Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT GABRIEL CAME FOR ME
“You're lying.”
Renato Moretti stood beside the fireplace as calmly as if we were discussing weather.
“About which part?”
“Isabella.”
“She discovered the bomb before she left.”
My heart stopped.
“No.”
“She knew the vehicle was targeted.”
“Then why would she get inside?”
“To move it away from Gabriel.”
I stared at him.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does when you understand your sister.”
He poured himself a drink.
“She believed Gabriel was inside the garage.”
My stomach turned.
“She thought she was saving him.”
“Yes.”
“And you let her.”
Renato took a sip.
“I didn't know she had discovered the device until afterward.”
“That's supposed to make you less guilty?”
“No.”
At least he didn't pretend.
I pulled against the ropes.
“What do you want from me?”
“Your signature.”
He placed documents on the table.
“Transfer of your Bellandi holdings into a trust.”
“Controlled by you.”
“Temporarily.”
I laughed.
“I'm a waitress, Renato. Even I know that's a terrible deal.”
He smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“Isabella's mouth.”
My anger disappeared.
“Don't compare me to her.”
“Why? You're identical.”
“We're not.”
“No. Isabella was raised wealthy. Educated in Switzerland. Trained to enter rooms filled with predators.”
He studied me.
“You were raised above a laundromat.”
I stared at him.
He knew.
“Yet somehow you have exactly the same defiance.”
“Maybe that's why she hated you.”
His smile vanished.
Good.
I kept going.
“You were supposed to be Gabriel's family.”
“I am his family.”
“You tried to kill him.”
“For the family.”
“That sentence doesn't make you sound less insane.”
Renato slapped me.
My head snapped sideways.
Pain exploded across my cheek.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I slowly looked back at him.
“You hit exactly like a coward.”
His eyes narrowed.
Before he could respond, the door opened.
Antonio was dragged inside.
His face was bruised.
“Elina.”
“Antonio!”
Renato's men forced him into a chair.
“You see?” Renato said. “Consequences.”
Antonio looked at me.
“Don't sign anything.”
Renato sighed.
He drew a gun.
I stopped breathing.
“Wait.”
Antonio shook his head.
“Elina, no.”
Renato aimed at his knee.
“Wait!”
The gun fired.
Antonio screamed.
I screamed with him.
Blood spread across his pants.
Renato calmly lowered the weapon.
“Next one goes higher.”
“You're a monster.”
“No. Monsters enjoy this.”
He placed the documents before me.
“I find it tedious.”
I looked at Antonio.
He was pale.
Sweating.
But alive.
I looked at the signature line.
If I signed, maybe Renato would let him live.
Would he?
No.
Sofia had hidden me from this man for a reason.
Isabella had died fighting him.
Signing wouldn't save anyone.
It would simply make me less useful.
I looked at Renato.
“I need my hands.”
He nodded.
A guard untied me.
I picked up the pen.
Renato smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Gunfire erupted downstairs.
Renato's smile disappeared.
“What the hell?”
An explosion shook the house.
Windows rattled.
Antonio laughed weakly.
“He came.”
Renato grabbed my arm.
“Move.”
I drove the pen into his hand.
He screamed.
I ran.
A guard grabbed my hair.
I swung backward.
Antonio threw himself against the guard's legs.
The man fell.
I kicked the gun away.
More gunfire echoed.
Then a voice thundered through the hallway.
“Elina!”
Gabriel.
I ran toward it.
A man stepped around the corner.
I froze.
He raised his weapon.
Then two shots struck his chest.
He fell.
Gabriel appeared behind him.
Blood covered one side of his face.
His shirt was torn.
His eyes found mine.
Everything stopped.
He crossed the distance between us and grabbed my face in both hands.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked at the red mark on my cheek.
His expression changed.
“Who?”
“Later.”
“Elina.”
“Antonio's been shot.”
That brought him back.
Marco and Matteo rushed past us.
Gabriel pulled me against him.
For one second, I let myself disappear into his chest.
He smelled like smoke and blood.
His heart hammered against my ear.
“You came.”
He pulled back.
“Of course I came.”
Something in his voice broke through every defense I had.
