Chapter 2 - NATHAN’S LAST WARNING
Gabriel stood.
The warmth disappeared from his face.
“Answer me.”
Claire instinctively tightened her hold around Eli.
Mason watched both of them.
“Gabriel,” Claire whispered.
It was the first time she had ever called him by his first name.
“Where did you get Nathan’s ring?”
Claire swallowed.
“He gave it to me.”
Silence.
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Gabriel’s jaw locked.
Nathan had been married.
Claire immediately understood what Gabriel was thinking.
“No.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Claire carefully moved Eli into the blanket beside her.
“He came to my office late one night.”
Gabriel’s anger paused.
“Why?”
“Because he found something.”
“What?”
Claire looked toward the guards outside.
“Can we not do this in front of everyone?”
Gabriel nodded once.
“Mason stays.”
Claire didn’t argue.
She touched the ring.
“Nathan had been reviewing several companies your family controlled. Shipping firms. Construction companies. Restaurants. He found transfers that didn’t make sense.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Nathan hated accounting.”
“He did.”
Claire almost smiled.
“That’s why he came to me.”
She looked down.
“I found payments hidden inside legitimate expenses. Small amounts at first. Then larger ones.”
“To whom?”
“Shell companies.”
“Owned by Cross?”
“That’s what Nathan originally thought.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“But?”
“The companies weren’t paying Damian Cross.”
Claire looked directly into his eyes.
“They were paying someone inside your organization.”
Mason pushed away from the wall.
“Who?”
“I never finished tracing it.”
“Why not?”
Claire touched Nathan’s ring again.
“Because Nathan died.”
Gabriel’s voice became quieter.
“What did he say when he gave you that?”
Claire hesitated.
Then she repeated the words she had carried for almost a year.
“He said, ‘If anything happens to me, don’t give this to anyone named Kane.’”
Gabriel went completely still.
Mason looked at him.
Claire continued.
“I asked him if that included you.”
“What did he say?”
“He said…”
She stopped.
“Say it.”
“He said he hoped it didn’t.”
That hurt more than Gabriel expected.
He turned toward the rain-covered window.
Nathan had been his brother.
His closest friend.
The one person Gabriel had believed trusted him completely.
Apparently, Nathan had died unsure of him.
Claire spoke softly.
“He was scared.”
“Nathan wasn’t scared of anything.”
“Yes, he was.”
Gabriel turned.
Claire’s eyes were wet.
“He was scared for Eli.”
That silenced him.
“He told me if he died, I had to disappear with the ring. He said somebody would eventually come looking for it.”
Gabriel looked at the bruises on her wrist.
“Somebody did.”
Claire didn’t answer.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Who hurt you?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“When?”
“First time was six weeks ago.”
“First time?”
Claire pulled back her sleeve.
Purple-yellow bruising circled her wrist.
“The second time was four days ago.”
Gabriel’s voice turned deadly.
“And you told nobody?”
“They said if I went to the police, Eli would die.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“You should have come to me.”
“Nathan told me not to trust a Kane.”
“I’m not Nathan.”
“No.”
Claire looked at him sadly.
“You’re more dangerous.”
Before Gabriel could answer, every light in the safe house went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Mason’s gun came up instantly.
“DOWN!”
Gabriel grabbed Claire and pulled her behind the couch.
Glass exploded from the front windows.
Gunfire tore through the walls.
Eli screamed.
Claire covered him with her body.
Mason fired twice toward the hallway.
“Back exit!”
Gabriel drew his pistol.
Emergency lights flashed red.
A guard stumbled through the doorway.
Blood soaked his shoulder.
“They breached the east entrance!”
Gabriel looked at Claire.
Nobody outside his closest circle knew this safe house existed.
Nobody.
Claire saw the realization in his eyes.
“They followed us?”
“No.”
Gabriel chambered a round.
May you like
His face went cold.
“Someone told them where we were.”
