Chapter 3 - The Brother Who Was Never Free
For one second I forgot how to breathe.
Then every thought in my head became Toby.
His crooked smile.
His endless apologies.
The way he had started borrowing money after losing his job.
The way he swore each time that he had fixed everything.
The way shame had hollowed him out over the past year.
“Toby?” I whispered.
Marcus’s voice came through the speaker.
“Harper, I know you can hear me.”
I lunged toward the door.
Gabriel caught my arm.
“Don’t.”
“He has my brother.”
“And that is exactly why you don’t open that door.”
I pulled against him.
“Let go.”
“No.”
“Toby could be hurt.”
“He wants you emotional.”
“I am emotional!”
“I know.”
Something in Gabriel’s voice made me stop.
Not command.
Understanding.
He lowered his voice.
“Which means I have to think for both of us.”
The speaker crackled again.
Marcus sounded almost bored.
“You always did enjoy dramatic rooms, Gabriel.”
Gabriel pressed a button on the wall.
“What do you want?”
“Finally.”
“Where is Toby?”
“Safe.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“No. It was the answer.”
Gabriel’s gaze remained fixed on the steel door.
Marcus chuckled.
“You’re angry.”
“You kidnapped the wrong person.”
“Did I?”
“You have ten seconds to tell me where he is.”
“And then what? You shoot through three inches of reinforced steel?”
Gabriel didn’t answer.
Marcus continued.
“I want the drive.”
“No.”
“Then Harper loses her brother.”
My body went cold.
Gabriel looked at me.
Marcus knew exactly what he was doing.
“I’ll bring it,” I said.
Gabriel shook his head.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“He’s my brother.”
“And Marcus has been preparing for this moment longer than either of us.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
Marcus interrupted.
“Harper, you always were the practical one.”
I stared at the speaker.
“You know me?”
“I know your family.”
My skin prickled.
“How?”
“Toby can explain.”
“Put him on.”
Silence.
“Put my brother on.”
A scrape came through the speaker.
Then breathing.
“Harper?”
My knees almost failed again.
“Toby.”
“I’m okay.”
His voice shook.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Toby, listen to me—”
“I’m sorry.”
My heart broke at those words.
“For what?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
Marcus took the speaker back.
“That’s enough.”
“No!”
The line went dead.
I turned on Gabriel.
“We give him the drive.”
“No.”
“You heard Toby.”
“Yes.”
“He’s alive.”
“For now.”
“So what exactly are you suggesting?”
“That we stop responding to the plan Marcus prepared.”
“He can kill him!”
“And handing over the drive may guarantee it.”
I hated that he was right.
I hated him for being right.
“What do we do?”
Gabriel looked toward the isolated security computer.
“We find your brother before Marcus realizes he’s lost control.”
“How?”
“Daniel.”
I stared at him.
“Daniel Shaw?”
“He may be our only opening.”
“The file said he took money.”
“Yes.”
“He was involved in my father’s death.”
“Possibly.”
“Then why trust him?”
“I didn’t say trust.”
Gabriel accessed an emergency line.
Nothing.
He tried another.
Dead.
“Marcus cut the internal communications.”
“What about cell service?”
“Jammed.”
“Convenient.”
“For him.”
Gabriel opened a cabinet and removed a small radio.
“Analog?”
“Daniel insisted on redundant emergency communications.”
“That’s ironic.”
“Very.”
Static answered.
Then a voice.
“Cross?”
Gabriel’s expression sharpened.
“Daniel.”
I moved closer.
“You still alive?” Daniel asked.
“For the moment.”
“Marcus locked me out of the security center.”
“Where are you?”
“Stairwell forty-two.”
“Alone?”
“Now.”
“What happened to your men?”
“Two turned on me. One is unconscious. One won’t be getting up soon.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Do you have Toby Monroe?”
Daniel went silent.
My hands clenched.
“Daniel.”
“No.”
“Do you know where he is?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
I grabbed the radio.
“Where?”
Gabriel let me take it.
“Who is this?”
“Harper Monroe.”
Silence.
Then Daniel exhaled.
“You look like your father.”
I wanted to smash the radio against the wall.
“You don’t get to say his name.”
“I know.”
“Where is Toby?”
“Marcus keeps people in the old data center beneath the south annex.”
“People?”
“Anyone he needs leverage over.”
Gabriel’s expression turned murderous.
“You knew?”
“I knew enough.”
“You worked for me fourteen years.”
“I was trying to keep Marcus contained.”
Gabriel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Contained?”
“If I moved too early, he would have exposed everything.”
“What everything?”
Daniel did not answer.
I took the radio again.
“You took $250,000 two days before my father died.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus paid me.”
My vision narrowed.
“You admit it?”
“Yes.”
“To kill him?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“To disappear.”
I stared at the radio.
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“Explain.”
Daniel’s voice grew quieter.
“Peter came to me with evidence. I told him I’d help. Marcus discovered it.”
“And paid you?” Gabriel asked.
“He gave me a choice. Take the money and leave Chicago, or Peter’s children died with him.”
My chest tightened.
