Chapter 2 - Darkness swallowed Ashford House.Harper heard footsteps somewhere above them.
Then another gunshot.
Gabriel's hand closed around her arm.
“Down.”
He pulled her behind the stone wall beside the staircase just as a bullet tore through the wooden railing.
Harper covered her mouth.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
Two of his men moved through the darkness.
“Boss,” one whispered.
Gabriel raised a hand.
Everyone stopped.
Silence returned.
Then Harper heard breathing.
Not hers.
Someone was behind them.
She turned.
A shadow moved.
Before she could scream, Gabriel grabbed her waist and pulled her against him.
A suppressed shot whispered through the dark.
The bullet buried itself in the wall.
Gabriel fired once.
A body collapsed somewhere near the foyer.
The lights suddenly returned.
Harper stared.
The man on the floor wore a security uniform.
Gabriel walked over and kicked the weapon away.
“Not one of mine.”
Victor came downstairs.
“Boss.”
“Where's the other man?”
“Gone.”
Gabriel looked at Harper.
“Did you recognize him?”
She shook her head.
Victor crouched beside the body.
Then he stopped.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
Victor pulled a phone from the dead man's pocket.
“There's a message.”
Gabriel took it.
Harper watched his face.
She saw the exact moment he read it.
“What does it say?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Harper stepped forward.
He turned the screen toward her.
There was one sentence.
YOU TOOK HER FROM ME ONCE. NOW I'M TAKING EVERYTHING FROM YOU.
Harper felt sick.
“I don't understand.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I think you're the reason I'm being targeted.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I've never even met you before tonight.”
Gabriel's eyes stayed on her.
“That's the problem.”
Before Harper could respond, Victor approached.
“Boss, we found this upstairs.”
He handed Gabriel a small envelope.
Harper recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Derek.
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Harper and Noah.
Taken outside their apartment.
Her hands began shaking.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
Tomorrow.
Gabriel stared at it.
“Do you know what this means?”
Harper whispered, “He's going after Noah.”
“Tomorrow.”
“We have to get to him.”
“You're not going anywhere.”
“My brother is alone.”
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
Victor's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“Your driver found another surveillance team outside Brighton.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
Harper's heart raced.
Gabriel looked at her.
“Derek wasn't watching you.”
He turned toward Victor.
“He was waiting for me to discover you.”
Harper didn't understand.
“Why?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Instead, he asked Victor something else.
“Where was the surveillance team positioned?”
“Three streets away.”
“Did you identify them?”
“No.”
Gabriel's face became frighteningly calm.
“Then there's only one thing left.”
“What?”
“Go back to the apartment.”
Harper stared at him.
“You just said it was surrounded.”
“I said my men found six people watching it.”
“That means we can't go.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“It means the people watching it expect us not to.”
Harper looked at him.
“You're going there.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Gabriel's eyebrow lifted.
She took a breath.
“You can't risk your men because of me.”
He walked closer.
“Harper, tonight I found a man inside my house who had been tracking you.”
He handed her the photograph.
“Someone knows your brother has something valuable.”
“What could Noah possibly have?”
“That's what we're going to find out.”
Harper stared at the photograph.
There was something about it she hadn't noticed before.
The apartment building's reflection appeared in a parked car.
And in the car window was a figure.
A man.
Tall.
Wearing a police uniform.
Harper's pulse stopped.
“That's him.”
Gabriel looked down.
“Who?”
“The man from three days ago.”
She pointed.
“He came to my apartment.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me Derek had been asking questions about Noah.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Did he identify himself?”
“He showed me a badge.”
“Badge number?”
“No.”
Gabriel stared at the photograph again.
Then he noticed something else.
The man's face was partially reflected in the window.
But he wasn't looking at Harper.
He was looking directly into the camera.
As if he knew the photograph would someday be seen by Gabriel.
“Victor.”
“Boss?”
“Call the police.”
Harper stared at him.
“The police?”
“Not Precinct 12.”
He dialed a different number.
When someone answered, Gabriel said only:
“This is Gabriel Ashford. I need every file connected to Detective Derek Lawson. Internal complaints. Sealed investigations. Financial records. Everything.”
He listened.
“Tonight.”
He hung up.
Harper looked at him.
“You have people inside the police department.”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“I have people everywhere.”
“That isn't comforting.”
“It wasn't meant to be.”
They left the mansion twenty minutes later.
Harper sat in the back of a black SUV between Gabriel and Victor.
She kept checking her phone.
No messages.
No calls.
That was worse.
Gabriel watched her.
“You trust your brother?”
“With my life.”
“Then he knows something.”
“About what?”
“Derek.”
“Noah is seventeen.”
“Seventeen-year-olds notice things adults miss.”
Harper frowned.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message.
From Noah.
Her fingers trembled as she opened it.
HARPER, DON'T COME HOME.
Her blood turned cold.
Then another message appeared.
HE KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE.
Gabriel saw her face.
“What happened?”
She showed him.
Victor immediately reached for his weapon.
Gabriel remained still.
“Send him a message.”
“What do I say?”
“Ask who is there.”
Harper typed.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Three seconds passed.
A new message arrived.
THE MAN WHO KILLED DAD.
Harper stopped breathing.
Her father had died nine years earlier.
Car accident.
At least, that's what she had always believed.
Gabriel saw the message.
His expression changed.
“Harper.”
She looked at him.
“Who was your father?”
“James Queen.”
Gabriel went silent.
“You know him?”
Gabriel didn't answer immediately.
Then he said the words that shattered Harper's world.
“I thought James Queen died nine years ago.”
Harper stared.
“He did.”
Gabriel looked out the window.
“No.”
May you like
His voice was barely audible.
“Someone killed him.”
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