Chapter 2 - The Man Waiting Outside
Trent slammed the sedan door.
“Get in the car.”
Harper stopped.
Gabriel stopped beside her.
Trent looked him over.
“Who the hell are you?”
Harper whispered, “Trent, go home.”
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
Gabriel’s eyes shifted toward Harper.
That single sentence had told him plenty.
Trent approached.
“Get in.”
“No.”
He laughed.
“What?”
Harper’s hands trembled inside her coat pockets.
“I said no.”
Trent took another step.
Gabriel spoke quietly.
“She answered you.”
Trent looked at him.
“You her new boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Then stay out of it.”
Gabriel remained still.
“I intend to.”
Harper glanced at him.
Trent smirked.
“Good.”
He reached toward Harper.
She recoiled.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“I said I intend to stay out of her decision,” he said. “I didn’t say you could ignore it.”
Trent froze.
Something about Gabriel’s voice finally registered.
He studied him more carefully.
Then his face lost color.
“Costa?”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Gabriel Costa?”
Harper looked between them.
Trent suddenly stepped backward.
Gabriel noticed.
“You know me.”
“I know the name.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
Trent glanced toward his car.
Gabriel followed the movement.
“You’ve seen me before.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“Gabriel,” Harper whispered.
He looked at her immediately.
“I want to leave.”
“Then we leave.”
No argument.
No punishment for interrupting him.
He simply turned.
A black sedan waited near the alley entrance.
Trent called after her.
“You walk away with him, don’t come home.”
Harper stopped.
For three years, those words would have terrified her.
Tonight, something inside her finally broke loose.
She turned.
“Okay.”
Trent blinked.
“What?”
“I won’t.”
“You have nowhere else.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You don’t have money.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You need me.”
Harper looked at him.
“No. I was afraid of you. I confused that with needing you.”
Trent’s face twisted.
“You ungrateful—”
Gabriel took one step forward.
Trent stopped.
Gabriel didn’t touch him.
He didn’t need to.
“Finish that sentence.”
Trent remained silent.
Harper got into Gabriel’s sedan.
Gabriel joined her.
As they pulled away, Harper stared through the window.
“Where are we going?”
“A hotel.”
She turned sharply.
“Separate rooms.”
“Oh.”
“You’ll register under your own name. You’ll keep your own key. Nobody enters without your permission.”
Harper studied him.
“You planned that quickly.”
“I plan everything quickly.”
“Is that why people are scared of you?”
“One reason.”
She looked back at Trent’s disappearing sedan.
“He recognized you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“That interests me too.”
Gabriel took out his phone.
“Marco.”
A voice answered.
“Boss?”
“Find out everything about Trent Mercer.”
Harper stiffened.
Gabriel noticed.
“No one touches him.”
There was a pause.
“Understood.”
“Employment, debts, associates, bank records.”
Gabriel looked at Harper.
“And anything connecting him to me.”
He ended the call.
Harper stared.
“You think Trent works for you?”
“I think Trent knew my face before tonight.”
“So?”
“So most people know my name.”
Gabriel looked out the window.
“Very few recognize me in a dark alley without the suit jacket.”
Harper felt cold despite the heater.
“What does that mean?”
“It means your boyfriend may have seen me somewhere he shouldn’t have.”
“Ex-boyfriend.”
Gabriel looked back.
Harper swallowed.
“If I’m actually doing this, I’m doing it properly.”
For the first time, Gabriel smiled.
Barely.
“Ex-boyfriend.”
Twenty minutes later, Harper stood inside a quiet hotel suite.
Gabriel remained outside the doorway.
“You’re not coming in?”
“You didn’t invite me.”
She stared at him.
“You really do listen when someone says no.”
His expression became unreadable.
“I’ve spent my life around men who don’t.”
A pause.
“I decided a long time ago not to become one of them.”
Harper looked down.
“Thank you.”
“Lock the door.”
She almost closed it.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“What happens tomorrow?”
His phone rang.
Marco.
Gabriel answered.
He listened for ten seconds.
Then his face hardened.
“How much?”
Another pause.
Harper watched him.
Gabriel slowly turned toward her.
“Tomorrow,” he said, ending the call, “you tell me everything you know about Trent.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has been stealing from my shipping operation for eighteen months.”
Harper’s heart began pounding.
“And?”
Gabriel looked directly at her.
May you like
“The payments lead to a company registered under Trent Mercer’s name.”
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