Chapter 11 - The Man at the Door
The first rule of Rossi Tower was that no one entered without Gabriel knowing.
The second rule was that every rule became useless when the enemy had helped write the building plans.
Marco had.
Gabriel realized it as soon as the stairwell breach alarms failed to show on the security panel. Marco had overseen the tower’s charity floors. He had known which contractors installed which doors, which emergency systems fed into which backup panels, which cameras could be looped without triggering the master alarm.
“Safe room,” Gabriel said.
Norah shook her head.
“Gabriel—”
“Now.”
This time she did not argue because the smoke was growing thicker and the baby had gone still in a way that terrified her.
Judge Mitchell limped from the guest room with Sister Helen at his side.
“I am not hiding in a closet,” the judge snapped.
“It’s a reinforced medical suite,” Gabriel said.
“Of course it is.”
Sister Helen pushed him forward. “Move, Robert. Pride is not bulletproof.”
They reached the hidden room behind Gabriel’s library just as the first men entered the penthouse.
Gabriel saw them on the monitor.
Three in tactical gear.
Not Bradley’s usual hired muscle.
Professionals.
One carried a police-issued rifle.
Halloway.
Gabriel’s face went cold.
Norah saw him reach for the door controls.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You close that door,” she said, “and you’ll be out there alone.”
“That is the point.”
“Not anymore.”
The old fight flared between them, but then the monitor showed something else.
Thomas Carter stepping out of the private elevator behind Halloway’s men.
Norah gasped.
Gabriel did not move.
Thomas raised both hands.
Halloway turned.
“You’re late.”
Thomas said, “Traffic.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Norah looked at the screen, then at him.
“Did he betray you?”
Gabriel’s voice was quiet.
“I don’t know.”
On the monitor, Halloway handed Thomas a weapon.
“Rossi’s in the safe room?”
Thomas glanced once toward the hidden camera.
Once.
Just enough.
Gabriel saw it.
So did Norah.
Thomas said, “No. He’ll be in the nursery. He thinks like a father now.”
Halloway smiled.
“Good. Bradley wants the wife alive until she signs the statement.”
Norah whispered, “What statement?”
Gabriel did not answer.
The men moved toward the nursery.
Thomas stayed behind for half a second and slipped something from his sleeve into the hallway plant.
Then he followed.
Gabriel opened a small panel inside the safe room.
A tiny compartment unlocked.
Inside was an old radio receiver.
Thomas’s voice crackled through.
“Boss, if you hear me, don’t shoot until I’m ugly.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Sister Helen muttered, “That man needs confession.”
Thomas continued in a whisper.
“Bradley has a judge ready to declare Norah unstable and the child in protective custody if she signs. If she refuses, they take her anyway. Halloway has orders to kill you on sight and blame the terminal crew.”
Norah gripped the wall.
The child.
That had always been the final leverage.
Gabriel’s face became something ancient and violent.
Norah took his hand.
“Do not disappear into that look.”
He turned to her.
“They are coming for our baby.”
“Yes. So we need you thinking, not burning.”
The words landed.
He nodded once.
Thomas’s voice returned.
“I count seven total. Two in service hall, three with Halloway, one on elevator, one unknown.”
Gabriel pressed the talk button.
“Thomas.”
A pause.
Then a breath.
“Boss.”
“You gave Marco the key.”
“Yes.”
“You came back.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Thomas’s voice changed.
“Because she did.”
Gabriel looked at Norah.
She held his eyes.
Forgiveness was not instant.
Trust was not a light switch.
But sometimes loyalty limped back bleeding and stood at the door anyway.
Gabriel opened the safe room weapons panel.
Norah sighed. “Of course there’s a weapons panel.”
Judge Mitchell looked offended. “You hid guns behind first editions?”
Gabriel said, “Only the duplicates.”
Then the unknown seventh man appeared on the monitor.
He carried a medical bag.
Dr. Monroe.
But his hands were raised, and a gun pressed into his back.
Norah’s face drained.
Halloway’s voice echoed through the penthouse.
“Mrs. Rossi! Come out, or your doctor dies first.”
The baby moved suddenly, hard enough that Norah gasped.
Gabriel turned.
She pressed both hands to her belly.
Pain crossed her face.
“Norah?”
She looked up, terrified.
May you like
“My water just broke.”
For one second, every war in Chicago became smaller than the sound of Gabriel Rossi whispering his wife’s name.