Then I remembered.
“Leo?”
“Safe.”
“With who?”
“My sister.”
“You have a sister?”
“Long story.”
I almost laughed.
“Apparently your family specializes in those.”
His mouth nearly curved.
Then footsteps thundered upstairs.
“Renato,” I said.
Gabriel's face hardened.
We followed.
The room where I'd been held was empty.
A secret passage stood open behind the fireplace.
Of course.
Gabriel swore.
Matteo arrived.
“Tunnel leads to the east garage.”
“Seal the property.”
“He's already gone.”
Gabriel punched the wall.
I grabbed his hand.
“Stop.”
His knuckles were bleeding.
“He'll come back.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“He won't get another chance.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
“Your police?” I asked.
“Some of them.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It shouldn't be.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
A small laugh.
Exhausted.
Ridiculous.
Gabriel stared at me.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You're looking at me strangely.”
“I've never heard you laugh.”
My smile disappeared.
The air changed.
He touched my bruised cheek.
His thumb barely brushed my skin.
“Did Renato do this?”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Become terrifying.”
“I am terrifying.”
“Not to me.”
The words slipped out.
Gabriel went still.
So did I.
We were standing in a wrecked bedroom while armed men searched the estate.
This was not the moment.
Apparently my heart had terrible timing.
His hand remained against my face.
“Elina.”
I knew what was about to happen.
I also knew it was complicated.
His dead wife had my face.
I was holding her child hours earlier.
His entire life was wrapped around grief.
I stepped back.
“We can't.”
Pain flickered in his eyes.
“I know.”
“You loved her.”
“I still love her.”
The honesty hurt.
But it was the right answer.
“And I look exactly like her.”
“Yes.”
“So how could either of us ever know—”
“I know.”
His voice sharpened.
“You don't move like her. You don't speak like her. You don't laugh like her. Isabella entered a room like she expected everyone to move aside.”
“And me?”
“You enter like you're looking for the nearest exit.”
I frowned.
“That sounds pathetic.”
“It isn't.”
He stepped closer.
“You notice frightened people. You notice waiters. Drivers. Children. You thanked Marco after he handed you a bottle of water while bullets were hitting the car.”
“That is a weird thing to remember.”
“I remember everything about you.”
My breath caught.
He immediately looked away.
Then Matteo entered.
“Sorry to interrupt whatever incredibly healthy thing is happening here.”
Gabriel glared.
“What?”
“We found something in Renato's office.”
He handed Gabriel a folder.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Me.
Years of them.
School.
College.
Restaurants where I'd worked.
My apartment.
My mother's funeral.
Then I found a photograph that made my hands shake.
Sofia.
Alive.
Talking to Renato.
Three days before she died.
“No.”
Gabriel took the picture.
On the back was a date.
Sofia had supposedly died from a heart attack.
But she had met Renato seventy-two hours earlier.
“He killed her,” I whispered.
“We don't know that.”
“I do.”
Another paper fell from the folder.
A toxicology report.
Sofia Valdez.
Cause of death: cardiac arrest.
Trace compound detected: digitalis.
Matteo looked at Gabriel.
“Digitalis can trigger fatal heart arrhythmias.”
My knees weakened.
Gabriel caught me.
Renato hadn't simply known about my mother.
He had murdered her.
I stared at the photograph.
Then noticed something behind Sofia.
A mirror.
In its reflection stood another person.
A woman.
I brought the picture closer.
Dark hair.
My face.
Isabella.
She had been there.
At twelve years old.
With Sofia.
My sister had found me much earlier than anyone said.
And in her hand, she held a newspaper.
The headline was visible.
LOCAL GIRL ELINA VALDEZ WINS SCHOLARSHIP.
Isabella had known exactly who I was.
She had known where I lived.
She could have found me.
But she never came.
On the back of the photograph, in handwriting I recognized from the video, Isabella had written five words.
I couldn't let Elina know.
I stared at them until they blurred.
Gabriel read over my shoulder.
“What did she mean?”
I shook my head.
Then Matteo found a second line written beneath the first.
Smaller.
May you like
Almost hidden.
Because Gabriel would have killed her.
