Chapter 5 - The Price of Knowing
Silence hung in the cold cellar like a iron curtain.
Evelyn stood frozen against the wooden workbench, the flashlight beam trembling against her apron, her mouth dry as ash. Titan remained seated between them, his head turning back and forth between Gabriel and Evelyn, sensing the shift in the air.
"I... I didn't mean to pry, Mr. Romano," Evelyn whispered, her voice cracking. "Miss Vanessa forced her way onto the third floor with lawyers. She had keys. Titan stopped her at the door, and... and it was unlatched."
Gabriel walked slowly toward the white marble table, ignoring her explanation. He reached out a broad, gloved hand and gently touched the silver frame holding his sister's photograph, his sharp features softening for a fraction of a second before hardening into stone once more.
"Vanessa thought she could find my offshore account ledgers before her father's margin call comes due tomorrow," Gabriel said, his baritone echoing off the granite walls. "She is her father's child. Greedy, foolish, and entirely blind to the world around her."
He turned his head to look directly at Evelyn. His gaze moved from her terrified eyes down to her swollen left cheek and the small, dark cut on her lip.
His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Who did that to your face?"
Evelyn swallowed hard. "It doesn't matter."
"Who did it, Evelyn?" Gabriel repeated, taking two long steps toward her, his presence swallowing the light in the small room.
"Miss Vanessa," she said softly. "She hit me when I refused to let her guards shoot Titan."
A terrible, suffocating stillness descended upon Gabriel. For three seconds, he didn't breathe. The dark vein on his temple throbbed once against his skin.
"She put her hands on you in my house," Gabriel said, the words coming out as a whisper that carried more violence than a scream.
"She was angry because Titan obeys me," Evelyn said, trying to steer his attention away from her face. "Mr. Romano... I saw the files on the desk. Clara... Clara didn't die in an accident, did she?"
Gabriel looked at his sister's photograph, then back at Evelyn.
"Arthur Sterling placed a military-grade thermite charge on the rudder of her sailboat," Gabriel said, his voice entirely devoid of emotion. "My sister died in forty feet of freezing water because she believed that justice could be found in a courtroom. I spent four years learning that justice in this city is something you build with your own hands."
He stepped right up to the workbench, leaning his heavy hands on the wood beside her, trapping her between his broad frame and the cold granite wall.
"You know my secret now, Evelyn Hart," Gabriel murmured, leaning down until his dark eyes were level with hers. "You know why Vanessa is in this house. You know why her father's shipping firm is going bankrupt tomorrow morning. A girl who knows this much cannot simply return to scrubbing floors and folding towels."
Evelyn raised her chin, refusing to let him see the terror fluttering in her chest. "Are you going to hurt me, Mr. Romano?"
Gabriel looked at her split lip, then reached out a finger and gently, almost reverently, touched the bruised skin on her cheek. His thumb was warm, dry, and startlingly gentle against her cold skin.
"I have killed men for far less than what you did today, Evelyn," Gabriel said softly. "But Titan brought you into this house. He trusts you. And my dog has never been wrong about a human being in his life."
He pulled his hand back, straightening his posture.
"Starting tonight, you no longer sleep in the staff cottage. You will move your belongings to the master suite on the second floor."
Evelyn’s eyes widened in shock. "What? No! The staff will talk! Miss Vanessa will—"
"Miss Vanessa will be arrested by federal marshals at eight o'clock tomorrow morning," Gabriel interrupted coldly. "And as for the staff... they already know who commands this house."
May you like
He looked down at Titan, who stepped up beside Evelyn and leaned his heavy weight against her legs.
"You wanted a place where no one would look for you, Evelyn," Gabriel said, a faint, dark smile touching the corner of his lips. "There is no safer place in this state than beside me."
