Chapter 3 - What Leo Saw That Night
Gabriel canceled every meeting.
That alone terrified the people who worked for him.
Gabriel Costa didn't cancel meetings.
Meetings disappeared when he decided they were no longer useful.
By noon, he and Elias had transformed Gabriel's private conference room into an investigation center.
Police reports.
Financial records.
Shipping manifests.
Security logs.
Everything connected to Victor Dane and Marco Bellini.
Norah refused to participate.
For approximately forty minutes.
Then she walked into the conference room, dropped Leo's old medical folder onto the table and said, “Move.”
Gabriel moved.
They worked side by side.
Three years earlier, Marco Bellini had been secretly moving money through a network of shell companies.
Victor drove for him.
The night Leo was injured, Victor's vehicle had left a warehouse near the diner where Leo worked.
But the official police report placed Victor coming from the opposite direction.
“Someone changed the route,” Norah said.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Gabriel stared at a map.
“Because they didn't want anyone asking why he was at that warehouse.”
“What was inside?”
“I don't know.”
“You owned it.”
“I owned hundreds of properties.”
“That isn't reassuring.”
“It wasn't intended to be.”
Elias entered.
“We found Victor.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Where?”
“Pennsylvania. Different name. Works at a repair shop.”
Norah immediately said, “I'm coming.”
“No.”
“I'm not asking.”
“Norah.”
“He destroyed my brother's life.”
“Which is exactly why you're not coming.”
She stepped closer.
“You threatened to fire me because I wouldn't tell you why I slept in my car. You don't get to suddenly become protective when the truth becomes inconvenient.”
Gabriel's expression tightened.
Elias quietly left the room.
Smart man.
“I'm trying to keep you safe.”
“I've kept myself alive without you for thirty years.”
“In a Honda?”
The moment he said it, Gabriel regretted it.
Norah's face closed.
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
She gathered her papers.
“Norah.”
She kept walking.
“I'm sorry.”
She stopped.
Gabriel Costa rarely apologized.
“I shouldn't have said it.”
She turned.
“No, you shouldn't have.”
“I don't think you're weak.”
“Then stop treating me like I am.”
He nodded.
“Come with us.”
Victor Dane looked nothing like the monster Norah had imagined for three years.
That was somehow worse.
He was ordinary.
Gray hair. Grease beneath his fingernails. Reading glasses hanging from his shirt collar.
When he saw Gabriel enter the repair shop, the wrench fell from his hand.
“Costa.”
Norah heard fear.
Real fear.
Gabriel noticed it too.
“We need to talk.”
Victor looked toward the rear exit.
Elias was already there.
“No trouble,” Gabriel said. “Just answers.”
Victor's gaze moved to Norah.
His face changed.
“You're his sister.”
Norah stopped breathing.
“You remember him?”
Victor sat down.
“I remember him every day.”
Norah wanted to hate him.
She had practiced hating him.
But the man in front of her looked broken.
“Were you drunk?”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why did you hit him?”
Victor covered his face.
“I was told to.”
Silence.
Norah's knees nearly gave way.
Gabriel caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“Who told you?”
“Bellini.”
“Why?”
“Your brother saw us.”
“Saw what?”
Victor looked at Gabriel.
“Marco was stealing from you.”
Gabriel remained expressionless.
“How much?”
“Millions.”
“What did Leo see?”
“We were moving cash. Leo came out of the diner early. He saw Bellini arguing with another man beside the van. He saw the money.”
“That doesn't explain why you ran him down.”
“Bellini panicked.”
Victor's voice shook.
“He told me the kid had seen his face. He said if the kid talked, everything was finished.”
Norah stared at him.
“And you obeyed?”
Victor's eyes filled.
“I've asked myself that question every day.”
She slapped him.
The sound echoed through the garage.
Gabriel didn't stop her.
Victor didn't move.
“You left him there.”
“I called 911 anonymously.”
“You left him.”
“I know.”
“He was nineteen.”
“I know.”
“He wanted to be a chef.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Norah's anger cracked.
Tears came instead.
Gabriel guided her outside.
Rain had started.
Again.
It reminded him of the night he'd found her.
She stood beside the SUV, trembling.
“I spent three years blaming an accident.”
Gabriel remained silent.
“I told Leo it was nobody's fault. I told him sometimes terrible things happen and there isn't a reason.”
Her voice broke.
“There was a reason.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Norah didn't retreat.
“He lost everything because somebody wanted money.”
“Norah—”
“And I lost him.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You didn't lose him.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand more than you think.”
Gabriel looked toward the highway.
“My father died when I was twenty-four.”
Norah knew Gabriel almost never spoke about his family.
“He built the organization. He taught me that weakness was expensive. When he died, I inherited everything except the ability to trust anyone.”
“That's not the same.”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“But grief doesn't need to be identical to recognize itself.”
Something shifted between them.
For the first time, Norah saw the man rather than the reputation.
Elias emerged from the repair shop carrying a folder.
“Victor kept records.”
Gabriel opened it.
Inside were copies of Bellini's transactions.
Account numbers.
Names.
Payments.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Gabriel's face changed.
Norah noticed.
“Who is it?”
He closed the folder.
“Someone still inside my organization.”
“Who?”
Gabriel hesitated.
Norah grabbed the folder.
She found the name.
Don Rossi.
The same man who had called Gabriel's office twice that morning.
One of Gabriel's most trusted partners.
Norah stared at him.
“Rossi knew?”
Gabriel's phone rang.
Elias answered his own phone simultaneously.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Norah.
“St. Catherine's.”
Her heart stopped.
“What about it?”
Elias lowered the phone.
“Someone just tried to access Leo's medical records using a false authorization.”
Norah went pale.
Gabriel's eyes became ice.
Victor had been hidden for three years.
Bellini was dead.
But Rossi had just discovered that Gabriel was asking questions.
And now someone was looking for Leo.
The secret wasn't buried anymore.
May you like
And whoever had protected it was still watching.
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