Chapter 5 - Three Hundred Men in Black
Harper hadn't spoken about her mother in years.
Evelyn Lane had died when Harper was nineteen.
At least that was what Harper had always believed.
A highway accident.
A rainy night.
A closed coffin.
Now a kidnapped teenager wore Evelyn's necklace.
Gabriel enlarged the photograph.
“You're certain?”
“I held that necklace when I was a kid.”
“What was it?”
“A silver compass.”
“Meaning?”
“My mother said it reminded her that being lost wasn't the same as having nowhere to go.”
Gabriel looked at Matteo.
“Trace the image.”
“Already working.”
Harper stood.
“I need to go home.”
“No.”
“My mother's things are there.”
“Someone shot through your window.”
“I remember.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“Send someone else.”
“I don't know what they're looking for.”
“You don't know either.”
“Exactly.”
They stared at each other.
Matteo quietly left the room.
He had learned quickly.
When Harper and Gabriel argued, everyone else became furniture.
Finally Gabriel said, “You stay beside me.”
“Fine.”
“Whatever I say, you do.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Harper.”
“Reasonable instructions, maybe.”
Gabriel sighed.
An hour later, the convoy returned to Mercer Street.
Harper stared through the window.
Neighbors watched from porches.
Her landlord stood outside looking terrified.
Nearly three hundred Vescari men secured the block.
“You really brought everyone.”
“You complained when I brought eighty cars.”
“That wasn't a request for more.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
Inside Harper's apartment, the bullet hole remained in the wall.
Glass covered the floor.
Her life looked painfully small beside Gabriel.
A thrift-store sofa.
Secondhand table.
Three mugs.
Two plates.
Photographs on the refrigerator.
Gabriel picked up nothing.
Touched nothing.
Harper noticed.
She opened a closet.
Her mother's belongings were inside one cardboard box.
Photographs.
Letters.
A scarf.
A Bible.
A recipe book.
Harper searched.
Nothing.
Then Gabriel noticed the bottom of the box.
“Wait.”
A second layer of cardboard.
He lifted it.
Beneath was an envelope.
On the front:
FOR HARPER—IF THE VESCARIS EVER FIND YOU.
Harper stared at Gabriel.
“You knew my mother?”
“No.”
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A much younger Evelyn stood beside a man Harper recognized instantly.
Gabriel's father.
Vittorio Vescari.
Harper's hands shook.
On the back, Evelyn had written:
Some families are built by blood. Others are built by the people brave enough to stop the bleeding.
There was also a key.
Gabriel examined it.
“Bank deposit box.”
Harper looked at him.
“What was my mother involved in?”
Before he could answer, gunfire erupted outside.
Gabriel grabbed Harper.
Men shouted.
The windows shattered.
The attack had begun.
May you like
And this time, Luca Salvatore hadn't come for Gabriel.
He had come for the secret Harper's mother had buried.
