Chapter 6
Claire stared directly into the camera.
She did not look frightened.
That meant she was terrified.
I had seen the same stillness at the safe house.
“What do you want?” I asked.
Vincent smiled.
“Your confession.”
“To what?”
“Nathan’s murder.”
Bianca looked toward him.
That had not been her plan.
“If Gabriel confesses, our charges don’t disappear,” she said.
“His confession creates doubt.”
“You promised freedom.”
“I promised survival.”
Their alliance was already cracking.
Vincent wanted me to claim I ordered Nathan’s death, framed him, and fabricated the evidence.
He would release Claire only after the confession reached every major news outlet.
“Mason too,” I said.
“One hostage at a time.”
“No.”
The man behind Claire pressed his weapon closer.
I forced myself not to react.
She shifted slightly, angling her body away from the gun.
Then she looked down twice.
A signal.
Claire had always noticed details everyone missed.
On the floor beside her was a metal vent.
The protected room’s emergency alarm could be triggered beneath it.
Her hands were bound, but one foot remained free.
“I’ll confess,” I said.
Vincent relaxed.
Bianca stared at me.
“You would destroy Nathan’s name?”
“To save my children.”
Claire looked at me sharply.
She knew I did not mean the confession.
I needed time.
I stepped toward the camera.
“My name is Gabriel Kane.”
Federal agents listened from hidden positions.
“I ordered—”
Claire kicked the vent.
An alarm screamed through the monitor.
The lights in her room shut off.
She dropped sideways as the guard fired.
The screen became black.
I gave Brooks the signal.
Agents entered the cathedral through every door.
Vincent grabbed Bianca and used her as a shield.
She looked shocked.
“You promised—”
“You became a liability.”
His words proved my warning faster than I expected.
I tackled the man guarding Mason.
Gunfire struck stone above us.
Mason rolled behind the altar.
I cut his bindings with the knife hidden in my sleeve.
“You were supposed to bring a duplicate,” he gasped.
“I did.”
He almost laughed.
Brooks’s team surrounded Vincent.
He dragged Bianca toward a tunnel.
She drove her heel into his foot.
The gun discharged into the ceiling.
Agents tackled him.
Bianca tried to run.
Mason blocked her.
She looked at him.
“Your father died because of Gabriel.”
“No,” Mason said. “He died because your son used him.”
“I can protect you.”
“Protection from you is what destroyed him.”
He stepped aside.
Federal officers handcuffed her.
I ran toward the exit while calling Claire.
No answer.
The tactical team at the protected facility reported two attackers in custody.
One had escaped.
Claire was missing.
Eli remained safely inside a reinforced nursery with the marshal.
The security alarm saved him.
A trail of blood led from Claire’s room to the parking garage.
It was not clear whose blood it was.
I broke every speed limit between Chicago and the protected site.
Brooks followed by helicopter.
The escaped attacker stole a hospital transport van.
Traffic cameras tracked it south.
Then the vehicle stopped beneath an overpass.
Police surrounded it.
The driver was unconscious.
Claire was not inside.
She had escaped before the van stopped.
Officers searched the surrounding streets.
I found one of her shoes near a storm drain.
For the second time, she was somewhere injured because of my family.
My phone vibrated.
A text arrived from Claire’s number.
STOP LOOKING UP.
I looked toward the elevated train tracks.
Then I looked beneath the road.
A drainage tunnel ran under the overpass.
I entered before officers could stop me.
Fifty yards inside, I heard breathing.
Claire sat behind a concrete pillar.
Her wrists were still tied.
Blood covered one sleeve.
I dropped beside her.
“Where are you hurt?”
“It isn’t mine.”
“What happened?”
“The driver grabbed me when the lights failed. I pulled the fire alarm and cut him with a broken monitor bracket.”
Of course she had.
I untied her hands.
“Did he hurt the baby?”
“I don’t think so.”
I placed my hand against her stomach only after she nodded.
She covered it with hers.
“You came back,” she whispered.
“I promised to choose returning.”
“You also walked into a cathedral full of armed people.”
“I’m still learning.”
Her laugh became a sob.
I held her.
This time, she allowed it.
Doctors confirmed our baby remained safe.
Claire had bruises but no new serious injuries.
Eli returned to her arms that night.
Mason entered later.
His face showed the loss he had not allowed himself to feel.
“Samuel is dead,” he said.
Vincent had shot his father before the cathedral meeting.
Samuel betrayed Mason and helped poison Claire.
He also tried to surrender when Vincent mentioned harming his son.
His final choice did not erase the others.
Mason understood that.
“I don’t know whether to mourn him,” he said.
“You don’t have to choose one feeling,” Claire replied.
Mason looked at her.
“You always talk like an accountant for emotions.”
“She refuses inaccurate totals,” I said.
For the first time since Nathan died, all three of us laughed.
The sound lasted only a moment.
Then Brooks entered with Vincent’s seized phone.
It contained orders for Nathan’s murder, Claire’s kidnapping, and the safe-house attack.
It also contained dozens of messages from Bianca.
One concerned me.
Gabriel will cooperate if Claire carries his child. Make sure she does.
I reread it.
The message was dated five months earlier.
Before Claire and I spent that night together.
My mother had known I wanted her.
She had instructed Vincent to create circumstances pushing us together.
“How?” Claire asked.
Mason remembered Nathan’s memorial.
Bianca sent every guest away early.
She ordered the staff to leave.
She told Claire I was alone and possibly suicidal.
Claire came to find me because she believed I was in danger.
Our night had been real.
Our grief had been real.
But Bianca opened the door and waited for nature to create another heir she could manipulate.
Claire looked sick.
“Was anything in our lives ours?”
I took her hand.
“That night was ours. What we do now is ours.”
She pulled her hand away.
“I need time.”
I respected it.
Bianca had turned intimacy into strategy.
Claire needed control returned immediately.
Brooks opened another message.
Vincent asked why Bianca wanted my child born.
Her reply said:
Two heirs divide the trust. A divided family is easier to control.
Then she added:
If Claire resists, one child can always become unnecessary.
Bianca had planned to set Eli and our unborn baby against each other before either could speak.
I looked at my nephew sleeping beside Claire.
“The trust ends.”
Mason frowned.
“You cannot dissolve your father’s agreement.”
“I can surrender my interest and petition the court to convert both children’s shares into independent protected funds.”
“The businesses?”
“Employees receive the legal companies. Criminal assets go to restitution.”
Claire watched me.
“You would give up everything?”
“No.”
May you like
I looked at her and Eli.
“I would keep what is actually mine.”
