Chapter 6 - The Name Everyone Feared
The firefight lasted ninety-three seconds.
To Harper, it felt like an hour.
Gabriel shielded her behind the kitchen wall while his men responded outside.
When silence returned, Harper was trembling.
Gabriel touched her face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He checked anyway.
Only after confirming she was unharmed did he notice blood on his own sleeve.
“You've been hit.”
“Graze.”
“You say that like it's a mosquito bite.”
“Occupational hazard.”
Harper glared.
Gabriel almost smiled.
Then Matteo entered.
“Three attackers captured. Two vehicles escaped.”
“Casualties?”
“Two of ours wounded. No deaths.”
Gabriel nodded.
“The attackers?”
Matteo hesitated.
“Four dead.”
Harper closed her eyes.
Reality returned.
This wasn't a movie.
People had died outside her apartment.
Gabriel saw her reaction.
“We're leaving.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“We finish this.”
At the bank, the key opened box 417.
Inside were documents.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
A cassette tape.
And a birth certificate.
Harper picked it up.
Then stopped.
Her mother's name was there.
So was Harper's.
But the father's line didn't contain the name she'd expected.
It read:
Adrian Vescari.
Harper stared at Gabriel.
Gabriel stared back.
Neither spoke.
Finally Harper whispered:
“Adrian was your brother.”
“Yes.”
“My father was your brother.”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to move beneath her.
Gabriel sat slowly.
That made Harper his niece.
The woman who had unknowingly saved him in the alley wasn't a stranger at all.
She was the last living piece of the brother Gabriel had failed.
And suddenly Luca Salvatore's obsession with Harper made terrible sense.
May you like
She wasn't merely a witness.
She was a Vescari heir.
