Chapter 1 - The Burner Phone
Gabriel slowly reached out with a trembling hand, brushing a tangled lock of damp brown hair away from the dark bruise on Mia’s pale cheek.
She gasped sharply and flinched violently against the leather cushions.
Her brown eyes snapped open, wide and completely consumed by raw terror.
She clutched the sleeping baby even tighter to her chest and scrambled backward into the corner of the sectional.
“It is me,” Gabriel said softly, raising both of his empty hands to show he was not a threat.
“It is Gabriel.”
Mia blinked rapidly, her chest heaving as her ragged breathing echoed in the quiet safe room.
The pure terror in her eyes slowly melted into a desperate, exhausting relief.
“You found us,” she whispered, her voice cracking from severe dehydration and screaming.
“You brought him home, Mia,” Gabriel replied, his voice thick with an emotion he had not felt in years.
He gently reached out and took the sleeping baby from her trembling, scraped arms.
As Mia shifted on the couch to release the child, a heavy black object fell from the pocket of her torn coat and hit the marble floor.
It was a cheap burner phone, completely different from the standard devices issued to Romano corporate employees.
“Where did you get that?” Gabriel asked, his eyes narrowing at the device.
“It fell out of the driver’s pocket when I hit him with the fire extinguisher at the warehouse,” Mia explained nervously.
“I took it because I thought I could call for help, but it was completely locked with a passcode.”
Suddenly, the burner phone began to vibrate violently against the marble floor.
Gabriel handed the sleeping baby to Marco and scooped up the ringing device.
He pressed the answer button and raised the phone to his ear without saying a single word.
“Did you drown the accountant and the baby in the river yet?” a harsh voice demanded through the speaker.
Gabriel felt the blood freeze entirely in his veins.
He recognized the cruel, rasping voice on the other end of the line immediately.
It did not belong to Damian Sterling or any of his rival mercenaries.
The voice belonged to Vincent Russo, one of Gabriel’s own most trusted syndicate captains.
The call abruptly disconnected, leaving a hollow silence in the room.
Gabriel crushed the cheap plastic phone in his massive fist until the screen shattered into jagged pieces.
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The men who had taken his nephew were not just outside enemies looking for a payday.
The betrayal came from deep inside his own house.
