Chapter 7 - The Voice on the Recording
They listened to the recovered audio inside Gabriel’s library.
Harper recognized the room immediately.
Not the library.
The room in the recording.
Her old kitchen.
The hum of the refrigerator was unmistakable.
Then Derek’s voice filled the speakers.
Drunk.
Loud.
Careless.
“You tell Vane he gets his percentage after Friday.”
A second voice answered through Derek’s phone.
The words were too distorted to identify.
Derek laughed.
“Ashford takes the blame anyway.”
Harper closed her eyes.
She remembered that night.
She had stood in the hallway holding the broken phone.
Derek had not known she was recording.
The audio continued.
“Nolan handles the stores.”
Static.
“Mills handles seizures.”
Static again.
“If anybody talks, we hit them with Ashford.”
Then Derek said something that made Gabriel stop moving.
“Same way we handled Isabella.”
The recording ended.
Harper looked at Gabriel.
His face had gone completely blank.
Marcus lowered his eyes.
Rebecca whispered.
“Gabriel?”
Harper knew immediately.
“Who is Isabella?”
Nobody answered.
Gabriel walked to the window.
For several seconds, the only sound in the library was Noah laughing somewhere upstairs with Mrs. Morrison.
Finally, Gabriel spoke.
“My sister.”
Harper’s anger disappeared.
“What happened to her?”
“She died six years ago.”
Harper waited.
Gabriel turned around.
“She was twenty-four.”
His voice had changed.
Not weaker.
Just farther away.
“Isabella wanted nothing to do with my father’s organization.”
Harper had never heard Gabriel mention his father.
“She studied architecture.”
Gabriel looked at the floor.
“She wanted to leave Boston.”
Marcus continued when Gabriel stopped.
“One night, police found Isabella’s car near the harbor.”
Harper already knew how the story ended.
Gabriel confirmed it.
“She was dead inside.”
“I’m sorry.”
“The official report called it an overdose.”
Harper frowned.
“Was it?”
“No.”
Gabriel’s certainty was immediate.
“How do you know?”
“My sister hated drugs.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“That isn’t proof.”
“I know.”
Gabriel nodded.
“That is why I spent six years looking for proof.”
Marcus opened another file.
“Two officers signed the initial scene report.”
He slid the paper toward Harper.
She read the names.
Thomas Nolan.
Peter Mills.
Both men had been in Derek’s kitchen.
Harper looked at Gabriel.
“And now Derek says they handled Isabella.”
Gabriel nodded.
For the first time, Harper understood something important.
Gabriel had not helped her because he was attracted to a wounded woman.
He had not stepped in because he wanted gratitude.
Derek’s name had opened a door Gabriel had been trying to unlock for six years.
The realization should have made Harper angry.
Instead, Gabriel said exactly what she was thinking.
“You are not evidence.”
Harper looked at him.
“You are not a path to my sister.”
He continued.
“If you choose to stop helping tomorrow, you stop.”
“What if that means you never learn what happened?”
“Then I never learn.”
Harper studied his face.
“Would you really accept that?”
Gabriel took a long time to answer.
“I would hate it.”
A faint, sad smile crossed his mouth.
“But yes.”
Harper looked back at the recording.
For three years, Derek had used her choices against her.
Gabriel was offering a choice even when it hurt him.
That difference mattered.
Rebecca broke the silence.
“We need to get this recording to federal investigators.”
Marcus frowned.
“Why federal?”
“Because if Vane is involved, local prosecution is compromised.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Do it.”
Rebecca collected the phone.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Noah screamed upstairs.
Harper jumped to her feet.
Emergency lighting flickered on.
Marcus immediately drew his phone.
“Generator should have started.”
Gabriel headed toward the door.
A guard’s voice crackled through Marcus’s radio.
“North gate breach.”
Harper’s blood went cold.
Another voice came through.
“Two vehicles.”
Then a gunshot sounded outside.
Gabriel stopped.
Marcus looked at him.
“Get Harper and the boy downstairs.”
Harper shook her head.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“My brother is upstairs.”
“I know.”
He opened the library door.
“I’m going to get him.”
Harper followed.
Gabriel turned.
“Stay here.”
Her expression hardened.
“He is my brother.”
For one second, Gabriel looked ready to argue.
Then he nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
They reached the staircase.
Mrs. Morrison was already bringing Noah down.
Harper ran toward him.
Then the front windows shattered.
Everyone dropped.
Marcus shouted.
“Down!”
Harper covered Noah with her body.
Glass scattered across the marble.
A black object rolled through the broken window.
One of Gabriel’s guards kicked it away.
It was not an explosive.
It was a brick.
A piece of paper was wrapped around it.
Gabriel picked it up.
Harper stood.
“What does it say?”
He unfolded the note.
His face darkened.
Marcus read over his shoulder.
Harper took it from them.
May you like
Five words were written in black marker.
GIVE HARPER BACK TO HER HUSBAND.
