Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO RAN
Z
Nathan made it six steps.
Marco Bellini caught him between the third and fourth pew.
The collision sent a hymn book sliding across marble.
Several guests screamed when Julian reached beneath his jacket, but what he pulled out was not a gun.
It was a phone.
Gabriel noticed because he noticed everything when danger entered a room.
Julian’s thumb hit the screen once.
Then twice.
A message.
Gabriel pointed.
“Take it.”
One of Marco’s men moved.
Julian stepped backward.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Probably,” Gabriel said. “But not the one you think.”
The phone disappeared into Marco’s hand.
Gabriel still held Eleanor against him.
Her body shook now that she had stopped forcing it not to.
“Can you stand?”
“Yes.”
She tried.
Pain changed the answer.
“No.”
Gabriel lifted her.
Eleanor stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Correcting one mistake at a time.”
He carried her through the side door beside the altar while behind them Chicago’s criminal aristocracy exploded into rumors.
Father Anthony followed.
Rosa was already waiting in the sacristy.
The sixty-eight-year-old housekeeper took one look at Gabriel’s face and crossed herself.
“You saw the ribbon.”
Gabriel placed Eleanor carefully on a leather bench.
“You tied it?”
“No.”
Rosa looked at Eleanor.
“She did.”
Gabriel turned.
Eleanor avoided his eyes.
Rosa quietly shut the door.
Gabriel crouched in front of Eleanor again.
“Where did you learn about it?”
“Your mother.”
“My mother has been dead nine years.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Rosa told me.”
Gabriel glanced at the housekeeper.
Rosa did not apologize.
“She asked me yesterday what a woman in your family was supposed to do if she needed your help but couldn’t ask for it.”
Gabriel felt the room tighten.
“Yesterday?”
Eleanor whispered, “I knew something was wrong yesterday.”
“With your brother?”
“With all of it.”
Father Anthony brought a chair.
Gabriel ignored it.
“Start talking.”
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
There it was again.
That strange thing he had noticed the first time they met.
She looked ordinary until she decided not to.
Then the motel manager disappeared and someone much more difficult stood in her place.
“My brother never gambled,” she said.
Gabriel stared.
“Nathan hates casinos. Our father lost our house at a riverboat casino when we were kids. Nathan won’t even buy scratch-off tickets.”
“Then why did he confess?”
“Because three weeks ago two men brought him to my apartment with a broken finger.”
Gabriel’s face became still.
“Whose men?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You know now?”
Eleanor looked toward the closed door.
“One of them is sitting in the cathedral.”
Gabriel waited.
“Who?”
“Derek Vance.”
Gabriel recognized the name immediately.
A mid-level collector.
Worked directly under Julian.
Something cold slid into place.
Eleanor continued.
“They told Nathan he owed four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. He kept saying he didn’t. They showed him loan papers with his signature.”
“Forgery?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Nathan signs his middle initial on every legal document. The papers didn’t have it.”
Gabriel stood.
“You saw them?”
“For about thirty seconds before they took them back.”
“And you remembered that?”
“I managed a motel.”
Gabriel frowned.
Eleanor almost smiled despite the pain.
“People think motel managers hand out keys and replace towels. Mostly we remember everything people swear they never did.”
Gabriel began pacing.
“Nathan told me he borrowed the money.”
“They told him if he didn’t, they would kill me.”
Rosa cursed softly in Spanish.
Gabriel stopped.
“And the marriage?”
Eleanor swallowed.
“Julian came to see me.”
The room changed.
Gabriel felt it.
So did everyone else.
“When?”
“Seventeen days ago.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That you had selected me.”
“I hadn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Gabriel’s shame returned.
He had approved a file.
A photograph.
A debt.
A proposal.
He had never asked who had arranged the pieces.
Eleanor looked at him.
“He told me you wanted a wife who understood obedience. He said if I embarrassed you, Nathan wouldn’t survive the week.”
Gabriel’s hands curled.
“And today?”
