Chapter 6 - The Night Penelope Disappeared
Gabriel stared at the black rose for a long time.
Nobody in the room dared speak.
Then he asked one question.
“Where is she?”
Marco shook his head.
“We're tracking everything.”
Gabriel's hands tightened around his wheelchair.
The old Gabriel would have exploded.
The old Gabriel would have ordered men tortured.
The old Gabriel would have turned Chicago upside down until blood answered blood.
Instead, he closed his eyes.
Think.
Penelope always accused him of reacting from anger.
So he forced himself to think like her.
Dominic wanted Gabriel emotional.
Reckless.
Predictable.
“It's a trap,” Gabriel said.
Marco nodded.
“Obviously.”
“No. More specific.”
Gabriel studied the rose.
Dominic wanted him somewhere meaningful.
Somewhere connected to the original betrayal.
“The warehouse.”
Marco understood immediately.
The abandoned Moretti warehouse where Gabriel had been shot.
Twenty minutes later, a message arrived.
A photograph showed Penelope tied to a chair.
Behind her was the warehouse.
Dominic's message read:
Come alone. Finish where we started.
Gabriel looked at Marco.
“Prepare the cars.”
“Boss, he said alone.”
“I can read.”
Marco almost smiled.
Penelope was terrified.
But she refused to let Dominic see it.
He paced in front of her.
Unlike Gabriel, Dominic's cruelty required an audience.
“You ruined everything,” he told her.
Penelope raised an eyebrow.
“That's impressive considering I mostly make people stretch and check blood pressure.”
“You gave him hope.”
“Terrible crime.”
“He was finished.”
“No. You needed him to believe he was finished.”
Dominic slapped the chair beside her, deliberately missing her face.
Penelope didn't flinch.
Now she understood something.
Dominic wasn't Gabriel.
Gabriel frightened people without trying.
Dominic desperately wanted to be frightening.
“You'll never be him,” Penelope said.
His face changed.
She had found the wound.
“You think because he has money—”
“No.”
She leaned forward as far as the ropes allowed.
“Because Gabriel doesn't need people to tell him he's powerful.”
Dominic raised his hand.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Touch her and lose the hand.”
Gabriel.
Penelope's heart nearly stopped.
He rolled into the warehouse alone.
Dominic smiled.
“The cripple arrives.”
Gabriel's face remained calm.
“Let her go.”
“Remember this place?”
“Yes.”
“This is where Gabriel Moretti died.”
Gabriel glanced at Penelope.
“No.”
His expression softened.
“This is where I almost did.”
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Same difference.”
Gabriel slowly moved his hands away from his body.
“You want me. Take me.”
“Gabriel, don't,” Penelope said.
Dominic laughed.
“She actually loves you.”
Gabriel's eyes remained on Penelope.
“I know.”
It was the first time he had acknowledged it.
Penelope's eyes filled.
Dominic stepped toward Gabriel.
“You had everything.”
“No.”
“You had the family. The respect. The money.”
“I had fear.”
Gabriel looked at Penelope.
“Turns out that's not the same thing.”
Dominic's smile vanished.
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Dominic spun.
“You brought police?”
“No.”
Gabriel genuinely hadn't.
Marco had.
Dominic panicked.
He grabbed Penelope and pressed the gun against her.
Gabriel's calm disappeared.
“Don't.”
“Tell them to leave!”
“I can't.”
“Then she dies!”
Penelope looked at Gabriel.
His wheelchair.
His hands.
His legs.
She remembered the mansion attack.
“You can do it,” she whispered.
Gabriel understood.
Dominic didn't.
“Do what?”
Gabriel locked the wheelchair brakes.
His hands gripped the armrests.
He pushed upward.
Dominic stared.
Gabriel stood.
His legs shook violently.
But he stood.
Penelope began crying.
Dominic stepped backward.
“Impossible.”
Gabriel took one step.
His knee nearly collapsed.
Another.
Dominic pointed the weapon at him.
“Stay back!”
Gabriel continued.
“You wanted me broken.”
Another step.
“You wanted me afraid.”
Another.
“But you made one mistake.”
Dominic's hand trembled.
“What?”
Gabriel looked at Penelope.
“You left me alive long enough to meet her.”
Penelope suddenly drove her heel backward into Dominic's shin.
His grip loosened.
Gabriel lunged.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Police stormed through the doors.
Within seconds, Dominic was on the ground.
Handcuffed.
Alive.
Gabriel collapsed.
Penelope freed one hand and crawled toward him.
“Gabriel!”
He looked up.
“Did you see?”
She laughed through tears.
“You walked.”
“Four steps.”
“Five.”
“Four.”
“I'm the medical professional.”
Gabriel smiled.
Then Penelope kissed him.
Police officers looked away.
Marco did not.
He grinned.
Later, as paramedics checked them, Dominic was escorted past Gabriel.
For years Gabriel had believed revenge was the final proof of power.
He could have killed Dominic.
Instead, he watched him enter a police vehicle.
Dominic would face attempted murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, weapons charges, and enough financial crimes to ensure he wouldn't return for decades.
Gabriel turned away.
Penelope squeezed his hand.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She waited.
Gabriel looked at her.
“But I think I will be.”
That night, they returned to the mansion.
The shattered windows had been replaced.
The blood had been cleaned.
The black roses were gone.
Gabriel stopped beside the rehabilitation room.
Penelope followed his gaze.
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.”
“How many steps?”
“Six.”
She smiled.
“Seven.”
“Six.”
“Eight.”
“You're terrible at negotiating.”
“And you're walking.”
Gabriel looked at her for a long moment.
Then he whispered the words he had been afraid to say.
“I love you.”
Penelope's smile disappeared.
Not from sadness.
From emotion.
She touched his face.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Because falling in love alone would have been extremely embarrassing.”
Gabriel laughed.
“I love you too,” she whispered.
He kissed her.
May you like
And for the first time since the bullet entered his spine, Gabriel Moretti wasn't thinking about whether he would walk tomorrow.
He was thinking about where he wanted to go.