“So you left?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because your father intervened.”
Gabriel froze.
“My father?”
“Elias knew something was wrong. He didn’t know Marcus was behind it, but he knew Peter was in danger.”
“Then why did Peter die?”
Daniel’s voice broke for the first time.
“Because I failed.”
Silence filled the room.
“I was supposed to move him and the children to a Black Harbor property.”
I could barely speak.
“What happened?”
“Peter refused to take you.”
“Why?”
“He believed Marcus would follow all of you.”
My eyes burned.
“He chose to separate himself.”
“Yes.”
“What about Toby?”
“He was supposed to remain invisible.”
A sick understanding formed.
“But Marcus found him years later.”
“Yes.”
“The debt.”
“Yes.”
“It was never random.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
Every bad decision Toby had made.
Every loan.
Every escalating penalty.
Every stranger suddenly willing to lend him money.
It had been engineered.
Marcus had built a cage around my brother while allowing him to believe he had built it himself.
Gabriel’s voice became deadly calm.
“How do we reach the south annex?”
“There’s a service corridor beneath parking level four,” Daniel said. “Marcus won’t expect you to know it.”
“I know every corridor in this building.”
“No, you don’t.”
Gabriel’s expression shifted.
“Your father had one built without telling you.”
“Why?”
“In case the threat came from inside.”
A silence passed between them.
Then Daniel said, “You’ll need my access key.”
“Where?”
“Stairwell forty-two.”
Gabriel checked his weapon.
“I’m coming.”
I stepped beside him.
“So am I.”
“No.”
We looked at each other.
“This discussion again?”
“Yes.”
“My brother is down there.”
“You were stitched twenty minutes ago.”
“And if you leave me here, Marcus knows where this room is.”
That ended the argument.
Gabriel handed me a spare radio.
“You stay behind me.”
“That sounds very medieval.”
“You stay behind me.”
“Fine.”
We left through a secondary exit that opened into a narrow maintenance shaft.
Rain still pounded somewhere beyond the walls.
The building felt completely different without its normal lights.
Emergency strips glowed along the floor.
We descended five levels.
At forty-two, we found Daniel bleeding from the forehead beside an unconscious guard.
He raised both hands when Gabriel aimed the gun.
“I’m not armed.”
“Turn around.”
Daniel obeyed.
Gabriel searched him.
I stared at the man whose name had haunted the last hour.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“Did he trust you?”
“For a while.”
“Should he have?”
Daniel looked at me.
“No.”
At least he didn’t lie.
He handed Gabriel a black access card.
“The service route begins on thirty-nine.”
A distant clang echoed from the stairwell above.
Daniel looked upward.
“They found us.”
Gabriel motioned downward.
We moved.
Three floors later, Daniel stopped beside what looked like a blank concrete wall.
He pressed the card against a hidden reader.
A seam appeared.
The wall opened.
Behind it was an unfinished stairway descending into darkness.
Gabriel looked at him.
“My father built this?”
“Yes.”
“You never told me.”
“I made many mistakes.”
“You may live long enough to explain them.”
Daniel gave a grim smile.
“I assumed that was the best offer I’d get.”
We descended.
At the bottom was a service tunnel.
Old pipes.
Concrete floors.
The air smelled of dust and metal.
Daniel led.
I followed Gabriel.
Halfway through the tunnel, my leg began throbbing.
Gabriel noticed.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re limping.”
“I was limping upstairs too.”
“Harper.”
“Keep moving.”
We reached a steel door.
Daniel swiped the card.
Red light.
Again.
Red.
“Marcus revoked my access.”
Gabriel studied the lock.
“Can it be bypassed?”
“Not quickly.”
I looked at the keypad.
Then at the numbers scratched faintly along the frame.
My father used to do that.
Hide patterns in ordinary places.
I stepped closer.
“Wait.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“What?”
“These marks.”
Daniel leaned in.
“I never noticed those.”
“I have.”
I ran my fingers over the sequence.
3-11-19-4.
It looked meaningless.
Until I remembered the game my father played with Toby and me on road trips.
Alphabet positions.
C-K-S-D.
No.
Not letters.
Dates.
March 11.
1994.
My mother’s birthday.
I typed 031194.
Green light.
The door opened.
Daniel stared at me.
“Your father must have set it.”
I swallowed hard.
Beyond the door was a dark corridor.
At the far end, light spilled from beneath another door.
Voices.
One belonged to Marcus.
Another belonged to Toby.
We moved silently.
Gabriel raised his gun.
Then Toby shouted.
“No! Harper doesn’t know!”
A heavy impact followed.
I nearly ran forward.
Gabriel stopped me with one arm.
Marcus’s voice came clearly through the wall.
“She knows more than you think.”
Toby coughed.
“She doesn’t know about the second drive.”
I froze.
Gabriel turned toward me.
Second drive?
Marcus asked the question before either of us could.
“What second drive?”
Toby laughed weakly.
“The one Dad gave me before he died.”
My entire body went cold.
My father had given Toby something.
May you like
And for twelve years, my brother had never told me.
---
