Chapter 2
I don’t remember how I got downstairs.
One moment I was in Gabriel Ashford’s bathroom, half-dressed and bleeding.
The next, I was wrapped in a blanket in his study while men with guns moved around me like a storm.
Dorchester.
Broken lock.
Back window forced.
Neighbor heard a child cry.
Black cruiser outside.
Those words slammed into me one at a time.
Black cruiser.
Derek.
Gabriel stood near the desk with his phone pressed to his ear.
His voice was calm, which made it more terrifying.
“Find Lawson.”
A man named Mason nodded and left the room.
I stood too quickly.
Pain ripped through my ribs.
“I’m coming.”
Gabriel turned.
“You can barely stand.”
“He took my brother.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Brother?”
I froze.
A lie I had lived with for eight years sat between us, breathing.
“Yes,” I said.
The word tasted wrong.
Gabriel didn’t push.
Not yet.
Mrs. Morrison pressed clean gauze to my calf.
“You need stitches.”
“I need Noah.”
My phone buzzed on Gabriel’s desk.
Unknown number.
I lunged for it, but Gabriel caught my wrist before I could answer.
“Speaker.”
I hated him for being right.
I pressed the button.
Derek’s voice filled the room.
“Harper.”
My stomach turned.
“Where is Noah?”
“He’s safer with me than in that rat hole you dumped him in.”
“Let me talk to him.”
“He’s sleeping.”
“If you touched him—”
“You don’t threaten me anymore.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Derek went quiet.
Then he laughed.
“Is he there?”
I said nothing.
Derek’s voice turned ugly.
“Gabriel Ashford. You really know how to pick employers, Harper.”
Gabriel leaned toward the phone.
“Where is the child?”
Derek laughed again.
“She belongs to me.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “She works for me.”
I should not have felt safer hearing that.
But I did.
Derek’s tone changed.
“You want the kid? Bring her to the old fitness center on Warren Street. Alone. One hour.”
The call ended.
I grabbed my coat.
Gabriel said, “No.”
I turned on him.
“You don’t get to say no to me.”
“If you walk in alone, he takes both of you.”
“If I don’t go, he hurts Noah.”
“He needs Noah alive.”
“You don’t know him.”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened.
“I know men who think fear is ownership.”
Something in his voice made me stop.
Mason returned with a tablet.
“We pulled traffic cameras. Lawson’s cruiser was seen near Dorchester, then Warren Street.”
Gabriel took the tablet.
“Any other officers?”
“Two unmarked cars. Could be Precinct 12.”
My blood ran cold.
Derek wasn’t alone.
He was never alone.
That was why I never called police.
That was why bruises became normal.
That was why I told Noah to stay quiet when footsteps passed our door.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Why did you run four days ago?”
I swallowed.
“Because Derek came home drunk and asked Noah if he knew how boys disappear.”
Mrs. Morrison gasped.
I continued before fear could choke me.
“He said if I ever left, he’d teach me what family meant.”
Gabriel’s jaw clenched.
“Family does not mean captivity.”
I looked at him.
“Easy to say when you’re the man with the gates.”
He accepted that without flinching.
“You’re right.”
That stunned me more than anger would have.
He handed me a small earpiece.
“You will wear this. You will walk in only far enough to confirm Noah is alive. Then you follow my voice.”
“I’m not one of your soldiers.”
“No,” he said. “You’re the person they’re moving for.”
We left in three black SUVs.
I sat beside Gabriel in the back seat, wearing his suit jacket over my torn uniform.
My hands shook so badly I tucked them under my thighs.
He noticed.
Of course he did.
“Harper.”
“What?”
“You breathe like someone waiting to be hit.”
My throat tightened.
“I learned from the best.”
His face hardened.
“Tonight he learns something too.”
The old fitness center was dark when we arrived.
Broken windows.
Graffiti.
A parking lot full of puddles.
Gabriel’s men disappeared into the rain.
I stood at the side entrance, every bruise in my body screaming.
My phone buzzed again.
A video.
Noah sat tied to a chair, tape over his mouth, eyes wide with terror.
Behind him, Derek held my mother’s silver cross necklace.
The message read:
Come alone, or I tell the boy what you really are.
Gabriel saw my face.
“What does that mean?”
The secret rose in my throat like broken glass.
“Noah isn’t my brother,” I whispered.
May you like
Gabriel went very still.
“He’s my son.”
