Chapter 1 - The Devil In The Room
Harper froze as the heavy oak door swung inward.
Gabriel Ashford stood in the doorway.
He wore a tailored charcoal suit that seemed to absorb the light from the chandelier above.
His dark eyes immediately locked onto her exposed back.
He saw the brutal map of purple and yellow bruises painting her fragile skin.
Harper clutched her uniform tightly against her chest, her heart hammering against her fractured ribs.
She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the anger, the shouting, or the violence.
Instead, a suffocating silence filled the pristine white bathroom.
Gabriel stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind him.
The click of the lock sounded like a gunshot in the quiet room.
Harper opened her eyes and backed away until her spine hit the cold marble of the vanity.
She whispered a desperate apology for breaking the rules.
Gabriel did not look at her face.
His terrifying gaze was still tracing the horrific marks on her shoulders.
He took a slow step forward, his expensive shoes making no sound on the floor.
He asked her exactly who had done this to her.
His voice was lower and colder than anything she had ever heard.
Harper shook her head blindly, terrified that speaking Derek’s name would only bring more death.
She begged him to just let her leave and promised she would never come back.
Gabriel reached out and gently took the bloody cloth from her trembling hand.
He told her that nobody walked out of his house bleeding.
He threw the cloth into the sink and looked deeply into her panicked eyes.
He promised her that whoever left those marks was already a dead man.
Suddenly, the encrypted radio on his belt crackled to life with a frantic burst of static.
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A security guard announced that a police cruiser had just rammed through the front gates.
The guard stated that an angry cop named Derek Lawson was outside, demanding to search the premises for his fugitive wife.
