Chapter 2 - The Traitor Among Us
Gabriel walked out of the closet with a cold, terrifying calm.
He descended the grand staircase with deliberate, heavy steps.
His men were scattered across the foyer, waiting for orders.
Gabriel ordered Luca to lock all the exterior doors.
He told his men to hand over their weapons immediately.
Confusion rippled through the ranks of heavily armed guards.
Gabriel drew his own weapon and fired a single shot into the crystal chandelier.
Glass rained down upon the marble floor as silence consumed the room.
He announced that someone in this room had helped his wife escape.
He read the name of the shell company aloud.
A young enforcer named Mateo flinched instinctively.
It was a microscopic movement, but Gabriel caught it instantly.
Gabriel crossed the room and slammed Mateo against the wall.
He pressed the barrel of his gun under the young man's chin.
Mateo began to stammer, swearing his absolute loyalty to the Costa family.
Gabriel did not care about empty words.
He pulled Mateo's phone from his pocket and pressed the thumbprint scanner to unlock it.
Gabriel scrolled through the encrypted messaging app.
He found a deleted conversation restored from the cloud backup.
The messages contained exact coordinates to an abandoned warehouse near the docks.
Gabriel tossed the phone to Luca and ordered him to prepare the strike team.
He looked Mateo in the eyes and promised him a slow, agonizing death.
Mateo began to cry, begging for mercy.
He swore he only provided the car and did not know what Norah was planning.
Gabriel struck him across the face with the grip of his pistol.
Mateo collapsed onto the marble floor in a pool of his own blood.
Gabriel led his men out into the freezing November rain.
They drove toward the docks with their weapons drawn and loaded.
They arrived at the rusted warehouse just as the sun broke through the clouds.
Gabriel kicked the heavy metal door off its hinges.
He expected to find his wife and his newborn children.
Instead, he found a woman tied to a chair in the center of the empty room.
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It was not Norah.
It was Bianca, the mistress he had left at the hotel only hours ago.