She looked down at her ankle.
“Nathan came to the bridal suite.”
“Your brother did that?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked for the first time.
“Nathan tried to stop it.”
Gabriel waited.
“Derek was there. So was another man I didn’t recognize. Nathan told me to run.”
She pressed trembling fingers against the skirt.
“Derek knocked him down. I grabbed a lamp. The other man twisted my leg until I dropped it.”
Gabriel’s eyes lowered to the bruises.
“He did that to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t they just force you into the church?”
“Because bruised brides create questions.”
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“So they told me to smile.”
Silence.
“They said if I limped, it was an old accident. If anyone asked, Nathan would confirm it. If I said anything else…”
She looked toward the cathedral.
Gabriel finished for her.
“They would kill him.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel turned to Father Anthony.
“Can we use your office?”
“For confession?”
“No.”
Father Anthony sighed.
“I was afraid of that.”
Ten minutes later Nathan Shaw sat behind the priest’s desk with ice wrapped around his hand and Marco standing by the door.
Gabriel entered alone.
Nathan looked terrified.
“You canceled it?”
“The debt?”
“The wedding.”
“Yes.”
Nathan covered his face.
“Thank God.”
Gabriel sat opposite him.
“Eleanor says you never gambled.”
Nathan’s hands dropped.
“I didn’t.”
“Then why did you tell my people you did?”
“Because I’m stupid.”
“That part remains possible.”
Nathan gave a humorless laugh.
“But not stupid enough to borrow from you?”
“I didn’t know it was you.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Start at the beginning.”
Nathan stared at the carpet.
“I was doing subcontracting work on one of your warehouse renovations.”
“Which warehouse?”
“South Halsted.”
Gabriel knew it.
Officially, Moretti Logistics stored imported tile and restaurant equipment there.
Unofficially, nothing illegal had passed through the building in six years because Gabriel had been slowly pulling the organization toward legitimate businesses.
Nathan continued.
“I was replacing damaged drywall in an office. Behind it, I found a metal case.”
“What was inside?”
“Accounting files.”
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
Nathan’s did.
“Not normal accounting.”
“What kind?”
“Payments to judges. Police. Building inspectors. Union people.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Bribery was not unknown in his world.
But he had forbidden certain operations after taking control from his uncle.
“How recent?”
“Some from last year.”
That mattered.
A lot.
“What else?”
Nathan swallowed.
“A list of businesses.”
“What businesses?”
“Motel chains. Trucking companies. Bars. Massage places.”
Gabriel stared.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
Nathan looked sick.
“Girls.”
Gabriel stopped moving.
“There were initials beside the locations. Ages. Payments. Some were sixteen.”
The office went silent.
Gabriel’s organization had rules.
Violent rules.
Hypocritical rules, perhaps.
But absolute.
No narcotics near schools.
No trafficking.
No children.
His father had ignored many moral lines.
Gabriel had spent fifteen years drawing new ones in blood.
Someone had crossed the worst of them using his name.
“Where are the files?”
Nathan looked toward the door.
“I copied them.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Where?”
“I gave them to Eleanor.”
The door opened.
Marco stepped inside without knocking.
“Boss.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Julian’s gone.”
Gabriel slowly stood.
“How?”
“Kitchen exit. He had help.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Gabriel felt no surprise.
Only confirmation.
Marco held out Julian’s phone.
“There’s something else.”
On the screen was the message Julian had sent in the cathedral.
Five words.
GET THE GIRL BEFORE GABRIEL DOES.
Gabriel stared at it.
Then he looked through the office wall as if he could see Eleanor in the next room.
Julian had not been ordering anyone to take the bride.
The bride was already with Gabriel.
There was only one other girl connected to the files.
Gabriel turned to Nathan.
“You said Eleanor has the copy.”
Nathan’s face drained.
“Not anymore.”
“Who does?”
“My daughter.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“You have a daughter?”
May you like
Nathan stood so quickly the chair overturned.
“She’s eight.”
