Chapter 2
I almost dropped the phone.
Gabriel took one step toward me, but I backed away so fast my hip hit the marble sink.
“No,” I whispered into the phone. “Derek, don’t touch him.”
Noah was crying.
Not loud.
He knew better than loud.
Derek had taught both of us that noise made pain worse.
Gabriel held out his hand.
“Give me the phone.”
I shook my head.
Derek laughed softly on the line.
“Is he there? Good. Put me on speaker, Harper.”
Gabriel’s eyes stayed on mine.
Not impatient.
Not angry at me.
Waiting.
I pressed speaker with a shaking thumb.
Derek’s voice filled the bathroom.
“Mr. Ashford. Big honor.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Derek continued, “Your little maid belongs to me. She stole money, ran off with my kid brother-in-law, and now she’s hiding in your house.”
“That is one lie too many,” Gabriel said quietly.
My knees weakened at his tone.
Derek went silent for half a second.
Then he laughed again.
“You don’t know what kind of woman you hired.”
“I know exactly what kind of man is calling.”
Mrs. Morrison stepped inside and took my elbow, gently.
I flinched anyway.
Her face softened for one second.
“Sit down, child.”
“I can’t. Noah—”
Gabriel took out his own phone and pressed one button.
“Elias,” he said, “Dorchester. Address from Morrison’s file. Child in danger. Now.”
I stared at him.
“How do you know—”
He did not answer.
On my phone, Derek shouted, “Who are you calling?”
Gabriel’s voice stayed calm.
“People who arrive faster than police who owe you favors.”
Derek stopped laughing.
That scared me more than his shouting.
Quiet Derek always meant he was thinking.
“You’re making a mistake,” he said.
“No,” Gabriel replied. “I am correcting one.”
Then the line went dead.
For three seconds, I heard only my breathing.
Then I sank onto the closed toilet seat because my legs would not hold me.
Mrs. Morrison crouched in front of me with a towel.
“Let me see your leg.”
“I need to go to Noah.”
Gabriel was already moving.
“You are not going there alone.”
“I have to.”
“You will get dressed. Morrison will clean and bandage the cut. My doctor will check your ribs. Then we go.”
“I don’t need a doctor.”
He looked at the bruises still visible at my collar.
“You do.”
Something about that almost broke me.
Not kindness.
Not exactly.
It was the simple horror of being believed.
I had built my survival around nobody believing me.
Mrs. Morrison wrapped my calf while I shook.
She did not ask how many times.
She did not ask why I stayed.
Women like her knew those questions were knives.
Gabriel turned away while I zipped my uniform.
That small respect hurt more than staring would have.
Downstairs, the mansion had changed.
Men appeared from halls I had never noticed.
Phones in hands.
Coats pulled on.
Weapons hidden beneath expensive fabric.
I stopped on the staircase.
“I can’t bring this into your house.”
Gabriel looked up at me.
“It is already in my house.”
“I’m just a maid.”
“No,” he said. “You are a woman with an eight-year-old brother and a man hunting you.”
My throat tightened.
Mrs. Morrison handed me a black coat.
“Wear it.”
“It’s too nice.”
“Then try not to bleed on it.”
Her dry voice almost made me laugh.
Almost.
We drove through Boston in a black SUV.
Rain blurred the windows.
Gabriel sat beside me, silent, one hand resting on his knee, the other holding his phone.
I kept calling Noah.
No answer.
Each unanswered ring hollowed me out.
“What if he took him?”
Gabriel looked at the driver.
“Faster.”
The SUV moved like the city belonged to it.
Maybe it did.
When we reached my Dorchester building, two men were already outside.
One held Derek against the brick wall.
The other carried Noah wrapped in a blanket.
I threw open the door before the SUV stopped.
“Noah!”
He twisted toward my voice.
“Harper!”
I ran so hard pain flashed through my ribs.
Noah slammed into me and I nearly fell.
He was shaking.
His pajamas were damp.
But he was alive.
I held his face.
“Did he hurt you?”
Noah shook his head, then nodded, then started crying harder.
“He said you were bad. He said he was taking me to foster care.”
Derek laughed from the wall.
“He’s my family too.”
I turned.
For years, that laugh had owned me.
In that moment, under the dirty yellow light outside my apartment, it became small.
Gabriel walked past me.
Derek straightened as much as he could.
“Careful,” Derek said. “I’m Boston PD.”
Gabriel stopped in front of him.
“I know.”
Derek’s smile flickered.
Gabriel leaned close.
“I also know Precinct 12 has three internal investigations, two missing evidence logs, and a captain who owes me a phone call.”
Derek’s face changed.
“You don’t scare me.”
Gabriel smiled for the first time.
That scared everyone.
“Then you have not been listening.”
Noah buried his face in my coat.
A neighbor opened a window above us.
Then another.
People were watching.
Derek noticed and instantly changed his voice.
“Harper, baby, come on. This is a misunderstanding.”
I almost laughed.
Baby.
He had called me that before breaking my ribs.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Do you want to go upstairs?”
I shook my head.
“No. Everything that matters is here.”
Noah.
My phone.
My mother’s old necklace around my throat.
That was all.
One of Gabriel’s men opened the SUV door.
I guided Noah inside.
Before I climbed in, Derek shouted, “You think he’ll protect you? Men like him don’t save women like you.”
I turned back.
Derek smiled.
“He’ll use you.”
Gabriel said quietly, “Drive.”
The SUV pulled away.
Noah curled against me.
I looked through the back window.
Derek stood in the rain, still smiling.
Then he lifted two fingers to his temple like a promise.
May you like
A gun gesture.
And I realized running from him had only made him want to win harder.
