But he ate.
That became my strange responsibility.
Not because he ordered me.
Because nobody else could put food in front of him without suspicion returning to his face.
I cooked in a small kitchen inside the townhouse.
Nothing complicated.
Eggs.
Soup.
Pasta.
The same stew.
Gabriel sometimes sat on the counter while I cooked.
The first time, I told him he looked ridiculous.
“The most feared man in the city sitting beside a toaster.”
“I’m versatile.”
“You threatened Benny over a package of hamburger meat.”
“That was a difficult week.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Gabriel stared at me.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring.”
“I forgot what that sounded like.”
“What?”
“Someone laughing in a kitchen.”
I stopped stirring.
There were moments when Gabriel said something that made me remember he had once been a boy with a mother who disappeared.
Then he would answer a phone call about somebody being kidnapped or a shipment being stolen and the illusion ended.
“You know I’m going back to my life after this.”
His gaze returned to mine.
“Your life was burned down.”
“My workplace burned down.”
“Your apartment is compromised.”
“I’ll move.”
“You can barely afford your current apartment.”
“That was rude.”
“It was factual.”
I pointed the spoon at him.
“Do you want dinner?”
“Yes.”
“Then reconsider your communication style.”
He actually looked amused.
That frightened me.
Not because Gabriel was dangerous.
Because I was beginning to like him.
That was worse.
Later that night, Samuel finally contacted us.
Not me.
Gabriel.
He proposed a meeting at a private restaurant downtown.
Neutral territory.
No weapons inside.
Gabriel read the message twice.
“It’s a trap.”
“Probably,” Leo said.
“Then we use it.”
I looked up.
“No.”
Three men stared at me.
“I’m tired of all of you walking willingly into obvious traps.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“You walked into a mafia mansion.”
“I was kidnapped.”
“Debatable.”
“Not debatable.”
Samuel’s message contained another line.
Bring Norah.
That changed everything.
Gabriel refused.
I insisted.
We compromised in the way adults compromise when one adult is a criminal kingpin.
I came.
But Gabriel’s men surrounded the entire block.
The restaurant had been closed for the evening.
One table waited in the center.
Samuel sat alone.
Three place settings.
Gabriel pulled out my chair.
It was so unexpectedly polite that I almost forgot both men probably had armed teams hidden nearby.
Samuel looked tired.
“You received my warning.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you still with him?”
I sat.
“Because you disappeared for three days.”
“I was trying to keep Daniel from finding you.”
Gabriel remained standing.
“You met with him.”
Samuel glanced toward him.
“You’ve seen the footage.”
“Yes.”
“It was part of an investigation.”
“Convenient.”
Samuel sighed.
“I gave Daniel false information.”
“About what?”
“The vault.”
My attention sharpened.
Samuel continued.
“I told him Rosa moved the records years ago.”
“Did he believe you?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Samuel looked at me.
“Because he asked me to bring him the person whose biometric records can open the secondary lock.”
My stomach dropped.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel stepped closer to Samuel.
“And what did you say?”
“That I would.”
My chair scraped backward.
“What?”
“Norah, listen.”
“You told him you’d deliver me?”
“So he would stop looking elsewhere.”
Gabriel grabbed Samuel by his jacket.
“You have ten seconds to make that sound less stupid.”
Samuel didn’t flinch.
“Daniel has spent two decades protecting himself because he never knows where the records are. If we open the vault ourselves, he’ll disappear before we can use anything against him.”
“So?”
“So we let him believe he won.”
I understood.
“We make him come to the vault.”
Samuel nodded.
Gabriel released him.
“No.”
Samuel adjusted his jacket.
“It’s the only opportunity.”
“No.”
I looked at Gabriel.
“You don’t decide.”
He turned.
“Do not start that again.”
“It’s my name on the box.”
“And your life Daniel wants.”
“It’s my life.”
Something flashed in his expression.
“That doesn’t mean I have to stand there while you throw it away.”
The restaurant fell silent.
Samuel looked between us.
Interesting expression.
I ignored him.
“Gabriel.”
“No.”
“Rosa spent twenty-two years hiding.”
“I know.”
“My mother died without telling me who my father was.”
“I know.”
“Paulie is dead.”
His jaw tightened.
“And Benny nearly lost everything.”
I stepped closer.
“This ends.”
Gabriel looked down at me.
“You think Daniel follows rules?”
“No.”
“You think Samuel controls this?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I’m tired of everybody protecting me by choosing my life for me.”
That reached him.
Because it was exactly what Rosa had done to him.
Gabriel looked away.
Eventually he said, “We do it my way.”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“I expected nothing less.”
The plan was simple.
Which meant it was probably terrible.
Samuel would tell Daniel I had agreed to trade the vault contents for immunity from Gabriel.
I would enter Hayes Financial Center with Daniel.
Gabriel’s people would control surveillance from another building.
Federal agents loyal to Samuel—not Daniel—would wait outside.
Once Daniel admitted enough and opened the box, everyone moved.
We had microphones.
Trackers.
Backup teams.
Emergency signals.
Everything looked safe on paper.
Nothing is safe on paper.
Two nights later, I entered the tower wearing a black dress and a wire beneath it.
Daniel Hayes waited in the lobby.
I had met him only twice before.
He looked like Gabriel twenty years from now if Gabriel learned to smile without meaning it.
“Norah.”
“Daniel.”
He offered his arm.
I ignored it.
The vault was beneath the building.
Old stone.
New steel.
The clerk recognized Daniel immediately.
Nobody questioned him.
That was power.
At the final security door, I pressed my thumb against a scanner.
Nothing happened.
Daniel looked at me.
“Again.”
I did.
Red light.
Denied.
My heartbeat accelerated.
“This isn’t working.”
Daniel smiled.
“It isn’t supposed to.”
The vault clerk suddenly pulled a gun.
I froze.
Daniel removed my hidden microphone from beneath the edge of my dress.
He held it up.
“You really thought I didn’t know?”
My blood went cold.
Somewhere outside, Gabriel was listening.
Or had been.
Daniel crushed the microphone beneath his shoe.
“You’re not here to open the vault, Norah.”
“Then why am I here?”
He looked almost sympathetic.
“To make Gabriel come downstairs.”
My stomach dropped.
“You don’t understand my nephew.”
Daniel’s smile widened.
“He can survive losing money.”
He moved closer.
“He can survive losing men.”
Another step.
“But men like Gabriel only become vulnerable when they find one person they cannot afford to lose.”
He touched my cheek.
I jerked away.
“And unfortunately for him,” Daniel whispered, “that person is you.”
Above us, an alarm began screaming.
Daniel smiled.
May you like
Right on schedule.
Gabriel was coming.
