Chapter 3 - NO ONE TAKES HER
The second blow split the door beside the lock.
Ada gave the emergency dispatcher the address while Rose dragged a metal tool cart across the floor.
It caught beneath the handle just as the door buckled.
“Move it,” Owen snapped.
Rose planted both palms against the cart.
“No.”
Wood cracked.
Then someone outside shouted Owen's name.
The pressure stopped.
Through the broken panel, Rose saw a man pull Owen away from the door.
Another blocked the driver of the second car.
No uniforms.
Dark coats.
For one sick moment, she thought her father had brought more men.
“Rose Whitmore?” one called.
“My name's Marco.
Gabriel sent us.”
She laughed once, without humor.
“Of course he did.”
A third car arrived before the police.
Gabriel stepped into the rain with his jacket open.
He looked at the splintered door, then at Owen.
“Richard told you to do this?”
“She belongs with her family.”
“I asked who sent you.”
Rose pushed the cart aside herself.
She stood in the doorway wearing Ada's coat over the wreck of her dress.
“I don't belong to either of you.”
Gabriel went still.
Behind him, Owen tried to straighten his collar.
“Your father's worried,” Owen said.
“Then he can learn to worry without breaking doors.”
Police lights flashed across the wet pavement.
Ada walked outside first, still holding the phone.
She pointed to the damaged lock and identified Owen.
When an officer asked Rose if she wanted to leave with her fiancé, she said no.
Gabriel heard her.
He didn't correct the officer when she added, “There isn't going to be a wedding.”
They gave statements beneath the shop awning.
Owen was taken away after Ada showed the officers the splintered panel and described his threats.
The other driver was questioned separately.
Marco and Elias stayed where the officers could see them.
When the lights finally disappeared down the street, Gabriel looked at Rose's swollen knee.
“You need a doctor.”
“I need my phone and my identification.”
“You'll have them.”
“And I won't go back to your house.”
He took out his phone and handed it to her, unlocked.
“Call someone you trust.”
Rose stared at the screen.
Her mother had helped button that dress.
Her father had sent Owen.
For the first time that night, she couldn't think of a name.
Ada touched her shoulder.
“You can stay here.”
May you like
Then she lifted the folder toward Gabriel.
“Before you offer anybody protection, Mr. Moretti, tell her why your company paid for the warehouse where my husband died.”
